Well...

there are a few things I said I would never do but here I am having moved to Oregon and to Newberg. Not finding work in Arizona the trip to Oregon began the middle of September, found a 2 bedroom/2 1/2 bath with a garage, my brother & I are sharing expenses and the first part of November started  working in insurance again. Now the background on my blog is even more appropriate as it has done a whole lot of raining since I have been back.  Not having a window in my office is a benefit as I can pretend the picture in my office is actually a window onto a sunflower field.

Fittingly a frog said goodbye to me at my storage unit in Sunsites, AZ and another one "sang" hello at my new apartment and greeted me at my storage unit in McMinnville, OR! The plague continues, grrrr!

Having done things backwards, again, I came back to Oregon the beginning of October and it has rained most days since arriving. Here are some last pictures of Arizona...

This is actually White Sands, New Mexico - can you figure out why its called White Sands?  It is the oddest thing to find in the middle of dessert browns, reds and greens the opposite of an oasis - sheer white sand, it was more like a drive through a snow park than dessert sand.

The monsoon season in Arizona brings out beautiful flowers and  fields of green - the desserts blossom so beautifully.
















When it rains it really, really rains!  And loud thunder and lots of lightening.  But the next minute it is sunny!

The rainy season makes for some great pictures.  This one above is one of my favorites.  Went out to try and capture some lightening and got this, not a bad trade.

"Ghost" towns are plentiful here - remnants of living now gone so different and yet not.
The east side of the Chiricahuas are even more impressive than what I saw & posted last year.  It takes a long meandering drive to get there since the spring/summer fires combined with the rains this year have closed down some of the passes.  It is understandable why people choose to live there it is beautiful although very remote.

 Someone asked me what I was going to do with the time off from work (4 days) and I told them I did not know as the rain and Oregon don't inspire me, but may be if I open my eyes...

and make friends with the frogs in my life...who knows.

Cemeteries?

 
 Yeah an odd topic, but there are so many old cemeteries here and...

More life in Arizona

The Monsoons have arrived.  At first it was quite bothersome, however, seeing how they have made things so green.  It's almost like Oregon.  Fortunately the rain comes down in great downpours but do not usually last all day.

As you can see it comes down quite a vengeance!  There is no drainage system as such, however, the town of Sunsites seems to be built on an incline.  The water runs from one end through town in great "rivers" to the other end of town where there are ditches along the highway.  I think that it eventually is suppose to drain into the dry lake that separates Sunsites and Willcox. 

There are several areas where the water runs over the road, this day it wasn't real deep, but there are times when it is impassable.  As you can see from this big rock that was on the other side of the road, there is quite a current that is built up, hence the advisory not to enter when flooded.

The monsoons make for some awesome skys!

On one of my hikes/geocaching expeditions I go to see a live snake in action.  It was a wild animal kingdom moment as a lizard was running ahead of me and this snake jumped out and grabbed the little critter right in front of me! 

When I told the Rangers about the snake & lizard they said that is so awesome and such a privilege!  Not the words I would have used. 

                                                                                                                                                            

 There is a lot of history here.  Fort Bowie is a nice hike.  Unfortunately at the end of the hike I left my GPS.  Three days later after realizing it was not with me I called the Ranger's visitor center to see if by some long shot someone turned it in.  Three days after that got a call that one of the law enforcement Rangers had found it, YEAH! 

 

Geocaching & Saguaro National Park

 Geocaching takes me to some places that I would otherwise not likely go and to finds I would not likely make:

The zachaedas are noisy and a bit on the homely side:

 This is the site of an old stage coach stop and these are the grave markers for some buffalo soldiers.  No names, just piles of rock left. 

 More geocaches and sights along the way:

 This day the Horseshoe II fire had reached a couple of homes and the smoke was quite intense.

 this was the "road" down to one of the geocaches.  I decided to walk rather than risk dropping my motorcycle again!  So off I went with my snake chaps and stick (the handle to a rake) making as much noise as possible to warn the snakes and any other critters that I was coming.  Highly alert for snakes when my GPS beeped to signal that the cache was near I jumped 10' in the air!  As if a snake would beep!

An old water trough for the free range beef - I mean cattle.

I saw this and thought that someone had put a sock on the cactus to protect it.  Being "blonde" makes life so much more interesting.








It constantly amazes me the shapes that the Saguaro cacti take on.  Remember the game statue?  Having to freeze in some odd position and the twister would have to guess what you are?

The fruit of the Saguaro from afar looks like a second flower, up close you see that it is actually just the fruit that has been broken open by the doves that are having quite the feast.