March 3

We are spending five nights in Mesa, Arizona so that we can visit with Kit and Howard, who spend three and a half months there each year in their beautiful fifth wheel. We are looking forward to having several good visits with them.

We got very lucky with our Mesa hotel – the Days Inn Hotel on Country Club. They gave us the best room in the house, I think, possibly because we were there for 5 nights, but we felt very lucky. An award winning hotel, for about $100 a night, great breakfasts and a large room with a sitting area. But the best part for us was that there was a sliding door to a courtyard between the rooms and the fence around the pool. It was only about 4 feet wide in front of most rooms, but we were at the end where  about 25 feet deep with a big palm tree and shrubs - a great place to take the dogs out safely. We would certainly recommend the hotel and the helpful staff.

We were looking forward to attending the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market and were not disappointed. The Indian Fair features more than 700 top American Indian artists. Visitors get firsthand access to artists and can view and purchase handmade, authentic work by the best jewelers, sculptors, painters, potters, weavers, bead workers, katsina/katchina doll carvers and basket makers.

This year's theme was: "Weaving Worlds with Wool," a celebration of the weaver's art.

This was part of a weaving demonstration - incredible detail



This was an amazing day. Hundreds of stalls. I think the jewellery was so impressive that I forgot to take photos! We had a chance to chat with many of the artists, which made their handiwork even more interesting.

I asked to see this artist's bracelet, and he shared a wonderful story about finding it in a pawn shop and its probable use by medicine men. It was grey from the accumulated smoke when he found it.

Of course, much too expensive to buy . . . sigh. . . .

A unique example of beadwork

A few of the stunning baskets

Okay - these were different!

Navajo dancers

Their regalia was remarkable. Note the silver belt.

Kit, admiring some pretty glass beads.

 

Sand painting. He actually applied the sand by dropping grains from his finger tips!

An award-winning drum

Now this is a quilt with a difference!

The white "stripes" are actually beaded, all along the edges. Amazing.

An award-winning bandolier bag with some beads that were the size of a pinhead.

March 4  Boyce Thompson Arboretum

A perfect day to be outside and we could take the dogs with us. Kit, Howard, Lloyd and I drove into the hills east of Mesa, on the way to Globe to visit this wonderful place. It was beautifully laid out, with lovely desert gardens, paths winding up through the hills and lots of shady places to sit, rest and reflect.

If you would like to see more of the Arboretum, check this out: http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/tour.html

Lloyd and Toby did most of the reflecting while the rest of us walked up the trail that circles through the valley, finding many places to stop and admire the view, and of course, take a few pictures.

A tinge of green on the desert floor.  

We have seen lots of new flowers appear in the few days we have been here.

Getting ready for the weekend plant sale.

Pretty, but with very stiff, sharp spines



Kit with the aloe. Howard helped by holding the dog leash. :)



A typical mountain view



Quite a variety of plants

The path winding along the base of the hills. We were glad it wasn't hot!

Barb and Max. Lloyd and our old dog, Toby, stopped along the way to wait for our return.

I just have to take photos of strange rock formations.

Exotic daffodils



A few early blooms

 

February 28: St. George, Utah

We drove through clear skies yesterday, but lots of new snow on the ground from Butte to just north of St. George. We stayed last night in Idaho Falls, and really experienced winter with lots of snow and cold temperatures for my mid-night trip outside with Toby. Thousands of black angus cattle in the fields in the high country - they must have a law forbidding any other species!

Audio books make the drive much more pleasant. As we drive, we are listening to The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich. It is very well written and the narrator does her voices very well. It is a story about an Ojibway drum that is found as part of an old collection and the story behind the family that owned it. We are really enjoying it, and over halfway through already.

We stopped for a day in St. George, Utah. It was nice to stop after 2 days of driving, and St. George is always the first place to experience the desert and warmer weather. We spent a lovely afternoon in Snow Canyon just north of the city. It was closer to the city than Zion or Bryce Canyon and allowed dogs. A touch of chill in the air until mid afternoon, but beautiful clear air and amazing colors. We are continuing on to Mesa tomorrow.



I went for a walk among the lava fields while Lloyd waited with the dogs.



Magnificent!

Max greeted me at the trailhead.

Petrified sand dunes at our second stop.

The layers of the petrified sand dunes were like broad steps up the hill.



We were able to take the dogs on some of the hard trails in Snow Canyon.



The fine red earth on the trails reminded me of our visit to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia.

 

Volcanic pipes at the top, red sandstone in the middle, and a dark shale (?) with iron in it at the bottom.

 

Wonderful rock formations



These are called Moki Marbles. They are formed of small grains of sand cemented together with black material (iron), when water seeps through loose sand. Some were embedded in the sandstone, while others had worked loose.





An earnest tree growing in a crack in the rock.



There are apparently pioneer signatures from the 1880s on the rocks in this area,
 but we could only find modern graffiti.



Tracks left by a little desert creature with a long tail.

One of our last views of the park. Note the hole in the rock at the left of the photo.





This new housing development really intrigued us, as it is located at the base of a mountain,
 and the homes' colors really blend with the different shades of rock.
Neat stone wall, too.



A life-sized sculpture near the gated community was quite remarkable.
The rocks are man-made, and incorporate five or six horses' heads.
The one below is about halfway up just to the left of the crevice. 

 

 

 

 

On February 26, 2013, Lloyd and I left home with our two dogs and three seasons worth of clothes for a road trip that would take us south to see our daughter, Christie, in her new home in Houston, Texas. This blog, written after we returned home 31 days later, is comprised primarily of Facebook posts, with a few additional notes, for those of our friends and family who do not "do Facebook".