Seen On Today's Hike

A pincushion cactus in bloom surrounded by bushes.

Water Over Path

Today we took our folding bikes to Tempe Town Lake and rode on the multi-use path. The path is routed under most road crossing which is one of its many appeals. The downside to this is that flooding does occur, especially after we get a good monsoon rain. We had one of those a couple of days ago and the water filled the retention ponds. Here's what we found today. The water was only a couple of inches deep so we were able to ride through it. Note the water flowing over the edge of the retention pond's wall on the left.

Clouds

We saw this interesting cloud formation over the Superstitions yesterday morning on our drive to hike Silly Mountain. Unfortunately my iPhone didn't expose the picture very well. The shafts of sunlight, a little visible here, were quite striking.

Bellagio Fountain

Here's a short video of the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas "performing."

Road Trip

Not much going on... a little bored... where to go???

Vegas, baby!

Here's a picture of the Colorado River about 10 miles south of Hoover Dam on the way to Las Vegas.

Today's Hike

Here's some news - it get HOT here in the Phoenix area during the summer. Duh. We don't get to hike/bike as much as during the fall/winter/spring but we still get out every day and do something. Today we went to Usery Park and hiked the Merkle/Vista Trail. It took about 35 minutes to hike, enough for a summer hike. Here's our new Versa in the parking lot with Pass Mountain behind it.

Snake In A Bucket

We were at Usery Park today for a Ranger B brown bag-it lunch talk. After the talk ("All About Venomous Insects") Ranger B showed us a snake that had been captured near the Wind Cave restrooms. It was in a large plastic bucket waiting to be picked up by a local snake expert who was going to microchip it. This was a western diamondback rattlesnake and, at about 2' long, was a fairly small specimen.

Hot Hike

Today we went to McDowell Mountain Park outside of Fountain Hills and hiked the Lousley Hill Trail. While not positive we're guessing that the temperature was somewhere around 100 degrees. For us, hot weather hiking means that we go slower than usual and make sure to drink enough water. The good thing is that you rarely, if ever, come across other hikers. So you can add 2 things to that expression: The only things out in the noonday sun are mad dogs, Englishmen....and Ross and Karen.

This picture was taken near the summit with Karen come up the trail.

Must Haves

Besides fuel economy and comfort options like power windows and keyless entry, our only 2 "must haves" were an Aux port on the stereo system for hooking up the iPhone (to play music) and enough room in the back for our folding bikes. It took a little work but mission accomplished.

Time For A Change

Seems like every couple of years we make a major change. It's been a while so we did it again. We traded in the Xterra and Casita on a new Nissan Versa. We'd been getting tired of the Casita and paying ever escalating campground fees. When we started RVing the typical campground cost $20 - $25. Now it's $35 - $45. And that's for just an average campground. The nicer ones run even higher. Add in the cost of gas and traveling by RV just isn't very economical anymore.

Once we made the decision to get rid of the Xterra and Casita we devised a plan. We'd cleanup and sell the Casita and then trade in the Xterra on a small, economical car. We spent a very hot and exhausting morning cleaning the inside of the Casita on Friday. That afternoon we went to Earnhardt Nissan to check out the Versa. To make a long story short they agreed to take in both the Xterra and Casita on trade. We even ended up getting cash back. I'm sure we could have made a little more money selling the Casita ourselves but not much. The little we gave up was worth not going through the hassle of selling it ourselves. So yesterday we drove the rig to the dealership and drove off in our new Versa.