Well, well, well, it’s been a long time since I’ve written in the blog…sorry about that to all who have been asking about it. Guess what they say about retirees being busy is true. We’ve had a pretty wonderful winter so far…here’s what we’ve done since Christmas…..
We moved down the road from Lake Havasu to a place called Gila Bend. Stopping at the tourist info/Chamber of Commerce, we asked what there was to see and do in the area. The girl at the desk sort of looked at us blankly and told us that there wasn’t really anything to see around there and certainly nothing special to do. They were just a little 
town in the desert with nothing special going for them. Hmmmm… well, then we’d have to seek out our own fun. We were staying at an RV park where the people were really friendly and we joined in some of the activities there. We did find there were some petroglyphs nearby and went to see them. They of course were awesome to see. We also took a drive south to the Organ Pipe Cactus state park. This is deep in cactus country with saguaros, barrel cactus, organ pipe, and lots of chollas and other smaller cactus around. They were really pretty amazing to see. The saguaros grow in the desert like trees in a forest (well ok, not quite as thickly) and are really interesting. Some are extremely tall, some have several arms, while others have none. They are old as can be, some more than 150 years. Just think, they were here when Jesse James and all those other outlaws were running around the countryside, when the settlers from the east came and in wagon trains and fought to settle the area.
After Gila Bend (and nothing so see or do) we went a little ways north to Buckeye, just outside of Phoenix. That was a really nice RV park…had lots going on, a good sized dog park, and was close enough to the city to head in once in a while. We did that as well as going to Quartzsite in early January. In January and February, Quartzsite turns into the biggest flea market you’ve ever seen. People come and camp in the desert in their big fancy RV’s, and go into town during the day for the flea markets and gem & mineral shows. You can buy anything from deer, moose and elk antlers, to jewelry, animal pelts, and cotton candy to Mexican style furniture and British antiques. It’s really quite an interesting place. We managed not to leave too much money in Quartzsite but did buy a few small things we seemed not to be able to live without. Oso got a couple deer antler pieces so he was happy. They are really good long-lasting chew toys and he really enjoys them.
We went to visit Gerry’s Art-a-rama in Phoenix. That was definitely more fun for me than for Tom, but he’s incredibly supportive of my array of hobbies and especially encourages my artwork. It was fun to spend a gift certificate I’d gotten from Brenda for Christmas and came out of there with a bag of goodies.
Time for my art class in Sedona! Wow…what a place! I think I could happily live there if I could ignore the commercialization of the
place. The earth is red in Sedona. It’s absolutely beautiful. Incredible rock formations tower over the town make you want to go and wander through them…which we did. Actually we didn’t so much wander as bounce along a dirt road. We did see some wonderful views once we reached the mountain top though. I went to visit some “energy vortexes” and actually had my aura read…ooo-weee-ooo….that sort of took me back to my hippie days. Anyway, it was fun to experience.
My art classes were extraordinary. The drawing class was better than I expected and was really good for me to go back and relearn the basics. “Seeing” what you are drawing is not as easy as one would think. My brain says “I know what a tree looks like so just draw it that way” and I end up with a cartoon looking drawing…in reality though, the tree looks nothing like my brain says it does, (dumb brain!) so it’s good to really “look” at what I’m drawing. That’s a big part of what I learned from that class. My coloured pencil class was also awesome…I learned how to properly use them, and now my pencil crayon pictures look like oil paintings. Pretty cool!
No comments:
Post a Comment