Space is Really Cold and Why Few Pictures of Me on this Blog

Friday night turned out to be a clear night, excellent for telescope viewing. I set up the scope on the front porch of the Cabin and aimed it at the first subject in the sky at dusk; Venus. I went back inside and waited another hour until the sky became completely dark. Once it was dark and I saw the sky was still clear, I moved the telescope to a spot on the driveway away from the lights of the cabin and tried calibrating the computerized object finder that I had problems with a few times before. This time it calibrated on the first attempt, and I was ready to explore the Universe. It's a good thing it calibrated fast, because when it is dark and clear up north you become part of Space. Or in other words, it is FRICKING FREEZING COLD! But that along with the dark moonless night makes it perfect to observe deep space objects. The Object Finder has an option to 'tour the night sky'. I observed about six different objects before the LCD screen was freezing up and getting difficult to read in the 8 degree temps. That was fine though, since my fingers and toes froze about 5 minutes earlier. The most impressive object was the Orion Nebula, I was surprised at how well it looked in the telescope, filling the complete field of view. I went inside for another half hour to wait until Saturn rose over the hill to the east, and then eventually Comet Lulin. Once back out, I commanded the Object Finder to locate Saturn for me. The screen was really cold and hard to read, but it displayed exactly where it was. It was a nice clear steady view of Saturn and its' rings. I picked out a few other objects to view while waiting around for Lulin to rise above the hill to the East, but the clouds moved in and my hands lost feeling before it became visible. All in all, it was a very good night with the scope.

Biggest lesson learned that night - don't exhale when your using the telescope. With one exhale you can fog the sighting scope, eyepiece, and your glasses all at once. It's really cold standing around waiting for the fog to clear from all that freezing cold glass!

Now I'd like to clear up something about the pictures of me in this blog. My dear wife Diane made a comment to me on my pictures when she came down to Arizona a couple weeks ago. She asked me 'John, your wearing the same Packer sweatshirt in all the pictures of you posted on the blog. Don't you ever change your clothes?' So if anybody else thought that, first, you shouldn't be paying that close of attention. Your most likely at work and shouldn't be spending time checking out what some old retired guy is wearing. Second, I have three Packer sweatshirts, two of which I packed for the trip. So I do change my clothes, and I did laundry three times on the trip, so back off. Geez, I checked all the pictures, and in many of them I was wearing my black jacket. That is why I don't like to many pictures of me floating around, I always end up defending myself.

Heading North Chasing the Stars

Heading to the wilderness of Florence with the telescope to see if I can focus in on Saturn and the Comet Lulin. I call it wilderness because I have no Internet access, and barely have any TV reception left. At least they delayed the digital transition until June so I have a couple of channels to watch until then. The Sky's might be clear on Saturday night, that looks like the only shot this weekend to use it. I have a feeling I'll only use it for a little while once I get standing around in the freezing cold of the night. But we'll see. Diane's heading up with me, so I need to come home Sunday so she can get to work bright and early Monday morning :-)

Spuds and Splits

Rewind to the day after Diane arrived in Phoenix. Shirley had gotten us tickets to the annual 'Spuds and Splits' event in the neighboring RV Park. This is a fund raiser for the RV Park softball league. It takes place in the large activities hall in the neighboring park, so it only takes two minutes to get there. But now remember, these are all retired people, so we need to head over 25 minutes before they even start serving. After all, we don't want to be eating while they are piling up the tables and chairs like they were for the breakfast we attended a week ago. Well, two minutes latter we are there, but there are only a couple of people outside the facility. Something is wrong, there isn't a line waiting to get into the place, and we're here only 23 minutes before it opens. There should be 100+ retirees visiting out front waiting for the big event. So as not to look like old fools, we drive around the park sight seeing for 10 minutes. By then we see some people heading toward the Hall, so we pull into a parking spot and head in. Upon entering, we immediately realize why there wasn't a line before the event. The place is well over half full of people already seated and eating. Obviously they opened 30 minutes early assuming there might be some 'early birds'. Well, we didn't look like fools, but now I felt a little foolish thinking there wasn't anyone there yet when we first arrived. I've been here a month, I should of known better.

Upon entering, we turn in our tickets, and move to a table a few steps away. There we are given a plate with a large potato, or potatoe, depending on your political affiliation. The potato (or spud if your having a hard time following along) is split (no, this isn't the split part) and shaped to provide a bowl. You move to the next table where you pile on chili, onions, peppers, salsa, melted cheese, or a variety of other condiments until you have a complete meal heaped on the potato. Then you search for an open table, where you sit down and eat. Now Shirley is suppose to save a spot for friends of theirs that were running a little behind. Now behind means they will actually show up after the starting time of the event. Of course Paul and Shirley ran into other friends, and it became a challenge to figure out where and with whom to sit. It reminded me of a high school cafeteria watching kids try to figure out who they will sit next to, and who do they want to be seen with. Some things just don't change with age. Well, we finally picked a table and leaned some chairs up to reserve them for their friends. We then dug into our spuds.

Their friends arrived about half way through my spud, but I didn't really slow down much, just continued inhaling my meal. After all, when I'm done with the spud, I'm only half done with the event.

While finishing the spud, I eyed up the split situation on the other side of the Hall. I could see there weren't many people yet diving into the splits, so I figured we wouldn't want to wait for a big rush latter. Now this event had several hundred people here, so lines will at times form in key areas. I kept my focus though and finished my spud in good time. Now in order to maintain a modicum of manners, I looked at our table to see if anyone was ready to hit the splits table. After all, it might look rude if I jumped up myself and ran over there. Diane was close to being finished, so I encouraged her to wolf down her spud so she could go up to the split table with me before a line formed. That didn't go over real well, but we did get up there before any line formed. There we were handed a tray with a split banana and ice cream (this is the split part, still following?). Traveled a few steps to the next table where we could load it up with caramel, chocolate, nuts, various fruit, and whipped cream topped with a cherry. Just as we were finishing our split, I glanced at the split table where a line of 30+ people had formed. I looked at Diane and verbally reinforced my correct assessment on when to 'hit' the split table. We left full, and we finished before they were piling chairs. A successful event!

Suggested improvements for next year; 'Suds, Spuds, and Splits' Raise the price and add some beer. Heck, could add a band and make it an all night event. Could be named 'Suds, Spuds, Splits, and slither'. By the way, an all night event is defined as finished and with chairs piled by 10 pm.

Business Opportunity, Cell Tower Trees

I saw several of these out in Mesa. It does blend very well into the landscape. So much so that I'm thinking I should start selling them in Wisconsin. Now I know I"ll have to do a little testing to see if they can handle a heavy snow load, but it would be cool to have cell towers that no one can recognize. There was one right outside the RV park that I didn't recognize for days after I arrived there. What do you think? Ready to be one of my big investors? Maybe we could hang some coconuts off of the antenna braces.

Need a Trim, or Need to be Trim

Here's a photo I took at Greasewood Flats. I just liked the fact there was a bald guy waiting for the Barber shop to open. A few minutes after I took the photo he walked up to me with a concerned look on his face and asked me if it looked OK. He was concerned his jean jacket didn't fit him anymore and was afraid it looked bad on him. Of course he wasn't afraid enough to not wear it out in public! He seemed to feel better once I showed him the picture. I might of failed to mention I was going to put it on the Internet :-)

So now you know why he doesn't have the jacket buttoned.

Too Harsh, Out of Retirement? and saved from kidnapping

Ok, maybe I was a little harsh in my thought of being duped. I'm looking around the street, because that's what retired guys do, and I see signs that indicate it might not of been that nice while I was gone. In several people's yards I see Christmas decorations that must have been recently uncovered by the snow. There are extension cords running across the yards, and Christmas lights abandoned on the gutters. Obviously if it was nice out while I was gone this stuff would of been cleaned up by now. I also noticed the neighbor has two satellite dishes on his roof. It must of been bad if one dish wasn't enough to make it through the winter.

Hey, my working career might not be over yet. Watched the national news the other night and found out this old retired dog won Best in Show. He was retired once, but came out of retirement for this show. In people years, this old guy would be 70! What an inspiration, my best work might still be yet to come. Only problem is I don't have his good looks to work with. He's got a really long ugly name, but he's known by his friends as "Stump".

The news also informed me that Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of the country. I guess the drug war violence is spilling across the border and kidnappings in the Phoenix area are increasing at an alarming rate. The thought of me being kidnapped and no one putting anything up to have me released makes me glad I'm out of there. It was bad enough worrying about alien abduction.

I've Been Duped and Reality Sucks

I've been duped by family and friends in Wisconsin. The flight home went well. Fairly uneventful except for the fact it was warmer in Milwaukee than it was in Phoenix. Here I've been feeling sorry for the people left in the Wisconsin cold and snow and I find out yesterday that you have it better than I did. Diane filling me with 'oh I had to shovel and snow blow while you were gone' only to come home to a lot less snow than when I left. Heck, it hasn't even been below freezing since I've been back. Well, I'm going back to feeling sorry for myself instead of the rest of you. Didn't think Wisconsinites were that mean.

Well, I'm home. It's great to be back except for the fact there is a pile of mail I need to go through, and I better start pulling the stuff together to do our Income taxes. First day back has been tough for a couple of reasons. One, I don't have the sympathetic audience of old people to exchange trivial gripes about the long lines at customs to get back in the country from Mexico, the cost increase in the RV parks, and whether the hot tub should have the jets running or not. My wife Diane doesn't seem to by very supportive when I talk to her at work and tell her I'm so busy I might not get through the mail, and I didn't check my email until this afternoon. I've figured out that going to work makes people crabby. Second, I usually have a beer by mid afternoon to make sure I stay hydrated from the desert. Well, I don't have that excuse here. So to try and transition, I found a cooler in the refrigerator called Bahama Mama that reminds me of warmer places. Oh, I have so much to get done, there isn't much time left in the day, so I better get back at that mail.

But before I go, here's a few things I need to tell you about in future postings that I haven't covered yet. I put them here to remind me later, otherwise as time goes on I'll forget and deprive you of this useless information.

Mission Church in Tucson
Waiting at the Barbershop
Packer Sweatshirts
Fellow Wisconsinites in Tucson hotel bar
Spuds and splits
Friday fish at the VFW
Business opportunity, or maybe not

There's more, but the thoughts are already slipping away with all these pressures of day to day life :-) So stick around. And by the way, my return flight to Phoenix is in April so I can travel back with Paul and Shirley and enrich my life experience. It was cheaper to book a round trip ticket from Phoenix than it would of been for a one way ticket back home, so why not?

All Good Things Must Come to an End

I'm talking about this trip, not this dang blog. You won't get off that easy yet. Well, tomorrow morning we head back to Wisconsin. The timing couldn't be any better. It's only going to be 58 degrees here tomorrow, and it sounds like it will be 50 degrees in Wisconsin. Perfect for the transition back to winter. This might be the last post 'on location' for me. I'm guessing the next time will be from home tomorrow night, or Wednesday. I have a few stories and pictures piled up, so I'll continue on with the blog for at least a little while, maybe longer if I can detect that anyone besides me is reading it.

Up Up and Away, see you all back home!

Photos of Sadona area

This picture is taken from the Catholic church built into the rock mountain. I assume the house in the foreground is the Rectory (Priest's house for those non Catholics) since it's right below the hill the church is built on. I'm sure the observatory is used to communicate with the Holy Father. (That's God, not the Pope...the Pope mostly uses a Blackberry to communicate)


This is a view from outside of the church. They call this area Red Rock Country for an obvious reason.

Cute little fund raiser

This piece of art work in Jerome is about 15 to 20 feet below the sidewalk. You can throw your money at this and other junk below for fun. It's the way they raise money for their museum. Hey, it's no worse than the casinos, and at least they don't give you the illusion your going to win something.

This is what Paul and I did while Shirley and Diane shopped in the 'galleries'. Let me tell you, it's impossible to get those 20's into the hole. I guess paper money doesn't really work very well with this kind of thing. Wish I would of realised this earlier. But hey, throwing 20's into an outhouse is probably cheaper than shopping in this town.

No I wasn't throwing paper money, but I'd most likely try it before I'd gamble in a casino.

Walk in the Desert

Friday, Diane and I visited the Saguaro National Park and walked down a couple hiking trails. Here's a flavor for what we were hiking through.

Sedona and the Motor Mouth

Saturday's plan called for a trip to Sedona. This is the Door County of Arizona. Start with some beautiful geography and add some artists and other people hungry to separate you from your money, and you have the essence of Red Rock Country. To get a good taste of the area, we started with some switchbacks on Hyw. 89A and wound our way up to a small town hanging on the side of a mountain called Jerome. This is the ultimate artist paradise. Gallery after Gallery of priceless art work. By priceless I mean nothing was marked. In the galleries that did have prices listed, it would take your breath away, more so than the thin air. Don't get me wrong, it was nice stuff, just not worth hauling down the mountain at what they were asking. At that altitude the view was awesome. A person can see all the way to Flagstaff!

On to Sadona, indirectly via a Red Rock Loop Road which passed through the Coconino National Park. Got a little nervous when it turned to gravel as it wound through the mountains, but it was a small loop through relatively flat land. The scenery through there was fantastic. Then back on Hyw. 89 to Sedona where there was some lively discussion of where the ripoff shops were located in Sedona. After some discussion and aimless driving around, we pulled into a small parking ramp. Shirley and Diane headed for the shops, Paul and I spotted a tavern to hydrate ourselves from the long drive. The menu posted on the outside of the tavern only listed wine, no beer. I was getting a little concerned, I hoped this wasn't too snotty of a place that they wouldn't serve beer. And if they did, I didn't know how much they were going to rip us off. I knew we were only going to have one beer in this neighborhood, but it would be nice if I knew ahead how much damage to the wallet would be afflicted.

In we went; cool, there's a bar on the left. Double cool; they have tap beer! Triple cool; it wasn't just Bud and Miller Lite. One of them was Fat Tire, that's a good one, but wait, there's a an Oak Creek Amber on the end. Never heard of that one. I asked the bar tender if that was a local brew, and he verified it was. In fact it was from Oak Creek, AZ which was just down the road a piece. I ordered Paul and I each an Amber and watched the bartender draw two beers into what looked like wine glasses, only with shorter stems and larger bowls. That's when I got concerned about the price. What's wrong with a frosted mug like most normal taverns?

Took a sip of this unknown beer, and it tasted fantastic! A new local brew discovered, well worth the trip....or so I thought. After the first sip, the motor on the woman's mouth seated to my left started up never to stop until I chugged the last swallow of beer and ran out of the tavern with Paul. Now I am never one to encourage conversation with strangers, and I didn't do anything to encourage this woman to start, or to continue this one sided conversation. I quickly acquired the trapped feeling I would get sitting in some senseless meeting at work. You know, the conversation is going nowhere, there is nothing worthwhile being said, nothing being accomplished, and your losing minutes of your life that you will never get back again. And yet, you can't leave. At work it was because you were being paid, at this bar, it was because this was a very good beer, and I won't chug down a good beer that I've paid to much for. So there I was, trapped. While half listening I gleamed from her that; she was a few years older than me, owns or manages a shop in this shopping center that sells pet toys or supplies, she drinks here everyday at lunch, and orders a sandwich to go, her best friend works for her, but is a lousy worker, and there is a 17 year old on their first job that is the best employee she's got. She moved to San Francisco, but couldn't get the Oak Creek Amber, and that is what she missed the most. Now all of that delivered while I was facing forward or facing toward Paul, on my right. Never uttering more than a periodic 'Oh Ya' trying to be at least a little polite. WOW, at least the beer was good!

Back on the road with a stop off of Mission Road to view a Catholic church built into the side of a mountain, then a scenic rest stop where I took more pictures. Then we finished the day with ribs and a burger in a Chicago style sports bar in Scottsdale on our way back to the Park. This wrapped up what looks like the last good weather day that Diane and I will see before we fly home on Tuesday. Today, Sunday will have a high of 61, with thunderstorms and showers off and on. By Tuesday they are calling for a high temperature of 59. It's a good way to start getting acclimated to Wisconsin weather. In fact, it sounds like the differential in temperatures might be the smallest it's been since I've been here.

Hydrating from the desert heat in Big Nose Kate's

Here comes a Fat Tire served up in Big Nose Kate's Saloon. When traveling it's always fun to drink the beers available in the area. Fat Tire is a Denver brew that I haven't found widely available in Wisconsin. When hydrating at the hotel, it's been a brew from Tempe, AZ called 'Kilt Lifter'. It has a high alcohol content so it needs to be respected. As I said before, when in the desert you must always make sure you drink enough liquids. So far I haven't had a problem with dehydration. I think it's do to my vigilante approach to hydrating :-)

Something stinks in Tombstone

We discovered upon walking around Tombstone that a TV station was doing a news story on the big shootout. But you can see from the guy on the left that he senses something ain't right. We didn't hang around, so we don't know if it was something Wyatt Earp is telling the reporter or flatulence on the part of the cameraman.

If you are quick, you can follow the link below and view the news story on the TV stations site. But I'm guessing within days this link will break. It was a little upsetting to watch, so be careful. Found out these people aren't real, but just actors. So much deception in the world today!

http://www.kgun9.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3418531&at1=News&h1=A

Gentleman prestaging?

Here's Boot Hill where the results of the OK corral shootout are buried. This town was not the place to be in the 1880's that is for sure. One epitaph reads "Lester Moore - shot with 4 slugs from a 44. No Less, No More." Now I've heard that before somewhere, think it was from a former coworker. Here I thought they were clever, now I know they were just a plagiarizer.

I think the guy on the left is there to save on transportation costs to the graveyard. You know how expensive those dang funeral costs are!

Underground and Six feet Under

Today it was head east 50 miles to Kartchner Caverns State Park for a tour of some caves. It was stalagmites, stalactites, bacon, columns, and popcorn for about an hour in a 70 degree cave with 99 percent humidity. I don't know of any caves in the Midwest that maintain 70 degrees year around. To be that warm up north would most likely need some hot lava pouring out of a wall of the cave. Oh, I digress. The caverns were discovered in 1974, kept secret for 14 years while the owners figured out how to protect them. In the early 90's the State bought the land and developed the site to allow the public in to see the caverns. If your at all interested in caves, this would be a good one to see.

From there we headed south to a historical Fort Huachuca, but on the way we decided to swing east and head to Tombstone instead. There we walked around for 30 minutes or so, then looked for a good old fashion saloon. Big Nose Kate's Saloon was the first one we saw, so in we go to hydrate ourselves from the heat of the desert. (High of 84 in Tucson today, but the warm days are coming to an end) Wyatt Earp was in the saloon keeping the peace, but shortly after we arrived, a ruckus broke out sending a cowboy out of the saloon. Later we found out there was some shooting going on at OK corral, just down the street from us. Heard it had to do with the cowboy settling the score from being ejected from the saloon. We really got the sense this town was not safe after dark. In fact, after the shooting we decided it was better to go back to the hotel for our beer. I took some photos that I will post tomorrow from Tombstone.

Seriously, the Painted Desert is Beautiful

The Petrified Forest is in the Painted Desert. So if you visit the Petrified Forest National Park, you get both. I thought I would at least show you one photo of the desert. It really is beautiful, and photos don't capture the colors and vastness of the desert. But here's a little bit I can show you. I have more photos but don't tell anyone.

Can't escape reality

This is what is left of our rental car after returning from a hiking trail. As you can see, it was the least expensive car I could rent. But jeez...I didn't think those tires were worth taking!

Spying on Me?

This guy just wouldn't let me alone. The look he gives me bothers me, really a bird? Certainly has an attitude. Wasn't going to mention aliens, but look at the way he leers at me!

Sums up the Petrified Forest

There is nothing that people can identify with better than a pile of firewood to keep warm with. The Petrified Forest is full of firewood and old logs that makes you want to grap a pickup truck and an axe and gather this stuff for the wood pile. Of course all of it is rock, so it won't do much for you.

By the way, it was in the mid 50's on Tuesday in the Petrified Forest.

Tuesday at Petrified Forest and Painted Desert

Monday we escaped the heat of the desert floor and headed 'Up North' to the Painted Desert. When you travel through the mountains all normal highway rules are off. You are spun off to the side away from the on coming traffic, and then you will cross over the top of the opposite lane and be driving on the left of the on coming lane. You spend an hour going up and down, side to side, every which way but straight and level. You end up on a two lane road in the snow on top of the mountains driving through what Arizona would consider 'Up North". This is where people escape too in the summer. Now there isn't anyone up here, because people in Arizona are whimps and can't handle the cold up here in the winter.(it was in the 40's on Monday). By the end of the day we were at Holbrook, AZ for the night.



Tuesday we headed to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert. The weather was great. Never had to break out the winter coat. Sun was out with no breeze, so sweatshirts were enough for comfort. I took a tremendous number of pictures, enough to question my manhood in past coworkers eyes. I'm going to throw out a couple of pictures to bring you up to date on the Painted Desert, then tomorrow try to catch you up to the current time. I think Google lost my last blog update. So it looks like I'm two days behind. Of course I didn't have my posts to this blog backed up, so it's lost forever. Oh darn.

Photos at Greasewood Flats(Yes, John K. it does exist.)

Waiting for our burger order to come up. Of course you don't want to get dehydrated in the desert, so we try too take in sufficient liquids.

Here is the dance floor with surrounding campfires. It's starting to get dark, and I don't like using flash, so yes, these pictures are a little dark.

Saturday Night at Greasewood Flats

Out of the pool, time to head out and show Diane some sites. Now that Shirley has Diane to help sway our activities, we headed to Scottsdale's Phoenician Hotel and Resort. This is where people with money that have to wear their wealth on their sleeve stay. Lots of marble, fountains, and plenty of staff for the rich people to throw money at. We walked and gawked around there for an hour like the first trip of the Beverly Hillbillies to the big city.

Once we finished there, it was off too Greasewood Flats for a burger and a few beers. There we ordered cheeseburgers and MGD and sat down at the picnic tables to listen to some live music. Now this place is an old ranch transformed into a large outside bar. It once was out in the middle of the desert, but now the suburbs of Scottsdale are encroaching on it. There is a stage with a round concrete dance floor which is surrounded by barrel fireplaces. As it gets dark, the customers are responsible for starting and maintaining the fires. Three buck beers and 7 and a half buck half pound cheeseburgers. It was a good meal, but after a couple hours we were ready to head back. Diane was up since 2:30 am, and the rest of us are old, so we called it a day.

Monday, Diane and I headed north to Holbrook on our way to the Petrified Forest. It was going to be almost 80 in Mesa, so I thought I'd bring Diane north where it's in the mid 40's. I was afraid she'd melt in that heat so soon after freezing in Wisconsin.You don't want to thaw someone out to quickly; need to prevent tissue damage. I also had an opportunity to see snow in the mountains which I haven't seen in some time. Once in Hollbrook, Diane acquired a free one pound petrified wood rock from John Grey's Petrified Wood Store. Not really sure what she is going to do with it, but I'm hoping I'm not going to see it approaching me at high velocity anytime in the future.

Tuesday we head to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest and spend a chunk of the day. Then head back to the heat in Mesa Tuesday night.