Red Rock Country

I arose this morning with hopes of viewing and photographing the “blood moon” occurring at 4:58 a.m.  While I was able to see some of the eclipse it is just too far away for my camera to do it any justice.  However, it is a sight to see here in the desert sky where the stars are much brighter in the clear nighttime skies.   There have been very few clouds in the evening skies so the constellations have been easy to spy.

 

Some one else's picture

Before we left Picacho I did try my hand at taking pictures of some very fast creatures, hummingbirds.  I took several hundred pictures but only ended up with a couple good ones and of course they would be better without the feeder.  Our neighbor at the KOA had several feeders up and the hummingbirds came in droves.  Wonder what will happen to these tiny creatures when they leave to go home to Vermont on the 19^th.

We enjoyed a wonderful day of sightseeing and jumping from small town to small town yesterday.  We started out with a trip to Sedona and let me tell you that it has changed since the last time we were here.  Obviously the tourist dollar has been a boom to their city coffers and there are new developments and a brand new highway that goes through town.  Mia and I vaguely remembered the part of town that we visited the last time we were here.

This is red rock country where there is so much iron oxide in the rocks that they rust to different shades of red and brown.  I shot several pictures of some of the major groups of rocks in the area.  It is amazing to see the red rock formations on one side of the highway and on the other side, hills with trees, green and some red rock.  Unfortunately no picture will ever replace seeing it with your own eyes.

Another place I have wanted to revisit was the Chapel of the Holy Cross.  Completed in 1956 and designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, Brunswig Staude, this chapel appears to rise out of the red rock hillside that it occupies.  Facing the valley below, the buttes across the valley and the sky above a large cross dominates and is the focal point of the building as you drive below it.  Belonging to the parish of St. John Vianney in Sendona and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix the only services are a prayer service on Monday evenings.  The chapel has a very small viewing area with an altar in front of the room just behind the windows that surround the cross design on the outside of the building.  The view is spectacular and there are several rows of benches for people to sit and mediate, pray or just be.  On both sides of the altar are hundreds of candles.  I lite five for members of our family and friends departed mother.

We drove to Cottonwood, Jerome and Prescott and stopped at every quilt shop we could find along the way.  Mia would visit the shops as Honey and I would sit in the truck waiting.  All in all a very nice day and while it was warm it wasn’t over eighty degrees and we spent a pleasant after noon at the trailer before heading to the casino for dinner.  We signed up for their free program that gave us twenty bucks a piece to play.  Mia left with $20.97 while I left with my card in a barrel.

This morning the local Native American Club from the South Verde High School is putting on a breakfast for the park to raise money for their club.  I am in with all you can eat pancakes, scrambled eggs, one serving of Sausage, Orange Juice and Coffee.  Then I think we will be off to Flagstaff and Winslow Arizona where Route 66 is still a highway.  Told Mia I was going to wait on the corner for a flatbed Ford with a girl looking at me.  She thinks I’ll be a skeleton before that happens.

Waiting outside the quilt store

That is all until tomorrow.

Hope all is well and thanks for stopping by.