Time in Phoenix

My Wednesday flights to Phoenix were uneventful.  I got in around 11:00 p.m. and all was in order.

Thursday, I did some school work online, went through four weeks of accumulated mail, and started sorting through things here for my trip to Mongolia and Spain in July and August.  Thursday evening, I had a nice evening at Flashlight Tours at the Desert Botanical Garden - my station was the Agave and Aloe station.  Most of the questions from adults was about the making of tequila from Webbers Blue Agaves, while the kids were interested in making rope from the fibers of the agave and yucca leaves.

Friday morning, I dealt with the Arizona DMV bureaucracy.  I was not sure about which needed to be done first, so I went to the DMV.  The line moved quickly and it only took about 15 minutes to get to the clerk for registering and titling the car in Arizona - only to find out that because of the pollution standards in Phoenix, I needed the emissions control testing done first.  So I drove to the testing station, and after about 20 minutes, got that done.  Then back to the DMV, and after about 20 minutes got to a clerk.  All went well and quickly, the car is now registered and titled there.  The young clerk is working full time, continuing to live at home and going to school part time at Glendale Community College.  After chatting about college, I asked him to consider Wayland Baptist University where I teach, both because of the low cost and small classes.

After the DMV, it was to Visionworks to get my sunglasses repaired.  I had received two new pairs of no line bifocals from them, one regular and one sunglasses, and one of the screws fell out of the sunglasses while traveling in Brazil.  Friday evening and Saturday morning, I taught my American Government class at Wayland Baptist's downtown campus. 

Late Saturday afternoon, I had dinner at Gertrude's, the new restaurant at the Desert Botanical Garden - halibut with asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, corn and tomatoes.  Saturday evening, I was again at flashlight tours.  Both Thursday and Saturday, the temperature at 6:00 was around 110-112 degrees, and down to around 100 when I left at 9:30 p.m.  Saturday I was at the Palo Verde station, where the discussion centered on the palo verde root borer beetles (there are three large specimens, each about two inches long), the pocket mouse a.k.a. the midnight gardener and the bruchid beetles.

The Palo Verde station

Some blossoms nearby

A massive Sonoran Palo Verde tree behind the station

Octopus cactus

Octopus cactus near the Palo Verde station

Lion's tail agave

Lion's tail agave around the Sonoran Palo Verde

Shin kicker agave - careless hikers' shins get the needle points at the end of the leaves

Fishhook barrel cactus

Hedgehog cactus that still has remnants of their blossoms

Before hiking Sunday morning, I stopped to look at the entrance to our condos.  In spite of the record breaking heat, everything looks very lush.  Kudos to our landscapers.

North side of the entrance

South side of the entrance

Looking south from the entrance

 Sunday morning, it was time to hike.  Jane and Anne MacNamara, my usual hiking companions are off celebrating their 60th birthdays by tracing their family roots in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.  So I set off on my own to hike on the Bridle Trail.  This is a nice wide trail that follows Central Avenue for several miles.  It goes through an upper middle class residential neighborhood.  It is nearly all shaded by mature trees - especially nice since the temp at 5:00 a.m. was about 85 degrees and it only got warmer as I hiked.  I covered about six miles in two hours.

Southern end of the Bridle Path

Later Sunday, I drove to Cathy Colbert's condo and then to her mom's home, and the three of us went for brunch at Corbins: http://www.corbinsbarandgrill.com/brunch.php

And now back home, getting ready for flying back to Vermont on Monday - doing laundry, packing, school work.  Later, I will go to Cathy's for dinner, then back here to visit with a neighbor about our condo association (it is tough being on the board of directors - people think I have power to get things done).  Tomorrow, I will hike again for two hours, then take the Super Shuttle to the airport and be home in Vermont before midnight.