WIND

 

Arizona is as famous for its never ending wind as it is for its stupendous sunsets!!  Today is one of those days!  I can remember wind in Colorado when I was growing up – I would walk at nearly a 45 degree angle into the wind to keep it from blowing me over backwards.  We did have a refreshing rain last night and there were puddles this morning when the ladies of our park were doing our walking.  The 88 year old sets the pace even if her legs are six inches shorter than any of the rest of us.  She can really move.  Two laps and I was done,  but the wind had not started yet at that hour!!

 

As we were driving down back in December we noted the windmills in Tehachapee – small, medium, and LARGE.  They were all spinning at their max and we were pulling!!  Not a good situation but it seemed to  be a TAIL WIND which is good for the gas mileage.  When the windmills were just showing up on the Altamont Pass between the Bay Area and the Central Valley of California that was the trial area for design.  I remember one that looked like the manual mixer that mom used to beat eggs for scrambled eggs, or thin batters.  But I guess it did / does generate power as it is still there overlooking the “little town” of Livermore, now circumnavigated by four lane freeways in each direction!!

 

We walked up to the highway with the shovel to toss the half dozen shreds of a truck tire into the bushes.  Tom had actually heard it come apart from our trailer just a day before!  And when we came home yesterday from our Wickenburg trip he noted some pieces were close to the entrance road to our RV Park.  I was driving and I straddled the piece with the steel threads a showing!  So he wanted to get them out of the roadway so we and everyone else in the Park could avoid the ruined tire on their vehicle.  I went along as I didn’t want him out in the wind by himself with only a shovel for stability!  Mission accomplished;  also paid our rent that was due and the electricity for the past month plus a bit for December even if we were not on premises, there was still a service charge for that week in December while we were in Colorado.

 

We really like this “closer to Wickenburg” park, the many Palm trees, and the tall bushes a waving in the wind!!   The people are friendly and the rent is nearly a hundred a month cheaper;  there is even a nice on site laundry facility at very reasonable rates!!

We seem to be ON THE ROAD at least twice a week for doctor appointments in Wickenburg, Peoria, or Scottsdale.  That would be chiropractor, dentist, and neurologist respectively.   We seem to have chosen well;  all seem efficient and knowledgeable in their respective fields as well as friendly.  Two more weeks and we should be set with the grand Doctor Changeover.  Those docs back in the Sonora area were retiring and selling their dental practice, become infirm due to illness, or talking about retiring and joining us on the road!!  Have to laugh, we were on the leading edge again!!   When we moved to Burland Ranchettes fifty plus years ago and Tom began commuting to south Denver daily;  we were a bit weird.  Now Burland Ranchettes is full of commuters, with a Little League field down in the meadow where our kids used to sled and there is even a Park County office complex there at the turnoff and well as a church, the fire department, the road department and two or three REALTORS!!  Time flies, and attitudes change!!  Even faster than the wind can blow.

 

In navigating the northern Phoenix area we have discovered where the CostCos are for cheap gas, where there are a plethora of eating establishments, the routes that “the locals use at rush hour” and where to eat a picnic and take a rest while the sun gets low enough in the western sky to not be RIGHT IN YOUR EYES on Highway 60 heading home!!

We still enjoy our Wandering Lifestyle though; so don’t try to nail us down just yet.