Superstitions

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

PHOENIX, AZ — Well, not exactly Phoenix. We are at Apache Junction, about 25 miles west of the city, at a very nice KOA. It’s a bit more rustic than our manicured surroundings in Tucson, which suits us very well.

Outside our trailer is an aloe cactus that has wonderful tall shoots coming out of it, with trumpet-like yellow blossoms starting to open. As we sat and relaxed, after setting up at our site, I looked over and there was a tiny ruby-throated hummingbird probing for nectar in the opened flowers! Later on, we saw a red-headed woodpecker doing the same thing; I always thought they ate insects only. Always something new to learn.

There were puddles along the roadway of our RV resort this morning from last night’s rain, and lots of large clouds with grey undersides were drifting overhead. We walked over to the main office to buy today’s papers and passed the model train display next to the building. Three of the “regulars”, wearing engineer’s caps, were seated on a bench across from us, operating the controls, as three scale model locomotives pulled box cars and passenger cars around the tracks.

“Want some candy, little girl?” teased one of the men, as he brought one train to a stop in front of us. I laughed, and then saw him pointing — on the car behind the load of miniature logs, he had placed two or three lollipops! He meant what he was saying!

We headed northwest out of Tucson on the I-10 and then turned northward on Highway 87 a few miles out of town. We passed lots of huge fields of red-brown soil, plowed in neat rows ready for planting. Others already had foot-tall plants of vivid green, thriving in their desert surroundings thanks to extensive irrigation efforts. We couldn’t quite figure out how the crops were getting their water, but it was clearly doing the trick.

The backdrop for the flat land by the highway, and the towns of Coolidge and Florence that we drove through, was a range of craggy mountains to the east and west. Between us and them were quite a few trees that were coming into leaf with the warm temperatures. There were lots of wildflowers by the roadside as well, mostly yellow, but with a few purple and pink ones mixed in from time to time. Overhead, we saw a couple of hawks circling on the breeze. Lovely.

Further afield, we could see some saguaro cacti stretching their arms skyward. But instead of a general vista of yellow grass and sand, there was a lot more green today. The Sonoran Desert, of which this is a part, is said to have an unusual amount of rainfall compared to other deserts, which would probably explain this.

To the west of the campground where we are now located are the Superstition Mountains. The name seems to come from two stories; one of a German prospector who revealed on his deathbed that he had found a motherlode of gold in the mountains (which no one was ever able to locate for certain) and the other, from Apache legend, that somewhere in the mountains is a deep chasm from which come the winds that cause so many desert sandstorms in the area. There are some wonderful photos of these mountains bathed in the red glow of sunset. Maybe we’ll take some of our own when we start to explore these parts!