NOVEMBER 8-9, 2013 LOOKING FOR WATER!!!

I decided to take Duncan and get out of the park for a day.  Had heard of Tortilla Flats at some point in my travels on the internet.  While looking at the map I noticed that there was a ghost town along the road and then I saw it.  A LAKE!!! Not one but three so off we went to explore.  The scenery was just beautiful along the way.  I passed Tortilla Flat before I got to the lake so decided to keep going and stop on the way back.  A few miles up the road I spotted the lake.  I later learned that it is a man made lake created when Roosevelt Dam was built in the early 20th century.  I found the marina, a RV park and what looked like a state park just waiting for a visit.  But was not to happen this day.  I continued along the road which turned into a washboard dirt road with really long drop off that made me nervous so only drove along it for a couple of miles.  When I take the trip to the dam it will be from the east end of this road.  I wanted to stop at the restaurant and museum in Tortilla Flat so didn't stop long just took a few pictures and called it good.

Unfortunately when I got back to Tortilla Flat the battery in my camera decided to go dead so switched to my phone and then when I went to download them they didn't transfer as I thought they had.  Lesson learned do not delete until you double check the files.  So for now will have to give you the web site to take a peak and hopefully before I leave here I will take another trip back there for replacement pictures.  It is really a true western town that refuses to die.  It started life as a stage coach stop in 1904.  Has had floods and fires, but survived to tell another story.  Tortilla Flat, AZ

It was getting late in the day so looked online for a pet friendly motel and decided to spend the night and visit Goldtown and Superstition Mountain Museum the next day.  Just outside of Apache Junction  Apacheland Movie Ranch where many of the spaghetti westerns were made.  It was open to the public for many years. Such stars as Stella Steven, Audie Murphy, John Wayne, Elvis Presley and Ronald Regan to name just a few made movies here.  The Superstition Mountain Museum has a diorama of the lot and many pictures of the movie stars who made films there.  The Elvis Presley Chapel and Audie Murphy Barn are the only two remaining buildings of the Ranch which have survived and are under the care of the museum today.  If memory serves me right the last movie made there was in the mid 1990's.  The ranch met an unforunate end when a fire leveled the town in 2004 for the 2nd or 3rd time and western movies had gone out of favor so it was decided not to rebuild the set again.  More about Apacheland .

From the Museum it is just a short way up the road to Goldfield Ghost town.  It was interesting to wander around the town and take pictures.  It was warm enough that Duncan could not be left in the car by the time I got up to Goldfield so there was no going into buildings and getting the feel of the original buildings, but there is always another day. And it is only about an hour away so can go up another time.

 And so ended another adventure in the southwest.

REMEMBER!!!!!!

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

HOW GOOD LIFE IS AND THAT IT CAN END ALL TO QUICKLY!!!

 

Until next time.....

NOVEMBER 5, 2013 CASA GRANDE RUINS

The Casa Grand or Great House, so named by the Spanish Missionaries in 1694. The ruin dates from 1350 and was built by the Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert.

 In the late 1800s scientists pressed for legal protection as people has been doing damage for the two previous centuries.  In 1892 the Casa Grande became the nation's first national archeological reserve.  It is covered by a massive roof which helps to preserve it from the weather and sun.

 Listed as one of our National Monuments it is an amazing structure.  As you drive by on the highways from either corner of the property you can see the roof which only whet the appetite of this history bug to take a closer look.

 Any of the signs can be read just by clicking on them to enlarge.  They are so full of information it is hard to include everything so I let them tell the story of this amazing structure.

As I moved around the area there were many small enclosed areas where the walled areas had been excavated.

The ancients were farmers and constructed one of the most complex irrigation systems to bring water into the desert so they could sustain themselves.  One thought as to why they disappeared  soon after the Casa Grande was built was that they increased water consumptions to such a degree that the amount of water could not keep up with them when they chose to come together in a larger community instead of scattered over the land in a farming environment. 

 As the sun sank lower in the sky I ended my tour of the ruin with the thought that I need to return to this place and soak in the whole thing again before I leave this area.  Luckily I am only about 25 miles from this amazing structure so it will be easy to return again this winter.

REMEMBER!!!!!!

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

HOW GOOD LIFE IS AND THAT IT CAN END ALL TO QUICKLY!!!

 

Until next time.....

Wednesday, October 30, 2013 BIOSPHERE 2

A much different day from yesterday greeted us when the sun came up.  Winds had died down and it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  Back to the VA for the second half of procedure started yesterday.  As we drove south it was with reminders along the way of the long ride home last night.  Two appointments today and then we were free to explore.

Biosphere 2 came to the front of my attention.  I had seen the signs for it at some point as well as a brochure in the packet given to me when I arrived at Quail Run.  The Biosphere is an engineering marvel and was created to research and develop self-sustaining space-colonization technology. There is 7.2 million sq ft enclosed under 6500 windows.

 The biosphere is at an elevation of 4000 ft and as we drove up the pressure in our ears adjusted a couple of times.  I think about the height of Mt. Washington in NH which has always seemed huge is 6288 ft, but out here you can climb to 4000 feet and still feel like you are just in the foot hills of the mountains.

 The first building you see from the crest of the hill is the top of the rain forest building which is 91 ft tall and houses 100 species of plant life.  It was initially planted with 300 but many of them have died out.  I can tell you it is very hot and humid in there. The air was so thick with moisture that I found it very hard to breath.  Was glad to move on to the other areas.  They have an ocean which was created from water brought in from San Diego, CA for the first 200,000 gallons to get all of the micro organisms needed to create the true environment for fish to thrive.  Then added water from surrounding wells and used the same process used in home salt water aquariums to create the proper ph for everything to thrive in.

We then found ourselves in high Savannah area, moved into low Savannah then into marsh and from there into a desert environment.  The whole thing is a research project into how rainfall and water effect the surrounding conditions.  The desert is created with plants from below the equator to give a reverse season for creating oxygen within the Biosphere.

Boojum Tree endemic of Baja, CA   There are two of them within the Biosphere.

Technically I don't want to get into the specifics of what they have done since it's conception, but will leave you with a link to research if you'd like to read on.  Biosphere 2

Many of the building have ongoing experiments relating to water and how our plants and soil use it.

We were lead through a tunnel and into one of two artificial lungs that are used to keep constant pressure in the Biosphere.  As the day warms the air the molecules expand and the lung inflates when evening arrives and the air cools they contract and the lung deflates.  A simple explanation for a complex process, but it is amazing to watch a huge steel platform start to descend in only 8 seconds.

During the night the huge steel plate will descend to the floor of the lung as the biosphere cools down and the air condenses.  When we got ready to leave the tour guide took the time to just open the door to the outside and as the seconds ticked off the plate started to descend  and as we exited the building it was like being pushed through a wind tunnel.  Truly like what we can imagine it would be like inside a living lung on exhale.

Below the inside of one of the buildings looking down at an experiment having to do with water and climate change.  I was on information overload at that point so didn't grasp all the details of the whole thing.

And so ended another wonderful look at the wonders Arizona has to offer.

REMEMBER!!!!!!

Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.

HOW GOOD LIFE IS AND THAT IT CAN END ALL TO QUICKLY!!!

Until next time.....