Christmas Travel Done

I am propping myself up at the desk with a cup of coffee.  After I post this I will be heading back to bed for a nap before work this evening.  While driving 1200 miles in one day is not something I would do all the time, it was worth it to see Savvy and CJ.

Anyway........(warning-lots of pictures)

The travel plans this Christmas revolved around Lady K and Texter heading back to the Carolinas in order to see both sets of grandparents and family - most of which have not seen Lady K in anything other than pictures.

In order for them to catch a flight on MY airline, we had to head to Salt Lake City.  We were going to go out the day before, overnight in Salt Lake City, so they could catch a 6am flight out.  We planned really well as it started snowing/icing and their's was the last flight out for awhile.  As it was, they were delayed for a couple of hours leaving SLC.  But this is what I am missing for the next couple of weeks.

Anyway, after I dumped them out at the airport at 430am, got them through security, I headed out to Arizona and Savvy.  Although Salt Lake City was yucky with the snow, once I cleared the city, going was good.  On the way, I saw a road runner, tons of ravens and crows, and when I pulled up at Savvy's....Gambel Quail!

According to Savvy, there are a ton of quail which stroll the neighborhood.  I just love their little top feather bobbing around as they scurry.  I will have to admit though, watching them makes my mouth water - they are tasty.

Before I headed down to Arizona I had suggested to Savvy we 'take a hike'.  I had even looked up San Tan Mountain Regional Park which was suppose to have hiking trails.  So it was really funny when we went out on Friday to run a couple of errands and, because I didn't want to make a left hand turn out of a parking lot, we found the park.  It is only minutes away from her house!

I paid our $6 entry fee and the really, really nice lady there suggest a quick, two mile hike through the park.  It had rained the night before and was cloudy and cool and we didn't have anything else to do, so off we hiked.

There was also another reason for the hike.  I wanted to see 'cactus in the wild'.  I didn't want to see cacti that had been uprooted and placed in someone's yard, beside the road, or in a park.  Wild cactus for me and this hike didn't disappoint me in the least.

These get a lovely pinky-purple and appear to be 'soft' spines.  They lie!

Looks all sweet and delicate and ferny....it too lies!

While very lovely, I think I like being able to touch plants!

We were lucky enough to see a 'herd' of 'migrating wild cactus'.

But cactus does have personality.  You can see faces on some of them.

And then there was giant squid cactus.

But not everything was 'pointy'.  Because of the cool weather and rain, there was actually some very green moss on some of the rocks.

We did find this little fellow laying on a rock.  Savvy and I think he was just very cold and laying there trying to get warm and not succeeding very well.

As I said earlier, it was cool (50's) and a bit rainy while in Arizona.  I guess I brought the winter with me.  But as we hiked the 2.2 miles of trails, there were wonderful views of the clouds all around us.

I did get to add a couple more birds to my bird list.  There was a Gila Woodpecker flying around.  There were probably several, but it seemed like only one.  And a little Cactus Wren (about 3-4).

The Gila (above) and the Wren (below)....

I also saw a road runner (which I have seen many times before) and a ton of hawks, especially in Montana on my way to/from Arizona.

Because of the forecast for snow north of Salt Lake City, instead of leaving super early on Sunday, I left late Saturday afternoon.  I figured by the time I hit the snow, the sun would be coming up.  And I was correct.  The drive back was in and out of snow and most of the drive was really gray and foggy looking.

So hopefully, on New Year's Day, the weather will cooperate and allow Texter and Lady K to fly back to Salt Lake City where I will drive down and pick them up - about 6 hours in each direction.  However, one good thing about the drive is that I can fit in an audio book easily.

Now, it's resting up, a little work at the library, and some sewing and knitting.......