I Get Philosophical

Not really—Nina writes such beautiful philosophical blogs but I’m afraid that’s beyond my writing capabilities—I write as I see it, as my day goes.  But today I discovered something—saguaros make me happy, those majestic skyward reaching cactus, especially when you are in a virtual forest of saguaros—feed my soul as Nina would say!  I feel peaceful and the smile won’t leave my face.

Larry and Geri suggested to the gang we go over south of Wickenburg and ride out behind Vulture Peak.  We left North Ranch just after 9am and trailered ATVs to the Wickenburg city park.  Nancy and Fred, Tom and Sandy plus Dell and his friend Terry joined us for a perfect ATV riding day, not too hot, not too cold!!!

Fred and NancyGeri thinking about taking a siesta again!

Geri and Larry

Larry and Geri were the only ones who had ridden in this area and it had been a couple years since they had been on these trails—we did just a touch of back tracking but I would say their memories were quite good or their GPS was right on track??

Some of the riding was a touch challenging—made even more challenging by our leader Geri stopping right in front of me in the middle of a tough spot to take a photo of ME riding across the tough area—I might or might not have told her to “move it” in no uncertain terms!!! 

And our leader Geri pointed out a Jojoba plant----

“Jojoba is grown for the liquid wax (commonly called jojoba oil) in its seeds. This oil is rare in that it's an extremely long (C36–C46) straight-chain wax ester and not a triglyceride, making jojoba and its derivative jojoba esters more similar to human sebum and whale oil than to traditional vegetable oils.

Jojoba oil is interesting for the industry because it is odorless and it has a viscosity which is temperature-independent. Applications vary from engine lubricating oil to cooking oil. Jojoba wax is used predominantly for pharmaceutical compounds, specially for skin products. After polymerization factice can be used for rubber production. The use as biodiesel fuel is becoming more and more important………..”Wikipedia

This photo doesn’t show well but the yellow poppy like flowers were blooming everywhere—gorgeous!!

The McDonald’s in Wickenburg sits along the Hassayampa River wash—the ride today took us up the river bed so on the way back our ATVs magically wandered into the McDonald’s parking lot for ice cream—imagine that!  As we were standing around eating our ice cream I happened to check the temperature on my phone—it was 7 degrees in McLeod, Montana and 68 degrees in Wickenburg!! 

And another great day in the Arizona desert!!

On another note, my family back in Arkansas has been experiencing more snow/ice than normal.  Vicky, my sister-in-law has always loved photography and received a new camera for Christmas—she took some great snow photos yesterday.  This particular shot was featured on their local ABC news station in Little Rock tonight.