I started to call it PIGS!....

but didn't want to malign an animal that's supposedly capable of innumerable orgasms and purportedly smarter than horses.

The PARKING AREA is on the eastbound side of Interstate 8 between Gila Bend and Tucson. The tarmac is sticky (urine? ju-ju bees?) and the smell was so strong I stopped to rinse the soles of my boots.

A statement about lack of services?

Driving through Canada in 2010 it was always a pleasant surprise to see a porta-potty and trash can in a remote place. At one large pullout there was a garbage can but no toilet. Next to the dumpster someone had left a large turd. Given the cleanliness of the ones I used, I interpreted the placement, out in the open and impossible to miss, as a comment on the lack of facilities. 

And after traveling to Palmer, Alaska and then back through the Yukon again, I decided the Canadian sense of humor is, in general, FAR more sophisticated than Americans'. 

KEYSTONE: neatly packaged

But you can tell by the careful packaging above, we're trying.

2, December, 2021 -  7:30 am Arizona Time

Today I emailed the Arizona Department of Transportation and left messages at the offices of Representatives Paul Gosar, Greg Stanton and spoke with one of Representative Lesko's staff. Hopefully, SOMEONE can do something.

Unbearable Lightness of Being

A fav pleasure is browsing the FOR SALE books at libraries and thrift stores. I'm not much given to fiction but his syntax drew me in. Plus, there's an astounding amount of philosophizing. 

Didjuh hear the rumor that C.G. Jung coined the term synchronicity? It's been an integral in my life.

 

Bouse, Arizona

One could hope this magnificent dragon was placed "just so" for public appreciation.

Camp that evening was a few miles south of Sore Finger Road; Sore Finger having become crowded during the day when several vehicles and trailers moved in about a mile down the way.

No sidewinders here

The weather was just right for poached eggs

Aubergine

In our last trip together she showed me how to poach eggs; it seemed a bit beyond my abilities.

Establishment Shot

So when this purple pan, poised on the top shelf in a Food City somewhere in Arizona, threw itself from the heights I was delighted to find it a poacher, Farberware, and a mere $14.00. I took it home.

My first attempt...somewhat less than perfection.

But what FORM! Such tuMESCence!

Beethoven's 5th - von Karajan &

I had good signal and came upon this incredible move-video. The credits say the Vienna Philharmonic, but the film says the Berlin Philharmonic.

Watch for his grimace of equisi-ttude near the end.

Another bloggers insights into the film.

A bit more about Henri-Georges Clouzot.

A Christie's list of art owned by the Clouzot's to be auctioned. It includes some insight into the lives of Henri-Georges &  Ines  Clouzot. (It may take a minute to load)

The hotel mentioned in the above list of art.

Leave-taking

 

Bannock

Decades ago, enroute to Alaska, I discovered the Canadian Boy Scouts recipe for bannock. 

It requires proper alignment of the planets. That's it in the upper left.

 

Alabama Hills - Cacti & Clouds

 

Alabama Hills - Pond

 

Alabama Hills

Early Light

 

Sunset

3.5 Days

 

Her Photos

Roadside Attraction

 Out there, where the bajadas slope.  

On a long incline some 20 miles or so east of Yucca Valley...

 

Puddles & Flow, Awwrk!

The Glint off Sta'b'd

North of Black Canyon City

Descending Interstate 17 from Camp Verde toward Phoenix, the flora changes dramaticly.

Catclaw dominates in the Camp Verde area. And though the varieties are interesting, they ALL have "wait-a-bit" thorns that makes cross-country travel impossible without a machete.

Further south beavertail cactus and yucca become more common. Interspersed between the larger plants, small barrel cactuses smile up from their family groupings. There're even a few psuedo-trees.

Beavertail....spreadin' out phar & wyd.

Welcoming Neighbor

Out for an amble, the first in over a week, I was, on my way back, greeted by a neighbor.

I've always anthropomorphized, it made sense given the behaviors I've seen. And now, with Monica Gagliano having proved that plants can communicate, recognition of tarantulas seems all the more appropriate.

Dr. Gagliano -- 2018 Bioneers Conference

Moon Sliver

This is the thinnest I'VE ever seen.

Sedona

Sun comes up and caresses the magnificent bluffs south of Sedona. Red sandstone bases with creamy white tops...the mornings and evenings are visual feasts.

I woke at 5:45 from a dream of terrible mundanity inspired, I surmise, by the aweful suburb of nomads I'm surrounded by.

Daly City

Forest Rd 525 runs north-south along the front face of the edifice and combined with the PERFECT weather, has drawn a multitude of "seasonal visitors" and transients like myself. 

I drove in 6 miles from highway 89A b4 finding an empty spot. I hadn't been in place ten minutes when a couple (no DOG, thank god) in a Dodge Caravan (note tone dripping with disdain), pulled into the spot next door, a mere 100 ft away. Fortunately, I was still packed, and left.

The goddess smiled, as she has for most of my life when looking for home, and my next spot was only big enough for one. But being next to the confluence of 525 & 525D (No harm in telling, you can't POSSIBLY detract), I got to see all the traffic, including oxidized-pink jeeps bulging under their load of beaming tourists hanging from the roll bars. 

Outbound...Listing to Starb'd

Sated on the repast of another glorious sunset, they roared by on their way back to their barn. 

From behemoth-sized buses to dilapidated RVs to CRVs -- crowded in amidst the vast ubiquity of Toyota Tundras -- the populous is WAY too dense. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see no defecatoory evidence of previous inhabitation.

Cottonwood Flora

Today was the 1st (since the accident) I had the energy to amble about.

Naught much exciting. One has to stop periodically to pluck the catclaw from one's legs; the thorns, embedded in the skin, break off from the plant Some people might think of wearing pants, but I eschew such provincial measures.

There're several varieties (of catclaw). These, there're LOTS of each, are laden with pods about an inch long.

 

Then there's a wild honeysuckle. Well, you know, its smell, though faint, is distinctly honeysuckle-esque. So, it COULD be honeysuckle.

And then there was this...covered with fuzzies.

Catclaw...far & wide.

It sure was nice to get up and move again.