Celebrating the Dance : Time Is Flying

I cannot believe it has been almost two weeks since I wrote a post. What is it about time that as we get older it seems to pick up speed. My mother mentioned it more then once over the years but I never really understood what she meant until our children began having children and Tom retired. When our children were really little, before they started school, time seemed a lot slower and I believe because we were a little older when we became parents we did savor the moments. Then they started school and it seemed like some days needed more hours especially when the activity list was filled to the brim. It was as though we blinked and they were graduating. Now though time is simply flying.

I know we enjoyed a couple of happy hours, took a ride by the nuclear generating plant (I wanted a closer view of the steam that generates the white fluffy clouds we occasionally see building then floating by.), did some wine tasting, I enjoyed a pedicure, Tom had his hair cut, and we did some shopping for a few groceries. Took a ride to explore the area nearby and get a closer look at Saddle Mountain. Of course, there has been cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry. I have participated in a couple of the craft classes offered here and spent some time crocheting. Tom checked out their rock shop and is thinking of going and trying his hand at some rock polishing. We have watched a few sunsets and Tom enjoyed a Black Jack Casino Night over in the game room.

This retirement "snowbirding" thing is really fun when you just sit back and enjoy the "ride". We have found it is important to just let the days unfold. I am not to saying we do not make some plans because we do. What I am saying is we do not stress if they do not work out as planned. We have decided it is not about seeing this and doing that it is more important to enjoy the moments and what will be will be.

So below I am adding pictures with captions from the last couple of weeks.

Looking towards the North and East as the sun set in the West
on January 8th.

Palo Verda Nuclear Generating Station
The big fluffy white cloud generators.

Some days we see big fluffy clouds.
This is from I 10.

You can see one of the clouds floating near the bottom
just left of the center. I took this from the road going into the
Saddle Mountain RV Park

January 12th, finally, I was able to capture a couple of pictures
of a roadrunner. They are fast I could not keep up.

We also managed to put together a contact card
and print it off.

Looking towards the East, out our back window, as the
sun set on the 12th.

It was a small group at the Wine Tasting on the 13th.
It was still enjoyable and the conversation lively.

Driving "home" on the 14th.
Heading West on I 10 as the sun set.

Took these through the front windshield as we drove.
(Yes, the windshield needed cleaning.)

From the road outside the RV Park.

From our Site. It was a beautiful Sunset.

January 16th we had dinner at the Saddle Mountain Brewing Company. Also, did some beer tasting which Tom definitely enjoyed and watched the Packers/Cardinals' game which he did not enjoy the end of. The food was good and except for the end of the game it was a nice evening. (For some reason I never think to take pictures when we go out to eat.)

This is our youngest grandchild, Nathaniel Thomas.
On Sunday, January 17th, he celebrated his first birthday.

On the 18th we decide to take a ride down Courthouse Rd.

When we crossed Harquahala Valley Rd it became Centennial Rd.

We could see mountains in the
distance and decided to see how
close the road would come to
the mountains.

According to the sign post we had about
4 more miles before the end of the road.
We could see the water coming in from
the left swirling and leaving on the same
side. Decided to turn around and not take
a chance of getting bogged down.

This fence down Centennial Rd looked to be made up
entirely of water pipes.

On our ride we saw several green fields.

Some fields which looked ready for planting.

This field, on Buckeye Rd off of Harquahala Valley Rd,
had long rows covered in what looked like plastic.

We saw quite a few of these along Buckeye Rd.
Always interesting what you find down country roads.

Backtracking East on Courthouse Rd.
We took a trail off into the BLM land.

This was posted on the board.

A few of the Saguaros we passed.
We also saw several places used as campsites.

Our turn around point. We could see the road went right up into
the mountains and with a jeep or ATV that is what we would
have done but with a truck it was time to turn around.

I was interested in what the black rocks we could see when riding by the mountains in the area are. So I did some research and this is what I found out.

About 40 miles (65 km.) west of Phoenix to the south of Interstate 10 at Tonopah are a pair of volcanic mountains linked by a saddle of lower hills. The more dramatic western peak is Saddle Mountain. It is composed of lighter-colored lava, tuff and rhyolite. The eastern peaks are nearly black basaltic lava of Quaternary Age. The Bureau of Land Management controls the major portions but there are a number of private holdings surrounding the mountains and there are quite a few mining claims (none of which appear to be active).