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Welcome to Stanton

Our wrong turn earlier in the day didn’t really set us back significantly.  Apparently all roads lead to Stanton.  Okay, that’s a total exaggeration, but most of the rougher roads in the area tend to converge at some point because there’s only so many ways to get out of the area.  So we did eventually find ourselves in Stanton.  It was disappointing.  Stanton used to be a mining town.  It was purchased by the Lost Duchman’s Mining Association (yes, there is such an organization) and the remaining 3 buildings in town were refurbished.  Too much, in my opinion.  It didn’t really make for any great photos.  The LDMA uses the “town” as a base of operations for miners wanting to stake claims in the area, so it serves as a large campground.  Yes, people still go out and mine for gold.  It’s probably more of a hobby than a way to make a living.  We passed a couple of people that I would have loved to photograph, but I’m not quite ballsy enough yet to go up to total strangers and ask.

As we got closer to Stanton we passed a number of people on ATV’s.  Some looked like normal people just out for a day of fun and some looked like they spent waaay too much time out in the desert.  We also passed a number of campers.  It really boggles my mind that people will attempt to navigate the road in a camper.  I was having some white knuckle moments in an Xterra. But I guess if you really want to get away from it all… At any rate, we waved at everyone we passed and pulled over whenever we met a large oncoming vehicle.  When you are out in the desert, you want everyone to be your friend.  You never know when you might get stuck somewhere and need help.  Plus everyone in AZ is armed and you really don’t want to end up as a bullet riddled skeleton in a dry wash.

Despite my general disappointment with Stanton, I did get a few detail shots that I think are okay.

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Please Close Gate

While we didn’t do any off-roading during our little journey on Tuesday, I think it might have been easier if we had.  Just driving across the desert floor would have made for a much smoother ride than the kidney busting road we were traveling.  I didn’t take any photos of the really rough parts, mostly because it would have made for a boring image, but I did get one nice shot that gives you a little bit of a feel for our drive.

Yes, that dirt at the bottom is the road.  And as I mentioned, this was not a particularly rugged section.  The Arizona Highways guide I was attempting to follow mentioned that we would pass through two gates during this section of the road.  It kindly reminded us to close the gates after passing through.  The gate was not what I was expecting.  I took this photo of my husband holding the gate after he opened it.  Click on the photo to read the sign.

It should really read “Please Close Sticks and Wire” but I guess that would make the sign too long.  We also passed a little sign that read “Miner’s Creek.”  It overlooked a dry wash that probably hadn’t seen water in 50 years.  I guess truth in advertising doesn’t carry much weight in the desert.

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What’s the Right Way?

Despite my careful study of Google maps and having a detailed set of directions courtesy of Arizona Highways (including mileage markers) we made a wrong turn somewhere on our drive yesterday.  We stopped at an overlook for Box Canyon on the Hassayampa River (just a trickle this time of year) and according to the directions were supposed to make a left turn .2 miles after leaving the overlook area.  Sure.  Only problem was the closest thing that vaguely resembled a road bore the name of Stanton Hall Road according to our GPS.  AZ Highways told us to turn on Octave-Stanton Road.  Yikes.  So we took the turn, which turned out to be wrong, but more about that later.

I took a few photos at the Box Canyon overlook.  As is my norm, I tried both horizontal and vertical compositions of the scene.  Here’s the first one:

It’s okay, but I felt like there was a little too much scrub on the left side and too much dark shade from the canyon wall on the right side.  Plus I liked the dying saguaro in the lower right corner and wanted to show more of it.  So I tried a vertical composition from a slightly different angle.

I think that works better.  It’s ironic because most classic landscape photography tends to be a horizontal orientation and yet I usually find more interesting compositions when I shoot vertically.  I guess it’s my skewed perspective.

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Big Day Out

As an antidote to my recent bout of angst, we took a little road trip today.  The weather was perfect at 65 and sunny.  The timing was even more perfect, as there is a cold front rolling in tonight and Phoenix is heading for a round of nasty weather.  Of course in Phoenix that means low 50’s and cloudy/rainy.  There are major weather alerts regarding potential freezing temperatures at night.  There will also be snow in the high country, starting around 4000 feet.  The first forecast over 60 degrees is on January 8th.  So a relatively cold start to our New Year in the desert.  Looks like I might be logging a lot of computer time in the next 10 days.

All the more reason it was good to get out and enjoy the sunshine, as well as take a few new photos.  I would hate to break my New Year’s resolution before the year had even officially started.  Since we now have an appropriate vehicle for traveling some of Arizona’s more rugged country, we planned a route that would take us on a high clearance vehicle road.  Our official destination was a small mining camp in Stanton.  The rugged part started 5 miles north of Wickenburg, about an hour’s drive from Phoenix.

We stopped for gas and food in Wickenburg and left the highway for a road appropriately named Scenic Loop.  It was definitely scenic, but it wasn’t much of a road.  It started out okay, no worse than some of the graded forest roads we’ve driven in passenger cars.  That didn’t last long.  We stopped at one of the relatively straight level stretches to take a few photos of the desert scenery.


This is pretty representative of the view during the first part of our drive.  I know the desert doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I find it incredibly beautiful.

Since I am planning to post at least one photo everyday for the next month, I thought I should take this opportunity to mention that clicking on the photos will bring up a larger version.  Some of them may be a little hard to see in the context of the blog.  Enjoy!

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New Year’s Resolution

I was experiencing some existential angst yesterday.  After getting through all of the stress and anxiety around Christmas and having my mom stay with us, I was left feeling lost and sad.  Oh Boo Hoo.  It was actually my first little freak out since leaving work at the end of May, so it was probably long over due.  Now I’m on to making plans and starting new projects.  I need to take more photos and I need to start going through some of my existing work with a more critical eye.  So I am resolving to post at least one photo a day from now through the end of January.  If I haven’t done anything new, then I will be digging something out of the archives.

I took very few photos on Christmas Eve.  There were a lot of people, the gift opening was a little chaotic and the lighting was poor.  I don’t like to use flash unless absolutely necessary, especially when photographing children.  Here’s one of a handful I deemed acceptable:

This is our goddaughter Sedona.  She’s growing out her bangs so they are constantly in her eyes.  Other than cropping the right side of the photo (she was centered in the original) this is right out of the camera.  I tried color correcting it to get a more natural look but then it lost the warmth and holiday glow.  This is the closest I’ve gotten to a natural smile from her, she’s a total poseur when the camera comes out.

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It’s Ho-Ho-Ho-ver

Hopefully everyone survived Christmas more or less intact. Holidays tend to wreak havoc – your mental health, relationships and digestive tract are all laid to waste. The enormous amount of stress and heightened expectations that surround the imperative to see so many people in such a short period of time is beyond exhausting.

My mom flew home yesterday after a four day visit. I received flak from a number of people for sending her home on Christmas Day. She wanted to keep her visit relatively short and we do our big family celebration on Christmas Eve. She normally spends Christmas Day by herself. It’s actually a great day to fly because the airports are much calmer than normal. She doesn’t fly much and I wanted to make the experience as stress free as possible for her. Flying has become a nightmare for even the most seasoned travelers, for someone who does it infrequently it’s a terrifying experience. The ticket agent at Delta was kind enough to give me a gate pass so I could walk her through security and get her seated right in front of her gate.

Of course I was probably more stressed out that she was. Until I knew she was safely home. One of her friends was kind enough to pick her up from the airport and then invited her over for dinner. Her neighbor had collected her mail and left it in her house along with a beautiful Poinsettia. So she’s in good hands.

Other than my trip to the airport, I spent the day at home with my husband. We made our big traditional Christmas Day breakfast and opened our stocking stuffers. I’m actually typing this on my iPad using my new wireless Apple keyboard. Now I can really use the iPad as a substitute for my laptop when we travel.

I was thinking now that the holidays are over, things will finally be getting back to normal. Then it occurred to me that I don’t really have a normal anymore. After a summer and fall packed with racing and the early part of winter spent getting our “vacation” home ready for visitors, I’m finally hitting a significant stretch without any firm plans. It’s sort of exciting but a little scary.

Make that a lot scary.

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It’s a Zoo

Last night I took my mom to see Zoo lights at the Phoenix Zoo.  Needless to say it was…wait for it… a zoo.  I have a vague recollection of going to it about 10 years ago and there were a reasonable number of people attending at that time.  Apparently it’s gotten a lot more popular.  The first sign of it being a bad idea was the lighted sign at the entrance to the zoo parking lot which stated that the lot was full and directed us to an overflow parking lot.  This was 30 minutes after it opened.  I should have just turned around and left right then.  But we had driven 20 minutes to get there, so we went to the overflow lot.  The second sign of it being a bad idea was the continuous stream of people coming out of the overflow lot.  In for a penny…

So we parked and followed the massive crowd.  It was a 10 minute walk to the zoo entrance and we were constantly dodging the slow moving crowd.  Why do people feel the need to walk five wide on a sidewalk?  The way some people reacted when we passed them you would have thought the line started at the parking lot exit.  Look buster, if you can’t move your fat butt any faster than that, you are going to get passed.  I’m not walking that slow.

There were two lines at the entrance.  One was for pre-paid and group admissions and one was for general admission.  I hadn’t bothered to buy advance tickets so we got in the general admission line.  It did move pretty fast and they had at least 8 ticket windows open, so we didn’t have to wait in line that long.  Of course it was just a massive throng of humanity when we finally got inside.  The lights were pretty but not spectacular and frankly any event where you spend most of your time trying to dodge slow moving zombies is just not my idea of a good time.  People become hopelessly stupid when they are part of a large crowd.  All rational thought seeps out and they just lumber around, not looking where they are going.  My mom had to cling tenaciously to the back of my jacket to keep us from getting separated.

The zoo has to make a fortune on this thing.  In addition to the $10 admission charge, they relentlessly hawked concessions and cheap plastic crap.  There are multiple activities for an additional fee – the Polar Slide, Wagon rides, Camel rides, etc.  Kids were having sugar and exhaustion fueled meltdowns at every turn.  On the plus side, events like this always validate my decision not to have children.  Getting out was almost worse because we were walking against the massive incoming surge.  I have sharp elbows and I am not afraid to use them people.

We got home, opened a bottle of wine, fired up the popcorn popper and put The Grinch (Jim Carrey version) in the Blu-ray player.  Now that’s Christmas.

Happy Holidays.  May Santa be good to you this year.

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The Eagle has Landed

I was downstairs pulling clothes out of the dryer when I heard my husband calling to me.  An eagle had landed at the top of a pine tree that was about a block away and just barely visible over our backyard neighbor’s roof.  An American Bald Eagle.  Even from this distance it was a pretty amazing sight.  We took turns observing it through binoculars for a few minutes.  I assumed it would soon fly off and so I went back down to the basement to finish retrieving the laundry.  When I got back upstairs it was still there.  When I finished putting away the laundry it was still there.  I was sort of kicking myself for not having the bulk of my camera equipment – it’s down in Phoenix where we are spending most of the winter.  Out of curiosity I checked the meager amount of gear I had left here and was amazed to find my 70-300mm zoom.  So I quickly attached it to one of my cameras and put in an SD card.  I went to the back of the house, where my husband was still watching the eagle through the binoculars.  I raised the camera and just before I could focus it, the eagle flew away.

I am not kidding.  It’s like the bird knew what I was doing.  It had sat perched at the top of that pine for at least 10-15 minutes, showing no signs of taking off until I happened to have a camera in my hand.  It’s not the first time a bird has given me the bird, so to speak.  It’s also not the first time we’ve seen a bald eagle in our neighborhood.  One day in January, we were backing the car out of the garage and my husband noticed that a flock of crows was making a tremendous racket overhead.  The cause for their consternation?  A bald eagle perched in our next door neighbor’s tree.  I did actually get a shot of that one, but it was barely dawn so the the eagle is out of focus and partially obscured by branches.  Oh well.

So our last full day in the tundra is marked by a big thrill and a little frustration.  Sort of a theme for the trip.  It’s been great to see friends and family but a drag dealing with the cold weather.  We were pushing to get a lot of house projects done before we left Phoenix, so by comparison our time here has been fairly restful.  I have freshly cut hair (still haven’t found a stylist in Phoenix) and I had my first massage in two months.  Tomorrow afternoon we fly back to the valley of the sun with my mom for our Christmas in the desert.  I am looking forward to putting on shorts and sandals again.  Six days here was enough white Christmas for me.

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What Was I Thinking

Phoenix had record high temperatures over the last two days.  Yesterday it was 82 degrees, easily topping the old record of 77 set back in 1939.  The high in Minneapolis yesterday was 6 degrees, about 20 below normal.  I should have taken that as a sign to stay in Arizona.  But against all common sense, we flew back to Minnesota today.  The day started out badly and went downhill from there.  The cab driver had trouble finding the expressway to take us to the airport.  Instead of taking the entrance ramp closest to our house (which he came within a block of) he drove to the next entrance ramp, which is tricky to find.  It’s named Camelback but they couldn’t actually build the ramps to enter and exit at Camelback, so the Northbound entrance is at Colter and the Southbound entrance is at Highland.  Confused yet?  He certainly was.  With the doubling back he had to do, the meter was over $9 before we got on the freeway.

Our flight was scheduled for 10:12 AM.  We arrived at the airport at 8:30 and were immediately told that our flight had been canceled ten minutes earlier, due to mechanical issues.  Shit.  So we got in the long line of people waiting to be re-booked.  While we were waiting, I dialed the 800 number for Delta (never hurts to hedge your bets).  When I got through on the phone, I was told we had already been re-booked on the 2:10 flight.  Double shit.  When we got to the front of the line, the ticket agent told us our seats were in row 8 and row 24.  Both middle seats.  Seriously?  Fortunately, she was able to get us closer together – row 8 and row 10.  Still both middle seats but one was in an exit row, so we might have leverage in getting someone to trade.  To sweeten the deal, she gave us five free drink tickets for the flight.  It always pays to be nice to the ticket agents.  She also recommended we try working with the gate agent to see if we could get seats together.

Now we have over four hours to kill.  So we camped out at the Starbucks, drinking coffee and reading until lunchtime.  After eating lunch, we go through the security checkpoint.  Fortunately, neither of us is selected for the “enhanced” screening aka the TSA grope.  A little before 1:00 I go to the gate agent to see if we can do better with the seat assignments.  He is just about to re-book us together in another row when he finds out the other agent has just booked a Dad with two kids there.  Bummer.  He does promise to keep an eye out for us.  So it’s back to waiting.

At 1:30 we queue up for the boarding call.  My husband gets called by the ticketing agent.  New boarding pass – the window next to my middle seat in the exit row.  SCORE!  So we don’t have to beg anyone to switch seats.  And we get to enjoy a glass of wine on Delta.  The flight was smooth and landed on time.  We have a theory that travel days that start out lousy usually end up pretty well and today definitely fit that pattern.  When we arrived at home the driveway was cleared and we had half and half in the refrigerator, so no compelling reason to go to the grocery store tonight.  Time to put up my feet and crack open the laptop.  So begins my six days of white Christmas.  Not that I’m counting.

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Syfy Original Movies

The Syfy channel premiered one of its original movies a few days ago.  The title was Ice Quake.  I think that tells you everything you need to know.  “Syfy original movie” is now my code phrase for anything that is total crap.  I guess the name change from Sci Fi to Syfy was the start of the shark jumping moment for the channel.  Speaking of shark, one of their other recent original movies is Sharktopus!  And yes, the exclamation point is part of the title.

Just for fun, I checked their website for other titles.  Here are a few – Alien Apocalypse, Android Apocalypse, Bone Eater, Dinocroc vs Supergator, Dinoshark, Never Cry Werewolf, Mega Snake, Monsterwolf, Monster Ark, Rock Monster, Mega Python vs. Gatoroid and well, you get the idea.  It makes you wonder if they use a random title generator.  Feed in monster, alien, shark, blood, apocalypse, wolf, dinosaur, etc.  Let ‘er spin and see what comes out.  You hope they have tongue firmly planted in cheek when deciding movie titles.

You’ve got to admire the efficiency, it must save a huge amount of time when script writing.  Giant shark/dinosaur/alien/wolf/freak weather phenomenon terrorizes a city/state/country/the entire planet.  Brave and plucky scientist/soldier/ordinary guy battles it while also fighting off bad guys/bureaucrats/stupid people who think nuking it is the only answer.  The real beauty is that you can watch the first and last ten minutes of the movie and pretty much figure out everything that happened in between.  Again, you have to admire the efficiency of it all.

This is just the inevitable conclusion of having too many TV channels and not enough original content.  On more than one occasion we’ve passed three different channels showing re-runs of the same series.  Channel surfing isn’t really possible anymore because by the time you get through all of the channels (on cable or satellite) the hour has changed and so have all of the shows.  Even without cable or satellite, there are still a tremendous amount of channels you can receive over the air with a decent antenna.  This is the route we went with the TV in our guest bedroom.  It seems a little ridiculous to pay a monthly charge to get a zillion channels on a TV that will rarely be watched.  After deleting all of the shopping, religious and Spanish language channels, it still receives 18.

Please pass the remote.