Phoenix

It was a great conference. It was a great visit with Ken. We loved the conference facility.

But we’ve moved on. We drove from south Phoenix, through heavy traffic on a Friday afternoon, and stopped on the north side of Phoenix at Pioneer RV Park. Easy in, easy out, pull through site. We've been here before. Had a visit with brother David here three years ago.

Gamble's quail, curve billed thrasher, harris's hawks, three kinds of doves, gila woodpeckers, cactus wrens, northern cardinals, and a new bird: lucy's warbler.

One day of driving tomorrow, and we’ll be in Cortez.

Wild horse resort

and they were soo nice to Annie too.

Wild horse resort

Phoenix

A long day of class sessions. A late dinner. An even later exercise, but got a wonderful desert coyote pack serenade along with the late evening swallows and lesser nighthawks after sunset.

A half day of technology, gadget, and digital practice sessions tomorrow and we’re done with the CPE for the week.

Louisville

In our continuing effort to divest ourselves of some colorado property, we have had the trailer removed from the lot behind our house.

The demo guy broke away all the bricks and concrete, looked underneath, and found the axles and wheels intact. Forty-five years after it was installed, a little air in the tires and it was good to go. He hauled it out to Longmont and salvaged it. Back the next day with some dirt and a bobcat, and the lot is done. We’ve got the fence scheduled to go up later this month.

Two nights ago

Two nights ago, the low temperature was twenty-two degrees. Tonight, the low will be eighty.

What a difference a little distance makes. We left Creede, Colorado at nearly nine thousand feet, and, over the course of two days, descended south to Phoenix. Easy driving, we took a looping route, no mountain passes, by following the Rio Grande, east to the San Luis Valley, then out the south end of the valley into New Mexico, picking up the Interstate at Santa Fe, abandoning the Rio Grande at Albuquerque, and heading west on Interstate 40. We spent the night at Gallup. Got Cassin’s kingbirds there. Today, we continued west to Flagstaff, still at altitude, seven thousand feet, then did the big drop to Phoenix at about fifteen hundred.

Now we’re suffering separation anxiety, having plugged the motorhome in at an RV Park and left it in favor of the conference hotel. It’s a nice room here at the Wild Horse Pass Resort in Chandler. It looks out over a recreated Gila River, complete with complimentary riverboats that cruise past every fifteen minutes. Got a Gamble’s quail and a Verdin. Pet friendly, so Annie can enjoy this with us.

The conference starts tomorrow.

Creede

Got in a traffic jam today, just as we entered town. A fishing guide, pulling a drift boat on a trailer, had pulled his truck alongside another truck to roll down the window and talk.

We had to drive around.