Only a month after returning from a week at our Wyoming ranch, we headed out for another week-long vacation at our remote Arizona cabin. Leslie was in need of more time away from her stressful job, and I'm always ready to go to either of our places. So we flew out to Phoenix. After a long layover in Phoenix, we finally got into Show Low. It was the end of a long day of traveling, but tire issues with the truck prevented a smooth start to the vacation. The problem was soon sorted out and we were on our way to a great week of mostly exploring, sight-seeing and relaxing, with a bit of painting and astrophotography thrown in.

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We had a six hour layover in Phoenix before our flight to Show Low. Instead of just hanging out in the airport all day, we decided to go exploring. We got an Uber and headed for the Desert Botanical Gardens. We both wanted to see it. We spent much of the day there. It was a perfect day for it too. Somewhat cool and overcast. Not the usual oppressive Phoenix heat.

The place is huge, and very interesting. Even though we were there for a good part of the day, we didn't see all of it. We had fun. We'll have to go back again some time.

A crowned saguaro at the Desert Botanical Gardens. They set up areas of different life zones in the gardens by varying the amount of water. The desert was easy enough, just no additional water over what nature provides. However, by adding extra water they are able to simulate higher altitude life zones in other areas of the gardens. An easy walk can take you from the desert basin seemingly up into the mountains.

We arrived at the Show Low airport in early evening. We went out to the long term parking lot where I had left my Tacoma truck parked back in June, and found it with two flat tires. Bummer. Fortunately I always carry Fix-A-Flat and a little 12V air pump in the truck for just such emergencies. I've had several flats far from civilization before. We were in town this time though. We considered just calling AAA, but I figured I could self-rescue us before a tow truck could get to the airport. Besides, it was late. All the repair shops were closed, and we'd be without a vehicle in a tiny town without Uber until the next day at least.

One tire was flat as a fritter and down on the rim. The other was not quite totally flat. I used the Fix-A-Flat on the totally flat tire, and topped it off with the air pump. I just pumped up the almost flat tire. I figured if it hadn't gone totally flat in the not quite four months the truck had been parked, then it wouldn't go flat before I could get it fixed. In less than an hour we were on the road. I stopped at a gas station after leaving the airport and topped off the tires with their pump, and bought more Fix-A-Flat just in case we found one of the tires flat in the morning. Then we went out for dinner and checked into a motel for the night.

The next morning the tires were still inflated. In the light of day I could see the soft tire had a big nail in it. Couldn't see anything obviously wrong with the one that went totally flat. Probably punctured by another nail but it pulled out and just left a hole. Anyway, the tires were behaving for now. So we went on our way and headed out of town to the cabin after making an appointment with a very busy tire shop to get them patched in a couple of days.

A couple of days later, after setting up housekeeping in the cabin, and getting the truck tires fixed, we went on a day-long roadtrip.

Leslie wanted to see Wupatki National Monument northeast of Flagstaff, and "The Corner" in Winslow. Plus she wanted to cruise part of old Route 66. So I plotted out a drive that would take us past some other interesting sights I knew of as well, and make a full day of it. I knew we would be passing by some great rock shops, Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon and Sunset Crater. So they all got put on the itinerary. Unfortunately we didn't get to see "The Corner" because a lot of downtown Winslow was shut down for some special event. We'll have to catch that next time. We also skipped the rock shops because we ran out of time and didn't get back until way late. Otherwise it was an amazing day.

Our first stop after being skunked in Winslow was Meteor Crater. I've been there several times before, but it was a first for Leslie. I think she was impressed.

It's been many years since I was last at Meteor Crater, in spite of it being relatively close to the Arizona property. I guess I need to get out more. I was surprised when we arrived to find the visitor center and museum completely redone from what I remember. The big hole in the ground was the same though. All the stairs to climb up and down to the different observation platforms were a good warmup for what was ahead of us at Walnut Canyon.

Our next stop was Walnut Canyon National Monument. Lesle was really eager to see it once I told her about it. 800 or so years ago the Sinagua people built cliff dwellings down in the sides of the rugged canyon. There are a lot of steps to get down to the trail to see them up close. There are 240 steps down to the main trail, and more steps as the trail meanders up and down the cliff faces to access the ruins of the dwellings. all together there are over 300 steps. The sign at the top says "Going Down is Optional But Coming Back Up is Manditory!" Again, I'd been here before, but it was when I was much younger. Coming back up was quite the test of my old and creaky knees. It was a bit of a test for Leslie's sea level adapted and asthma prone lungs too, but we both made it down and back up.

Leslie was absolutely amazed by the ruins of the cliff dwellings. She had a great time exploring them and taking photos. This was just a warmup though for what was to come once we got to Wupatki National Monument.

I knew we'd have to pass close by Sunset Crater volcano on the way to Wupatki National Monument, so it was a no-brainer to divert through on the way.

Until Mt. Saint Helens blew up in 1980, this was the most recently active volcano in the southern 48 states. It first erupted around 800 years ago. After several years of activity it became extinct. In the short time it was active it built a huge cinder cone, flooded a large area with lava and covered much of northern Arizona with ash and cinders.

Sunset Crater gets its name from the colorful red-orange cinders at the top of the cinder cone. It seems to be perpetually bathed in sunset light.

Leslie was fascinated by the rough and rugged lava floes and the colorful cinders. We spent a while here hiking around and taking pictures. I'd been here before several times, but not for some years. This place has changed too since my last visit. It seems that the parking lots have gotten larger and more toilets have been installed to accommodate more tourists. It was very crowded.

Our last stop on this day-long, magical mystery tour was Wupatki National Monument. Here the Sinagua people built a variety of huge pueblo buildings. Many are still in an amazing state of preservation after about 800 years of abandonment. Again, I'd been here before. Leslie though had never been, and was absolutely amazed by it all. She wanted to see each and every accessible ruin and take lots of pictures. We drove and hiked out to every one we could before the sun set. It was a fascinating tour, and a good time.

This is the first pueblo we stopped at. It is named Wukoki. The park service Built steps up to the top and visitors are allowed to walk around on the upper level.

Here is a photo of Leslie on the upper plaza of Wukoki. She was having a ball. She loves archaeological stuff as much as I do.

Here is a view of the main Wupatki Pueblo building. We spent a long time here. We walked all the paths through the ruins and down to the big kiva, the ballcourt and the blow hole. The self-guided tour is just fascinating. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.

We stopped at several other pueblo ruins too. Our final stop was here at the box Canyon Dwellings. Here we got to visit three different sites within fairly easy walking distance of each other. Can you spot all three ruins? There is actually a fourth, or at least one more anyway. There could be dozens hidden in the canyons around here. The park service seemed to be in the process of building a new path to another ruin nearby.

By the time we left Wupatki the sun was setting behind the San Francisco Peaks to the west. We had a long drive back to the cabin. We stopped for dinner after dark in Winslow on the way, and arrived back at the cabin quite late, but it was a fun day.

This trip didn't have a lot of chores planned for it. It was primarily a vacation. Leslie needed a break from her job bad. One chore we did want to do though was paint the new addition I put on the cabin on my last visit. Last time I enclosed the front porch and made a kitchen out of it. We both wanted to get some paint on it to preserve it. It was only going to take the morning to do, so we tackled it early. Here is a shot of the addition before painting.

Here is an "action shot" of me up the ladder brushing in the detail work up high. Leslie did the bulk of the rolling, while I did the caulking and brushing. I don't have any photos of Leslie helping with the painting. The only clothes she had with her that she was willing to risk getting paint on were her pajamas, and she forbade me from photographing her in them.

Now the whole cabin is painted. It all matches, well except for where rain runoff has splatted red mud along the base of the previously painted areas. I'm sure it will only take a few good storms to make the whole cabin uniform in that respect.

Anyway, it was a quick and easy job, and our teamwork knocked it out by noonish. Then we had the rest of the day to relax and explore.

Marriage has brought changes to my old bachelor cabin. Ladies unmentionables hanging on a tree to dry is a new sight there. The cabin has also benefited from Leslie's "woman's touch." It's quite a bit more civilized there these days. The shower room I built a year or so ago was her idea. I'd had the idea of enclosing the front porch to make more room inside the cabin for years, but the regular presence of Leslie prompted me to finally do it.

There have been some civilizing interior changes to the cabin as well. The bed platform was enlarged to accommodate a queen size bed. The old air mattress has been replaced with a memory foam mattress. The interior has been re-arranged to be roomier and more functional after the addition was put on. We also picked up some second or third hand chests of drawers to better organize and store things inside.

I used to tell people that staying in my remote Arizona cabin was half a step above tent camping. These days though it is getting downright civilized and gentrified. It's more like "glamping" now.

One day we decided to head up into the mountains in search of cool, clear air and fall colors. I loaded chairs and a table and a cooler into the truck and we drove up to one of my favorite areas of the White Mountains. After we found a nice spot away from the campers, I set up everything. Leslie looked at it and said, "Now that's a proper picnic." We sat in the shade of some aspen and fir trees and had lunch while listening to the sounds of the forest. It was great.

After our picnic lunch we decided to go on a little hike. We crossed a meadow toward a stand of aspens that were just beginning to change into their fall colors. Then we passed into the thick woods and sort of meandered around looking at nature in the raw. I kept an eye on the sun so as to know the direction back so we wouldn't get lost in the thick woods.

This is an area where I have frequently seen herds of elk. We were hopping so spot some. There was plenty of fresh elk poop all over the place, but we never caught sight of any of them on this trip.

We walked for quite a while in the woods. Then we found a huge fallen pine tree trunk in a grove of aspens. We sat down on the fallen log for a while and just contemplated how beautiful it all was, while listening to woodpeckers somewhere up in the canopy.

It was a great day up in the mountains.

Naturally while we were there I indulged in my hobby of astrophotography. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked. I had a new telescope mount and a new camera with me this time. The first clear night was mostly just spent getting everything set up, aligned, focused and calibrated, and learning the ins and outs of the new equipment.

The next clear night I managed to get a few images. This is one of them. It is a stack of forty 30 second exposures of the Trifid Nebula. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Here is a shot of the eastern Veil Nebula. It is another stack of 30 second exposures. Sixty this time.

Here is a shot of the western Veil Nebula. It is another stack of sixty 30 second exposures.

Here is a shot of the Swan Nebula. It is a stack of forty 30 second exposures.

Leslie got bitten by the astrophotography bug too. She is lately obsessed with Photographing the Milkyway. Here is one of her photos. Not bad for a beginner.

Unfortunately the second clear night was our last opportunity for astrophotography. The day of our big roadtrip we arrived back at the cabin very late and very tired. Every evening after that was plagued by clouds. The weather was changing. A storm front was coming.

Our last morning at the cabin dawned cloudy and with wild sunrise colors. We went outside to take pictures of the wild colors in the east. The phrase, "Red sky in morning, sailor's warning" came to mind I turned around to face west and sure enough, here came the rain.

Looking West a red rainbow ushered in the rain. We spent a soggy day packing up between showers. We spent the night back in Show Low so we could catch the morning flight back to Phoenix and our connecting Southwest flight back home. We were lucky. We got home just two days before Southwest had a massive meltdown and cancelled thousands of flights. There were already signs all wasn't well though. Our flight was delayed because of no flight crew and being over-sold. We took off quite late, but made up a lot of time in the air. We only got in a little late. Thus ended a great vacation.