Sunday, April 3
Days of rest, blogging, birds . . .

Sunday: a day of rest, but then that seems to be pretty much all we’ve done since we got here and no complaints on my part.

We walked the perimeter of the lake and identified quite a few new trip birds in the process. Later, got even more while sitting at outside the trailer. So far, we’ve added to the list: lesser goldfinch, cardinal, yellow-headed blackbird, Say’s phoebe, great-tailed grackle, hooded oriole, ruddy duck, lesser scaup, white-winged dove, vermilion flycatcher, bufflehead, curve-billed thrasher, osprey, roadrunner, northern mockingbird, Abert’s towhee, black-chinned hummingbird, house finch, green-tailed towhee and Brewer’s sparrow. A pretty good list for hanging out and doing not much of anything. We’ve actually become relatively adept and identifying and enjoy it as something that can be done everywhere we go.We’ve placed a cut-off yogurt container under a nearby leaky faucet to make it easier for the birds to get a drink while dining at our feeders, although they are very adept at hanging upside down from the spigot in order to sip.

This morning, we wandered into town to sip coffee and send the travelogue from Burger King. The lady at the counter was very friendly. When she offered us free refills of “senior” coffee, Chris asked a pretty silly question: how did she know we were seniors? She just smiled and said, “It takes one to know one.”

Roper Lake is a nice little state park, one of those that was to close due to State budget cuts, but was saved by joint County, State and volunteer efforts. Seems there is less paid staffing and increased volunteerism and law enforcement by the County Sheriff’s office.

The sites all have water and electric hookups for RVs and nice ramadas with picnic tables. There is substantial day use of the hot spring and lake by local folks in addition to the 38 RVers. Because there are no sewer hookups, it is necessary to use the bathrooms and showers provided and they are kept up very nicely. This is our fourth stay here and probably not the last, although we have not been here this late in the season before. It has been hot, of course, but not awful. Today seems to be staying a bit cooler - breezy, in the 80s, and the nights always cool off substantially. And if one gets too warm, there’s always that lake to jump into.

It has been kinda buggy in the evenings - the gnats and mosquitoes drove us indoors a couple of times; that was not a problem when we were here earlier in the season.

Kachina Spa . . .

Reason enough to drive down here, I visited Kachina Spa yesterday for the usual incredible experience they offer. First is a 15-minute soak in the 108-degree mineral water flowing through a private Roman-style tiled room. Following that was an hour-long deep-tissue massage (Leann was my therapist this time), another soak in the water and polished off with a sweat-wrap and 15 minutes of reflexology. The word bliss does not convey.

Whilst all that was occurring, I had a nice chat with Leann, a Safford native who is raising her 10-year-old granddaughter. A nice lady and a great therapist, she has endured some incredibly rough territory and come through it bitterless.

Safford natives and ancestors . . .On the subject of Safford natives, we made a pilgrimage to the Graham County cemetery to clean family graves and leave flowers. My sister-in-law Sharon is buried there as are her ancestors, my niece Shannon’s forebears. Peter O. Peterson, his wife Mary Anderson and their daughter Mary Peterson Brown were Mormon pioneers in this valley, arriving here in 1882. Plaques to that effect have been added to their gravestones since we were here last. Besides those ancestors, we also left flowers for Shannon’s grandmother Thelma Brown and her cousin Kaci Forte.The graveyard is atop a mesa with 360-degree mountain views, but still has a desolate feel to it. Peter Peterson’s name is one of those inscribed on the gatepost.

Farming, bubonic plague . . .

Right now, this whole region seems fairly desolate, obviously not having gotten a fraction of the ample moisture that winter brought to the north part of the state. Besides the unfortunate winter kill here, all is sere brown vegetation except in the drainages where the cottonwoods, willows and tamarisk provide green ribbons across the valleys.

Although farming is much reduced hereabouts, there remain fairly extensive irrigated acreages. I think much of this land is planted to cotton; the fields have been disked, furrowed and are now having their first irrigation. Some of the water comes from the Gila River and some is groundwater that is pumped out. I wonder if a dearth of both has curtailed much of the cultivation.
On the way from the graveyard, we photographed one of the odder houses I’ve ever seen. It appears to have originally been a very tall cylindrical water tank and now sports windows, doors and decks with railings. Clever, I suppose, but not terribly attractive.Earlier when it was too hot to be bustling around, we did some genealogy work with a book we purchased long ago but had yet to peruse. Its subject is the history of the Swiss Happes/Hoppes family. One sobering section concerned our ancestors, Anna Froelich and Peter Hoppes. Both of them perished in 1611 along with two of their three children - all from bubonic plague. The family’s only survivor was infant Joachim, less than one year old. The province where they lived lost nearly half its population within three months - unimaginable.

Hummingbirds, root beer, more . . .

It took a while for the hummingbirds to find our feeder but now that they have, there is the typical warfare with their kind. Chris wondered why hummingbird feeders even have multiple feeding stations; they are seldom used simultaneously as the wee ones defend their territory.

Yesterday afternoon was topped by root beer floats and popcorn; what more could a person want? Oh yes, while online at Burger King, I rediscovered the first name of the man from Fort Thomas who organized the first Lions Club - he was Melvin Jones, born at that frontier outpost as the son of a U.S. Army captain.

Quote for the day (from Newton via Mary Morrisey): “If I have seen further, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.” Here’s to all those who came before.

Monday, April 4
Dankworth Pond . . .

Yesterday afternoon when I was finally able to tear myself away from my book (I’m reading Barbara Kingsolver’s fascinating “The Poisonwood Bible”), Chris agreed to forego any more music work (he was rewriting some of his choral pieces to accommodate a soloist) and we hied ourselves over to Dankworth Pond. It is an outlier of Roper Lake Park, a lovely little place. A 15-acre water catchment, Dankworth was built to be a fish hatchery for rearing catfish. It has grown up with cattails choking most of its perimeter and we learned that it has not had fish stocked since a dieoff caused by algae build-up.

There is a 1.75-mile trail around the pond, along the seasonal stream that escapes it and up onto a nearby mesa. We decided that our late-afternoon visit was just right for setting off and so we did, with balmy temps and a nice breeze. It didn’t seem as far as the sign proclaimed (I usually think it’s much farther) and we enjoyed our jaunt thoroughly.

As we approached the parking lot, we were met by the resident volunteer, Buddy, an 82-year-old veteran. He has lived in a tiny RV on the premises for six years, but has been told he must leave by the end of May; seems someone in the “system” has decided he has been there too long.

Buddy doesn’t know where he will go, but says he has appointments at the VA Medical Center in Tucson so needs to remain in the area for medical care. This is how we treat our elders and our veterans. I wonder if anyone will have an idea for him . . . I am more than a little outraged that this gentle man would be treated thus.

A real treat for last night’s appetizer: bread dipped in olive oil from Queen Creek Olive Mill and mellow delicious balsamic vinegar from Olive U Naturally in Prescott’s Bashford Courts. The vinegar was a gift from cousin Eva Miller from Missouri and is it ever wonderful - thank you, Eva. We purchased the olive oil at the mill when we visited that interesting place last year with Barb and Bud.

New birds are Brewer’s blackbird, violet-green swallow, barn swallow and red-tailed hawk.