HEAT!

Last night at dinner I asked Trish, 'What's the highest outdoor temperature you've ever experienced?"  She wasn't sure but guessed that current high temps (108-115) in LHC were likely the highest.  They are certainly the highest I've ever 'enjoyed'.
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That said, I'm actually enjoying them more than I anticipated.  Well ......... okay, maybe tolerating them better than I anticipated is more accurate.  It's that dry heat thing, don't you know.  'Dry heat' is something of an ongoing joke, oft-mentioned with a dash of sarcasm.  But, I'm here to tell you, it's real.
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As you know, heat index reports the 'feels like' temp, based on actual temps, humidity levels and, I suspect, a bit of smoke and a mirror.  LHC is very dry - often dryer than Death Valley - and the heat index is typically 5-7 points below actual temps.  More humid parts of the country boast (?) heat indexes that can be 20+ points higher than actual temps.  We hit several such places in our summer travels (OK was the worst) and you know what?  You can have 'em.  All of 'em.
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Back to the original question, what's your personal high?  The high for this coming Thursday in LHC is supposed to be 119: that'll be a new record for us.  After considerable soul searching, deep thinking and internal debate, I've decided that I will not aspire to higher achievements in this particular field of endeavor.

Recap

For those into meaningless statistics and trivia, I offer this recap of our summer travels.  Number of:

1. States we hit: 23

2. Provinces: 5

3. Days: 80

4. Miles we towed the trailer: 8719

5. Miles we put on the pickup: 11263

Comments:

1.  Halifax, NS was my favorite place in Canada.

2.  Canada touring is spendy.  We've now seen the places that interest us, doubt we'll visit again, with the possible exception of Vancouver and Victoria.

3.  Generally speaking, Canadian folks seem louder and more raucous than their neighbors to the south - and less privacy conscious.

4.  Lake Powell is fantastic: put it on your 'must do' list.

5.  This blog is ongoing.  Stay tuned.

Day Trip

Finally, after 10 days of cooling our heals, we were ready to go sightseeing again.  You get kinda road weary after 10000 miles in the saddle.  Today, we did a day trip loop and viewed 3 nearby national monuments.

Montezuma's Castle N M.  Trust me, Montezuma had nothing to do with it.  Some confused early settler thought that Aztecs lived here.  He/she was 1000+ miles and 200 years off the mark.  Regardless, the name stuck. 

The first question that pops into your mind when you look at it is 'how'd they get up there?'  It's 100' above the valley floor.  This plaque helps.

Actually, this was home to a mixed bag of natives from the Hohokam and Southern Sinagua cultures.  It was occupied for about 300 years until 1400, when for unknown reasons, they boogied on down the trail to places unknown. 

Montezuma Well N M.  I guess this was named by the same idjit.  It's a collapsed limestone cavern fed by underground springs that produce a tremendous volume of water.  The natives dug mile-long canals from this sink to irrigate their crops.  The water stays a constant 76 degrees year round.  Note the cliff dwellings in the upper left corner.  The well is similar in nature to the cenotes of the Yucatan but in this case, the surfacing water was caused by erosion rather than a humongous asteroid.  

Tuzigoot N M was our last stop.  The word means 'crooked water' in Apache.  It's a hilltop pueblo that had 77 ground floor rooms and numerous upper story rooms - how numerous we don't know because the ground floor is all that remains.  I didn't take any pix cuz I couldn't find a good angle to capture the thing.  Here's a link with pix: http://www.nps.gov/tuzi/index.htm

Rocks

Took another hike in the granite dells near our campground and took these up close and personal pix of the rocks.

There are hundreds of balanced rocks in the dells, many appear so delicately balanced that a mere flick of the finger would send them tumbling.

Another balanced rock.  It's really tempting to give them a shove - but I didn't.

The patterns in the rocks are interesting, too.  Not being heavy into geology, I don't know what causes these striations and at the moment I'm too lazy to google it.

Prescott 2

The area we're in is known as The Granite Dells.  Tom Mix, cowboy movie star of the early 1900s, once owned a ranch that included The Dells and several of his movies were filmed here.  It certainly fits the classic 'western badlands' movie sets.  Another such area is Monument Valley on the UT/AZ border; it's more open but has numerous dramatic rock formations.  Many of John Wayne's westerns were set there.

These 6 pix were taken on a hike near our campground.  The first is looking down on the campground from one of the higher granite formations directly behind our rig.

Different angle, same subject.

Looking north from same area as last pix.  The next 3 pix are of Watson Lake, a reservoir, about 1/2 mile south of the campground.

Taken through a balanced rock 'window'.

Rather scenic, huh?

Prescott, AZ

The view from our 'patio'.  This is our 2nd location in Point of Rocks Campground, 4 miles north of Prescott.  The first location was noisier, not as scenic and swarming with ants, so we strolled around the campground to see what we could find.  This one is much better, well worth the hassle of moving and setting up again.

It's pronounced press-cut, by the way.  We'll stay here 2 weeks before returning home to LHC.  This area has had a lot of growth in recent years, being fairly close to Phoenix and a great scenic location for escaping the summer heat of the lower elevations.  Including Prescott Valley and other nearby urban areas, it boasts a population of 100K.

Above pix are of our wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer components - our 5th.  One was faulty: the outdoor sensor had a voracious appetite, ate a set of batteries every 6 days.  The other 4, well ..... the outdoor sensors jumped ship, are spread along the highways from AZ to AK and Nova Scotia to New Mexico.  When we stop for the night we hang them on the back side of the shroud that covers the propane tanks, attached thereto with velcro.  Problem is, we've got CRS, can't remember to remove them and place them inside the trailer before we head out.  I'm working on a permanent place to mount the outside sensor; buying a new one every few weeks is getting old.  Dumb, too, huh?

Eagar, AZ

Eagar and nearby Springerville, combined population of 6000, were evacuated for 10 days in June due to the huge Wallow fire.  The fire came within 3 miles of the towns. The setting here is appealing, a lush green valley nestled in the mountains at 7000' elevation. It's a great location for escaping the summer heat of lower elevations. Wouldn't want to be here in winter, though, cuz it snows; we don't do snow.
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Trish was reading one of my recent blog posts, the one where I used the term 'KIA' in reference to the flies I'd swatted.  'What are KIAs?' she asked.  'It means Killed In Action.' I responded.  It just so happens, the make of Trish's car is KIA.  She finds that unsettling.  Also unsettling: many religions and cultures have your soul living on after death: it goes to heaven, hell, purgatory, the happy hunting ground, wherever.  Guess what model of KIA Trish owns?  A Soul.  She'll be a super careful driver going forward.  Going backward, too.
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I find it interesting to note the 'origin' of fellow RVers in our campgrounds.  License plates can be misleading because many fulltimers register their rigs under a 'flag of convenience' - meaning whichever state gives them the best tax advantages.  Regardless, I was surprised to discover that in our Maine campground, Florida plates were second only to Maine.  In our Ruidoso, NM campground, 95% were from Texas; guess there's not much for high country in TX, places to escape the heat.  All those Texas gents talked kinda s-l-o-w and had a drawl; the place sounded like a convention of Larry the Cable Guy impersonators.

Ruidoso 3, NM

Above and below: Hubbard Museum sculptures, one each for appaloosa, paint, Arabian, quarterhourse, thorougbred. 

Serapes.

Main museum building, used to be an ice skating rink.

Second generation chuckwagon.  No Tupperware, no Seal-a-Meal, no fridge; plenty of grit, flies, sand, and rancid lard.  Those were the days!

We're outta here this AM, overnight in Eagar, AZ - which is in the huge area burned by the Wallow Fire.  Had a thunderstorm last night that dropped the temp 25 degrees in 15 minutes.  This is where Smokey the Bear came from so there's about a dozen places along the main drag where they sell chain saw-carved bears, any size you want.