Exploring Arizona One Picture At A Time!

             Hello and salutations and such to everyone!! Thank you as always for being a faithful reader of this sight. I have often rambled about the constant heat in Arizona. Yes I did choose to live here, but I do not have to like the heat. I lovingly call this the land of the sweating sun. This makes me chuckle every time I say it--and I am still waiting for a call back from the tourism board about adding it to all of the visitation flyers. I have before talked about all of this, and my hate for the locals favorite word "dry." As in it is a dry heat. In short---once it hits a certain temperature--it doesn't matter what kind of heat it is, it is just freaking hot outside! At any rate I have never shared the following poem about it all before. Mostly because I did not have this poem before. I want to greatly emphasise that I did not write any of the following---or even have the rights to put it in print here. I also do not know the brilliant person that wrote this. But in my full agreement of the entire poem I feel I can publish it here if I make it fully clear that I wrote NONE of this.
     I share for several reasons. First I am in a love/hate relationship with living in the land of the sweating sun. See the Arizona description is catching on already! Second I know The Devil first hand.   I know everyone hates there inlaws--but my mother in law really is The Devil. In fact several people will tell you that she looks just like the main character in the movie Hell Boy. These same people will probably also tell you how much I look like a Jackalope. If you have never driven through the state of Wyoming---you might not understand this reference. In fact my best buddy wants to wrestle The Devil. He is also the one that came up with her nickname. Although I seem to take the abuse for coming up with it, and the credit. He knows he will lose if he ever gets this wrestling match--but he still really wants to try. I believe fighting a live bear would be safer--but what do I know? Reading back through these last two paragraphs--jury says, I know very little. Lastly spring is just around the corner. And with that the warm temperatures of the desert start to crank it up to extra warm. Causing most of the traveling snow birds to return to there home states.   And now the much awaited poem that I have been talking about all this time, but I DID NOT write:

                                                                          Arizona

The devil wanted a place on Earth,

Sort of a summer home;

A place to spend his vacation

Whenever he wanted to roam.

So he picked out Arizona,

A place both wretched and rough,

Where the climate was to his liking

And the cowboys hardened and tough.

He dried up the lakes in the valleys,

Then burned and scorched it all.

He dried up the streams in the canyons

And ordered no rain to fall.

Then over this barren desert,

He transplanted shrubs from Hell;

The cactus, thistle and prickly pear,

The climate suited them well.

Now the home was much to his liking,

But animal life he had none;

So he created crawling creatures

That all mankind would shun.

First he made the Rattlesnake

With its forked, poisonous tongue;

Taught it to strike and rattle

And how to swallow its young.

Then he made scorpions and lizards,

And the ugly old horned toad.

He placed spiders of every description

Under the rocks by the side of the road.

The he ordered the sun to shine hotter,

Hotter and hotter still,

Until even the cactus wilted,

And the horned toad looked ill.

Then he gazed on his earthly kingdom

As any creator would.

He chuckled a little up his sleeve

And admitted it was good.

Twas summer now, and Satan

Lay by a prickly pear to rest.

The sweat rolled of his swarthy brow,

So he took off his coat and vest.

"By golly," he finally panted.

"I did my job too well.

I'm going back where I came from,

Arizona is hotter than Hell."

You know you live in Arizona when:

You buy salsa by the gallon.
All of your out-of-state friends start to visit after October but clear out come the end of April.
You think someone driving while wearing oven mitts is clever.
Most of the restaurants in your town have the first name "El" or "Los."
You think six tons of crushed rock makes a beautiful yard.
You notice your car overheating before you drive it.
Your house is made of stucco and has a red clay tile roof.
You can say Hohokam(?Hohokam (HO-ho-ko'm) and people don't think you're laughing funny.
You no longer associate bridges or rivers with water.
You see more irrigation water on the street than there is in the Salt River.
You know a swamp cooler is not a happy hour drink.
You can say 120 degrees without fainting.
Every other vehicle is a 4x4.
You can be in the snow, and then drive for an hour and it will be more than 100 degrees.
Vehicles with open windows have the right-of-way in the summer.
You have to go to a fake beach for some fake waves.
People break out coats when the temperature drops below 70.
You discover, in July, it only takes two fingers to drive your car.
The pool can be warmer than you are.
You can make sun tea instantly.
People will drive over 100 miles just to see snow.
You run your air conditioner in the middle of winter so you can use your fireplace.
Most people will not drink tap water unless they are under dire conditions.
People with black cars or have black upholstery in their car are automatically assumed to be from out-of-state or nuts.
You notice the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
You realize Valley Fever isn't a disco dance.
You can finish a Big Gulp in 10 minutes and go back for seconds.
The water from the cold water tap is the same temperature as the hot one.
You can (correctly) pronounce the words: "Saguaro(?Saguaro (suh-WA'R-o)
An arborescent cactus (Carnegiea gigantea)
"Tempe," "Gila Bend," "San Xavier," "Canyon de Chelly," "Mogollon Rim," "Cholla," and "Ajo."
It's noon in July, kids are on summer vacation, and not one person is moving on the streets.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
Sunscreen is sold year round, kept at the front of the checkout counter, a formula less than 30 SPF is a joke, and you wear it just to go to the Circle K.
Some fool can market mini-misters for joggers and other fools will actually buy them.
Hot-air balloons can't go up, because the air outside is hotter than the air inside.
No one would dream of putting vinyl upholstery in a car.
You eat hot chilis to cool your mouth off.
You learn that a seat belt makes a pretty good branding iron.
The temperature drops below 95, you feel a bit chilly.
You discover that you can get a sunburn through your car window.
You break a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m. before work.
Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.

Next action void post on my first and longest running blog sight- will be once again full of my random rambling, attempts at jokes,

and lots of coffee love!

www.wyomingjack.blogspot.com

For more pictures of amazing Arizona and gripes about the heat Please check back often to this very page- my newest Exploring blog series at http://exarizonagobensonbobcats.blogspot.com/

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Next post for this page is the picture filled part two from our family adventures

in LEGOLAND California.

Way back in 2014 our youngest won a local coloring contest out of Tucson and received four tickets to LEGOLAND. We of course thought this was beyond great. Although at first I did not think this was such a big deal, until I attempted to buy the ticket for one of us. Our family has five people. Even buying a kids ticket to complete our package was not cheap. On the day my wife and I picked up the prize package, we were late getting home to great our kiddos after school. We had a special letter from the TV station claiming our son a winner and congratulating him--and once we got home, we pretended to be very angry at him and had him sit on the couch while we proceeded to tell him we were late getting home because we were at his school. My wife than asked him if he had anything he would like to explain to us. He seemed confused, maybe because this time he really was not in any trouble at all. We than had him read the letter. His expression slowly changed as he realized he was a winner not a trouble maker. And than he jumped around the living room. It was priceless. We did not make this trip until last October. We have so many pictures from the amazing trip that I have already labeled this post part one.

At the time we had an older run down car. So we had planned on getting a car rental for the long voyage. We even had one reserved online. But when we got to the rental company at the airport the key word quickly became planned. Our credit rating was far from good enough to get a rental car it seemed. Above is a picture of the rental car we could have afforded.

We decided to risk it and took off in our personal car. It made for a stress full trip, but the car did make it both there and back.

I believe it rose to six old crabs while I was in town.

We try to avoid Phoenix every time possible so our first major stop was in Gila Bend.

A moderate sized town full of things to take pictures of.

And the home to several large and very nice truck stops.

Including this beer/pop bottle cap lizard.

Just beyond the Dollar General store we stopped at to get travel snacks

I spotted these old buildings.

We have been in Arizona nearly two years now
and have yet to see a real gila monster but this one is pretty neat.

Rest stop along the way with a nice view.

Finally into the state of California.

Notice how I in no way add great to that sentence.

Hours upon hours later we were attempting to enter San Diego.

A mere thirty miles from our motel.

We soon found ourselves in what I call a highway parking lot.

With stop and go--but mostly stop driving for hours.

I often wonder in these situations, since no one is actually driving,

why these roads have posted speed limits, because no matter what time of day it is

you are not driving anywhere close to the limit. And if you could get in trouble for texting and driving, since you are basically parked.

Maybe it was just all the gas fumes getting to my head.

We soon had great views of the ocean and the sunset to view

between cars.

Carlsbad in the lobby of our hotel.

My beautiful wife got us an amazing deal on a hotel that night and the next.

In fact it cost us less than after LEGOLAND when we were starving and went out to eat

at a buffet restaurant.

Long story short--after we all entered the buffet line, the host asked if we also wanted drinks with our meals. Silly me, thought they would come with the meals.

The drink prices cost an extra $25 some how, and

I than asked the host if we would also need to purchase plates with our meals.

Just outside our room. My wife enjoying the view!

Around the pool that we used a lot.

Just up from our motel was the ocean. When I first ventured up to view

it was just getting dark. Although I could not get any pictures, the view was still amazing.

On the trip home we discovered I had a little extra time from work and we could go slowly.

San Diego had so much to offer it seemed that we went a little to slow maybe.

But got some great ocean time in and drove for miles down the coast line.

I have lots of pictures here because well

there is not much water in Arizona!

I miss the ocean and such of Washington state, but not enough to move back.

What a view!

I have some stories I have written in my past about an Indian named Pontos so thought this sign was neat.

Time to get down and dirty and Explore things a little closer.

Time to get back in the car and drive.

ANY time you can drive along the coast line

Enjoy it!!

Road shot along the way.

San Diego

Mission Beach

A friend told me to visit this area and it was beyond neat but he did not mention the large amusement park full of games and attractions. After being in LEGOLAND the whole day before, we as parents were ready to Explore, but not spend more cash. The kiddos did not house the same feelings for sure.