New Year at McDowell Mountain Regional Park

Indeed, we had a very peaceful night bringing in the New Year.  Around 11:30 I heard a very loud, yet far off explosion to our north.  Figured that someone way out in the desert had either blown a propane tank, or half stick of dynamite…guess we will never know. 

Today we drove over and got Joyce, and drove back to Fountain Hills where she use to live.  We had lunch at a Chinese Restaurant, which is nothing like what we got in Sacramento, that’s for sure….seems the further you go east the worse Chinese Restaurants are.  I am use to that after so many years of living in Arkansas, and it isn’t that it was bad, it’s just that Wonderful Chinese in the Sacramento area spoiled us. 

After lunch we brought Joyce over to the see the motorhome, and the view…a view which she saw from her house when she lived in Fountain Hills.  Marcia was tired and not feeling real well, so I took Joyce around for a quick visit to some old friends of hers.  The wife is very ill and is in a private nursing home down the street from where their home is.  Every time Joyce visits her she wonders if it is her last visit.  We then drove up the street for a quick visit to the husband, and then further up the street to see the house she use to live in for over 30 years….one of the original homes in Fountain Hills.  Her view is the same as our view at the park, except for the northern and some of the western view which is blocked by the McDowell Mountains since the house is located up the southern base of the mountain range.

We then drove over to the Fountain of Fountain Hills, which I showed a distant shot of from our location at McDowell Mountain Park.  The fountain shoots off for around 15 minutes every hour on the hour from 9 am to 9 pm.  When it was built in 1970, it was the world’s largest fountain, and today it is the fourth largest.  Its three turbine pumps are driven by three electric motors that each delivers 600 horsepower.  It really is a sight to see.  I then dropped Joyce off at a local casino that she likes to visit now and then, she was hoping another friend was going to be there.  I told her we would pick back up later, and I headed back to McDowell.

    

As I got to the park boundaries, I stopped to take a few pictures of the desert vegetation.  Of course, the Saguaros are the big landmarks of the desert vegetation here.  They are found in Southern Arizona, a small area of south-eastern California, and in parts of Northern Mexico. 

This one we might just make into a bumper sticker which would say, “If you don’t like the way we are driving, just read between the lines.”

Well, I think we have seen enough, huh Skruffy?  Later we picked Joyce up and took her home, and then headed straight back to the motorhome. 

Both Marcia and I have been feeling a bit blue the past few days.  I got it first, but have been fighting it off with Original Listerine.  Marcia is having a much harder time with it, which is why she stayed at the motorhome while I drove Joyce around Fountain Hills.   Nothing like starting the new year off with a bit of a head cold…at least using the Listerine keeps the throat from getting raw, and after gargling you suck the fumes into you lungs to kill any germs affecting your lungs....but it doesn't do much for the nasal glands or the headaches that come with it.