Somewhere over southern North Dakota.
I’m writing this on Saturday evening. Yesterday we brought our Civil Air Patrol glider from its home base in eastern North Dakota to Mandan, in the south central part of the state. Our plan was to give cadets in the western part of the state orientation rides, one of many benefits that cadets receive from being a member. Continue reading
Buckeye, Arizona.
This week, Patti Moed asks us to “Capture nature, people, objects, or animals on the move. You can read Patti’s entire challenge post here. Coincidently, I am gathering action images for an upcoming blog post on my “Travel Tuesday” posts, a review of how I use my Nikon D500 for action shots, one of its best capabilities. In the shot above, a barrel racer in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association rounds a barrel on her way to the finish line. Continue reading
Apache Junction, Arizona.
In previous posts here, I’ve focused on Canyon Lake, a reservoir created by one of a string of four dams on the Salt River. In 1925, the Mormon Flat Dam was completed creating the smallest lake in the chain. The lake is about 50 miles (80 km) from Phoenix. Only about 15 miles (24 km) from the city of Apache Junction, the drive is scenic and winds through the Tonto National Forest and parts of the Superstition Mountains. Continue reading
White Tank Mountain Regional Park, Waddell, Arizona.
This week, I was reminded of our hiking club in Arizona in a couple of ways. Yesterday (Saturday, 18 August), I got an email from the folks at MapMyWalk. It was my 5th anniversary of downloading and using the app to help map our hikes. Though I don’t use MapMyWalk for hiking exclusively, the vast majority of miles tracked with the app are in Arizona deserts on hikes, mostly with the Verrado Hiking Club. Among other details, the email pointed out that it’s tracked 1362 miles (2192 km) since I started using the app. Continue reading
The road to Oatman, Arizona.
Actually, one of the roads led us through some beautiful country, slowly. First, some background… regular readers followed our trip from Phoenix to Las Vegas via US 93, through Arizona’s Joshua Tree Forest, past Hoover Dam and into Sin City. On our way back, we wanted to take a different route. Looking at Google Maps online presents two viable paths to Oatman from Las Vegas. The shorter trip is via US 95 through Searchlight and Laughlin down to Fort Mohave. But I didn’t check Google Maps once we were on our way. Apparently that was our mistake, or fortunate happenstance, depending upon your disposition. Continue reading
Oatman, Arizona.
Travel between Las Vegas and Phoenix or Las Vegas and Laughlin, Nevada brings you near the old mining town of Oatman. The town was named after Olive Oatman, an Illinois woman who traveled west with her family. When she was 14, her family headed into hostile territory where Olive and her sister were captured and became slaves. Her remaining family were killed except for her brother who was beaten and left for dead. Upon recovering consciousness, he wandered until he reached a settlement. Shortly thereafter, he returned to bury his family. Continue reading
Waddell, Arizona.
I have been lax at taking pictures lately due to a heavier than normal workload at my volunteer Civil Air Patrol job. It’s Friday as I’m writing this post, and I want to have it publish automatically on Sunday, a typical scheduled Cellpic Sunday. Looking through my library of cellular phone photos, I discovered I’d taken two images of the same trail, just slightly offset. Using Lightroom, I created a panoramic image of this view of the Goat Camp Trail in White Tank Mountain Regional Park. Last March, our hiking club traveled for a couple of miles down the trail and then returned for a total of just over five miles (8.5 km). Continue reading
