A Redrock Walk With Roadrunners Through The Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden

Phoenix Desert Botanic Garden Plant Sale

My sister and I arrived very early Saturday at the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. The bi-annual plant sale was under way. By the time we left, a couple hours later, that throng of plant hunters had swelled far beyond the number you see in the picture.

Phoenicians seem to be early risers who like to be out and about, hiking, biking, walking and plant hunting, looking, for the most part, like people who have had the air let out of them, unlike most of the people I see at my regular location on the planet.

I can not remember the last time I enjoyed something as much as I did the walk through the Desert Botanical Garden.

I've long had an affection for redrock, developed long ago from my first exposure in Utah.

A Red Cardinal Standing Cactus Guard

The redrock in the Phoenix zone is like the Utah redrock on a small, yet very scenic scale. The Utah redrock has no saguaro cactus, that I am aware of. The Phoenix redrock, with its cactus, adds a real nice element to the basic redrock.

I saw several Roadrunners, aka Paisanos, running about today. I think the Paisanos may have been chasing the dozens of jackrabbits who scurried about chasing the dozens of quails.

Nothing seemed to be chasing the red cardinal you see in the picture perched on a cactus in front of a big mound of redrock.

The Desert Botanical Garden has around 65 acres of desert flora under cultivation, with over 50,000 plants.

When we first entered the garden my sister and I had the place, for the most part, to ourselves. That did not last long.

I don't remember if I've mentioned previously my interest in Native American culture.

Today I got to grind mesquite seeds in the Apache way. I do not know what I was supposed to make with my supply of ground up mesquite seeds. Maybe bread.

The above is an example of an Apache domicile. To me it looks as if this abode would be a bit of a fire hazard.

This particular Saguaro silhouetted against the Phoenix sky looks as if it may be making an obscene gesture. A lot of the Saguaros seem to be of a similar mind. I won't share the description my sister used for many of the various cactus shapes. Suffice to say it was a male oriented description. Maybe that would be better worded to say it was a description with a male orientation.

Let's leave the Desert Botanical Garden and go to another part of Papago Park to walk through a hole in the redrock in another blogging.

Saturday In Arizona Hiking Desert Botanical Gardens With Papago Park Holes In Rocks Declining To Hunt For Turkey Legs

Pedestrian Bridge Over Lake Tempe Dam

I have had me a day, so far, this Saturday, and it is only 3 in the afternoon, with a lot of hours left in the day. I'd take myself a nap if I were nap enabled, which I am not.

My sister took me away from my mom and dad's Sun Lakes abode about 7 this morning. Our destination was the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden. More on the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden in a subsequent blogging.

After visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens we headed for another location in Papago Park, that being the hole in the rock. More on the hike to the hole in the rock in a subsequent blogging.

After hiking to the hole in the rock we left Papago Park to go visit my brother and sister-in-law's new location in Scottsdale. I rather liked it. Basically they live in Melrose Place, except in Scottsdale, not Los Angeles.

We left my brother's hungry, after not getting the pancakes that had been promised the night before.

So we headed to another of those cool restaurants called McDonald's. I had something called a Southern Spicy Chicken Sandwich and a Double Cheeseburger. I think I have the names right.

As my sister and I waited for our gourmet food we watched a very skinny lady blocking the drink bar whilst she squeezed the fat out of a couple dozen McNuggets. My sister grew impatient with the lack of access to the beverages and asked the skinny fat squeezer to move.

The skinny fat squeezer then told us her doctor told her she had a coronary condition and should try and squeeze all the fat she could out of her food. We watched as she cut the McNuggets into pieces with a knife and ate the pieces very furtively and bird-like.

It has been my observation that McDonald's attracts interesting customers.

The sequence of events that followed McDonald's I may have a bit confused. At some point after McDonald's we went to my youngest nephew's apartment and his big brother's house. The apartment was in Tempe, with the house being in Scottsdale, which leads me to think we may have gone to the house first.

In Tempe we walked across the new pedestrian bridge you see above. This bridge is above the new dam that replaced the failed dam that made Lake Tempe next to Arizona State University. You may remember that dam failing during bad flooding in Phoenix a year or two or three ago.

At some point, after walking across the bridge, I think we were in Mesa, where we dropped in on my favorite brother-in-law's sleeping mother. I've always found my favorite brother-in-law's sleeping mother to be very nice. But, she did not remember me.

Leaving Mesa we headed south, back to Chandler, where we drove by the Pacific Seafood Buffet. I've not been to a seafood buffet in a long while. Let alone a Pacific seafood buffet.

Eventually we were at the core of downtown Chandler, where my sister drove us around the Chandler town square. It was being festive due to St. Patrick's Day. This location sort of reminded me of Taos. Which makes sense, sort of, with New Mexico being the next state to the east.

Finally I was re-delivered to my mom and dad's in Chandler. My sister left and soon my mom was asking me if I wanted to ride with them to Maricopa to get a bougainvillea and turkey legs. I declined the offer.

I was too tired to go turkey leg hunting.