Meanwhile, Six Days Ago...Mon., Mar. 3

With all the excitement the past couple of days, I missed a few days of blogging. Time to catch up.

On Monday, March 3, we were up at 5:00 a.m. hoping for an early start. By 7:00 a.m. we were on the road headed toward Lake Pleasant Regional Park. Our drive was uneventful except for a short stretch of road construction at Joshua Tree Scenic Parkway Picnic Area (25-minute delay and single lane with pilot car). We checked into our campsite about 1:30 p.m. That gave us plenty of time to take care of business.

Bob worked for a few hours. I made chili to take to Uncle Skip and Aunt Sally's house for dinner.

We called Skip and Sally to let them know we were settled at Lake Pleasant and made plans for dinner around 5:00 p.m. Before dinner, we talked and had drinks.

Uncle Skip enjoying a brewski.

Sally said, "I have a present for you." She brought out a beautiful purple African violet plant. I love African violets! She knew that my last African violet plant had been chewed to stumps by two bored cats. I tired to revive it, but alas, it didn't make it. Sally knew the story.

When I looked more closely, the plant Aunt Sally gave me was a very good fake. She found it at the thrift shop where she volunteers. We both laughed and laughed. We're going to foil those cats!

Their backyard is part of a desert-scape shared by other homes' backyards. Many birds and animals live back there. When we visited a week ago, a deer walked by. This evening when we arrived, there were all kinds of birds at their feeder: Gambel's quail, curved-bill thrasher, female gila woodpecker and sparrows. Bob saw a roadrunner farther out in the cacti too.

Gambel's quail

Gambel's quail

Curve-billed thrashers

Female or juvenile Gila woodpecker (oops, kind of blurry)

Sally made a Tex-Mex casserole, deviled eggs, a big salad, guacamole, and green chile cornbread. Needless to say we had a GREAT dinner and no one went away hungry. Aunt Sally packed up casserole and cornbread for us to eat tomorrow night too. 

Aunt Sally, here's what happened when I put out the fake African violet on Tuesday...

Looks like Sunnie is the culprit.

Caught him red-handed pawed.

So funny!!! Crazy cat. Love it. Thank you for the thoughtful gift. Sunnie thanks you too.

Travel Bug out.