October 25, 2013

• Epic Road Trip, Days 11 and 12

  

  We spent our first day with my parents at their house, just resting, playing and catching up. And, yeah, swimming in their pool. The next day, however, we wanted to do some rock hounding so we'd have time to cut and polish them (polishing can take 4 to 5 days) so we headed off to Burro Creek, where the best rocks of the type Dad recommended could be found. Along the way we stopped to photograph the Joshua trees.

  

  They are an unpleasant species both close up and from a distance, but pretty cool at the same time.

  

  As always to our northwest eyes, cactus are pretty awesome.

  

  

  

  Quin got into the spirit of things and wanted to hug a cactus, but I insisted on a picture first, before he got all bloody. He was very careful, though and only pretended.

  

  

  

  

  I have to tell you about these cows. They were meandering along the road, completely unconcerned there was barely enough room for all of us there. See that black one? That cow was a hoot! It acted like a black lab puppy, pouncing down toward the car with it's hindquarters in the air, then dashing off like we'd thrown it a stick to fetch. Then it would turn and do it all again till they all finally decided to get off the road so we could pass. Too cute.

  

  

  On our way there, we passed through the town of Yarnell. You've probably heard of the 19 firefighters that were killed fighting a blaze there, which was the deadliest day for firefighters since September 11th, 2001, and there hasn't been that many deaths of firefighters fighting a wildfire in 80 years. The fire had been completely contained just the day before, and several disaster relief crews were still out there helping with the townfolk who had lost their homes. The desert was pretty barren and you could still see the red fire retardant across the rocks and a couple of burned out shells of homes, sheds and boats. A lot of devastation. For the duration of our visit to Arizona, we couldn't go anywhere without being asked to buy a bumper sticker or t-shirt or just plain donate money to the cause. Even though I'm cynical about how much of that money goes to actually help anyone, it was nice to see nearby towns rallying together.

  Later, Quin was trying to say something about the fire retardant we'd seen, but he couldn't remember exactly what it was called. He said, "You know, Mom, that stuff that makes fire stupid?"

  On to the rocks!

  

  Here in Washington, the coolest rock around is an agate, which is found on our rocky ocean/bay shores. They are small. Everything else is gray or black or brown and sometimes almost white and then ooh, ooh, you might find some crushed lava rocks in a driveway or garden. That's about as exotic as you get, rocks that are just....rocks. But there! Woo!

  

  Pretty rocks with NAMES! My dad knew them, but I forgot them. We were looking for white rocks with red streaks, but the kids and I went a little crazy picking up everything that had any color other than rock color. The trunk was heavily loaded before we finally made our way back home. I will probably not be sharing just how many of those rocks found their way into my car and were hauled home, but I suspect my gas mileage dropped a bit on the last half of our journey.

  Then, it was time to stop picking up rocks and just carry my camera so there was still room to pack our stuff around the rocks. I was drawn to the cactus again.

  

  

  

  And, as always, cows. I can't resist a cute cow face even if it's attached to a cow that looked willing to charge and ram the car.

  

  Back to my folks house to sort rocks, and relax!

  • 3:41 pm
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