We went over to the new Cabellas that just opened. It's a good thing they aren't located any closer to home than they are. I've been to the one in West Virginia and it's just the ultimate toy store if you're interested in the outdoors. I bought a set of walkie-talkies so that if I'm out wandering, my wife can hail me back. Can't miss dinner.
There's a Cracker Barrel right next door and it was lunch time by then so we all piled in there for lunch. Well, more like dinner, 'cause I didn't eat anything to speak of for the rest of the day. Of course, we had to look around the store and I bought a tube of lip balm. This dry climate just drys out everything and my lips were feeling it. My cousin has a weather station on the wall and I checked it when we got back and it said 16% RH. I saw that the RH was supposed to go to 87% at home last night.
Just North of Phoenix, the land drops off to the lower desert and we started seeing the giant Saguaro cactus. It can take up to 75 years for one to develop the characteristic arms. These without arms are called "spears". They are just starting to bloom with a ring of white flowers around the top. Once you get into the right climate zone, they're everywhere. It's illegal in Arizona, where most of them grow, to harm them in any way. So, when they're in the way of new construction, they're carefully dug up and transplanted. Just how do you hold a green tube full of water on the inside and full of spines on the outside? We saw many that were transplanted to a new section of highway and they were propped up with lumber braced against pads wrapped in carpeting. I have no idea how they moved them. We're going to wait another week or so for the blooming to progress further and then make a trip dedicated to cactus.
No comments:
Post a Comment