Dust Devils

As we were approaching Phoenix (this is a continuation of the photos from our travels out west recently) we saw a number of small dust storms, or "dust devils" above the desert on either side of the car. I took this photo from the window as we were driving.

We had been seeing signs warning that "Dust May Be Present," but these little whirlwinds posed no threat.

A few minutes later, we saw a gigantic dust storm. It covered the entire city of Phoenix and all its suburbs. (We read about it later on the national news). I was so in awe of the thing that I never thought about the camera again at all. It had definite edges, like an upside down rain cloud that has begun to rain. Shaped rather like a rounded loaf of bread sitting on the ground. We drove into it and the bright, bright summer sun simply disappeared from above us. We could still see the road and the traffic so it was never actually dangerous, but it was certainly interesting. Foggy, but so dry!

Rain and Dust

The next day, while driving in the city of Phoenix, we witnessed the interesting phoenomenon of simultaneous rain and dust storms. While rain drops in a straight line from its cloud, the dust rises in irregular puffs from the ground ... it is very weird. The wind was quite blusterly, as it is at home right before a rain storm, but it was dry and caused our mouths to taste gritty.

Apparently the dust storm was a month early for the area; the rain storm was two months ahead of schedule. Wherever we go we seem to affect the weather patterns.

Snake Warning!

Seeing warnings about poisonous snakes even at the Interstate highway rest areas added a bit of spice to our travels across the Southwest.

Small snake

Not nearly so colorful nor exciting as the warning signs. (Not to mention, he was very dead!)

Tall Skinny Canyon

This is the deep, narrow canyon we wandered through in southern New Mexico. I know, I know, we were on a sissy, raised trail. But it was dramatic and scenic anyway. The two people in the distance show the scale.

Blooming Cactus and mountains

This is just a taste of the scenery we saw almost daily for the next two weeks as we drove across Texas, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. An ever-changing, never-boring series of outstanding vistas!

Windmill Photo

OK, here is the picture ... second try. You may have to look extra hard to see the silhouettes of the windmills.

Scenes from Out West ... Texas Wind Farm

We were thrilled to see this line of wind mills draped across the hill tops in far southwest Texas. Read an article the same day in a newspaper that said our federal gov't is making it difficult to build new such wind farms ... afraid that "they will interfere with our military's ability to spot incoming terrorist planes." Shee. I would hope our military's spotting abilities are a bit better than that! I suspect Big Oil is the problem, actually.

Two of my favorite people

Well, aren't they just soo cute?! Caught them each unaware at the ballgame.

Sunil's frosting

This is the picture of Sunil enjoying licking the frosting off his cake decoration Mustang ... the picture Karin didn't want to publish on her Blog. But I like it!

Earning His Grampa stripes

Sheela loved being allowed to do a "makeover" on GrampaJohn. He was so patient ... and, I must say, he looked lovely when she was done!

Yes we're still here!

To all our loyal readers ... all three of whom, by the way, already know all this ... we are not posting because we are still in the middle of our westerly travels. We have been using public library computers to read everyone else's blogs and to catch up on email, but can't post photos from there. I want to wait to tell about the trip until we can include a few photos. The entire trip so far has been so incredibly scenic that our brains are about to explode!