Well, if even Lednar is going to post a last day of the year ride, I guess I’d better too. First though, I’d like to offer my apology for backing out of active involvement in the community. Somewhere along the middle of our nine month tour of Europe I realized that maintaining that journal every day … Continue reading "Happy New Year from Tucson!"
We’ve only got a few days left of our stay here in Tucson before we start working our way back to Portland. I’d about given up on finding anything new for this month’s challenge until stumbling across this chimney in the Barrio Anita on my return, just a few blocks from home.
For some reason I thought the chimney challenge would be a snap, imagining that Tucson would be crammed with colorful and interesting chimneys. I’d never actually looked around with that in mind though, and once I did I was in for a deep disappointment. Nearly every home here has some short, blah stub that barely … Continue reading "Chimney, chairs, & cheer"
No? Oh, Scheisse! Gneiss then? Nice! I’ve spent an unproductive few days watching for another interesting chimney here in Tucson without success, so I’ll have to move on to a different subject. There’s actually not much to satisfy the challenge in this post other than the shadows, shelter, sharp objects and cholla that you see everywhere … Continue reading "Is it schist?"
Actually, those aren’t cholla – they’re some variety of prickly pear – but I like cholla because it starts with ch-, one of the magic digraphs for the month. Also I like it because it allows me to raise an important point, with apologies if it’s already been raised before but I haven’t been reading … Continue reading ""
We’ve had a good run of interesting wildlife viewings here in Tucson – a six pack of peccaries, stilts in triplicate – but I don’t think anything will top yesterday’s experience when I biked my age in miles. We stopped on the trail to admire the roadrunner jerkily working his way through the cholla and … Continue reading "Quietly Persistent Roadrunner"
Are uncannily and triplicated even real words? We’ll see what the reigning Challenge Czar has to say about it. More importantly, have I lost track and used STU already in an Alphabet Quest submission? I hope not, because I think you’ll like this photo of a black stilt, his reflection and his shadow that I … Continue reading "Uncannily Triplicated Stilt"
I love setting my own rules for how to interpret the alphabet game. My primary self-imposed rule is to describe a photo with three words beginning with consecutive letters of the alphabet. But I’m quite certain that I didn’t stipulate that the three words needed to be in any order. It’s a good thing, too. … Continue reading "Keen Javalina Lineup!"
I feel so full of sympathy for the northerners right now, with harsh, brutal conditions holding reign over most of the country. If I were living in Vermont or Illinois or Minnesota or Washington (or even Kentucky, amazingly enough), I certainly wouldn’t be out biking right now either, and probably wouldn’t be out walking any … Continue reading "Organ Pipe National Monument"
Who dreamed up this month’s challenge, anyway? Suddenly I’m seeing risks everywhere that I never gave much thought to before, and starting to feel paranoid. Our climb up Mount Lemmon yesterday was just one hazard after another: precipitous cliffs, falling rocks, goblins, ice, heart attack? Terrible. Awesome descent though. For additional photos of this climb, … Continue reading "A mountain of hazards"
Mine fields, dinosaurs, ice picks and giant scorpions are all terrifying reminders of what a scary world we live in. This ghost bike on a straight stretch on an open road in Madera Canyon is a sobering reminder though of where the real threats lie. As if any of us needed reminding.
This is too funny. It seems like just yesterday (well actually, it was just yesterday) that I was bemoaning the lack of interesting hazards down here and speculated that we might be seeing rattlers or Gila monsters roaming the earth soon. Be careful what you wish for, as we found on our ride to Colossal … Continue reading "Desert hazards, continued"
I’m feeling guilty about being down here right now. Not only have we had terrific weather for the last two months, but it feels perfectly safe everywhere I look – as long as we don’t think about the ever present Covid hazard of course. Nothing like the conditions in the frigid north, for example. Maybe … Continue reading "In not so hazardous Tucson"
Well, this wasn’t literally a crawl. It was a walk, so I can post this ramble through Tucson under the new Walks and Hikes category, thanks to our egalitarian site administrator Rocky. Tucson is in a league of its own with its stellar galaxy of murals. If you’re not that into wall art though, there … Continue reading "Tucson mural crawl"
Quick, without counting: how many sides in a tetracontapentagon? 44, you say? Close, but no Louisville Slugger. That’s the number on the late, great Hank Aaron’s uniform, the hero we paid tribute to on today’s ride. Read on for the correct answer to today’s puzzler, and much more.
So in case you haven’t noticed the pattern here yet, my plan is to post polygons in series, featuring one level at a time until I reach one I can’t find. Unlikely I’ll be able to make it up to Bob’s magnificent icosohedron, but hopefully I can at least break into double figures. Today, sevens, … Continue reading "Sevens!"
First off, I have to say how disappointed I’m feeling about this Cycle365 group and it’s questionable arithmetic skills. I was sure that someone would point out that the feature photo of my latest post, A Pair of Pentagons, was actually a trapezoid, a four sided figure. I knew this of course – five is … Continue reading "Hexagons have six sides"
Leapin’ leparids! It’s a rabbit in a polygon! Actually, this post is just a bit of a fraud. The pentagons are real enough, but we’re just patched on to the end of a post about today’s ride to Sweetwater Wetlands. The pentagons were photographed from a couple of days earlier, but I added them here … Continue reading "A pair of pentagons"
In my first challenge submission of the month, I think I aced the triangle test and am ready to move on. Our New Year’s Day ride along Julian wash uncovered a pair of classy quads: the poetic trapezoid shown above, and this artsy rectangle on stilts. That’s enough with fours, for the moment.
The minimal polygon includes three sides and three angles, so I’ll start there. A single triangle, the least possible entry. And, for that matter, the associated post of our ride to Oro Valley is pretty minimalist too. And as long as we’re on the subject of smallest allowable whatevers, you may have noticed that the … Continue reading "The eternal triangle"
I thought I was done for this challenge, but this collection of wheelbarrows loaded with firewood for sale was just too good to pass up. I was sure you’d all want to see it. And, if you check out the rest of our New Year’s Eve ride, you’ll find a collection of hot redheads too. … Continue reading "One really last collection"
Is two enough to qualify as a collection? I considered getting my own two thumbs into the picture too, but was too lazy to set up the camera for a timed shot. So, just imagine mine are there too. They’re there because there’s cause to celebrate! But you’ll have to read further here to understand what … Continue reading "A collection of thumbs"
One last submission for the Collection challenge: a file of mailboxes, on Sasabe Road. Sorry there’s no snow crowning them – that would be perfect for the season – but sadly, all we got was this almost hot sunny day. Darn.
I thought I was done with this month’s collection challenge, but this cute little clump of hedgehog cacti was just too adorable to not share. Sorry, no bicycles, but they’re not allowed on the trails of Saguaro National Park. And besides, it seemed like this site was getting overburdened by a blizzard of snow posts … Continue reading "A clump of cacti / a heap of hedgehogs"
Rocky’s interest sure is. She can hardly wait for this month to be over so I’ll quit holding us up at some stupid spot on the road for a photo I can wrap a post around. She requests that someone, anyone, please come up with a theme for next month so we don’t have to … Continue reading "Is your interest in collections Flagging?"
Don’t give up too soon, folks. There’s still nearly two weeks of this challenge month left, and collections yet unseen to be viewed and boasted about. Time does drag in the winter, when it’s cold and wet where many of you live, or hot and insufferable for others; and where you can’t entertain yourselves by … Continue reading "Are we tired of collections yet?"
OK, I’ll admit that a gathering of pigeons isn’t the most interesting or unusual collection to flash around. I imagine some of you may have seen a similar collection in your home town/county/state/territory/province. But it’s the best I’ve got to offer today, unless you consider a pod of masked university students an interesting collection. Also, … Continue reading "A passel of pigeons"
Definition of rust 1a: the reddish brittle coating formed on iron especially when chemically attacked by moist air and composed essentially of hydrated ferric oxide b: a comparable coating produced on a metal other than iron by corrosion c: something resembling rust : ACCRETION 2: corrosive or injurious influence or effect 3: any of numerous … Continue reading "Challeng of the month: Desert rust"
Actually, I’m surprised that I haven’t come across more rusty relics here in Southern Arizona this month. It seemed like we were biking past agricultural implements rusting away in the basin or mining relics up in the hills every day in late January – it’s why I came up with this theme, thinking I was … Continue reading "Rusty Tucson"
Well, I’m still looking around for something rusty so I can start on my own challenge. While I’m waiting though, I’ll take a stab at Em’s theme, with my own twist. The featured photo, taken in on our ride from Douglas to Bisbee, brings together Mesquite, Mistletoe, and Mountains. MMM!
I thought I was done for the month until coming across this riddled rock in Tombstone, with the shadow of an ocotillo fanned across it. I could have shoved the bike into the frame but it seemed cleaner without it. And, if you like birds, you might check out the rest of this day’s ride … Continue reading "Oh, holey rock"
Well, not really. There are probably a few left to be discovered here, but this is the last one I’ll tell you about. It’s almost February, and time to move on to a different challenge. And actually, the rock that gets me in the door today is pretty modest. Maybe the least interesting thing we … Continue reading "The last rock in Arizona"
What, you’ve never heard of Winkelman? After this you’ll surely want to look it up to see where it is and what’s there. I’m talking serious attractions here: a huge, colorful copper mine; a smelter smokestack 1,001 feet high that you can see for miles; the railroad that Dwight Yoakam rode on his video of … Continue reading "Some blue rocks in Winkelman"
Just a few days ago we biked past Hoover Dam, awed by the dam itself but also by the huge new Hoover Dam Bridge that finally rerouted the highway that used to run across the narrow top of the dam. It worked fine when the dam was young, cars were small, and people living out … Continue reading "Stuck in a dam rut"