After taking this photo (not much traffic here, so I was able to stand in the middle of the road), I turned the other way and took a pic looking towards Granite Gap --
I felt like I was coming home, and all the effort, and setbacks,over the past year -- getting an Arizona driver's license, buying a manufactured home, having a deer cross in front of Tundra Uno and totaling the truck, actually "pulling the plug" and making an offer on the house, getting a housing inspection, renting Faranuf from February to June -- faded as I now was actually HERE, and would be living in what would forever be known as "Faranuf". I unloaded Tundra Dos that very first day, then had dinner with fellow "Portalites" at the Portal Lodge, Store and Cafe -- the only "game" in Portal. We had dinner outside, and as trite as it may sound, I really felt that I belonged here. I know the challenges will be many, living in a rural area where most of what city dwellers take for granted are miles away -- but that night I was living for the moment...Much to my surprise, the DSL internet connection at Faranuf was just as fast as my cable Internet back in San Pedro, and I finally had a landline after about 2 years of living with just a cell phone. I suppose you could say that, though I travelled and lived in Discovery, my Lance travel trailer, for nearly 2 years, I craved living within 4 permanent walls, and now I can use Faranuf as a home base and take forays in Discovery II (I traded-in Discovery I so I could get Discovery II, with its upgrades and solar panels for boondocking). The weather ever since Tucson has been hot -- 107 in the city, and now in the 90s at Portal, with a warm wind. I knocked down a few wasp nests in Faranuf's eaves, but my friend and Portal "font of knowledge", Helen Snyder, said there's a wasp nest in the utility box outside, and the way to get rid of them (temporarily) was to put a trash bag over the box so they can't get out, then hit 'em with wasp spray, which comes out in a 20-foot stream (you don't want to be too close to those suckers). I haven't done it yet...I set up a few bird feeders in the back yard where the original owners had put up feeder hangers, but the word hasn't been spread in the bird world yet --
Meanwhile, the "monsoonal" clouds over the Chiricahuas were mighty impressive --
Yesterday the 16th I took my Diamondback hybrid bike (good for both paved and dirt roads) to get my mail from the tiny Portal post office, then continued up Cave Creek Road, winding among the shade and sycamores, until I came to Sunny Flat Campground. The campground is closed due to flood damage, and possible future floods, during the monsoon season, but I got in and took photos of my bike set in the mountain desert landscape --
Flying among these rocky ramparts I could see Swainson's Hawks and Turkey Vultures, and the lush growth provided a contrast to the rocky, barren mountains above --
Earlier in my cycling trip I'd stop to take a photo of the classic view looking up Cave Creek Canyon, with a Century plant smack in the middle --
I came home about 9:30 as it was starting to get hot. I worked on my Stihl string trimmer, mixing the fuel and oil in a 50 to 1 ratio (gleaned from a You Tube video, You Tube has a video for EVERYthing) then took a long-overdue, refreshing nap in the afternoon as I was going to have dinner at a new friend's house. About an hour before leaving Faranuf, I looked to the east -- and saw what looked to be a HUGE cloud of dust coming towards Portal, and it had brief flashes of lightning. It was very dramatic -- then it was upon Faranuf, and the wind picked up. But it was over in a flash...The evening ended with another dinner with good friends and fellow "Portalites" where we discussed everything from Short-tailed Hawks to desert gardening, and at 9PM, after salmon, 3-bean salad and steaks, we all went home. So now it's the 17th, and another day of adventure begins...
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