August 20 -- A Bike Ride, Dinner at the Rodeo Tavern -- And Oh Yeah, It's My Birthday

Really, I stopped "celebrating" my birthday long ago. But I decided to be different this year -- a new home town, new friends who haven't any pre-conceived notions of you, etc. So I decided to start afresh, giving people the impression that I'm a calm, rational guy -- well, I am! (Most of the time.) But my way of celebration is to go on a bike ride, so I got out the Diamondback hybrid bike (27 speeds, 700c tires good for both dirt and paved roads). took a spin down the paved part of Foothills Road where I ran into Noel Snyder on his mountain bike and chatted with him for about 15 minutes -- then took a classic view of the broad portal (hence the name of the town) of Cave Creek Canyon, with a lush foreground from the wet monsoon season --

It truly is one of the most spectacular views in all of the southwest -- and I never tire of looking at it. After Foothills I biked up Portal Road, then the East Portal-Paradise Road which seemingly goes straight into Cave Creek Canyon. Along the way, South Fork Creek was having a good flow --

And during this time, seeing the flowing creek and lush growth, I was marveling that this was my "back yard" only about 8 miles at most from my home at Faranuf, and that I could visit it any time I want. I rode all the way to Sunny Flat Campground, took a rest on top of one of the tables, then headed back, passing a Coues deer on the side of the road. Once I got back home, I put hamburger on my indoor gill for lunch -- it turned out good!  -- and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the parade of wildlife in my back yard. There are at least 3 Cactus Wrens frequenting it --

And I saw a Thrasher for the first time, a Curve-billed -- 

Later in the afternoon, I saw a deer about 100 yard away, in the underbrush; it was glancing back at me --

His antlers still have their covering of velvet. The weather was becoming cloudy, and the wind was picking up. Then off to east I saw sheet of gray that almost looked like the beginnings of a tornado -- and there was lightning inside it -- 

Believe me, the weather here is not for fair-weather weenies...The cloud dissipated, but it provided an awesome display of Mother Nature. To end my birthday day, I had dinner at the Rodeo Tavern (8 miles away in New Mexico, so the time is 1 hour ahead) with Roger McKasson, an artist and writer who has a gallery in Rodeo and used to be a park ranger for, among other places, the Providence Mountains and Mitchell Caverns in California's Mojave Desert. As with most everyone here, he became an instant friend...Today the forecast is for scattered thunderstorms, so I plan to stick around the house, perhaps give that Stihl "weed whacker" another go...