Zoo Hike and Brown Out

Hi one and all we finally have internet again hopefully it will last until I finish this post. It has been a strange and busy time since my last post. My neighbour who let me use her internet has headed home so we have had to use the park internet, it has also been absent for the last week. Last Thursday we went to the Living Desert zoo and gardens with our friends Al and Shirley. We had a blast. They had a big screen tent with a bunch of budgie type birds from Australia. You walk around with a Popsicle stick with bird seed on it and the birds attack.

At one point Kelly had 6 or 7 on him if you include the two trying to get into his shorts pocket. Fun but just a little freaky. They also have a giraffe that is about to give birth. She wasn't out in the pen but the others were.

They had a wide variety of critters and about 125 different types of cactus. The Zoo is open until 5 pm now but in the summer time it is only open until 1 pm as it is to hot. They have a model train set up that covers about 2/3 of an acre.

If this next guy was in Texas some Yahoo would try and mount his horns on the front of his car. Not sure what car they would fit on.

We spent the day there and had a good time, there are 482 other photos but we don't have enough room here for them.
There has been a mass exodus from here over the last week. The pool is not very busy, we don't see as many people when we walk around the park. We will be leaving here the 2nd of April heading for Phoenix then Tuscon for a couple of days. The wind storm that started Tuesday and stopped late thursday night hasn't helped things. The wind blew about 35-40 miles per hour with recorded gusts to 63.5. Yet if we drive 20 minutes to Palm Springs there was little to no wind. On our way back from Palm Springs we took this picture as the car in front of us vanished in a cloud of sand.

Yup our first "Brown Out". They closed the road shortly after this. I think the part that was the worst was the continuous noise. You don't always notice it but after 2 and a half days of non stop wind YOU notice it.
On this past Thursday we went on our last hike of the season. I have a knot on my Achilles tendon, so our hike leader Jerry taped me up and away we went. It was a nice 4.4 mile hike that allowed us enough time to go as a group out for lunch at the Souplantation.

There were only 12 of us but it was enjoyable.
Hopefully they have fixed our internet and I can update this once more before we leave.
Take Care Junkel

Living in The Blooming Desert

Well we have been back here for a week now and we are still trying to adjust. The weather here has been very hot low to mid 30's so the pool has been our friend. Every place we have lived has had some weather issue we wish we could change here it is the wind. Yesterday we saw a sand cloud that went about 200 feet into the air. Kind of cool if you've never seen it before but not so cool went it gets closer to your home.

The biggest change down here lately is the flowers are out.

 This is a cactus

Same plant different angle.

This cactus blooms once a year and the blooms only last for just over 24 hours. The bloom based on temperature not necessarily the amount of sunlight as one of the blooms opened at 8:30 pm.

This gives you an idea of the size of the blooms.

It has been a busy few days as people are starting to vacate the park and work their way home. We has been to three parties in the last couple of days including a St. Paddy's day one. Tim who we hike and play pickleball with cooked enough Corned Beef and cabbage for 45 people. We brought Kelly's favourite vegetable for St. Paddy's Day, Chocolate Chip Mint Ice-Cream( the green kind).

On Monday we also went on our first hike in a month. It was suppose to go to an oasis but due to flooding earlier in the year the park people closed the trail. We ended up doing a 6 mile hike in Joshua Tree National Park.  The Joshua Trees are just starting to bloom as well.

June and Merril stop and smell the Joshua Tree

The park has a pond at one end and it has attracted a few of our feathered friends. there are 7 baby mallards swimming around and two of these guys as well.

 We have a couple of morning doves that live in the palm tree buy our place and they are setting up house there. I guess next year there will be more of them.

We are off to the zoo on Thursday so we will update the blog then.

Take care all

Linden Joseph Stanley Miller and sleeping with a Grandmother

On March 7 2014 at 11:17 pm Linden Joseph Stanley Miller came into this world. He weighed 7 pounds 14 ounces. At that moment two things happened Kelly and June became Grandparents for the first time and Natalie and Reid became known as "Linden's parents".

The Proud Grandparents

Four generations of Miller Men

A Very Happy Grandma

The New Parents

Linden

Pooh on guard

Not the last diaper change that grandma will do

So as you can see this blog update is all about Linden. There are no hikes,pickleball,or any other things to report. We are just very happy to be "Grandparents".  Although Kelly is not so sure about this sleeping with a grandmother thing but he is working it out.

We were back in Sidney for about two weeks and really enjoyed catching up with ex-co-workers,friends and especially family. We are flying back to Desert Hot Springs on Tuesday so the next update will include some pictures of a hike.

Take Care

JunKel