I think Winter has left the scene here in Mesquite. Good riddance!
According to locals, this past season was a very cold and rainy one, compared to the normal averages. Lots of chilly mornings in the 20’s and low 30’s, and we had snow on the ground, which is rare for Mesquite.
Lots of snow in the Virgin Mountains, where we like to hike:
View toward Flat Top Mesa behind our subdivision:
My barbeque:
Investigating the cold, white stuff was a first for Baby and JayJay; Booger’s been there before. Baby says, “It’s cold outside!”:
We’re back in the mid-60’s this week, with morning lows in the 40’s. This we can handle. It’s nice to take the dogs for a walk in shorts and T-shirt, for a change. Yeah, Baby!
By the way, some good news today: President Trump left his much-hyped Hanoi “summit meeting” today with his North Korean despot/buddy, Kim Jong Un. Now, it turns out that North Korea isn’t “denuclearizing”, like Trump promised, last year. But, I’m sure we “won”, anyway.
Thursday:
This afternoon I went into Las Vegas to pick up Jason Friedman, who is flying in from Colorado Springs (via Denver). Jason is our “adopted” 5th son, who Charlie met in the old LeTip days. He’s a big outdoors guy, and will be joining our hiking group tomorrow for a jaunt into Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument.
Here he is with his regular hiking buddy, “Ashka”:
As long as I was going the 70 miles into Vegas to pick up Jason, I multi-tasked and did some shopping.
I stopped by Desert Rock Sports to check out hiking backpacks. The one I’ve been using, on day hikes in this area, is minimally OK, but lacks the capacity to carry much more than a hydration unit and a few goodies to eat. I really should take more emergency stuff with me, just in case. So, a bigger pack is in order. I bought a Petzl “Bug” pack for $75; my present to me.
(Speaking of outdoors stuff, Charlie and I watched the Oscar-winning documentary, “Free Solo” last night. It’s about a guy who recently free-climbed (with no rock climbing equipment) El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. “El Cap” is the ultimate rock climbing object in the world, with 3,200 vertical feet of solid granite. Many experienced, world class rock climbers have died trying to scale El Cap, and they failed with ropes, pitons, and human helpers. The hero of “Free Solo” did it alone, using his hands and feet only. Just an amazing feat, and quite an interesting movie!)
Friday:
Today, our “regulars” plus Jason did some hiking on the back side of Virgin Mountain. It was a long 4×4 drive over crappy roads and BLM trails to get to/from. The hiking terrain wasn’t worth it, as far as I was concerned. But, we got some good exercise.
Jason brought along his pricey hiker’s watch that calculates elevation gain, miles traveled and about fifty other things. When we got done hiking, Lloyd said that his Fitbit claimed that we had gone about 11 miles. Mac estimated 10 miles and Jason’s fancy G.P.S. wristwatch calculated a little over 6 miles. (My hips estimated 20 miles, because we did a lot of up and down scrambling!) Oh, well, whatever the mileage, it was a nice walk, the overcast skies kept us cooled down, and we had an entire morning to chew the cud, tell a bunch of tall tales, and give Jason a lot of shit. He held up well and dished it back to his new friends.
(Lloyd told another good one: A guy goes to a urologist to get a vasectomy. At check-in, the receptionist checked on his insurance. “I’ve got a deluxe PPO”, bragged the patient. In a while, an attractive nurse took the guy back to pre-op, into a small room, and closed the door. “You have a PPO, correct?”, asked the nurse. “Yes, I do”, confirmed the guy. The nurse then proceeded to get on her knees, undid his belt, took out his penis, and proceeded to give him a blowjob. He ejaculated in her mouth, and was quite pleased with himself. “What was that about?”, he asked. The nurse replied that “the urologist likes all of your pipes to be cleaned out before he does the surgery”. The nurse then walked the guy down the hall toward the surgical suite. They passed a small room, and, looking into the window, he saw six guys sitting next to each other in folding chairs, watching a porn video, with small paper cups in their hands. “What’s going on with those guys”, he asked. The nurse replied, dismissively, “They have Kaiser.”)
I harvested a teeny, pink barrel cactus out in BLM territory during the hike. I named him “Spike”, and I planted him in the front yard next to his green cousin, “Harry”.
JayJay’s fire hydrant came via FedEx today. I put it out on the edge of the artificial grass in the backyard, for now. Our landscaper guy, Daryl, may want to move it when he begins to re-design everything next week.
By the way, I found a deceased deer on a recent hike and scavenged the head (with antlers intact). After a proper period of respect, I cut a very nice antler chew toy for the dogs to sharpen their teeth on. Booger and Baby have at that thing all day. Here are the two of them: Baby is munching the antler bone, while Booger sleeps nearby.
Saturday:
Well, Winter is back; it’s raining, Dang it!
Today, I took Jason around Sun City Mesquite and showed him our community center and the rest of the city metropolis.
Later, Lloyd had a barbeque party for our hiking buddy, John, who will soon be leaving for Sequoia National Park, where he will be a guide this Summer. We enjoyed some good eats: grilled salmon, BBQ’ed pork, asparagus, garlic toast, and snacks.
While the wives chatted, the hiker guys talked about a prospective REI North Rim-Grand Canyon hike in the Fall. It’s a four-day thing: hike from the North Rim down to the Colorado River, spend a couple of days goofing around, and then hike up and out. Jason, John and I are interested, for sure, and Jason has a friend who’d like to do it, as well. I’ll need to investigate the particulars.
Later, after the rain had stopped, I drove Jason back to Las Vegas International Airport for his return flight to Denver.
On the way, we passed the under-construction Raiders NFL football stadium. It is located adjacent to I-15, on the opposite side of the freeway from the Mandalay Bay Hotel. It’s supposed to be opened in 2020.
Now:
2020:
It was 64 degrees when I got home to Mesquite at 7:30 p.m.
THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!!