Colorado River, Sonoran Desert and Will's Soccer

This year, Will's Utah Storm Soccer team opted to play in the prestigious Phoenix Presidents Day Tournament. Because of COVID gathering restrictions in Phoenix, the tournament shifted southward to Casa Grande--a 10 hour drive from Springville--where the games were held at Grande Sports World where the Barca Academy is housed (FC Barcelona training school).

We headed south on Friday morning. First stop was an overlook south of Freedonia that looked north to the aptly named Vermilion Cliffs--which were hidden by the clouds. Looking eastward we could see the remains of a big fire a few years ago.

The Vermilion Cliffs from a different lookout.

We skirted the beautiful southern perimeter of the National Monument.

My motivation in taking US 89A was inspired by my recent reading of the Emerald Mile. It is a delightful book about the history and geography of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon through the main lens of modern-day river runners but with plenty of side detours to Spanish explorers, John Wesley Powell's runnings of the Green and Colorado Rivers, the building of the Glen Canyon Dam and the 1984 floods that nearly breached the dam and allowed for the Emerald Mile (a wooden dinghy) to make a record breaking run down the turbulent, flood swollen river from Lee's Ferry to Lake Meade.

And so with plenty of warning to Will of a short (only a few miles and 1 hour) detour off the main route, we arrived at Lee's Ferry--located about 30 miles below Glen Canyon and right were the Colorado starts to erode and cut down into the Grand Canyon. I remember crossing nearby Navajo Bridge years ago, but I don't recall ever coming to the ferry site. 

Looking upstream.

Downstream with the Vermilion Cliffs on the right/north.

Getting ready to run the river

Amazing how quick the river dropped into Marble Canyon.

I spy a California Condor surveying the river from its bridge perch!

In order to stave off extinction, most of these condors were bread and raised in captivity and then released in the Vermilion Cliffs area to mate and hopefully flourish. One friendly couple said they had seen eight condors catching updrafts off the bridge earlier in the day. Only #44 remained for us to see.

Next afternoon between games, Marie and I ventured to the Casa Grande National Monument. Never heard of it until I started looking in my new Arizona Road Atlas for places to visit when not soccer spectating.

Surprised to learn that long before the Mormon pioneers started irrigating the upper Gila River Valley (Safford, Pima, Thatcher) the Sonoran Desert peoples had mastered the art of diverting Gila River water to irrigate crops.

 

Driving out to the ruins we passed many fallow fields sprinkled with cotton remnants from last year's harvest. This cotton--an ancient crop that is still grown in the area, was strapped to the above sign.

Sunday Morning I headed west on I-8 for 30 miles and then turned south into the southern section of the Sonoran Desert National Monument. It was a fun little adventure.

Drove through lots of dry washes.

Table Top Mountain, If I had had more time I would have explored closer.

Table Top Mt from my return along I-8.

Will's team went 3-1 in the tournament with two games on both Saturday and Sunday.

Lining up for a free kick.

Will (nearly hidden by two players in white) breaking to go in for any follow up opportunities to shoot.

Quick Will was there for a ricocheted ball, but the goalie wanted nothing of it and came at the ball and Will with cleats up. One cleat bottom hit Will hard below the shin guard and took him painfully down.

He was back in the game a short time later.

Nice crescent moon in the western sky. While most of the US was in a deep freeze of snow we were enjoying 70 degree days and 50 degree evenings

Excellent cross to a header (below) and the first tournament goal for the team--only to have it called back for off sides by an earlier pass. A later goal gave Storm this first win.

The one positive side to not advancing in the tournament was that the team did not play on Monday. That meant we could start home in the morning which luckily got us back to Springville by 8:00 pm just as the snow really started to pick up. While Will slept and Marie cross stitched, I enjoyed the dive northward across very distinct vegetation belts. I loved going from the scrub of the Sonora, up through the saguaro cacti forests north of Phoenix, then cedar and pinon forest followed by the pine and firs around Flagstaff. We then dropped down into more desert scrub and colorful rocks of the Navajo reservation. As we passed through Maricopa County and the Navajo reservation I was reminded how important these two sections of Arizona were in helping Biden to win such a strategic swing state. 

I had identified several possible stops--mostly National Monuments--along the way for more exploring, but our only stops (other than the one planned stop at the dam) were gas in Flagstaff and lunch in Page where during both stops we were able to visit with Joel for his end of P-day weekly call from Ghana.

Scenic view looking down on Marble Canyon below Navajo Bridge.

More of the Colorado gorge.

Scattered homes of the Navajo Nation. We passed several signs and Billboards along the way with COVID 19 precautionary reminders for this hard hit corner of the US.

The View of Glen Canyon Dam and Bridge from Page.

I was delighted to happen by this most excellent view area of the dam and river. More reminders of the Emerald Mile that documented the strain the flood waters of 1984 flood placed on this dam and the two flood release tunnels cut through the red rock on both sides of the dam.

1984. Full to brimming Lake Powell and flood gates wide open. (source: Wikipedia)

View from the bridge.

The white ring indicates how high the reservoir has reached in the past.

Christmas Star

Nice views of the "Christmas Star" on this winter solstice day. It is actually Saturn and Jupiter in the southwest sky in near alignment to look like one bright star. It's been 400 years since the two planets have aligned this close.

The two planets.

 

 These last two photos were with my i-phone. The final photo shows how much the start has sunk on the horizon.

 Earlier in the afternoon I went for a nice hike up in our foothills. While hiking I listened to Ghost Map--a fascinating story centered on Dr. Snow and his Broad Street cholera map in London.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No visible star yet.

A 2020 Thanksgiving

 

Thanksgiving in this crazy COVID year of 2020 bucked many a tradition. For starters it was just us three that gathered. Sadly, this was the year we lost our last parent (Marie's wonderful dad) so the usual draw of over the river to grandparents' house or to a sibling's house with grandparents there was not an option. To be cautious, the six Emmett siblings and the ten Tueller siblings all decided to keep apart for this holiday. Even the five of us was not an option--Joel is on a mission and Sarah is six miles away at BYU and not wanting to possibly be a plague carrier to her older parents. So the three of us decided to enjoy at least the tradition of a turkey dinner and all the fixens.

 

Kind Aunt Rachel made sure that we did keep the tradition of Tueller nut cups alive with a mid-morning drop by visit with nut cups for us all. She then made her way northward dropping off more nut cups at every Tueller household (at least seven) between Springville and her home in West Jordan. Marie reciprocated with a home made lemon pie--last night she delivered homemade apple pies to her two sisters in Provo. Rachel was not the only guest to drop by today. Aunt Anna dropped off homemade bread for us to use for turkey sandwiches over the next few days.

 

Throughout the day, birds dropped by too. When we cleaned out our parents house five years ago, I brought home an unopened contained of Quaker Oats. It sat in our food storage room for all these years. When oatmeal for breakfast because a thing during our five-at-home few months of quarantine, I opened up the container only to find that the oatmeal was a bit too old to my liking. So it has become bird feed. Every few days I throw a handful out on our patio which brings lots of bird guests to our view.

 

 Will's job was to peel and mash the potatoes. He did a great job.

My job was candied yams (actually sweet potatoes and without marshmallows)--just like my mom made. It's been years since I had them since in larger family gatherings someone else always bring their own variety of yams. They turned out great and just like I remember them (thanks mom and thanks Betty Crocker).

My other main task was setting the table. I had fun pulling out table ware from my parents' house. When Sarah was four she made the center piece at a neighborhood mommies preschool. Marie conquered with aplomb all of the other tasks: roasting the BYU Christmas gift turkey, baking the rolls and pies, and making the stuffing, fruit salad, cranberries, beans and gravy.

 

First to eat was Joel in Manchester New Hampshire. He and four other office elders gathered in the Relief Society room of the mission office/church house where they enjoyed a delicious meal brought in by Brother and Sister Dickson (bless them) from the Manchester Ward and who had recently returned from serving as senior missionaries.

We delivered turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, and an apple pie to Sarah and then we dug in to a delicious meal. Will was delighted to get a whole turkey leg to himself, which he devoured with great gusto. Marie enjoyed the white meat and I the dark.

 Yum.

Last to eat were Sarah and her cousin/roommate Lucy. They cooked part of their meal which was augmented by deliveries from Marie and Lucy's grandma Dearden. 

Then for the best part of the day the five of us, plus Aunt Rachel from her home, got to Facebook Messenger chat with Joel. On Tuesday he got an email with fight reservations to fly to Ghana on December 10th where he will then serve in the Ghana Cape Coast Mission for the remaining seven months of his mission. It was fun to get all the details. His biggest concern is staying healthy between now and the 10th. Joel told us he may be going back to Ghana a few weeks ago when he got a message from the Missionary Travel office asking him to make sure his immunizations were all up to date. Prior to that, I had already ordered two sweaters and a fleece for Joel's Christmas presents. I held off mailing them waiting to see if a return to Africa would actually come true. It did, much to Joel's delight. To my delight, I now have two new nice sweaters, including the maroon one I wore today, and Will is getting a new fleece fro Christmas.

While making room for Marie's pies, the three of us enjoyed watching The Boy who Harnessed the Wind on Netflix. An excellent true story movie about life in rural Malawi where a drought almost defeats a family. It was a good reminder that running water, ready energy and more than a single simple meal a day is truly a blessing. I guess I shouldn't complain that our dishwasher stopped draining today and leaked out all over the kitchen floor.