March 27…. Desert denizen

Mostly a slow day today, it was HOT. Odd to think 83 is all that hot, but we haven’t seen that in quite a while.

Grocery shopping. Did laundry, played Rummikub, took a nap. All the hard stuff that retirees have to contend with.

After the heat started to settle down a bit, I pulled the bikes off the rack and we went right down the street to Tuzigoot National Monument. It’s an ancient Sinagua Indian Pueblo complex on a hill next to the Verde River. Right after we arrived, the ranger came running out and hurried up the path with a snake handling tool. We met our first inhabitant of the desert southwest… the western diamondback.

She moved the snake just below the pathway and set it free.

We continued on to the ruins, keeping our eyes to the ground around us, just in case

After the ruins, we went on a long bike ride up Sycamore Canyon Road, following the river. The whole area was mined for copper over the last century, so tailings piles are all over the place, and we passed the remains of the old smelter complex. Didn’t quite break 300 miles on my bike yet, we got home at 296. 😃