AJ, AZ - Resort Day

When I was talking about the glories of Thanksgiving did I mention that one of the major benefits of having a late Thanksgiving is putting off until another day the playing of Feliz Navidad on the radio, the TV, the malls, the grocery stores. Oh, my, is there any place that does not play this song in its rotation of Christmas songs? And, it’s already started: there is a commercial which airs during the evening news that features this song. Now I know why we mute the sound during the commercials.

Today, we awoke to heavy fog almost to the ground. We certainly can’t see the mountains at all. While I was laying in bed last night trying to get to sleep, I thought it might be a neat idea to walk to breakfast this morning. That’s a twofer: breakfast out and getting our walk done early in the day. Of course, when I awoke to the fog and temps in the low 40’s, I had second thoughts. However, I had mentioned it to Big Gar and he called me on it - so we bundled up and headed out.

My hiking gloves weren’t as warm as the flannel lined mittens I used to wear when we did our daily walk in West Des Moines during the winter. But, I had pockets so I could keep my hands warm that way. We got there about 5 minutes after the rush had come in and when we looked around at all the tables: everyone sat there just with coffee. A bad sign and a long wait for us. But we had a newspaper and so we waited. It was warm, I had a paper to read and no place special to go.

The fog lifted a bit as we ate, then socked in again. The sun didn’t peek through until about 11:00 and then the snow on the mountains disappeared instantly. Sunshine, yes!! But the temps didn’t get above 51 degrees. Now, I’m not complaining - it is what it is. And, of course, I know that our temps here are lots warmer than in Iowa - we keep track of Iowa temps daily. But, I want you to know it is not all sunshine, pools and pickle ball. Of course, the golfers were out, in their down jackets and mittens.

Our GPS chokes when it tries to get us back to our lot, #155 on Kansas Street, in the resort here. Here’s the map of our section of the resort. We come into the Resort on the right hand side on the ‘Main Entrance',  head right down South Dakota and turn left on Kansas to get to 155. OUr GPS wants to take us to the right and around the circle. Look at this map. No wonder our GPS has problems. What were they thinking?

Since we worked inside today, I’ve got some fun facts about Arizona for you:

Arizona has more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland. Here’s the astounding fact:

        15% of AZ is private land (homes, businesses, ranches, etc.)
        25% of AZ is reservations
        70% of AZ is controlled by the Federal Government in National Parks (such as Grand Canyon), National Monuments (such as Organ Pipe Cactus NM), National Forest, dams). Some of this government controlled land is on reservations.
    
The largest employer in Arizona as of 2010 is:
        State of Arizona
        Walmart with 30,000 employees
        Banner Health with 28,000 employees
        Wells Fargo with 10,000 employees

For all you who think that AZ is dry, here’s your fact: Arizona has more boats per capita than any other state in the nation. Here’s a marina on Canyon Lake that we passed on one of our treks. This is the smaller of a chain of 3 reservoirs in this area. Lots of boats here and this is the off season. I’m sure the slips are full in the summer.

With around 155,000 Indian residents, Arizona has the third largest Indian population in the country; only Oklahoma and California have larger Indian populations. More than a quarter of the state's land consists of Indian reservations and about three-quarters of the Indian population live on a total of 20 reservations. Thirty-eight percent of all United States tribal lands are located in the southwest portion of the country.

It was in Arizona that the great Indian chiefs Geronimo and Cochise led their people against the frontiersmen.

The Anasazi Indians made waterproof baskets that they cooked in. They put hot rocks in with the food to cook it.

The Grand Canyon is 227 miles long, 1 mile deep, and has an average width of 10 miles.

Arizona leads the nation in copper production and is known as the Copper State.

Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time on a year round basis, never observing daylight savings time. On the other hand, the Indian Reservations observe Mountain Daylight time. That sure was confusing when we were traveling from Utah to Arizona and crossing Reservations in the process. We didn't know what time we were getting up in the morning.

In Arizona, it is unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water.

And, did you think that Arizona was all desert? Heck, no. One-fourth of the entire state is covered by forest growth. It is the largest unbroken Ponderosa pine forest in America. Remember the huge forest fires last summer in the Eastern forests of AZ?

Arizona is known as the "Nation's Valentine", because it joined the union on February 14, 1912. Next year is the 100th anniversary and they are planning many celebrations.

The original London Bridge was shipped stone-by-stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.

The sun shines in southern Arizona 211 days per year and an additional 85 days are only partly cloudy. This is considerably more sunshine than Florida or Hawaii. Of course, we’ve just had 4 days of clouds, rain, fog and snow. Lucky us.

Arizona frequently has the hottest and coldest temperatures on the same day. The temperature could be 75 degrees in the desert to 45 degrees in the high country.

Camels were used at one time to transport goods across Arizona.

Arizona once had a navy consisting of two boats on the Colorado River. They were used to prevent California from encroaching on Arizona territory. You just can’t trust those Californians.

The name Arizona comes from the Indian “Arizonac” which means “little spring”.

And, for our friends living in Prescott, we would just like to remind them that in Prescott no one is permitted to ride their horse up the stairs of the county court house.