Challenger Space Center

And so with nothing better to do on a Saturday morning when I got invited to go check out the Challenger Space Center in Peoria I jumped at the opportunity. For this particular day they had a Smithsonian exhibition and it was free to the public provided you pre-printed your ticket which allowed two people to go in on your computer. Regular fees are $8:00 for adults and $5:00 for kids.

Hours:
Mon - Fri 9 am - 4 pm
Sun Closed

Their story as printed in the card they hand you as you walk in: Challenger Space Center Arizona is a four-story public museum and education facility that opened July 2000. The center is a private educational charity, and a living tribute to the astronauts who lost their lives aboard Space Shuttle 51-L in 1986. Their families founded Challenger Center for Space Science Education, and about 50 Challenger centers operate nationally.

I jumped on the 101 and 35 minutes later after following a detour I got to the museum. The building is pretty nice, and looks like some sort of modern structure. Lots of glass windows, metal walls, and concrete.




I didn't expect the place to be as packed as it was. Upon entering we only walked for about five minutes when this lady asked us if we wanted to watch one of the exhibits, although free it required tickets as the seating was limited. Again we jumped at the opportunity and took them. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and we were in. The show was about stargazing and they pretty much told us that we can see at least seven of the nine planets if we just go out to our back yards with a set of binoculars. They talked about the stars, the constellations, the moon, and so on. It was pretty informative and definitely something new to me. After all I never took astrology or anything like that in school.


Joe Cool suited up in his astronaut suit and is ready for take off.
The portable dome planetarium which they take to schools was fun. Do not go in there if you are claustrophobic tho. Inside the dome you are transported into a night sky environment for studying the constellations, the moon, the planets, the seasons, multicultural folklore/mythology and much more.

So if one day you find yourself with nothing to do and you want to take the kids to see something educational as well as exciting, consider visiting the Challenger Space Center, you will have a nice time. There are plenty of things to see, things to do, and exhibitions to watch.

Dare to Dream!

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On The Way Back to Phoenix -- Part II

Welcome to Quartzite.
So, a few hours after I left La Puente I'm still on the road and stopping everywhere I please. I got to Quartzite and went to the old car dealership behind the Love's Truck stop. They must have over a hundred old cars for sale there and every single one a true jewel. Of course I had to go trigger happy with the camera shutter and snapped a lot of pics through the fence of course. No matter the fence added character to my images, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Here are some of my favorites:





This dealership really is like a kids toy store, I could walk up and down more than once.

I was going to gas up the car at Love's but as usual it was packed so I decided to go across the freeway and gas up at the Chevron. Good move cause that gas station was empty and I also took this opportunity to snap some more pics.





Got on the car and not even a few yards away I found another nice place for pictures. It was an old gas station that apparently served a company fleet. The place was totally open and it had a little signs saying no trespassing. I couldn't resist and caught a few images there.


You must admit it was a great prop for some car pictures.
Got on the car drove not even a fourth of the same block and I see this lady snapping pictures of an old gas station and the old building around it. She had a very nice camera so she could do it from the side walk. I went over and talked to her and then backed up my car and parked it in front of the pumps at the gas station.



I love this images.

Then noticed some of the structures around this place and I just pointed and shoot some more.






Random images from Quartzite.

Believe it or not it started raining on me so that was my last stop. After a traffic jam at Verado Way because of the road construction I finally got home at around 9:00 pm. I had lots of fun and bowed to do this again.

I say this time and time again. To me the jorney is just as important as the destination.

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Letter K is for Kids and...

ABC Wednesday Letter "K"

For starters I want to post a picture of my perfect "K", that being K is for kids, and in my case grand kids to be exact. Nothing gives me more joy than to have them around, although they do tend to drive me a little crazy, yes all ten of them.



Kids!
Pictured here, seven of my 10 grand kids.

Grandchildren are prescious gifts given to parents from their children.

Kiss!

"Life, the gift of nature, Love, the gift of life, a Kiss, the gift of Love"

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Katrina it wasn't

...but Georgette brought a lot more than we were prepared for, and two feet of water inside our house damaged a lot more than we expected. I have had homes flooded before, but I've never been IN a flood. It was just so astonishingly fast!

The Capt was out on the boat, replacing a battery so the bilge pump would function and the boat wouldn't sink. 

It started as a trickle under the front door which was nothing unusual; we need to replace that door and the threshold. But while I went off to grab a couple of towels,  the trickle became a flash flood. Details are a little vague in my memory now,  I only recall sloshing around unplugging the computers, grabbing guitars, looking for large bags to carry crucial stuff out. Second-guessing a lot what constitutes crucial. And praying a lot. Shoes from the bottom of my closet, dog dishes and books floated by as I braced the front door shut again and locked it — the deadbolt held! I was furious with myself for not having filled the 15 sandbags we had in the closet, but I'm not sure they'd have made much difference.

Loaded with bags I waded across the parking lot in the downpour to Patricia's casa. She was home with her four kids, and she had some pots  on her living room floor to catch drips, but no other worries. She came back with me several times to carry more things. Then she kept Chica the rest of the day, and overnight.

Meanwhile, the Capt was struggling to get back to land in the middle of the storm, and looking forward to being warm and dry, but instead he waded into knee-deep disaster. He recovered pretty quickly and we began the long process of sweeping, squeegeeing and bailing the water back out of the house. What was left was a film of dark brown silt over everything. The bottom two shelves of each bookcase and kitchen cupboard, the bottom two drawers of every dresser and all their contents were covered with a layer of mud. The squeegee came in really handy for banishing that and we wished we had two.

The last two days have been a battle against mold, mildew and rust, with breaks to reconnect computers, phones, sound systems... The Capt was able to save one of our three amplifiers, my computer mouse and a few electrical gadgets I was sure we'd have to replace.

Our next-door neighbors, who are away for the summer, have a sump pump, which we used to pump water out of their patio and as much as we could out of their house. They had no silt. By the next morning it was all gone.

I have plenty to be grateful for:
• The Capt came home safe
• The electricity and water never shut down, even at the height of the storm. So afterward we were able to begin the cleaning and drying process immediately instead of living with the mud.
• My neighbor helped a great deal
• The whole rainstorm lasted no more than a few hours, instead of 36 hours like Jimena last year.
• My fridge didn't take in any water!
• The guitars and computers were saved.
• Our washer and dryer are toast, but we were able to go next door to wash all the clothes and linens that got wet.
• Only a couple of days ago I had moved my family photo albums to a higher (drier) shelf in the bookcase.
• We have flood insurance (she says with fingers crossed)
• I didn't have a terminally ill dog to rescue along with everything else
• The boat didn't sink
• It could have been so much worse.

 Flooding in Tabasco, in July

 Flooded church in Baja

On The Way Back to Phoenix -- Part I

Vintage gas station.
Coming back from California I decided to take the scenic route, which one is that you may ask? Well, in my case it's the same long and boring desert route except I decided to take my sweet time.

I left my sister's house at around 1:00 pm and after gassing up the Stang I headed towards I-10. As I hit the Pomona area I encountered lots of traffic, at first I thought it was due to the holiday weekend but then I realize that all the backed up traffic was merging right and exiting on two specific exits. I had no clue as to what was going on until I was back in Phoenix and I was told that the L.A. County fair started on that weekend.


First stop, food stop.
A few years back on our way to L.A. mi chicaand I were getting hungry, she said she craved a particular type of food and she spoke of Lucy's a well known fast food Mexican/American food restaurant that has virtually over a hundred items in the menu, at the same time I saw a Harley Davidson dealership and so I took the next exit. The dealership happened to be closed but on our way back to the freeway she spotted a restaurant and said, "I bet you anything you want that that restaurant has what I want", you know what it did. Gus Jr. restaurant has one of those wall menus with over a hundred items, both Mexican and American and it did have what she wanted. A pastrami. After that time, we made it a point to always stop there to eat on our way back to Phoenix. This time I stopped by myself and enjoyed a pastrami and chili fries.

Love their pastramis and chili fries.

So on my way to West Covina I stopped at a Loves Truck stop and bought this cool basebal jersey I liked, unfortunately it didn't fit me so on my way back I stopped to exchange it. That was stop number two.


Loves.

You know that famous stop by the freeway with the dinosaurs? That was supposed to be stop number two but thanks to a big rig that blocked my exit I couldn't do it, so I am saving that one for the next time. So back on the highway I headed towards Phoenix again and then had stop number three. Chiriaco Summit.

General Patton's Museum is there, so I parked the car and started taking pictures of all the war tanks on display there.





Tanks.
Then of course the mandatory car shot with the tanks on the background.



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"J" Is For Joke, Joe, and Joy.

ABC Wednesday -- Letter "J"

"J" is for joke so here is one for you:

Ain`t Goin`

One Sunday morning, a mother went in to wake her son and tell him it was time to get ready for church, to which he replied, "I`m not going."

"Why not?" she asked.

I`ll give you two good reasons," he said. "(1), they don`t like me, and (2), I don`t like them."

His mother replied, "I`ll give YOU two good reasons why YOU SHOULD go to church.

(1) You`re 59 years old, and (2) you`re the pastor!"

"Joe Cool"
Grand kids create a special kind of:

Joy!

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Georgette: up close and personal

The rain began in earnest and is still with us this morning, sporadically. Chica doesn't like to get her feet wet; to get her outside I have to carry her a distance, put her down and when she's done her business she races back inside. Such a princess.

At sunrise the whole world turned golden. The sun peeped under the lid of heavy clouds just long enough to gild the air, then everything turned blue, violet and gray as the rains started in again. But there's very little wind, for now. The Capt says that will change.

Georgette, still officially a tropical depression,  is 79 miles south-southeast of us at present. Even though her wind speed is down from yesterday at 35mph, we'll get 50mph because she spins counter-clockwise with a NNW movement of 14mph. I don't pretend to understand all this, but if you look at the right-hand edge of her path where it meets land, you see it touches the northwest edge of a little bay next to Guaymas. That spot is where we are.

And wouldn't you know it: we have a full moon again! Interesting how many significant things seem to happen at the full moon.

Our neighbor came over this morning with Akira, Chica's playmate, and urged us to be prepared for major weather. Schools are closed in Guaymas and San Carlos, and the school where she teaches will likely be flooded. If the roads are passable later, she and her husband plan to go help with the cleanup.

Compared with storms we've seen in past years, and especially compared with the major hurricanes this year that have inundated areas such as Vera Cruz, this is not bad. In case of a power outage, we have a generator on the boat that the Capt plans to retrieve.  I've got candles, drinking water and a butane stove, and I bought groceries yesterday. I even bought a new umbrella recently. We're lucky to have some advance notice, 

I always like to be prepared for company.

¡Por fín, la lluvia!

At last, the rain cometh! It seems for a month we've been watching lightning beyond the hills, but no rain, and in spite of our awareness that rain could be excessive, could cause flooding in our new home, could leak through the newly-constructed roof of our newly-constructed additional room, we're still glad to see it.  While fellow bloggers in Vera Cruz are watching entire colonias vanish beneath floodwaters, we've been sitting high, dry and hot.

This wonderful shot of lightning near the Tetas de Cabra is not one of mine... I don't think my camera is capable of such a shot. It was posted on the local forum, Viva San Carlos.

Georgette is probably responsible for this weather. StormPulse and WunderGround, two weather tracking sites I refer to, both show her as a tropical storm currently just south of Cabo San Lucas, with winds of only 40 mph. Not good for boating, but not a harrowing prospect at the moment. If she affects Sonora, it will be Wednesday around 11am according to both predictions. How do they figure these things out? Beats me.

RIP Sophie Pearl