A RAINY, “CHILI” KIND OF DAY IN AJO….

     We got up this morning to a cloudy gray sky…and it started raining about 8:30AM..Seems like this would be a great day to fix a “comfort food” kind of breakfast! I got out the bacon, eggs and pancake mix put on my best Julia Childs accent and started creating…Some days Chef Dennis cooks breakfast outside, but this was not one of them…If I do say so, it hit the spot…Nothing like sitting inside your cozy camper eating a short stack with eggs and bacon, while it is pouring outside…

We took our walk about 11AM, after it began to clear off..We had mail up at the office and when Den went in and got it he told Ray about yesterday’s find on the mountainside.  Ray smiled and shook his head, saying people discover things like that all of the time out there.  Isn’t is just so sad that it is becoming commonplace to find such items in the desert??

After this rain today the desert will be even greener. I managed to find a photo of our trail behind our camper when we got here in December…and I took the same photo last night to see how much greener it is now…

This photo was taken Dec 31….

 

….and this one was taken Feb 19th, yesterday….definitely greener, right???

Well, about noon we drove into Ajo to attend the Ajo Legion Chili Cook-Off.  What can I say about the Chili Cook-Off…??? It was small and quaint.  We may have been a tad early, and the weather hadn’t cooperated this morning, so the cooks were few and far between.  I think I counted six teams.  I must say though, the aromas wafting from their cooking pots were sensational!

This team was chopping fresh cilantro to throw into the pot…We wandered inside the VFW where they had the raffle tickets for the car and a small bazaar with some various things for sale..I had to tear myself away from the beaded red chili pepper earrings…they would have made a nice accessory to my “uniform”, but Dennis didn’t find them attractive…I found the electric plug- in strips to be an interesting addition to the items for sale.  They were selling hamburgers and fries from the kitchen, and a few people were sitting at tables chowing down. The chili judging wasn’t until 2PM and we were hard pressed to find something to occupy our time until then, so we opted to take one more stroll by the chili pots to get high on the smell….and then we left.

I am sure this place got much busier as the day wore on..There was a band that was going to play later. Unfortunately, about 1:30PM, the rain started again with a vengence, along with a “chili” wind…(sorry about that.) Those poor cooking teams just couldn’t catch a break.!! We did have a good time, if not a short time, getting a feel for another small town Ajo event.

Like I said, it began raining again this afternoon.  Before we left Ajo, Dennis wanted to get some beer and I wanted a cardboard pizza for dinner.  We stopped at the liquor store, aptly named Extravagances, and Dennis snagged a case of beer.  Then went to Dollar General, where I tracked down the freezers and grabbed a DiGiorno’s pepperoni frozen pizza. What more could we ask for than pizza and beer?? Our life is not complicated, I assure you!!

Many times when we take our walk, I see quail running around , bobbing their feathered heads and making little quail sounds.   They are so fast, I never seem to get time for a picture, but today I got one…finally!!

I find these little guys, (or gals), hysterical..They run around with their little hats, looking like Hedda Hopper.  (If you don’t know who that is….you could easily be one of our children…) In this photo you CAN see how green it is getting  here.

Well, we are all hunkered down here inside our snuggy “home on wheels”.  As I type, it is still raining, the wind is blowing, but we are still happy campers.  Dennis is pondering his crossword puzzles, where his big obstacle is his spelling..Hey, he IS McGuyver and he can fix absolutely ANYTHING!!!!…and I am not kidding…So what, if spelling isn’t his forte’…I am one lucky and very spoiled woman to live with Mr. Fixit….Our poor daughter’s husbands had one hard act to follow.

Just when I think I have nothing to say on our blog, I end up saying too much….Right now the sun is out and it is pouring…Ya gotta love Arizona!! I have no idea what’s in store for tomorrow, so don’t loose hope, I’ll find something to blog about…thanks for hangin’ on!!!