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The 2011 Trip
Part 86 – A brief official description of this area
 

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

At 3.50 AM the Gold Canyon weather station claims it is clear and the temperature is 38.7F. Our furnace agrees. The temperature dropped a bit to 38.3F at 5:30 AM and we can see the propane salesman smiling as we drive in with our empty bottle. At 10:15 AM the temperature was up to 54.2F. At 11:15 AM it was up to 57.9F and a nice sunny day. By 2 PM it was 65.8F, partly cloudy but a nice sunny afternoon. At 4 PM it was 65.3F with scattered clouds. At 6 PM it was 59.8F with scattered clouds still.

General clean up around the trailer in the morning. Refrigerator defrosted, tanks drained and so on. Joan was up sewing for the afternoon and I watched parts of The Great Indian Wars again. It is quite a history lesson.

Joan came home about 2 PM and we then sat out in the sun for an hour. The wind was cool but the sun was nice. Joan brought home a letter from our granddaughter. There is nothing like a letter from a seven year old granddaughter to cheer one up.

I borrowed a tour book of this area and found this interesting except it was Monday when we ran into all the traffic out here on route 60.

“Apache Junction, pop. 31,814, elev. 1,715.

As its name implies, Apache Junction – the western terminus of the Apache Trail – is at the junction of US 60 and SR 88.

....

For eight consecutive weekends from the first Sunday in February through the last Sunday in March, the Arizona Renaissance Festival is held 7 miles east on US 60. Beginning at 10 AM and ending at 6 PM activities during this re-creation of a 16th-century European village at play during a market fair include jousting tournaments, wandering musicians, theatrical events and demonstrations of period crafts.”

This should also be of interest:

“Superstition Mountains, East of Town, were named for the many legends surrounding them. The fabled Lost Dutchman Gold Mine lies somewhere in these mountains. Whether the mine really exists is uncertain, but at least eight men were killed because of it and many others died searching for it. Monuments at Roosevelt Dam and Apache Junction commemorate Jacob Waltz, who allegedly discovered the mine.”

They found three bodies in these mountains since we have been here that were apparently searching for something. There is a wealth of information in all of these publications but that is all I want to record and save here.

We went down off 14023 kilohertz this evening and tuned in the Saskatchewan and Alberta 80-meter nets. We could hear both but could not understand much on the Saskatchewan net. We could at least understand some of those on the Alberta net. They are phone nets and if they had been radiotelegraph we would have been able to get a solid copy on nearly all them. CW or radiotelegraph is so much better when signals are that strong.

The 9 PM temperature was 50.9F with a clear sky. The movie is over and the day ended with another good one as history

 
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