Well, we closed on the house this week, so it was our first weekend! By the time we rolled out of Phoenix, we had a big pile of stuff that had to go over. So I drove the truck and Felicia drove her car. I had the bed, mattress, chairs and other miscellaneous stuff, she had our bags, climbing gear, and the dogs. I left first, but we met up in Quartzite and I followed her into Joshua Tree from there.
First line of business... get the dogs comfortable.
This was well into Friday after assembly of the chairs and footstools for the living room. This is the new room the seller guy added to the back of the house. It will probably be the main "hangout" room for the house, but it will probably be kind of empty for a while.
It took a surprising amount of time to put this bed together. You can't get too far ahead in the instructions, or when you find out something's together backwards, you get to take it all apart and start again. I probably put it together like two and a half times.
Check that out! Chairs, footstools, happy doggie, and even a picture hanging on the wall!
Seems like I have a lot of doggie pictures from this weekend. We got to spend a lot of time with them.
It was cool enough Saturday night that we spent some time hanging out on the front deck watching the sunset. 
It was so nice out there that we decided to have dinner out there. The doggies didn't seem to mind, and there's not many times you can enjoy being outside in Phoenix this time of year.
Riley enjoying the sunset.
Ginny when her perpetual motion was suspended for about two minutes.
Last rays on Riley.
And goodbye to the last minutes of sun. The first of what we hope will be many nice sunsets.
Cute babies hanging out together in the bedroom.
The Granite Mountain (near Prescott) climbing season is usually pretty short. It closes on the 1st of February, and doesn't open again until July 15th. Normally, I wait until it cools of up there to go climbing, but I've also found that anything under 85 in town is doable up at the wall. That being the rule, with a forecast (low, as it turned out) of 82 for today, I wanted to go. As I didn't have a partner, I whittled my rack down, chucked anything not absolutely necessary, and headed up.
There it is... from the approach trail... long way to go. On the way up the trail, I ran into this guy (Kevin) from Prescott headed up to the Swamp Slabs to solo some easy stuff. We sort of hit it off, and I invited him to rope up with me for an ascent of the Classic (four pitches, 5.7 with the 5.9 Crack Lover's variation tossed in).
Kevin coming up the first pitch of Reunion (best start IMHO for The Classic).
Kevin headed up the second Crack Lover's pitch. At the top of that pod, you can continue straight up to do the 5.9 var (only a couple moves of .9). No problem mon!
Close shot of Kevin putting in some gear for the cruxy part of the 5.9 Crack Lover's var. It seemed a little thin today... but it went.
I ran the rope up to the top of the Flying Buttress. This is a shot of Kevin coming up the 12" wide "sidewalk" ramp on the way to the belay.
This angling crack leads from the main wall to other end of the Flying Buttress and the belay.
Kevin heads across the top of the Flying Buttress to get to the main wall and the High Exposure Exit pitch. Great climbing!
On the main wall, connecting the holds.
The High Exposure Exit is only rated 5.6+, but there are a couple of spots that definitely get your attention. It's not something you just run up, that's for sure!
Kevin out towards the end of the technical climbing on the High Exposure Exit, about to turn the corner and head up the gully behind to the anchor at the top of the headwall on the left.
First rap back down past the top of the Flying Buttress. Pretty airy up there!
Two guys working on the second pitch of Cat's Pajamas. Although it's only rated 5.8+, it would probably be rated a bit harder at most other areas. I recall this pitch as being straight-up burly difficult.
Super long shot of the spot where the falcons nest up to the right of the last pitch of Kingpin. They were screeching quite a bit today... maybe nobody told them the ban has lifted for the year?
Longer shot of the guys on Cats Pajamas.
The leader on Cat's Pajamas just past the second crux of the pitch and headed for the top of the Flying Buttress.
And a parting shot... what an awesome place! Love it!
Last weekend, we traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to celebrate a pair of 80th birthdays. My dad and his wife both turned 80 this year and a family gathering was planned to celebrate. So we jumped on a plane and flew via Denver (and a delayed flight) To Des Moines for the weekend. Although I had my camera with me, for some reason it never made it out of my backpack, so the only photos I have came from our phones.
We booked the cheapest car we could find, a subcompact through Enterprise. This is what we turned up with... a Fiat that was barely bigger than a SmartCar. I wouldn't want one for every day, but it was actually kind of fun running around in it. The only problem we had was not being able to get our shared bag into the trunk. I had to SQUEEZE it into the back seat!
When in Iowa... who doesn't see some of the famous bridges of Madison County? I think a lot of them have been renovated in in the last ten years. This one was rededicated in 2004. Oh, and they all have names.
A shot of the inside of the bridge... apparently, it is very popular to fill the inside of the bridges with graffiti. Go figure.
We happened to be very near Winterset, Iowa, the birthplace of John Wayne, so we stopped in for the tour. You couldn't take any photos inside the house, so this was the best we could do.
Customized 1980 fan parked outside the birthplace. Some serious painting and work went into this thing. It was kind of impressive.
John Wayne statue on the main drag of Winterset. They're raising money now for a sort of big birthplace museum and visitor's center and this statue will be moved there when it's done.
Can't keep a good climber down...
My cat burglar impression. Headed for the window.
Who knew?
Another covered bridge at a park in Winterset.
Great sign at the Madison County Desert Factory in Winterset where we had lunch.
And just the day before, she was making fun of me for having to climb something!!
