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Árbol del Sol
Thought for the Month The SunTree Traveler
Labor Day in the Gila National Forest There were some hunters in the area, as there always is during the Labor Day campout. The SunTree hunters were at other locations during this event hunting mastodons which are rare in the Gila National Forest. The ones who did show up had a pleasant weekend. It is thought that we might want to consider more camping trips into the area in the future. We have been scheduling these outings on the three Summer holiday weekends in the past. There is a good reason for that in that most other popular venues over those holiday weekends are packed with other holiday-makers. The negative aspect of this is that many of the club members tend to make other plans with their families and coworkers on those weekends. Would the gang want to consider making additional plans for camping trips into the National Forest on other weekends? Let SunTree know what you think. The campers report that none of the attendees were eaten by bears and the dragons remained in their abyss home over the weekend allowing nice, safe times for hiking and just kicking back and enjoying the forest. The hunters in the area were not intrusive for the campers. At this point, I would like to add a perhaps, unrelated comment on a word which is attempting to elbow its way into our dictionary. I hope that nobody thinks that I am making snide remarks about their rustic, back-wood habits of watching movies in home-like luxury while "communing with nature". The word is "glamping" and here are the comments from a couple of newspapers related to that "new" word. Glamping: * Seattle Times, 30 May 2007: It's known as "glamping," or glamorous camping, a British import inspired by A-listers who wanted to be in touch with nature without touching the dirt and dishes. * Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2007: The number of visits to U.S. national parks is declining, but "glamping" - glamorous camping - is on the rise in North America after gaining popularity among wealthy travelers in Africa and England, where luxury tents come with Persian rugs and electricity to power blow dryers. That Pool-Closing Event in El Paso Happy Tenth Anniversary to De Anza Springs Resort. Suntree had a delegation on-site to help in the celebrations. Did I mention rain in the Gila Camping Event above? There was rain at DeAnza also. I know that I was hit with almost a dozen drops of rain on Wednesday, 19 September. It was positively torrential! Actually, the weather was not what the SunTree folks anticipated. On Saturday, there were eight waterspouts sighted off of the coast of San Diego, one of which came ashore and was renamed a tornado. That day, the peaceful SunTree campers at DeAnza had to tolerate breezes that were uncomfortable, but tolerable. The temperatures were into the upper 40's at night, but were delight in the daytime. Down parkas were not necessary. The Saturday afternoon champagne and birthday cake event came with a lot of stories of the early days of DeAnza and the hard times in getting it going. I could only think what might have been if this could have been the Fifteenth anniversary of the old SunTree. Our congratulations to De Anza Springs Resort on their anniversary and best wishes for many more.
Halloween at Elephant Butte Unfortunately, we are not able to get any firm information about our traditional Halloween place of frolic at Faywood Hot Springs. As a result, we were offered the use of our normal Christmas event location at the home of our Elephant Butte contingency. This event will be at the home of our members in Elephant Butte, NM. The problem with this is that the event will occur on the tail-end of a trip that they will be taking. There is no conflict with the event, but they will not be available to receive the commitments of those who plan to attend. It is important that they get an accurate count of the numbers of participants for this event. Please contact SunTree, either through the e-mail address (h-ween@suntree.net) or leave a message on the answering machine at 505 522 6284 (the one at Elephant Butte will not be in operation to receive your commitment message). Your planned participation will be passed along to the appropriate party.
A Shift in the Firmament and a Meteor Shower to Boot! Evening: With October, we are once again moving from the Summer sky to see, once again, the Winter celestial friends. Our spaceship Earth is moving around to give us a better look at our own personal galaxy; The Milky Way. The Milky Way arches across the evening sky from the southwest to northeast, cutting the sky in half. On the west side of this fuzzy divide, the constellations of summer are disappearing, while to the east, the stars of autumn are climbing higher. Lonely Mars is attempting to do the work of the rest of the planets in the Evening skies this month. Morning: The big news, this month, however is the morning sky, so pry yourself out of bed before sunrise to catch a look at the show. The fun begins on 7 October from 4:30 to 6:30 AM, when Venus is high and absolutely dazzling at it's greatest brilliancy. If you thought that Venus was spectacular last month, you "ain't seen nothing yet". Look for a nice, tight kaffeklatch of Venus, Saturn, the blue star Regulus, and the crescent Moon in the morning sky on the four mornings of 6, 7, 8 & 9 October. Venus and Saturn will actually get closer together to share some secrets and will be closest together during the month from 11 to the 15 October. You should have no problem seeing them, but they will be especially striking before daybreak when viewed with a small telescope or binoculars. Mercury starts to appear in that area of the sky also, during the last days of the month, but is much lower than the others. The Moon makes its closest approach to Earth for the year on 26 October which happens to be the night it is full. It will almost be reachable since its surface will then be approximately only 221,688 short miles from ours. The Orionid Meteor shower in the predawn southern sky will reach its peak on the night of 21 - 22 October created for your watching pleasure presented courtesy of the tail of Halley's Comet
© 2004 SunTree Travel Club - Site updated Summer 2008 |
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What Happened in September?