Playa...

Not talking about a Mexican beach - this is play-ya, as in "player."  No, not making time with the ladies, this is about Rufus the cat, and how he likes to play...

Joan has been saying that Rufus is a Daddy's boy - he does like to sit by me (and sleep by me at night), but Joan has been playing with him.  The favorite toys are still the rope and the ribbon, and he goes for them...

The camera motion wasn't intentional - the boy is fast.

With our days here running out, we decided to get another scooter ride in today.  We took off from our RV park, heading west to Buckeye...

Lots of new construction on the way to Buckeye.  We stopped at Firehouse Subs (tasty) before making a clockwise circumnavigation of the White Tank Mountains.  While at Firehouse, a family sat behind us... Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, and 3 rowdy boys.  There was a constant ruckus - all 3 boys looked to be less than 5 years old... there was crying, hitting, food throwing, screaming ("He threw my chips on the floor!  Whaaaahhh!").  I said to Joan, "Yeah, I think I'm OK with not having grandkids..."  ;-)

We decided to take I-10 west for a few miles to get to the Sun Valley Parkway that goes around the west and north side of the White Tanks.  We were mixing it up with a lot of semi traffic... the PCXes are capable of doing 65 mph... a bit of a wind out of the southwest and some uphill... we were a few miles per hour short of that.  But, we made up for that speed loss by holding on for dear life from the buffeting of those passing trucks.  I couldn't get a photo while mixing it up the Interstate traffic, but here we are heading off on the exit ramp...

It was probably 5 or 6 miles on the Interstate; only felt like 100.  ;-)  Off of the Interstate and onto Sun Valley Parkway...

In spite of what that sign says in the photo above, we were not in Idaho.  You can see the White Tank Mountains in the background...

It is a 4 lane divided highway, and not much in the way of traffic...

The desert scenery...

It has been dry around here.  We have been here in years past where the desert is a lush green and the cacti are in full bloom.  Not this year.

In the photo below, those are Saguaro cacti awaiting a new home in the development at Sun City Festival...

You can see the cactus below, with the wood supports holding it up while it tries to "dig in"...

Towards the end of that parkway, we did see a couple barrel cacti with a wimpy bit of bloom...

Some yellow flowers (weeds?) in the median...

Not a particularly colorful spring in the desert.  Coming over the hill, and you are back in the civilization in Surprise...

And thanks to irrigation and sprinkles, plenty of greenery...

Another 15 miles and we are back to the coach.  A bit of patio time with Rufus before we head to Steph and Dan's for supper.  A nice day in the desert; good ride.