Hot Air Balloon and Shopping

It was a few degrees cooler this morning when I went for my walk but not a lot and by the time I got back it was 57F (14C). As I walked out the door I noticed there was a pretty hot air balloon over the mountains so I aimed my walk at the balloon and walked quite far out into the desert to get some photos.

See how the sun shining on the cactus makes the tips look red.

When I first came to the southwest a couple of years ago I was disappointed that the desert here didn't look more like the Sahara but now I've come to enjoy the beauty of this desert even though it isn't just sand, in fact, it's more gravelly than sandy with lots and lots of different types of cactus and vegetation.

Here's some of the vegetation including a dead saguaro cactus or two and the paths that I was walking on. I heard a lot of sounds on my walk but didn't see anything this morning other than birds in the distance but I sure heard a lot of them.

And here's a live saguaro cactus.

Mid morning I left to go shopping and get some groceries. I made several stops the most significant of which was the SuperWalmart that we stopped at yesterday. It was no less busy than it was yesterday however I persevered since I was alone. I didn't buy anything interesting except for a new pillow as I think my pillow is what's causing my neck and shoulder problems. Let's hope this will cure them.

We reached a high of 72F (22C) today but when I got back to the RV the wind picked up and although I tried to sit outside to read, I packed it in after about 15 minutes and returned to the RV to finish my book.

By the way, we're discussing the possibility of staying here until after Christmas. Still thinking about it but we like the park, the price is good, we like the area so why move?

After I posted we noticed that it looked like there would be a nice sunset tonight so away we went to Saguaro National Park for photos. Here's the sunset:

And here's the moonrise: