Cycling and Hiking in the mountains....Road signs for God.....building a ditch....and a Zebra?

This is our third stay this year at our mountain log cabin in Pine. 

Our first trip, toward the end of March, was our first time at the cabin in over three months.  We thought we might be able to occasionally get up here over the winter, but found that the weather was not right for us--too cold, too much snow, and..... too cold.

This first trip was to start to get settled for the summer--we did a number of small repairs and improvements to the yard.  We also got in some nice walks and hikes. 

Our second trip to cabin was the 4 days we were at the cabin with Soren and Sebastian. 

Now, for our third trip, our current one.

This trip was to move a lot of our things to the cabin that we would need over the summer.  This included furniture, electronics, hobbies, and the bikes.  We also brought the Turtle (our camper) up because we are planning on taking camping trips from the cabin over the summer.  It was also useful because there was plenty of room in it for transporting our possessions.

In Mesa we purchased a knotty pine bench, which we moved here on this trip.  It looks so natural and so much better than the camping chairs we had been using.  We can also sit closer to each other.  :)

 

 

In the first week here we took some fun hikes.  On one of them we spotted something in a meadow that looked at first like snow.  Snow?  So we went to explore, and found the most unusual thing.

Someone, sometime, for some reason, had spray painted rocks and then laid them out in this field.  It took us awhile to figure out what the rocks said...until we looked at them from the correct angle.

 

 

 

 

PHX-->75.  

On one end of this large meadow were three additional letters created from painted rocks.

PPA?  What is that?  Who did this, and why?  No pilot would need this kind of information. 

God might, is all we can surmise.  In case he was headed to Phoenix for a Sun's game.

We later found a sign indicating the meadow was called Dickenson Flat.  We did google searches but found nothing. 

Vicky’s brother, Doug, said to check Google Earth next time.  Look what he found….this is what the sign looks like from up in heaven.

Thank you, Doug!

Every day that we didn’t hike, we got out into the mountains on our bikes. 

One day we cycled around Strawberry, AZ, and on old roads outside of Strawberry.  We spotted this:

 Yes, you are correct.  Someone in this strange community has a zebra.  Why?  Who?  Are we safe here?  

Another hike:

Now, something I need to tell you about Vicky......she is building a ditch.  So when we go to National Forest lands we collect a few rocks.  It's following the rules of National Forests--you can gather a few rocks but not for re-sale.  

So here she is on our most recent hike....collecting rocks.

She wanted this one, but it was only about 300 pounds too heavy for her.  "C'mon Vicky.....TRY HARDER!"

Now, you may ask, why is she collecting large rocks?  Or, if you aren't asking that question, it merely means you know Vicky is always doing something out of the ordinary.  

The answer is that we have a small drainage ditch below our front deck.  The previous owners had lined the ditch with old pieces of concrete--looked ugly.  So, Vicky is redoing it all.  

Here she is tossing one of the rocks she collected today into the ditch.  Good arm, huh?

 

 And then she spends some time every day arranging her little stream.  It's coming along! 

I want to ask you.  How can you not love a woman who finds road signs for God, who cycles past a zebra, and who is building a ditch?  

I'm certainly smitten.  I'll tell you that!