The Camino Portuguese, My Way

 A sunrise walk along the canal east of Longmore Rd. in Mesa.  It's flat but provides some nice views of the surrounding mountains.  Even better there's plenty of mesquite trees, allowing me to combine two interests...hiking and harvesting beans for flour.   Starting around 5:15am I hiked 4.2 miles on the canal (round trip).  Wildlife...a white egret, quail, more than a few burrowing owls.  It's pleasant until the sun comes up.  After 9:30am, forget it.  Not worth being outside unless you want to bake.  It's called "summer schedule." After hiking I gathered two more cloth bags full of beans.  See the photo below for what I've got to work with...a full bucket of beans.  I want to grab what I can before it rains, just to be safe.  From what they told me at the Pima Museum, it's OK to pick beans even after it rains...as long as the beans are dry.  I'd read where you need to pick before the first monsoon rain.  Just ...

 Been awhile since I posted.  Recent events have made me rather withdrawn, so I've been keeping silent.  Anyway, I was along the canal at 32nd St/Stanford, harvesting a few mesquite beans.  I've been waiting for beans to turn golden.  Most have been green, but there's a few ripening.  I found a good tree and was close to filling my bag when a man walked past along the canal.  He stopped to chat and it turned out he'd lived along Stanford Drive not far away.  We chatted about the area and some of the old places...Hitching Post bar, Cudia City movie set, etc.  We introduced ourselves...his name was Bill Sperry, and he hikes the canal almost every day. What made this so exciting was just meeting someone out of the blue, just like along the Camino.  And it came at the right time, when I've been feeling depressed and negative.  I was badly in need of good conversation, something positive.  Once again, out of nowhere, the Camino prov...