Phoenix & Buckeye, AZ; Montrose & Cortez, CO (11/12 thru 11/22/2019)

During a visit to downtown Phoenix, I snapped a few photos of significant structures that interested me.  First is Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team.  This stadium was built in 1998 in time for the Diamondbacks' first home game.

Nearby is the beautiful St. Mary's Basilica, completed in 1914 to replace the original adobe church founded in 1881.  The current structure is in the Mission Revival style, with the interior of Romanesque design.  Before 1881, priests traveled from Florence, AZ to conduct mass.  The church was honored to have Pope John Paul II visit in 1987.

Across the street from St. Mary's is the very large and impressive convention center that actually covers two city blocks.  Also with a downtown location, the Talking Stick Arena is home to the Phoenix Suns.  I only learned of it after my trip downtown, so no photos of it.

A couple days later I drove to Skyline Regional Park, located in Buckeye.  I had the feeling it might be a good place to observe sunset, and this feeling proved to be correct.  The park has numerous hiking trails in the small mountain range that offered a variety of foreground views.

After leaving home for my winter trip, I got an acceptable offer on my Montrose town home.  Since closing date was fast approaching, I made a trip back to supervise the moving operation.  It turned out the buyers, a very nice couple, wanted to buy my furniture, making the move less expensive for me.  Consequently, I only had to have personal stuff packed and put into storage.  It was a busy few days, but everything worked as well as could be expected.

During the trip to Montrose, I got a shot of Church Rock from a different perspective than before, and also got a different view  of the mountains that surround Trout Lake. 

One morning in Montrose, on my way out for breakfast, I was treated to a most unusual sunrise.

On the day I was due to return to Goodyear, a winter storm passed over the San Juan Mountains, dropping up to 30 inches of snow.  Trusting the snow plows to do their job, I stuck to the plan and headed up to Lizard Head Pass.  While there was snow on the road at the higher elevations, the lower sections of road were basically clear.  While passing up countless photo ops along the way, I did get a couple examples of the "winter wonderland" all around me.

Finally getting out of the snow around Cortez, I  appreciated some of the scenes that appeared there.

Now I'm homeless for the moment and ready to travel for a while.  It will soon be time to head for Florida for a family visit, so I'll look forward to that..