Casa Grande Ruins, Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Farm

After a rainy morning, we decided to stay with our original plan and go into Coolidge to see the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, go grocery shopping, and get fuel. All three of these items were completed within a mile of each other. Almost like one stop shopping!

Once again our America the Beautiful card came in to play at the Case Grand Ruins and it didn't cost us anything -- we saved a whole $10.

From the brochure "After a long battle with the desert, this ancient building still commands respect. Four stories high and 60 fee long, it is the largest structure known to exist in Hohokam times. Early Spanish explorers called it Case Grande ("Great House"), and to them it was a mystery. Its walls face the four cardinal points of the compass. A circular hole in the upper west wall aligns with the setting sun during the summer solstice. Other openings also align with the sun and moon at specific times. Apparently, the builders of the Great House, people who knew very well the ways of the land, gathered inside to ponder the heavens. Knowing the changing positions of celestial objects meant knowing times for planting, harvest, and celebration." Pretty darn amazing considering the great house was built before 1350. The local Native Americans consider the grounds sacred and only visit a few times a year. The Visitor Center is also very interesting and worth the visit. A roof was built over the great house to help preserve the building and it appears it is doing the job.

Here is John in front of the foundation of one of the other houses on the grounds.

The above picture shows the round hole above the door that aligns with the setting sun during the summer solstice. The square hole in the right corner allowed for the perfect alignment with the moon that occurred every 18 1/2 years. Simply amazing.

Right across the street from the Casa Grande Ruins was a Safeway. So we did some shopping and stopped at the Safeway fueling station. Buying all those groceries in Parker paid off by giving us 20 cents off the $2.07 price. Our cheapest diesel yet at $1.87 . . . got to spend money to save money.

We then headed for home to put our groceries away and then to head out again. Hopefully in between the sprinkles. We were off to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm. The farm is just a couple of miles down the road from the State Park. For a $5 admission price per person, we got a container full of food and a small container of nectar. The food is for feeding the deer, ostrich, and donkeys and the nectar is for the Lorikeets.

Here is John feeding the ostrich's who were very excited to get handouts. A couple of times they got our fingers mixed in their food.

The minute we started heading over to the darling little donkey's, they started hee hawing and carrying on.

Now it was the Lorikeets turn. We walked into the aviary and we were swamped. We had them on our heads, shoulders, arms, and hands. Boy, oh boy, were they loud with their squawking.
Here they are calmly waiting their next victim.

Their Lorikeets little tongues just suck up the nectar. They swamped John to the point that they knocked his nectar container out of his hands. They are beautiful birds and these two were happy to hang out with me even though the nectar was all gone.

We had a great time at Rooster Cogburn's. It was a fun and inexpensive way to feed some animals especially the Lorikeets.

We got home where I made some soup for dinner. As usual, it was a big hit and thankfully, we have some leftovers. We watched the Tour of California (bicycle race) on the Versus channel. It is so nice that it has gained enough popularity that we are able to watch the race on satellite.

Tomorrow, we head to a new location. You will have to tune in tomorrow to find out where we are headed next.