The Bertana-English Dictionary

We had the final official Estrella War meeting on Saturday morning—out at Ramada 1 at Estrella Mountain Park. It's the second or third time I've been out there in the past couple of weeks, and it still blows me away—when you get off the 10 and head south on Estrella Parkway, the buttes are so vibrant and so green! It's really beautiful out there.

Last year, the eight acres that we cleared were nothing but dirt and dust—incredibly fine silt up to your ankles. This year, thanks to all the rain, there is this incredibly soft grass growing everywhere. You can still see where the roads were last year, of course, and under that grass, the dirt is just as fine and loose—so I'm sure it'll all be decimated again by the end of War. But the current green is just a testament to what that area will look like, if/when the park is able to get irrigation out to that section.

Really, the whole park is gorgeous. But bring lots and lots of allergy meds! I was only out there for three or four hours, and my allergies were all crazy for the rest of the weekend.