We were about a half hour out of Mesa, coming down the Beeline highway from the rim country, when we noticed a spiral of smoke a few miles ahead. We had no idea what it represented. But a few minutes later we were in a road blockage. We would later learn that a motorist had an unexplainable fire start in luggage atop his vehicle. He stopped and managed to get it pulled off onto the ground, but it caught the surrounding vegetation afire and quickly developed into a fire that would require the highway to be blocked until it could be brought under control. We had to be re-routed back toward a detour that would take us by the shores of Roosevelt Lake and on to Globe, Arizona before we were able to get into Mesa and finally get a hotel room for the night.

This is the south shore of Roosevelt Lake, taken while traveling on the highway that passes through the community of Punkin Center, the Tonto Basin area, then across the bridge at Roosevelt Dam and on to Globe/Miami and US 60 heading to Mesa/Phoenix. The last time I saw this, the largest lake on the Salt River water shed, it was so, so low. Now, because better moisture levels in recent years, it is at an all-time high!