February 22
With a driving day to Las Cruces, New Mexico, and a day to do errands, we were ready to explore before heading to Big Bend National Park, Texas. First on our list was White Sands National Monument. Not knowing anything about this park, I was amazed to find really white 50 foot high sand dunes made totally from tiny particles of gypsum that have been accumulating for the last couple of thousands of years. With the desert wind, the right chemicals in the soil, a little rain and evaporation, they are ever moving and growing and are just like the dunes found on Mars! There is a lizard and a rat that have evolved to match the dunes and are white. There was a nice nature walk to take and a boardwalk a little further down the road. Both had informational sings along the way. Before leaving, we took our shoes off and went barefoot as we climbed the dunes. How soft the sand felt on our tootsies. Some areas were hard packed and felt surprisingly cold with the cold night temperatures. The park is surrounded by The White Sands Missile Range surrounds the National Park. They have a museum on the history of the missile range but we skipped that to head back to town for lunch.
We headed for a historical area of Las Cruces called Mesilla. What a little gem. It’s more modern history began in 1850, as a way station for the Butterfield Overland Stage. It grew to be the largest town between San Antonio and San Diego. Billy the Kid way tried and hanged in the courthouse on the corner of the plaza. The buildings from the 1850’s, built around the plaza are still standing today. One corner had the first brick building in New Mexico. A Frenchman had the bricks made right on site. He was murdered shortly after the building was completed and there were a number of murders of owners that followed. Thank goodness that trend eventually stopped and today it is a gift store. We had lunch at La Posta which is in the original Butterfield Stage building. While we were having a fabulous lunch, we noticed that right across from our table the area had been the blacksmith shop. A woman had started the restaurant in 1939, with dirt floors and four tables. Well, it has been a huge success and it is in a much better location today! To go with the BEST chips ever, I had a beer served over ice with fresh lime juice, a first! It is called a Michelada and is found on menus in this area. It would be fun to make at home. Our lunches were delicious and Norm finished his off with a piece of chocolate pecan pie that was to die for. The pecans are one of the local crops. The USS New Mexico nuclear submarine named their galley La Posta after this restaurant. Many restaurants in new Mexico were in the running but this one was chosen because of the fabulous food and its history along with the history of Mesilla. They incorporated some of the dishes in the menus onboard. As a previous restaurant owner, I think that would be quite an honor!
http://www.laposta-de-mesilla.com/index.html is an interesting link.
February 23/24
We drove through miles and miles of Texas desert past millions of creosote bushes to reach Big Bend National Park on the Mexican border along the Rio Grande River. We are camping in the southeastern corner near the Sierra Del Carmen mountains in the Rio Grande Village. The mountains have hues of pinks and lavender and turn to orange, pink and purple at sunset. Our first morning here we did our usual and headed for the visitors center to lay our time here. We took the Boquillas Canyon walk this morning down to the Rio Grande. The trail takes you a short distance into the lovely Boquillas Canyon. Remembering something I read, I listened to the sounds of the river realizing that I was listening to the further deepening of the canyon. The Mexican town of Boquillas del Carmen is right across the river. When Chris and Norm were here 18 years ago, they hopped in a small row boat and a Mexican took them over to the village for a ride on a burrow to a taco stand! After 9/ll all that came to a stop. Today the Mexicans are crossing the river and have their trinkets and nicely painted walking sticks sitting along the trail with a money jar and explanation as to what the money will be used for. It is illegal to buy them, we ignored that, and put our money in a jar. Recently big wigs from Washington were here to see about setting up a remote crossing station. You would go a station, make a phone call and scan your passport to cross and do the same when returning. The forest service would provide a boat and the Mexicans would man it. Seems like a good solution. It would benefit the Mexican community and the Americans would love it. A little friendly interchange would be a good thing. If the project keeps on track, it could happen in 2012.
For our picnic lunch we walked to the Hot Springs. With the air temperature at 85 or so a full on dip in the Hot Springs wasn’t high on my list, but it was great to put my dusty feet in the nice warm water for a little soak. The water comes out of a spring and flows into the Rio Grande. In the 1930 and 40’s it was a heath retreat. The ruins of the rooms and a little market are still here. I guess the soaking pools were on two levels. Depending on your illness you might be on the upper level where the water was pumped up from the lower pools and then emptied into the river. The less contagious folks stayed in the lower pools. It was common for people to come for a week and take a couple of dips each day. We enjoyed our picnic glad to be healthy. There was a burro grazing on the other side of the river.
Our easy chairs were calling back at the manor and we read the afternoon away. A coyote strolled right through the campground!
February 25
We drove up a couple of thousand feet to and area called Chisos Basin in the Chisos Mountains. The vegetation changes from desert cactus to a pinyon pine, juniper and oak woodland. We even saw Mahoney and Ash trees as we walked a mile out to a lookout on the Lost Mine trail. Nice little hike with beautiful views of the rock formations and the valley below. Some of the birds and vegetation here are not found anywhere else in the US. We had some good views of Casa Grande, one of the rock formations that is well known in these parts. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at the visitor center in Chisos Basin before taking a short walk out to gaze at the Window View. Rock formations come in on both sides leaving a space for rain to flow out of the basin to the valley below, hence the Window View. It is a beautiful area with a 360 degree circle of rock formations and very green with the large trees. Back down to the desert and the Manor for a tall glass of ice tea and a good book. Rachel and Jake are both watching snow fall today!
February 26
We visited the last “must see” area of the park today; the area of Castolon and Santa Elena Canyon in the southwest corner of the park. Driving to Castolon we passed a couple of ranch sites that had been going concerns around the 1920’s to 50’s. They were either adobe structures or stone and out in the middle of nowhere! It is hard to imagine living in such a remote and inhospitable area of the planet. As a tourist it made a beautiful drive with interesting rock formations but it is dry, dry desert with lots of cactus everywhere. We saw windmills still running but native vegetation had taken over. They raised various crops and ran cattle to the point of over grazing. The volunteer at the Castolon visitor center was full of information. It served as the headquarters for the area from the 1880’s until the park took over the area in the 1960’s. In 1916, the military moved in to help protect the community from Mexican bandits during the Mexican Revolution. By the time the buildings were constructed, the war was over and the buildings were sold to locals. The bunk house was made into a store which is still going today. Cotton was raised for a few years along the Rio Grande and they even brought in a cotton gin. Cinnabar was mined for mercury and processed here, of course there were no safety requirements at the time and the mercury was melted in big open pots. It was a going community with 2,000 to 3,000 people, Mexicans and gringos living together in Harmony. The store was called La Harmonia.
A few miles down the road we walked about a mile into the beautiful Santa Elena Canyon carved out by the Rio Grande. The canyon walls rise straight up 1,500 feet. It was nice to walk in the shade made by the narrow canyon walls as it was about 90 degrees! I had a “ha ha” moment when I stepped off the ledge along the river to feel the water temperature of the Rio and my foot sunk halfway up to my knee! The squishy, oozing mud was swallowing my shoe with my foot attached. Quick sand came to mind. Norm came to my rescue after we all had a good laugh and with a little difficulty, pulled me out of the oozing clay. I thought I might loose my shoe forever but all ended well. Norm did take a picture to record it for all time. Getting the mud off the shoe was another story. The canyon is really gorgeous and my favorite spot in the park.
A nature walk from our campsite led to a hill overlooking the valley to the west with the Rio Grande river and mountains in the distance, and the Sierra del Carmen mountains to the east. It makes a lovely walk at sunset. We had taken the walk last night and I inadvertently deleted my photos, so Chris and I walked up there again tonight for another great view.
I haven’t had a decent hand of cards for a couple of nights! Norm’s loving it!
February 27
We decided to leave one day early and head north. Sixty mile an hour winds were expected! Thinking of trying to stay out of the wind and inside the trailer when it is in the high eighties wasn’t sounding good. The forecast was correct and the wind hit us soon after we got on the road. We drove though a true Texas wind storm with the dust flying. At one point were stopped by the highway patrol and we had to take a detour because visibility was down to zero ahead and they had a big pile up down the road. The detour took us through a prettier part of Texas but the wind was a blowin. We got to Van Horn and set up at a KOA and stayed put inside the Manor! The walls inside the Manor were brown with dirt that had filtered inside. The walls are clean, we are cozy and hoping to see the Oscars tonight. Right now the wind has the cable out all over town.
February 28 - Jaiden’s Birthday!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Arizona
February 18
We immersed ourselves in a bit of the wild west today with a visit to Tombstone. We soon found out there is a lot more to its history than the shootout at the OK Corral. Tombstone is not a fake western town or movie set with fake store fronts. Most of the buildings go back to the 1880’s. The Historama, right out of the 60’s, was our first stop to get up to speed on the history. The displays and film narrated by Vincent Price were down right hokey but fun and interesting. Before Ed Schieffelin went prospecting for silver in 1878, he was warned that by going out into the Apache land all he would find was his tombstone. Instead he ended up with more than one silver mine and taking out millions of dollars over the next few years. Tombstone stuck as the name. He built the largest adobe to be built in the US. The town filled with miners, businessmen, ladies of night, Chinese workers, and cowboys from the surrounding ranches. Soon there were 85,000 people making it the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. It was an unruly dangerous place to be when the former sheriff asked Wyatt Earp and his brothers to come to town and bring in a level of control. They were successful for a time until the cowboys, the Claytons and McClaury brothers, brought their discontent into town. They had been free to rob fellow cattle ranches as well as stage coaches and Ike Clayton had a bone to pick with Wyatt Earp. The inevitable show down climaxed months of threats, romantic rivalries, stage robberies, pistol whippings and arrests. The shootout at the OK Corral was the end result. The two Earp brothers were wounded along with Doc Holliday. Three of the McClaury and Claytons were killed. Only Wyatt went away unscathed. He soon left town and after living all over the west, he spent the rest of his life living in the Los Angeles area dying in his 80’s. Another interesting tidbit was learning about C.S. Fry. He and his wife had a photography studio in town and many of his photographs are on display. He has some very famous shots of Geranimo and his surrender. The descriptions given of the lives of ladies of the night or “soiled doves” had an impact on us. How they dealt with the daily trails was more than I liked to think about. Life in this town was rowdy to say the least. Today you can take a stage coach ride, visit saloons, and shops as you make your way around town. We took the trolley tour and heard a lot of the history. Our trolley driver was a part time driver and part time stunt man for western movies when Hollywood comes to town. They are starting to film a new movie in the next month. Tourism does a lot for saving our history. This town is a good example of that.
February 19
We headed out for two places that we heard about recently, Fort Bowie and Chiricahua National Monument. Both areas were in the Chiricahua Apache country where Cochise and Geronimo roamed the hills. A group of retired park rangers voted on their top “little known” parks in Arizona and Fort Bowie was at the top of the list. As we hiked to the fort we discovered the importance of Apache Pass with the help of informational signs to explain what had happened in the area after 1858. The Apache’s lived with the Butterfield Overland stage passing through for three years before they stopped the run on the eve of the Civil War. The wheel ruts are still visible along with the ruins of the stage house. Apache Spring was key to the area as it was the only water in the area. The Chiricahauns shared the water peacefully with the stage, emigrants, prospectors and soldiers as they passed through their homeland. It wasn’t until 1861, that a band of Apaches raided John Ward’s ranch and stole some live stock along with an adopted son of John Ward. Ward falsely blamed Cochise and the Chiricahuans which led the bloodied battles for the next 10 years. Fort Bowie was built in 1862, and between 1862 and 1866, the fort was the nerve center for the military campaigns against the Chiricahuan Apaches led by Chochise and Geronimo. We walked the ruins, passed by Apache Spring and the Butterfield stage house thinking how history played out and how a different course might have led to a more amicable end. Looking out across the hills, it was easy to picture Cochise and Geronimo riding their horses with their braves thinking that life would continue as it had for hundreds of years. With their homeland stripped from them, they ended up in Florida and Oklahoma. The bitter struggle ended in 1886 with the surrender of Geronimo. The fort was abandoned in 1894. We loved the hike with all the history!
Next was a ride down to Chiricahua National Park. What a surprise was in store for us. There is a scenic road that took us to Massai Point for a 360 degree view of thousands of acres of pinnacles and balanced rocks. Green lichens decorate the rocks that were carved by ice and water. What a sight! The wind just about picked us up and carried us over the canyon rim so we didn’t stay long.
We immersed ourselves in a bit of the wild west today with a visit to Tombstone. We soon found out there is a lot more to its history than the shootout at the OK Corral. Tombstone is not a fake western town or movie set with fake store fronts. Most of the buildings go back to the 1880’s. The Historama, right out of the 60’s, was our first stop to get up to speed on the history. The displays and film narrated by Vincent Price were down right hokey but fun and interesting. Before Ed Schieffelin went prospecting for silver in 1878, he was warned that by going out into the Apache land all he would find was his tombstone. Instead he ended up with more than one silver mine and taking out millions of dollars over the next few years. Tombstone stuck as the name. He built the largest adobe to be built in the US. The town filled with miners, businessmen, ladies of night, Chinese workers, and cowboys from the surrounding ranches. Soon there were 85,000 people making it the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. It was an unruly dangerous place to be when the former sheriff asked Wyatt Earp and his brothers to come to town and bring in a level of control. They were successful for a time until the cowboys, the Claytons and McClaury brothers, brought their discontent into town. They had been free to rob fellow cattle ranches as well as stage coaches and Ike Clayton had a bone to pick with Wyatt Earp. The inevitable show down climaxed months of threats, romantic rivalries, stage robberies, pistol whippings and arrests. The shootout at the OK Corral was the end result. The two Earp brothers were wounded along with Doc Holliday. Three of the McClaury and Claytons were killed. Only Wyatt went away unscathed. He soon left town and after living all over the west, he spent the rest of his life living in the Los Angeles area dying in his 80’s. Another interesting tidbit was learning about C.S. Fry. He and his wife had a photography studio in town and many of his photographs are on display. He has some very famous shots of Geranimo and his surrender. The descriptions given of the lives of ladies of the night or “soiled doves” had an impact on us. How they dealt with the daily trails was more than I liked to think about. Life in this town was rowdy to say the least. Today you can take a stage coach ride, visit saloons, and shops as you make your way around town. We took the trolley tour and heard a lot of the history. Our trolley driver was a part time driver and part time stunt man for western movies when Hollywood comes to town. They are starting to film a new movie in the next month. Tourism does a lot for saving our history. This town is a good example of that.
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| Gunfight at the OK Corral |
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| Downtown Tombstone |
We headed out for two places that we heard about recently, Fort Bowie and Chiricahua National Monument. Both areas were in the Chiricahua Apache country where Cochise and Geronimo roamed the hills. A group of retired park rangers voted on their top “little known” parks in Arizona and Fort Bowie was at the top of the list. As we hiked to the fort we discovered the importance of Apache Pass with the help of informational signs to explain what had happened in the area after 1858. The Apache’s lived with the Butterfield Overland stage passing through for three years before they stopped the run on the eve of the Civil War. The wheel ruts are still visible along with the ruins of the stage house. Apache Spring was key to the area as it was the only water in the area. The Chiricahauns shared the water peacefully with the stage, emigrants, prospectors and soldiers as they passed through their homeland. It wasn’t until 1861, that a band of Apaches raided John Ward’s ranch and stole some live stock along with an adopted son of John Ward. Ward falsely blamed Cochise and the Chiricahuans which led the bloodied battles for the next 10 years. Fort Bowie was built in 1862, and between 1862 and 1866, the fort was the nerve center for the military campaigns against the Chiricahuan Apaches led by Chochise and Geronimo. We walked the ruins, passed by Apache Spring and the Butterfield stage house thinking how history played out and how a different course might have led to a more amicable end. Looking out across the hills, it was easy to picture Cochise and Geronimo riding their horses with their braves thinking that life would continue as it had for hundreds of years. With their homeland stripped from them, they ended up in Florida and Oklahoma. The bitter struggle ended in 1886 with the surrender of Geronimo. The fort was abandoned in 1894. We loved the hike with all the history!
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| Fort Bowie |
Thursday, February 17, 2011
February 15/16
We moved farther east of Tucson to Kartchner State Park on the 15th. The 16th was a new day for exploration. We drove south to the mining town of Bisbee just north of the Mexican border. Wherever we go we pass through immigration check points. With desert as far as you can see on each side it doesn’t seem like illegals would be choosing to drive up the road knowing the car would be stopped. With all the money that is going into the check points I hope it is a deterrent. We heard that they had trails all through the mountains going north. They leave water bottles and socks behind. I guess the only things they take with them are clean socks. If only we didn’t want their drugs and if they could get a decent job in their own country we wouldn’t have such a problem. Too bad it’s not an easy fix.
Onward to Bisbee. The town was built along a gulch in one of the most mineral rich areas around. There are steps everywhere up the hills to miners cabins, now homes. Every year they have a 1000 Step Race climbing steps all over town as a fund raiser. Early miners mined for silver and gold in the 1880’s before the big copper mines began after the turn of the century. By 1920, there were over 20,000 people in this small area. We walked down Brewery Street where all the action took place. It provided the night life for the miners after being underground all day. They had their choice of ladies of the night, bar hopping, gambling and musical entertainment. By the 1920’s, the big copper mine owners had even installed a trolley. The church on the hill had beautiful Tiffany windows. The Copper Queen Hotel is the oldest continually used hotel in Arizona. Today the streets are lined with shops and galleries. In the 1970’s the mines were shut down and hippies and artists moved in saving the town . There is evidence of both today. It makes for a great tourist town! We had the West Texas Millionaires Burger for lunch that was really tasty. Sam Caliber, known as the West Texas Millionaire, was making burgers in West Texas and moved to Tombstone where he was eventually kicked out of town. It is said that people having the burgers for lunch didn’t want to stop eating in order to duck the gunfire in the street. The recipe was lost for decades. The recipe was found in Tombstone recently when they were going over the records about the shootout at OK Corral. They notified the great-great grandson and he recently sold the rights to the Bisbee Grill. The fabulous burgers are here to enjoy once again! The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum is a great spot for background knowledge on the town and mining, and also has a great collection of gems and minerals found in the area. It has the honor of being a satellite museum of the Smithsonian. Outside of town there is a trailer motel that has old reconditioned trailers for overnight stays next to an old diner. It was closed now but I guess the trailers are furnished in the 50’s style and even have magazines from that era! Very cute. The last thing to see was one of the open pit copper mines. It was a huge gaping hole!
While at the visitor center in town, we heard about the sand hill cranes enjoying their winter stay at Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Refuge and headed east to try to see them. Were we ever so glad we did. Thousands, up to 30,000, cranes make this area their winter stay. Looking out across the fields at thousands of these large 3 1/2 foot tall birds with 6 foot wing spans was an amazing sight. We often go to areas to try to see birds that are not usual for us to see but rarely have success. We could hear their cooing trill before we could see them. Someone told us to stick around until late afternoon and watch more come back for the evening. Many, 1000s, leave in the morning to feed in the fields nearby returning to the water source at the refuge in the evening. We did see a couple of large groups fly in before we left. We also saw some ducks that were new to us. We identified a couple different species but some we couldn’t find in the bird books. Walking back to the car we saw a great horned owl sitting up on a rafter. Our most successful bird watching endeavor yet!
February 17 
A tour of Kartchner Caverns was on our list for today. We had a wonderful guide who gave us some of the history and, of course, the geology we needed to really enjoy our tour. Two college students discovered the caverns and had the insight to conserve the integrity of the caves until the state eventually took them over. When they took their first trip into the cave they came to a small room where others had obviously been but by crawling though extremely tight passages they came into the large rooms that we get to see today. Throughout 14 years of exploring the caverns, they kept the caves a secret. They did not want them to be known to the public before steps could be made to preserve the integrity of them. Thank goodness they were conservationists! Eventually the Kartchner family, owners of the property, were let in on the secret and the process was started that led to the state very carefully developing the area for tourists. All along the way, the people that were involved in developing the paths, lighting and entrances to the caverns have felt such a deep feeling of respect for the caverns themselves and the desire of the college boys to have them be sustaining living caves for future generations to enjoy. Today we are informed on how to be good stewards of the caverns as we have the opportunity to explore them ourselves. It was an amazing story and the caves were magnificent. They used natural light to highlight the beautiful formations. I had been in caves before where colored lights were used and I liked this better. The final stopping place has Kubla Khan, a 54 foot massive living column! Needless to say, we were awestruck by the history and the formations in the caverns by the time we left!
We moved farther east of Tucson to Kartchner State Park on the 15th. The 16th was a new day for exploration. We drove south to the mining town of Bisbee just north of the Mexican border. Wherever we go we pass through immigration check points. With desert as far as you can see on each side it doesn’t seem like illegals would be choosing to drive up the road knowing the car would be stopped. With all the money that is going into the check points I hope it is a deterrent. We heard that they had trails all through the mountains going north. They leave water bottles and socks behind. I guess the only things they take with them are clean socks. If only we didn’t want their drugs and if they could get a decent job in their own country we wouldn’t have such a problem. Too bad it’s not an easy fix.
Onward to Bisbee. The town was built along a gulch in one of the most mineral rich areas around. There are steps everywhere up the hills to miners cabins, now homes. Every year they have a 1000 Step Race climbing steps all over town as a fund raiser. Early miners mined for silver and gold in the 1880’s before the big copper mines began after the turn of the century. By 1920, there were over 20,000 people in this small area. We walked down Brewery Street where all the action took place. It provided the night life for the miners after being underground all day. They had their choice of ladies of the night, bar hopping, gambling and musical entertainment. By the 1920’s, the big copper mine owners had even installed a trolley. The church on the hill had beautiful Tiffany windows. The Copper Queen Hotel is the oldest continually used hotel in Arizona. Today the streets are lined with shops and galleries. In the 1970’s the mines were shut down and hippies and artists moved in saving the town . There is evidence of both today. It makes for a great tourist town! We had the West Texas Millionaires Burger for lunch that was really tasty. Sam Caliber, known as the West Texas Millionaire, was making burgers in West Texas and moved to Tombstone where he was eventually kicked out of town. It is said that people having the burgers for lunch didn’t want to stop eating in order to duck the gunfire in the street. The recipe was lost for decades. The recipe was found in Tombstone recently when they were going over the records about the shootout at OK Corral. They notified the great-great grandson and he recently sold the rights to the Bisbee Grill. The fabulous burgers are here to enjoy once again! The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum is a great spot for background knowledge on the town and mining, and also has a great collection of gems and minerals found in the area. It has the honor of being a satellite museum of the Smithsonian. Outside of town there is a trailer motel that has old reconditioned trailers for overnight stays next to an old diner. It was closed now but I guess the trailers are furnished in the 50’s style and even have magazines from that era! Very cute. The last thing to see was one of the open pit copper mines. It was a huge gaping hole!
While at the visitor center in town, we heard about the sand hill cranes enjoying their winter stay at Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Refuge and headed east to try to see them. Were we ever so glad we did. Thousands, up to 30,000, cranes make this area their winter stay. Looking out across the fields at thousands of these large 3 1/2 foot tall birds with 6 foot wing spans was an amazing sight. We often go to areas to try to see birds that are not usual for us to see but rarely have success. We could hear their cooing trill before we could see them. Someone told us to stick around until late afternoon and watch more come back for the evening. Many, 1000s, leave in the morning to feed in the fields nearby returning to the water source at the refuge in the evening. We did see a couple of large groups fly in before we left. We also saw some ducks that were new to us. We identified a couple different species but some we couldn’t find in the bird books. Walking back to the car we saw a great horned owl sitting up on a rafter. Our most successful bird watching endeavor yet!
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| Bisbee Mining Museum |
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| Sandhill Cranes |
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| Sunrise Over the Manor |
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
February 11
For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadsden Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.
February 12
What a fabulous day! Our first destination was the Mission of San Xavier del Bac which rises dramatically from the desert floor. Called the White Dove, its white dome and towers contrast with the brown of the desert floor. It truly is the finest example of mission architecture in the US. Father Kino laid out the foundation in 1692, but it wasn’t started until 1783 taking 14 years to build. What an undertaking in the middle of nowhere to build such a magnificent structure. The interior is beautifully done with reds and other brilliant hues. The interior was restored in the 1990’s by Italian restores along with local residents. One of the displays lists the items that were inventoried in the living quarters in the late 1700’s included “2 poor tables and six worse chairs.” Everything of importance was in the church. It is on the Tohono O’ohdam and is still and active church. They used the image of the scallop shell over the door and in the alter from the cathedral in Spain at Compastella that I visited.
We drove through the Palo Verde Wildlife Refuge hoping to see some unusual birds on our way to Kitt Peak National Observatory. No birds but a nice drive took us up 6,000 feet to the observatory. We were very excited about our reservations for the night tour and had strict instructions to arrive by 5:00. We were amazed at the number of telescopes; 24 optical and 2 radio telescopes in all. It is the largest group of telescopes in the world. They have the largest solar telescope in the world. It is water cooled throughout the housing to keep it at a constant temperature. Universities from all over the world do research here. Geranimo, our guide, made sure our tour was fabulous! We had many turns looking through telescopes with chances to see the brown lines of gases across Jupiter, clusters, nebulas, and a very close look at the moon. It was freezing cold but we were so happy and engrossed in the tour that we didn’t mind a bit. My favorites were seeing the moon in such detail, the Orion nebula with the gases visible and dual stars. Amazing! We also learned how to read a star chart, really read it, and find many of the constellations. Geramnimo was so excited to have us be successful at seeing the things that he was pointing out! His enthusiasm was catching. We also used binoculars and couldn‘t believe what we could see. Kitt sits on reservation land and had an unending lease until an administrator goofed big time and made some changes without keeping the tribe in the loop. The tribe took it to the Supreme Court and won. Now they are working on a 75 year lease with 73 years to go and then they have to leave the land in its original condition. What a huge mistake. Going down the mountain, they covered our head lights and we followed a pilot car. Any light will cause misreadings on the telescopes. We learned so much and saw so much first hand!
February 13
We made it to an estate sale this morning before visiting Sabino Canyon. Not much at the estate sale but it was fun getting back into one of the nicer neighborhoods. Sabino Canyon National Forest is a favorite hiking area in Tucson and being a Sunday, it was a very busy place. We took the tram ride with a guided talk to the end of the canyon and walked the 3½ miles back. Water was flowing in the river and it made a nice walk. We stopped at Sagurao National Park East before heading home.
February 14
From what we had heard, the top place to visit in Tucson is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with its well defined mission: to tell the story life in the Sonoran Desert and all of the creatures who call it home. It has examples of everything that crawls, runs, climbs, flies and slithers. We made it just in time to see the Free Flight Show that included, owls, hawks and falcons. They flew around and over us so that we got a good close look at them in flight. The next couple of hours were spent walking the trails viewing all kinds of desert life. Before leaving, we caught a great talk on rattlesnakes. Thank goodness it is still cold enough at night that they are usually still sleeping but we could still run into one. The hospital stay after a bite runs about $100,000. They have a fabulous docent program and docents were around every bend to answer questions. The museum met our expectations!
We also drove to the Saguaro NP West to take a short hike to get a close up look at some petroglyphs that were over 800 years old and are still as clear as could be today. We made it home in time to do the laundry. Lucky us! Tomorrow we move to a state park on the east side of Tucson.
For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadsden Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.
February 12
What a fabulous day! Our first destination was the Mission of San Xavier del Bac which rises dramatically from the desert floor. Called the White Dove, its white dome and towers contrast with the brown of the desert floor. It truly is the finest example of mission architecture in the US. Father Kino laid out the foundation in 1692, but it wasn’t started until 1783 taking 14 years to build. What an undertaking in the middle of nowhere to build such a magnificent structure. The interior is beautifully done with reds and other brilliant hues. The interior was restored in the 1990’s by Italian restores along with local residents. One of the displays lists the items that were inventoried in the living quarters in the late 1700’s included “2 poor tables and six worse chairs.” Everything of importance was in the church. It is on the Tohono O’ohdam and is still and active church. They used the image of the scallop shell over the door and in the alter from the cathedral in Spain at Compastella that I visited.
We drove through the Palo Verde Wildlife Refuge hoping to see some unusual birds on our way to Kitt Peak National Observatory. No birds but a nice drive took us up 6,000 feet to the observatory. We were very excited about our reservations for the night tour and had strict instructions to arrive by 5:00. We were amazed at the number of telescopes; 24 optical and 2 radio telescopes in all. It is the largest group of telescopes in the world. They have the largest solar telescope in the world. It is water cooled throughout the housing to keep it at a constant temperature. Universities from all over the world do research here. Geranimo, our guide, made sure our tour was fabulous! We had many turns looking through telescopes with chances to see the brown lines of gases across Jupiter, clusters, nebulas, and a very close look at the moon. It was freezing cold but we were so happy and engrossed in the tour that we didn’t mind a bit. My favorites were seeing the moon in such detail, the Orion nebula with the gases visible and dual stars. Amazing! We also learned how to read a star chart, really read it, and find many of the constellations. Geramnimo was so excited to have us be successful at seeing the things that he was pointing out! His enthusiasm was catching. We also used binoculars and couldn‘t believe what we could see. Kitt sits on reservation land and had an unending lease until an administrator goofed big time and made some changes without keeping the tribe in the loop. The tribe took it to the Supreme Court and won. Now they are working on a 75 year lease with 73 years to go and then they have to leave the land in its original condition. What a huge mistake. Going down the mountain, they covered our head lights and we followed a pilot car. Any light will cause misreadings on the telescopes. We learned so much and saw so much first hand!
February 13
We made it to an estate sale this morning before visiting Sabino Canyon. Not much at the estate sale but it was fun getting back into one of the nicer neighborhoods. Sabino Canyon National Forest is a favorite hiking area in Tucson and being a Sunday, it was a very busy place. We took the tram ride with a guided talk to the end of the canyon and walked the 3½ miles back. Water was flowing in the river and it made a nice walk. We stopped at Sagurao National Park East before heading home.
February 14
From what we had heard, the top place to visit in Tucson is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum with its well defined mission: to tell the story life in the Sonoran Desert and all of the creatures who call it home. It has examples of everything that crawls, runs, climbs, flies and slithers. We made it just in time to see the Free Flight Show that included, owls, hawks and falcons. They flew around and over us so that we got a good close look at them in flight. The next couple of hours were spent walking the trails viewing all kinds of desert life. Before leaving, we caught a great talk on rattlesnakes. Thank goodness it is still cold enough at night that they are usually still sleeping but we could still run into one. The hospital stay after a bite runs about $100,000. They have a fabulous docent program and docents were around every bend to answer questions. The museum met our expectations!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Arizona
February 9 and 10
For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadson Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.
The 9th was one of those “take care of business” days getting settled in Tucson. We have so much to see while we are here! Today we drove south to Tubac, Arizona’s oldest European community founded in 1752 as a presidio. The Tubac Art Festival turned out to be a good find. This juried art show has taken place every February since the 1950’s. We spent a couple of hours walking up and down the isles and were really pleased with the high quality of the artists. Norm and I bought a couple of whimsical art pieces from Robert Shields of Shields and Yarnell as a gift. We all remembered seeing him as a mime on the variety shows on TV. He said the life of an artist wins hands down over that of an being an entertainer. In the afternoon we went to the Tubac Presidio State Historic Park. The Tohono O’odham/Pima Indians were living in this area when Father Kino was traveling north from Mexico and building mission communities in late 1600’s. The Pima Indians invited him to this area and he began building a mission here in 1691. The Spaniards began to settle here in the 1730’s. The conquistador, De Anza, was the second commander of the presidio and organized the overland expedition that led to the founding of San Francisco. I love how history comes alive with travels! Throughout these early years the area was full of unrest with the Pima chief stirring up a revolt and the Apaches leading raids from time to time. However, by 1860, it was part of the US and the largest town in Arizona. It lays claim to the first school house in Arizona and it had the first printing press. We went into the small adobe row house that is still standing and was a very common structure. The last woman to live there died in the 1989. Our last stop was to see the Tumacacori Mission. A church was started by Father Kino in 1691. The adobe church standing today was started in 1800 and the ruins are still very imposing today.
February 11For Norm’s birthday we went into downtown Tucson. We found the visitor center to pick up a copy of the walking tour and hit the streets. One of the highlights was taking a step back in time to the Presidio San Agustin del Tucson. A short talk by a docent gave us enough information to get a picture of what the area looked like in the 1700‘s. The fort was started in 1775, and by the late 1770’s, the 11 acre fort was completed with ten foot high adobe walls totally surrounding it. The fort marked the northwestern edge of the Spanish frontier. They have reconstructed some walls and you can see where the original walls were. They found the ruins of a sweat house dating back 2400 years ago. They have found corn, an agricultural crop, dating back to 2200 BC. This is the oldest identified site in North America. This southern part of Arizona didn’t become part of the US until the Gadson Purchase was made with Mexico so we could build a southern route for the railroad. We also walked into the old Congress Hotel built in 1919. The floor in the café is made of 1000’s of pennies lying side by side. It became famous when Dillinger and his gang rented rooms here. As luck would have it, the building caught fire and they had to escape out the window with the help of firemen. Their heavy suitcases filled with submachine guns and bulletproof vests alerted the fireman. Also, the gang was recognized from a story in True Detective Magazine and they were soon arrested.
Norm picked out the Bamboo Club Café for his birthday lunch. He had fond memories of Asian food from his working days in Phoenix. We weren’t disappointed!
Before heading back to the Manor, we drove through the Barrio Historico neighborhood which was the one of the original neighborhoods for the “working people.” The darling small bungalows are being redone and are painted all colors of the rainbow, subdued hues of course. A few street later we found a couple of streets where the more wealthy families lived in larger homes. It’s nice to see them being restored. Much of the neighborhood was demolished when they built the Convention Center.
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| Tumacacori Mission |
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| Father Kino and Me |
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| Adobe Walls of Tucson Precidio |
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wandering Adverturers See Arizona
The Wandering Adventurers #3 - Arizona, Utah and Texas February 2011
January 28-February 3
We took off bright and early and after 12 hours we got to Chico in time to take Jake and the kids out for dinner. Visits with Jake, Jaiden and Jordan on Saturday and then down to San Jose and Santa Cruz for quick visits with Bryan and Doug and their families on Sunday. Monday was on to Mom’s in San Clemente. After lots of driving, we stayed at Mom’s until Friday with a visit up to Norm’s Mom’s for lunch with family, a day working in Mom’s garden, and dinner at the pier.
February 4
Off we go into the wild blue yonder! For the next four months we will be exploring Arizona and Utah with a week down at Big Bend National Park in Texas. The last two weeks in March we are flying to Hawaii for a week on the Big Island and a week on Maui. What lucky ducks!!! We will finish up with a few days in Yosemite in June before heading home.
It’s my birthday! Lucky m, we had a long day of driving ahead of us but decided to take a detour to Penasquitos in San Diego where Christy and I both lived when our kids were young. Wow, has the area grown. We took a four lane parkway over from the coast. In our day it was a dirt road that we would take as a short cut to get to the beach. Without Maggie, the GPS, we probably couldn’t have found our homes. It was nice to see that both neighborhoods looked great. We made it to Yuma by lunch time for a stop at the grocery store to load up and get a hot dog for my birthday lunch. YUM! Everything took longer than we thought and we ended up looking for a place to camp in a small town after dark. We found out why we couldn’t find the trailer park we were looking for after calling and finding out that they didn’t have any lights on. We ended up stopping at a RV park next to a gas station and truck stop! Wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we were pleasantly surprised with clean fully equipped bathrooms. Trucks and trains roared past us all night but bed with my new sheets felt good and we were refreshed in the morning. A different birthday but I loved it. After much planning, we were on our new adventure!!! It was nice that my girlfriends had given me a great party before I left! We celebrated Mom’s, Norm’s, and my birthday at Mom’s.
February 5
Our first REAL stop was Organ Pipes National Monument in the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican Border in time for lunch. We have 25 feet tall saguaro cactus and palo verde trees right in our campsite. The campground is only about 20% full and nice and quite. We are soooo happy to be in the sun! We each took time to organize our stuff before going over to the visitor center. We learned that in the U.S., this is the farthest north the large organ pipe cactus is found. In 1976, the United Nations designated the monument as an International Biosphere Reserve. The visitor center had a film and a nice trail to introduce us to the desert and its plants. After a gorgeous sunset and lots of picture taking we went to a ranger talk on the stars. So many stars! We were reminded that for thousands of years people have been gazing at the same stars in wonder. Dinner was a little late; we miss calculated a chicken and rice recipe. Instead of white rice and 45 minutes in the oven, we used brown rice and it took 90 minutes in the oven. Oh well, a little wine and some veggies held us over. We quickly got into our routine of playing cards after dinner.
February 6
We hiked 4.5 miles today! We walked up to Victoria Mine with an old miners cabin going up and down hills and crossing several dry washes. The Sonoyta Mountains were one of the only areas in the park that is rich in minerals. The desert landscape is both lovely and interesting. The 30 foot tall saguaro cactus lives for up to 200 hundred years, has beautiful red blooms, and can store 8 gallons of water per foot after a rain storm. We saw some of the ocotillo cactus in bloom with bright red flowers at its tips.
Relaxing the afternoon away was wonderful.
February 7
We took the 2 mile hike up the beautiful Alamo Canyon at the base of the Ajo Mountains to a ranching site. It was a little higher elevation and much more lush and green. The saguaro, organ pipe and other cacti looked really green and healthy. The tiny old ranch house is the second one built there. The first was adobe and this one was brick. There was a well and corral also. We couldn’t imagine that cattle could thrive on the desert plants. Later we heard that the ranches in this area were established at the turn of the century and they brought in the very invasive bull grass for grazing. When the ranchers closed up business in the 1970’s there were thousands of cattle in the valley. Two volunteers are constantly battling the bull grass today.
After lunch we took a 3 hour free guided van trip up Ajo Mountain Dr for the scenic loop. We had a ranger and a volunteer along to educate us on the desert plants and geology. There were only 10 of us along for the tour and between the two guides we learned so much. We can now identify much of the flora, find pack rat nests, and see where and what animals have been eating the cacti. The resourceful Tohono O’odham native people built dams to trap water from the torrential summer rains so they could farm, used the plants for food and medicine, and hunted mountain sheep and deer. I love this kind of stuff! It was nice to have them do the driving since it was a curvy gravel road.
February 8
This morning we took the 2 mile Desert View Trail stopping at the informative trail signs along the way. By now we could identify most of the plants. The views at the top looked over the valley to Mexico with the Ajo and Sonoyta Mountains at it’s edges. Then we took the 10 mile gravel North Puerto Blanco Drive taking our time to enjoy the scenery. I have started making a list of desert plants and birds that we are identifying.
This area is definitely not the barren, brown and boring desert! It is wonderful to have it protected. As a protected area, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument allows the Sonoran Desert life to flourish. I like this quote from President Lynden Johnson:
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through it.”
Tomorrow we head for Tucson and a RV Park. We spent time in the afternoon getting up to speed on all there is to explore in that area for the next 12 days. in that area.
January 28-February 3
We took off bright and early and after 12 hours we got to Chico in time to take Jake and the kids out for dinner. Visits with Jake, Jaiden and Jordan on Saturday and then down to San Jose and Santa Cruz for quick visits with Bryan and Doug and their families on Sunday. Monday was on to Mom’s in San Clemente. After lots of driving, we stayed at Mom’s until Friday with a visit up to Norm’s Mom’s for lunch with family, a day working in Mom’s garden, and dinner at the pier.
February 4
Off we go into the wild blue yonder! For the next four months we will be exploring Arizona and Utah with a week down at Big Bend National Park in Texas. The last two weeks in March we are flying to Hawaii for a week on the Big Island and a week on Maui. What lucky ducks!!! We will finish up with a few days in Yosemite in June before heading home.
It’s my birthday! Lucky m, we had a long day of driving ahead of us but decided to take a detour to Penasquitos in San Diego where Christy and I both lived when our kids were young. Wow, has the area grown. We took a four lane parkway over from the coast. In our day it was a dirt road that we would take as a short cut to get to the beach. Without Maggie, the GPS, we probably couldn’t have found our homes. It was nice to see that both neighborhoods looked great. We made it to Yuma by lunch time for a stop at the grocery store to load up and get a hot dog for my birthday lunch. YUM! Everything took longer than we thought and we ended up looking for a place to camp in a small town after dark. We found out why we couldn’t find the trailer park we were looking for after calling and finding out that they didn’t have any lights on. We ended up stopping at a RV park next to a gas station and truck stop! Wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we were pleasantly surprised with clean fully equipped bathrooms. Trucks and trains roared past us all night but bed with my new sheets felt good and we were refreshed in the morning. A different birthday but I loved it. After much planning, we were on our new adventure!!! It was nice that my girlfriends had given me a great party before I left! We celebrated Mom’s, Norm’s, and my birthday at Mom’s.
February 5
Our first REAL stop was Organ Pipes National Monument in the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican Border in time for lunch. We have 25 feet tall saguaro cactus and palo verde trees right in our campsite. The campground is only about 20% full and nice and quite. We are soooo happy to be in the sun! We each took time to organize our stuff before going over to the visitor center. We learned that in the U.S., this is the farthest north the large organ pipe cactus is found. In 1976, the United Nations designated the monument as an International Biosphere Reserve. The visitor center had a film and a nice trail to introduce us to the desert and its plants. After a gorgeous sunset and lots of picture taking we went to a ranger talk on the stars. So many stars! We were reminded that for thousands of years people have been gazing at the same stars in wonder. Dinner was a little late; we miss calculated a chicken and rice recipe. Instead of white rice and 45 minutes in the oven, we used brown rice and it took 90 minutes in the oven. Oh well, a little wine and some veggies held us over. We quickly got into our routine of playing cards after dinner.
February 6
We hiked 4.5 miles today! We walked up to Victoria Mine with an old miners cabin going up and down hills and crossing several dry washes. The Sonoyta Mountains were one of the only areas in the park that is rich in minerals. The desert landscape is both lovely and interesting. The 30 foot tall saguaro cactus lives for up to 200 hundred years, has beautiful red blooms, and can store 8 gallons of water per foot after a rain storm. We saw some of the ocotillo cactus in bloom with bright red flowers at its tips.
Relaxing the afternoon away was wonderful.
February 7
We took the 2 mile hike up the beautiful Alamo Canyon at the base of the Ajo Mountains to a ranching site. It was a little higher elevation and much more lush and green. The saguaro, organ pipe and other cacti looked really green and healthy. The tiny old ranch house is the second one built there. The first was adobe and this one was brick. There was a well and corral also. We couldn’t imagine that cattle could thrive on the desert plants. Later we heard that the ranches in this area were established at the turn of the century and they brought in the very invasive bull grass for grazing. When the ranchers closed up business in the 1970’s there were thousands of cattle in the valley. Two volunteers are constantly battling the bull grass today.
After lunch we took a 3 hour free guided van trip up Ajo Mountain Dr for the scenic loop. We had a ranger and a volunteer along to educate us on the desert plants and geology. There were only 10 of us along for the tour and between the two guides we learned so much. We can now identify much of the flora, find pack rat nests, and see where and what animals have been eating the cacti. The resourceful Tohono O’odham native people built dams to trap water from the torrential summer rains so they could farm, used the plants for food and medicine, and hunted mountain sheep and deer. I love this kind of stuff! It was nice to have them do the driving since it was a curvy gravel road.
February 8
This morning we took the 2 mile Desert View Trail stopping at the informative trail signs along the way. By now we could identify most of the plants. The views at the top looked over the valley to Mexico with the Ajo and Sonoyta Mountains at it’s edges. Then we took the 10 mile gravel North Puerto Blanco Drive taking our time to enjoy the scenery. I have started making a list of desert plants and birds that we are identifying.
This area is definitely not the barren, brown and boring desert! It is wonderful to have it protected. As a protected area, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument allows the Sonoran Desert life to flourish. I like this quote from President Lynden Johnson:
“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through it.”
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