The Rest of the Way Home (10-04-20)

It’s hard to believe the summer is over, and we spent the last few weeks making our way home. We had to take our planned stop in the Black Hills off the agenda, since we got delayed by almost a week with the truck issues.

The change allowed us to take 5 days and drove south to Abilene TX, where our friends Wil and Gayle recently relocated. After a fun filled two days with them we were on the move again.

Our next stop was a two day drive- El Paso TX to see Paul’s mom.  She is doing great, although like all of us, she is struggling a bit with the isolation these last few months. She is still working on her 90th birthday gift…a puzzle of her kids and grandkids.

It’s still quite hot in Havasu, so we didn’t want to rush home quite yet.  I had doctor appointments in Phoenix, so we worked our way there and found a place to stay that has a decent pool.

We sat down with a map and calendar to see if our thought about going to the north rim of the Grand Canyon was actually a good idea. We decided it wasn’t. Frustrating that we weren’t able to make it there this year, but I guess it gives us something to plan for next year.

We chose, instead, to drive to Williams AZ and spend a couple of days hanging out there.  Its only 2.5 hours from the house, but its at higher elevation, so its cooler. 

 

In theory we were going to do some hiking- in reality we went for a “Scenic Drive” – or, more accurately, a “bone jarring, teeth rattling drive down a dirt ‘road’”. 

 The views where we stopped to have lunch were pretty good but not worth the trip there and back. 

We took advantage of the great weather to eat out at a restaurant with outdoor seating and live music.

Now that we are home, we will spend a few days moving back into the house, and getting ready for a visit from our daughter and her friends in a week or so.

November into December 2018

November was a relatively quiet month for us- we did some stuff around the house, and our daughter Jess came to visit for a few days.

That was actually pretty "exciting".
She had never been to the Desert Bar but had been hearing about it for ages, so we decided to take the Teryx there, using the back trail. Sadly, as you can see from the picture, we tipped it over.

Luckily no one was hurt and we continued on our way to the bar for lunch.
















After that excitement, things calmed down for a week or so.  As Thanksgiving approached we realized that other than Jess, we wouldn't be having any company for the holiday. That's unusual, and we got to thinking that there was no point in staying home if that was the case.

We threw out some ideas of where to go, and landed on Joshua Tree National Park.  Jess had never been there, it is only about 2 hours from her and about 3 from us. So, we packed up the trailer and took off.

We had cooked the turkey before we left, and decided to have our family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner- Turkey Enchiladas. We had a great day and had even found a spot in an RV resort with 4 pools and 6 hot tubs!







Joshua Tree National Park is obviously named for the unusual Joshua Trees that live inside the park- but I think its misnamed.

It should be called Boulder Park because the real fun of the park is climbing all over the boulders!

Joshua Tree is a small park and isn't as well known as some other parks, so it never dawned on us that it would be so popular the day after Thanksgiving!  We waited in line for over an hour and a half just to get into the park!

 We decided we might as well wait it out, even though we knew that parking would be an issue. Instead of parking at the hiking trails, which was our original idea, we parked along the roadway and explored the boulders nearby.













It wasn't exactly the outing we had hoped for, but we had a great time, and got to show Jess at least a little bit of the park.







Once Jess left for home, we had no intention of doing the same. Since we were out and about already, we kept going.

Our next stop was El Paso, to check in on Paul's mom.  Since it was a two day drive, we broke the trip up with a stop in Tucson, where we met up with our friends Dave and Nancy.

 After a couple of days with Paul's mom, we headed for our next destination- Bisbee, Arizona.











Our objective was to tour the copper Queen Mine.  We have toured quite a few mines in the past...so many that I could probably have passed on this one, but off we went.

After donning our hard hats, we boarded a small train that took us 1500 feet into the mine.

The tour was actually very interesting, and was conducted by someone who used to work for the mining company.

When I think I am going to be bored, I try to pay attention and find one or two bits of information I can come away with on a tour. I wasn't at all bored on this tour, but still, my favorite take-away was how they would use dynamite to blow an area into rubble. They set an ever increasing circle of dynamite sticks, and connect them together with fuses.
When they are done, they light it and walk around the corner. They don't have to go too far, because the way it is set off, it implodes, instead of exploding. They also needed to stay nearby so they could count the explosions and make sure there wasn't a misfire.

Once we were back on the surface, we drove past the mine on our way to our next destination.










Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has been on our bucket list for quite a while, and we finally made it there. This national monument is in southern Arizona and shares a border with Mexico.
Pictured is the Organ Pipe Cactus that it is named for.








Our plan was a simple one. Relax, explore, relax some more. And that's what we did. There are two scenic drives- we drove both of them. There are numerous hiking trails.... and most had incredible views.....

At night the weather was perfect for sitting by a campfire watching the sun set.

Once we had had our fill, we headed back home.

And yes, I am on a mission.

Slavin Gulch, Take Two (12-14-14)

Slavin Gulch Trail is a hiking trail in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona…..but I guess I am getting a little ahead of myself, since my last blog post was a couple of weeks ago, and we were in Texas.



Well, after leaving Big Bend, we stopped for a few days in El Paso to spend some time with Paul’s mom.  Julie and Mike came with us for a day or so and we showed them around town a little.

While in El Paso I usually get some exercise by having Paul drop me at the bottom of the hill on the way to his mom’s.  Its two miles up the hill with an elevation gain of 800 feet.  Not bad. If we really wanted to hike, all we have to do is step out her back door.  Her house backs up to the wilderness.

  

After leaving El Paso, we stopped in Benson AZ.  We are working our way towards the Palm Springs area of California, where we will park the rig for Christmas.

In Benson we caught back up with Nancy and Dave, and Mike and Julie.  We had time to go out to dinner and some of us went to the town craft fair.  No pictures though.  On my list of things to do in Benson, is to hike Slavin Gulch.  We attempted this trail almost exactly 3 years ago, but a mile or so into the hike I fell and broke my wrist.  (the link to that post: 1st attempt at Slavin Gulch )

A mile or so into the hike, we came upon the “scene of the crime” so to speak.  Yup, I fell going over that little itty bitty barbed wire fence.  It was a less squished down back then, but still, the height wasn't the issue, the instability of the rocks was.  A boulder shifted, my foot rolled, and down I went.  This time Paul made sure he was hanging on to me, haha.

No broken bones this time, so we continued on the 7.5 mile hike.  It has 1400 feet of elevation gain and ends at the ruins of an old mine. The trail, in some spots, could barely be called a trail, and was very difficult to navigate.

We stopped for lunch along the way and discussed the fact that it didn't seem like we were going to be gaining that much elevation, since we hadn't been going up too steep of an incline.  But, of course, we should have known better and that situation changed very soon after lunch. 

One of the perks to elevation gain is the view from the top.

 

Once we reached the end of the trail, Paul wanted to do some exploring of the mine, as usual, and I didn't, so I plopped myself down on a very convenient nearby bench and dozed in the sun while he scrambled up the rocks to the mine.

 

The trip back down wasn't very much fun because it’s hard to control your speed and easy to roll on the rocks when you are going too fast, but we made it down with no injuries.  We had been hoping we’d have enough time to do the short hike to the historic Council Rocks, an area used years ago by the Chiricahua Apache Chief, Cochise, but with a 12 mile drive down a dirt “road” ahead of us, we thought we’d lose daylight too quickly. Maybe next time.


We have now moved on from Benson and are getting closer to Palm Springs.

Benson, AZ ( 1-11-12)

First, a quick update:
We saw the surgeon yesterday and he said my wrist looks great and I can go play for a month and then come back to get more Xrays and hopefully get the cast off.  It still hurts if I try to use my hand, so my frustration level is rising.  The doctor did say I could start walking again, but no  hiking.  He’s going to give me a splint once the cast is off, to protect my arm when I hike.  Sounds good to me.

               So, we are still in Benson.  Most people don’t know where that is, hence the map. We debated moving up to Tucson, but it’s so cheap to stay here, its tough to justify the move. Plus Dave and Nancy are here, so we can hang out, and Paul has access to more tools here so he has started one of his larger projects, building a box to put the dinghy in.

 

This is Dave, Nancy and Paul, taking pictures of the sunset.  It’s so beautiful out here with the mountains in the background.  They came over for dinner and Margaritas one night, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

The sunset is pretty much 360 degrees all around us.  I didn’t take a picture showing all of it, but here is some of it.  The clouds were beautiful.

There really isn’t much going on here, and I am getting somewhat bored and therefore easily entertained. 

I shouldn’t say there’s nothing going on.   There is plenty to do here, just not much that I consider blog worthy. Tonight a Cowboy Poet is performing.  He’s good enough that he has been on NPR.  Every day at 4 pm there is a social hour, for those days we are feeling social. There are classes I could take, as well.  I have tons of stuff I should be sorting through, like pictures, but eh…..

It Could Have Been Worse…(12-30-11)

Well, we've left El Paso and have moved on to Benson AZ, where we'll  stay for New Years.
       This morning, while we were discussing the hike we intended to take today, Paul asked me if there was anything to see along the route we were going to take. That led to a short discussion of what we would see, etc. It also gave me the idea for the title for my next blog post:     The Difference Between Hiking and Walking. See, the reason he asked that is because yesterday we walked 6 miles, but it wasn't hiking. What are the differences?                                                                                                  
  Well, when I walk, I get bored, when I hike, I don't.  When I walk, I look at my watch every five minutes and wonder why an hour hasn't passed yet.  When I walk, I look at the ground ahead of me, and wish I had brought my Ipod.  When I hike, I look all around me, and not at the ground (which, in retrospect, can be a problem sometimes).  When I hike, I bring my hiking stick, both to help me with my footing, and also to use on any wild animals that might attack.   When I walk, I don't bother with the hiking stick. It just adds unnecessary weight.  When I hike, I happily pack up a lunch, and carry a lot of water in my pack. When I walk I just carry one or two bottles of water and maybe a snack. When I hike, my camera is out quite often and I take lots of pictures. When I walk, I bring the camera, but I am not sure why, because I don't take any pictures.

     The point to all this is that yesterday Paul and I went for a 6 mile walk on the San  Pedro River Trail.  There are no pictures, because nothing seemed picture worthy.  We thought we would actually be walking along the river, but the trail was too far away from it to see anything interesting. That's ok because that hike was just to get us "warmed up" for all the hiking we plan to do in the next few weeks, but we did buy a book of nearby hiking trails yesterday, so we would get to see something of interest while we are here.

    

 Today we were supposed to go on a 7.5 mile hike in Slavin Gulch in the Dragoon Mountains, about 30 miles from Benson.  This is an area that was frequented by Cochise, one of the most well known Apache Chiefs. Fascinating history around these parts. In fact, nearby is the area where Cochise met with the US government to hammer out a treaty.   We were hoping to see that area, Council Rocks, tomorrow.

   To get to the trailhead, we had to drive 10 miles down one of the roughest "roads" we've been on.  The guidebook recommends high clearance 4x4 vehicles, and they aren't kidding!  I tried to get a picture but it was too rough for that.  After finally reaching the end of the road, we started hiking to the gulch. Mentally I was comparing how much fun I was having today, compared to yesterday.
And that's when the day took a turn for the worse.

I screwed up.  I was going over a short barbed wire fence and didn't check well enough to see if the boulder I put my foot on was secure.  It wasn't.   I knew the minute I fell that I had broken my wrist.  Paul immediately took off my rings and watch, before my arm could swell too much.  After downing 3 Advil, we turned back and slowly made our way back to the truck, and back down that lovely road that seemed even worse on the way back! 

We drove a little further than the nearest town because we wanted one big enough to have a decent hospital.  We landed in the ER in Sierra Vista, and they did a great job of checking me out.  After confirming that I do indeed have a radial fracture, we discussed options.  Apparently the bone appears to be broken in two places.  They suggested that we head up to Tucson and see a orthopedic surgeon there, to determine our best course of action.

Tuesday we'll head up for the day since its only 45 miles from us.
Anyway, it could of been worse.  If I had broken a leg, it would have been a lot harder to hike the 2 miles back to the truck!

Benson and the (ghost) town of Fairbanks, AZ

 

Arizona has quite a few ghost towns- some that have been abandoned for many, many years, and some that are still in the process of being abandoned.  Today we went to Fairbanks, which was a small town that had its heyday when silver mining was actively being pursued in this area, in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Because the railroad was nearby, it was a hub of activity for many years, but activity slowly dwindled  until the town was completely abandoned.



Paul exploring the stamp mill ruins



   One of the building ruins is the stamp mill. Once we came to it, I could see Paul's eyes take on their distant, preoccupied look.  He wandered off to explore the mill, and I sat on  the bench conveniently located nearby.  We both love exploring this type of place, but we enjoy completely different aspects.  So, I sat there and wondered where the people lived, where did they go when the mill closed? Were there children? How isolated did they feel?



Paul, on the other hand, is more mechanical. When he came back from his exploration, he had his theories on how the mill was set up, what kind of equipment they may have had, and where it would have been.

 


    I got my chance to do more speculating when we saw the cemetery.  It is the most primitive and rustic cemetery I have ever come across.  There were few headstones- mostly just wooden crosses nestled in a pile of rocks.  They looked just like the ones you'd see in a movie about the old west.




lunchtime on the trail- Brenda and Kit

    The weather in Benson has slowly gotten better, although its still been in the 20s at night. At least the wind and the snow has stopped though, so we have been able to get out and about more.  Yesterday we went for a hike in the Coronado National Forest, in an area that was the refuge of the Apache Chief Cochise.  The highlight of that hike was the company! After spending some time with Brenda and Kit over the last few days, the four of us decided to do the hike together.  The weather was perfect except for the fact that there was a fair amount of snow still on the ground once we got up to the mountain. We walked for a few miles, stopping once in a while to admire the view and give the guys a chance to do some boulder climbing.  Once we ate lunch and started to continue on our way, we were hiking in the shade, which ended up halting our hike.  The snow was getting a little too deep and slippery, and it wasn't worth risking injury, so we turned back a little sooner than we had planned.  Still, we hiked about 6 miles and had a great time.

    Tonight it was dinner at a great restaurant with 5 other couples.  They are all Escapees, staying in the same RV Park as us.  Dinner went by way too fast,  but we'll see almost everyone again in a week or so in Yuma.  Tomorrow we head out, stopping at Picacho Peak State Park for a night or two.

What the heck? I thought we were in Arizona?!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this picture is the exception.  It's what you can't see that actually tells the story.  You can't see the wind that is howling at about 40 mph.  You can't see the mountains in the distance, that are there, and absolutely beautiful.  You can't see the snow, that has been falling for an hour or so now, and you can't see the temperature, which is in the low 30s and is expected to bottom out at 14°.  Welcome to Arizona.

We left El Paso Tuesday and hit the road for Benson, Arisona.  We are staying at  an Escapees RV Park here for a week.  The Escapees is an RV club that we belong to, a lot of whose members are full time Rvers, like us. My Escapees friends are the ones who usually post comments on my blog (Thank you!).  We arrived yesterday and I was so tired I actually took a nap.  We had gotten up early so we could try and get to Benson before the wind kicked up too much, and we did actually beat it.  

At happy hour, there was a Polar Bear Party at the clubhouse, serving frozen Mudslides.   While we were there we met Loralie and Lee, finally!  We've been pretty much following 2 steps behind them for the last few months, so it was great to be able to finally catch up to them for a bit!  I'm sure we'll be spending some time with them both here, and in Yuma in the coming weeks.  We were also chatting with another couple, discussing our recent adventures, and realized that they had been parked next to us while were were at Guadalupe National Park.  What a small world!  They like to hike quite a bit, so we are hoping to get together with them some day, and go for a hike.  If the snow ever stops.

Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

Wednesday was a "Twofer"- we managed to make it to both Tombstone and Bisbee, but only because we didn't spend too much time in Bisbee.  We packed a lunch to bring with us since the weather was awesome- in the low 70s and sunny. We went to Tombstone first, and the town did look like you would expect an old western town to look, complete with Stagecoaches. Tombstone was named by Ed  Schieffelin , who set out to look for gold in this area, an area that was known to have Apaches and rattlesnakes.  People told him that all he would find out here would be his tombstone. He discovered silver instead of gold, but he named his claim "tombstone".

     As soon as we arrived we bought tickets to see the "Shootout at the OK Corral", which, by the way, did not take place at the OK Corral- it took place down the street from it.  I didn't fully remember how the story went, but basically Virgil Earp was the town policeman in 1881,, and he deputized his two brothers and Doc Holiday when he heard that the McLaury and Clanton brothers were in town to stir up trouble. In the few minutes that the gunfight took, over thirty shots were fired- both of the McLaury brothers were dead, along with Billy Clanton.  Ike Clanton was supposedly unarmed and ran away.  The show was ok, but too long as far as we were concerned (25 minutes). Once it was over, we walked back to the truck to eat lunch, then headed to the Good Enough Silver Mine for a tour.

I have no idea how anyone could look at silver in its natural form and think it has any value! The process they used to extract the silver from the ore  involved using mercury. It was a long (and unhealthy) process that began with them essentially smashing the rock into sand size pieces. The whole process was only effective in removing about 60% of the silver- it wasn't until much later that it was discovered that by using cyanide instead of mercury, about 90% of the silver could be extracted. In fact, when they discovered that, they went back to the waste product and re-processed it to extract more silver.

I was curious as to how similar the mining life was here, as compared to the coal mining back in PA.  There was very little similarity actually.  The silver miners were highly skilled and respected,  and some of the highest paid workers in the area. They made $4 a day, whereas a cowboy would only have made $25 a month. Our tour guide informed us that no one had ever died working in that mine- a far cry from the coal mining life.

Later in the afternoon we headed to Bisbee AZ.  Bisbee is an old copper mining town.  The town was literally built into the side of the mountains.  When we drove the streets, all of the side streets were really steep offshoots of the main street. Between the houses there were steep staircases up to the level behind.

It was a nice town but we got the feeling of "been there, done that" in the sense that all of the stores seemed to be the same thing we have seen everywhere else.  We did stop at the abandoned (as of 1975) open pit copper mine, just outside town.  Its absolutely a huge hole in the earth.

Today we drove out to Kartchner Caverns State Park. This is a very young state park- its only about 10 years old, but it has an interesting history.  In the 1970s, two avid cavers discovered an absolutely beautiful cavern.  For a year they explored it without saying anything to anyone.  They finally approached the owners of the land (the Kartchner family) to let them know what they had found, and managed to convince them that it was important to keep the cavern's existence a secret.  They had seen the damage that had been done to other caves, not just from vandalism, but just from basic human contact, and didn't want that to happen to this beautiful cavern. For 14 years, the landowners worked with the state of Arizona, in secret, to sell the land to the state and turn it into a state park, racing to get it done before the public found out about the cave.  They were finally successful, and the result is that no damage has been done to the cave and it remains in pristine condition. The state used state of the art technology to put in walkways (built inside plastic bubbles, to protect the cave from dust during construction) and get it ready for the public.
I can't say I know from first hand experience that the cave is beautiful, because I elected not to take the tour.  I have been to several caves/caverns, and I am not a happy person when I am underground.  Paul did go on a tour and he said that compared to Mammoth Cave, it was obvious that it was in much better condition-there was no grafiti, no soot, no broken stalagtites, etc.  In fact, the tour of this cave is so state of the art, that people are put through a mister on the way in, to dampen all of the lint on their clothing, so that it doesn't fall off into the cave. While Paul toured, I soaked in the sun, and once he was out, we hiked the 2.5 mile Foothills loop trail, which was good exercise, fun, and had nice views  but wasn't really unique in any way.

This evening we sat outside for a bit with a very confused and frustrated cat.  Last night while we sat outside with the cat, within a 30 minute span, 3 rabbits approached us, and therefore, him.  I have no idea why these rabbits thought it would be ok to wander within 10 feet of a CAT, but apparently they thought it was no big deal. Dozer had a great time stalking them, but I guess he knew he'd never catch them because he only tried to pounce once.  The rest of the time he just stalked them, belly to the ground!  He waited and waited tonight, but no bunnies showed up, so he was very disappointed.

Tomorrow we leave here, maybe headed to Silver City, NM.

Las Vegas NV - Benson AZ

There's no getting around it. I take too many pictures. Its always been my philosophy that with digital cameras, you can always delete. Tonight, though, I am really tired, but I want to post an update as to where we are etc. Usually I upload my pictures at the same time, so I can use some if I want to....in the last 2 days I have taken about 300 pictures. Probably about 250 of them could be deleted, and probably only about 50 or so will actually get deleted. So now tonight I have to sort through all of the pictures and delete them.

Anyway, Sunday we dropped Jess off at the airport very early. We must have set about 4 alarm clocks since we usually use our cell phones but daylight savings time started Saturday night and we had no idea if our phones would automatically update the time or not- so we set other alarms as well. Her flight got off fine and she made it back to school with no problems. We drove straight back to Red Rock Canyon after dropping her off, determined to get some hiking done. The weather was much better this time around! It was mostly in the 60s. Our plan was to hike 3 trails- the first was Calico Hills trail- the rocks in this part of the park are really striped pink and white. In other areas of the park they are quite red. We walked about 2 miles or so, scrambling over boulders. That was a lot of fun for me. We saw people rock climbing, and we saw one guy hiking with his dog, and both he and his dog had backpacks. When I commented on it, he laughed and said he learned to let the dog carry his own when he noticed that at the end of a hike, he was breathing heavy and the dog wasn’t.

We drove to the next trail we wanted to hike, but after turning down a narrow dirt road to get to the trailhead, we were blocked by an official vehicle with its lights flashing. It turns out that they were in the process of rescuing 3 campers who had unintentionally spent the night on the mountain-apparently their ropes had tangled and they couldn’t get down and it was too windy to attempt the rescue the night before. We watched the helicopter fly back and forth for a bit before moving on.

We did hike Ice Box Canyon trail. This hike was about 2.6 miles, with not much elevation gain, but it was a very strenuous hike. It was along a river, and there were plenty of times we had to hop from boulder to boulder in the water. It ended in a canyon, known as Ice box because often in the winter there are icicles hanging from the waterfalls. Not this time, but there were two really cool pools and the whole hike was great, but not easy on our knees and ankles! Again we stopped along the way back to watch some rock climbers do their thing.

We ate lunch back at the truck and headed back to the trailer for the afternoon. We actually cleaned the “basement”. We took everything out of the storage area, and re-organized it.

Yesterday when we left Vegas, we had no idea where we were headed. We just started driving in the general direction that we wanted to go. About 40 miles outside of Vegas, we came to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I had never seen either one before. It was interesting to cross the dam, but it wasn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. It was a windy road, but it didn’t have an open feel to it like a bridge does ( I hate bridges).  We didn’t see anyplace to stop with the trailer attached, so we just kept going. While Paul drove, I did some research. One of the places we are interesting in seeing is Tonto National Forest in AZ. After taking a look at it though, it looks like it might still be a little too cold, so we decided to skip it and go a different way. We drove rte 93 and found a Federal campground (Burro Creek Campground) along the way that sounded like it would work for us for the night. I called to see if they had any availability, but the actual campground has no phone and the BLM office couldn’t say, although she did say that they are never full, and if they were full, we could stay in the group area.

When we arrived, naturally they were full, and the host wasn’t keen on letting us stay in the group area. He said he had gotten in trouble for doing that once, because he didn’t charge that person the group rate of $50. We had no intention of paying $50 instead of $7 but we finally convinced him that it made no sense for the campground to lose out on our $7.

We spent the afternoon walking along Burro Creek. This area attracts birders and people interested in geology. There are all kinds of different rocks here- several different color agates, etc.  We found a couple of small interesting rocks, but nothing compared to what the camp host had at his site!
We had a peaceful fire that night, using driftwood we found by the creek. At dusk the skies became filled with bats. I spent a fair amount of time trying to get decent pictures of them, without much success.

This morning, once again we left without really having any idea where we were going. I have been wanting to go to Tombstone AZ, and after researching while driving, we decided to spend a few days in Benson, AZ. It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone and is also home to Kartchner Caverns, which will be fun to check out.

There is another reason we wanted to stay here though. The park we are staying in belongs to an organization of people who RV full time. They are called “Escapees”. I have been using their forum to chat and get information, for the last year. So, we wanted to stop at this park and meet some other “escapees”. Every year the Escapees have a class graduation for all of the members who “go fulltime” that year. We are members of the class of 2009.