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!

Tis The…

Tis two days before Christmas and its snowing and blowing,

The highways are closed, the tow trucks are towing.

The trailer is shaking, the slides are pulled in, it’s white-out conditions. our patience:  wearing thin.

 

1 to 3 inches of snow is what they’re forecasting,

And with winds this strong, it feels like sandblasting!

The electric heater and furnace are both spewing heat,

in an effort to keep us warm- in this cold-quite a feat!

 

The cat's looking scared, he's starting to pout,

he needs  a safe haven to wait the storm out.

To the closet he goes,              …... then the cabinet ...and drawer,

but I know nothing will suit him -   I've seen this routine before!

His eyes soon light up,

his thoughts I could see,

as he debated which perch 

would most annoy me.

 
 
 

With I and my lap top

and Paul the TV,

I get the spreadsheets,

he: "Live with Kelly"

 
 
 

We're not going out

with the wind chill in the teens,

guess its time for the cookbook

and the recipe for Pralines.

 
 
 

We traded the brick house to avoid

just this season,

Our home now has wheels-that’s one of the reasons!

As much as I love this lone star state,

The cold and wet I totally hate.

 

 

Instead, next December

we might think it best

to say   Merry Christmas to all…

from sunny Key West!

 

Texas Hill Country, Part 2 (12-17-11)

Continuing on with Fredericksburg:
     Fredericksburg is home to a world class museum- The National Museum of the Pacific War.  Why is it located in Fredericksburg? Because Admiral Chester Nimitz was raised in Fredericksburg.  Like many museums, this one is huge and can be overwhelming.  It was divided into small rooms and each room had a theme, whether it was a person, a battle or something else of significance that happened before or during WWII.  We skipped some rooms completely and others we investigated thoroughly. I spent some time in the Midway room-having seen the movie about it a million times, it was interesting to see more details regarding how it all happened and why it went down the way it did.  At that time, the Americans knew an attack was planned on something the Japanese code referred to as “AF”, but they were in disagreement over what the target “AF” actually was.  The American code breakers had broken some of the Japanese code, but not all of it, so key information was missing. Someone came up with a simple ruse.  The personnel at Midway were instructed to radio to the mainland that they were running low on water.  Soon thereafter, a Japanese message was intercepted that stated that “AF was low on water”, and the target was confirmed. Quite clever!
Many of the rooms had backlit tables that showed movement of troops and ships, complete with a narration that explained when and how a particular battle took place.  It did a great job of giving us an overall sense of what happened, and what significance a particular battle had. This room was the Iwo Jima Room. 


Some of the rooms were about the people- sometime soldiers, but also the general population, and the effect the war was having on everyone.  There was one room that talked about rationing.  My mom was a young teen during that time and I remember her telling us about the rationing, and collecting metal to donate to the cause.  She and the other kids in the neighborhood used to go around with a wagon, collecting whatever they could for the war effort.
Another room was dedicated to the Sullivan family from Iowa.  There were 5 Sullivan “boys” in the navy.  Although there were technically rules against  family members serving on the same ship, one of the brothers asked for, and was granted, permission for all of them to serve on the USS Juneau.  In November of 1942, the USS Juneau was sunk during the battle of Guadalcanal. There were only 10 survivors, and none of them were named Sullivan.  Security was such the navy didn’t want it to get out that the Juneau was lost, so the family was not notified right away and in fact, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan heard rumors from neighbors that her boys had been lost, and wrote to
 



A separate building houses a small museum dedicated to Admiral Chester Nimitz and his life, and down the street there is an indoor/outdoor arena called the Pacific Combat Zone that contains realistic, life-size models of  battlefields, PT boats and an aircraft hanger on an aircraft carrier.



   

 By now it was close enough to Christmas that the downtown lights were all ablaze and the annual “Christmas Journey” was supposed to take place while we were in town.  The Journey is a drive through “show” of the story of Christmas, portrayed by live actors.  Unfortunately it rained the last night, which was when we had planned on going, so the show was canceled. When we got to San Angelo, we found out they have a “drive thru” holiday show as well, but it isn’t comprised of live people.  Its an enormous light display. Even though it rained while we were there, we did manage do do the drive-thru. They had everything from the “12 days of Christmas” scenes to an animated Snowman machine.

the snowman machine

 


There is a small historic downtown shopping area, and some pretty good hiking in the San Angelo area.  We did an 8 mile hike in San Angelo State Park and Paul used his Iphone to geocache for the first time.  We found 2 caches