Change of Plans

( Written on April 24th)
We are now in Yuma about 2 mi from California. We will be here two nights, for laundry,groceries,etc. Then on to Imperial Dam in California, again boondocking for 2 or three days then to LAS VEGAS (to win gas money we hope!), unless something else catches our attention.
(Written on April 26th)Well once again our plans have changed.................
We happened to look at the weather channel and realized it would be over 100 degrees here by next week, so we are taking ourselves to the mountains probably on Wed afternoon or Thurs. We have to wait for our mail to be delivered, then we are gone.This campground closes Wed so we hope to have our mail if not we will move down the street.We had talked about Las Vegas, but 100 degrees, I don't know. We will watch the weather.
I think we will wind up in Camp Verde or Cottonwood for a few days and hopefully catch up with a few friends there.

Ajo, Why, and Gringo Pass

After leaving the beautiful Saguaro Co-op Campsite the next day, we drove for miles through the most boring desert scenery. We decided to take a short (HA!) detour from the Interstate over to Organ Pipe Cactus Monument and stay for 3 nights. This is the way we travel. We have a plan but do we stick to it? Not if something else is close by that we might want to see.
As we were driving down Hwy 85 we were passed by about 7 Border Patrol cars. When we got to the campsite, 80+ miles later, all traffic was directed to their parking lot. There had been a shooting in Mexico, one person killed and the other had crossed the border..........Great.We were about as close as you can get to Mexico and still be in the USA.This is one of the places that has no fence,no river,no barricade, just walk across. We passed through the town of Why,AZ and Ajo,AZ plus the Barry Goldwater Air Force Base where the boys in blue practice bombing raids.
By that afternoon the "perp" had been arrested so all was well.

Beautiful country...lonesome country....dusty country.....quiet, so very quiet.But the stars were not as bright nor the sky as dark as in Fort Davis,TX. I was surprised considering we were miles from any towns.
We really enjoyed boondocking,as it is called, and found lots to do. No phones, no electricity, no computer, no TV, no problem.
We took one very long hot hike up to an old mine site, about 4mi round trip from our site.

For 60+ yr. olds we did right well, at least we made it back. Another day we went to the ranger talk on desert survival. I thought it would be about me surviving in the desert, but it was about the desert surviving. The rest of the time was spent reading, knitting, and just listening to the quiet.
Those tall cacti you see with arms are over 75 year sold when they grow their first arms, so imagine how old some of them are. The Organ Pipe Cactus is just stalks of cactus. A few of the trails in the park have been closed due to drug smuggling and illegal crossings.

Mining in Arizona

The last day we were in Benson, we drove down to a mining town called Bisbee. The mines are all closed and the town is a tourist/artist town. But the Lavender Mine may open again according to the news reports and that has some of the tree huggers really upset.The highway would need to be moved, the sewer system and electricity would also have to be moved. Plus there would be dynamite blasts every day.A real inconvenience if you are trying to concentrate on your art, I am sure.
This town is carved into the side of a mountain. You really have to be fit to get around, up hill, down hill, up the mountain, down the mountain.
The artist colony here is thriving with lots of weird sites.





We went to the Mining Museum and really enjoyed learning about strip mining and how it was done in the early years. Man, that was a terrible life, I think.I kept thinking about that song Sixteen Tons,remember that one?

I wish we could have stayed the night since the Ho's and Queens banquet was only $5. But it didn't start til late......It seemed to take us for ever to get back home. We drove miles and saw not one car! ( Guess every one was at the banquet, huh.)

Benson, Airplanes and Rocks

We are still in Benson at Saguaro Co-op Campground. From here we have visited all around the area doing a new place each day.
Our first trip was to Pima Air Museum. We spent almost an entire day looking at airplanes:




My personal favorite:


While Erwin was getting his airplane fix, I spent a lot of time outside watching these little fellows play:



This is also the home of the Air Force Airplane graveyard at Davis Montham Airbase.
There are acres and acres of old airplanes stored here to be either sold, scrapped or stripped for parts. Just acres and acres of your tax dollars sitting. this area was chosen for this graveyard because of the low humidity and the type of soil here that can support a lot of weight without being reinforced.



Our next day was spent hiking at the Cochise Stronghold Canyon. This is where the great Apache leader Cochise led his people.It is said he is buried in this canyon and only one white man knew where his burial took place on June 8,1874.



Later in the day we made our way to the Chiricahua Mountains, some of the most interesting rock formations we have seen on our trip. the rest of the post is just pictures of our trip through the mountains and taken from small trails we had to hike to get to overlooks....Enjoy!

We tried to go to Tucson

We tried to go to Tucson one day. We have decided we are not really good at going to big cities. Other than Chicago, we don't even like big cities;but we gave it a try. That particular day construction crews cut the electricity lines into the historic part of town, so most things were closed or closing, Bummer. Had we gone the next day we would have seen a 15ft water geyser from a cut water main.....where did this crew come from?????
We consulted our travel book and found this jewel:


San Xavier Del Bac or The White Dove Mission is an amazing jolt to the senses. All around is the brown desert ground, no green, no blue just brown, then BAM in the middle of an Indian Reservation is this beautiful Mission. We watched a film about the restoration of the mission narrated by Linda Ronstadt who said that if neon had been available then the artist would have used it. Needless to say it is quite ornate. The restoration story was amazing. In this small space there are over 50 statues, all ornate and the style is very folk art. I was surprised at the number of visitors to this out of the way place.