On to Tombstone, March 18 & 19

With the last hike in the Chiricahua's we moved on to Tucson. When we were driving around two days ago, we scouted out the RV parks in all the towns we visited, and some places not on the map. Our choice of all the parks we visited was to head to Tombstone Territories RV Park.

It was the better looking park of all we saw and with the Passport America Discount, our four day stay would amount to about $18.00 per night. That's tough to beat. Especially with a nice, newer park centrally located to Tombstone and the area.

The afternoon of our move, we were joined by Cathy's friends from Idaho, Claire and Chuck. They rode their Harley's all the way. It was to take them three days but they had to do some repairs on Chuck's bike on the way. That delayed them a day. Still, I remember my Harley days. That kind of a ride would have killed me.

We took a late afternoon tour to Tombstone and just did the tourist thang! We walked the town on this great, sunny, warm day.

Chuck, Claire and Cathy

We shopped and toured and ate a picnic lunch we packed for the day.

Why is it the pets get all the attention?

The next day we planned a tour of the Queen Mine in Bisbee. It is the only underground mine in the US that offers a tour riding on the mine cars the old miners used.

I was on Main Street when I took this shot of downtown. The open pit copper mine is in the background.

I think Bisbee is one of the neatest towns ever. The houses are built into the hill sides and the businesses are built mush the same way. There is not a level spot in town. Everything is either up hill or down. Even Deadwood, South Dakota, has level places where the center of town is. Not Bisbee!

We walked the streets and imagined what it would be like to have lived here in the day. I don't think I would mind living here today! But, that's just me.

That's the four of us!

The tour we booked was at three in the afternoon. We picnicked outside of the mining museum for our lunch. We posed as tourists once again. Cathy bought herself a coffee mug from one of the local artists specializing in ceramic pottery.

We got to the Queen Mine for our tour. The mine is a crisp 47 degrees most of the time. They loaded us up with yellow slickers, a hard hat and a lead acid battery lantern. The battery was cinched around our waist. It was a kick.


We boarded a mine tram. Not a new one. This one is from the 1940's and was one of the trams they actually used back then.


Our guide was a little hard to understand. He was one of workers, long since retired. His grandfather worked the mine. His father worked the mine. He worked the mine himself for 41 years. Now he is working there again. He told us the tradition stopped with him. He has five daughters. None of them wanted to work in the mine!

Who could blame them. We got back and Cathy and Claire had enough energy to make a great dinner.

I was beat and welcomed a little sleep.

My First Rattle Snake

I had to stop with the updates of the last couple of weeks to let you know I just saw my first rattle snake in the wild. I've noticed other snakes in the last two weeks, but never a rattler. The critters that usually hibernate are beginning to come out. I'm seeing a lot more lizards I haven't seen before too.

I was just going over to Dave's trailer for the Monday hike after the weekly donuts and coffee meeting in the Clubhouse. I heard Shayne talking excitedly about a rattle snake behind her trailer. No more than three feet off the hiking trail. I walked over ...and sure enough, there he was.


He is actually has a light greenish tinge in coloration. The picture shows him as brown. Trust me though, he really is a hue of green.


The dogs just went through a rattlesnake avoidance session. It seems to have worked. They all keep a wide distance from him.

Okay, back to the updates.

Chiricahua Mtns, March 16 & 17

A view of the Willcox Playa (dry lake bed) from the Chiricahuas.

Our highlight of our mini vacation was the Chiricahua Mountains National Park. It was an amazing place. I never expected such a spectacular range of mountains in Arizona. I've heard people talk about them. It just never occurred to me they could be more awesome than described. I placed a slide show of the pics on the side bar. Just click on it and a full page view should come up.

A typical scene everywhere you looked.

As soon as we drove into the park boundaries and made our way to the Visitor's Center, we knew we were in a special place. On the way in, we passed a family cemetery of one of the two homesteaders that made their way here. Their houses still stand as well as some of the buildings and engineering works that were done to make living here possible.

We quickly toured the Center and got some information on the hiking trails. There was a 3D model of the Park and Mountains on display with the hiking trails mapped on it. We chose to start at the Echo Canyon trail head and take in several trails.

It would turn out to be a 9+ mile hike of a portion of the Echo Canyon Trail, the Upper Rhyolite Trail, the Sara Demming Trail, Heart of the Rocks Loop, Big Balanced Rock Trail, the Mushroom Rock Trail and finally, the Ed Riggs Trail. Whew, I didn't realize there were so many until just now! All were well marked and maintained. The elevation changes were going on all the time. We spent most of our hike either ascending or descending.


The views and formations we saw were worth it. Here are just a few pics:

One of many balanced rocks.

Can you see the Old Maid in the Rock?

In the lower elevations it resembled Northern woods.

Nine miles wasn't enough. We enjoyed it here so much we came back the next day. This time we chose a 5 mile hike to a natural bridge. Then we toured the farm houses of the homesteaders. This is a place we will come back to.

Cochise's Stronghold, March 15

Our plan on this day was to go to Cochise's Stronghold and explore and do a hike there. We packed a lunch and headed to the park. It is a park nestled in the Dragoon Mountains 40 miles Southwest of Willcox. It is a place where the Apaches were able to lose the cavalry, back in the day. The lore has it that Cochise is buried somewhere in the mountains.

Cathy and I packed a lunch and made it to the park at about 10:30. It is a $10.00 fee to enter this small park. We had our National Parks pass which admitted us without the fee. There are camping areas all around the park with a few RV hookup sites. The only place you could park if you weren't camping was in an eight vehicle parking area near the trail head.

We found this out because there wasn't any parking available there. We parked in a vacant camp site (one of many vacancies). I didn't even get the engine shut off when a volunteer informed us that we couldn't park here. The only place we can park is at the trail head. If the trail head parking is full, it is our tough luck! There are only eight slots there! Good grief!

We switched to an improvised plan B. We were going on a car tour of Douglas, Bisbee, Naco and Tombstone. That would be about 120 mile tour. It would also allow us to see which of these places would make for great sightseeing when Cathy's Idaho friends, Claire and Chuck arrive later this week.

I forgot my camera this day. But, as it turned out, it didn't matter. We had a picnic lunch in Douglas. It was after dark when we got back.

Muleshoe Ranch, March 14

If you have been wondering how our pets get along with each other, here's proof. They have a face off each time they meet, then they just ignore each other.

We stopped by the Visitor's Center in Wilcox this morning and found some information on a little known ranch now owned by the BLM. The Muleshoe Ranch is located about 30 miles North of town. There are at least 15 miles of dirt road to negotiate to get there. We thought that it was intriguing and decided to see what it was all about.

The weather was looking a little foreboding. I didn't hear a weather report. The air had that feel about it. You know, cool and it smelled moist, like rain. We wanted to chance it anyway. There is a central ranch house and they also rent out rooms. There had to be things to do if it rained, so we were confident in our choice.


The main house is a 1930's style building. The ranch started out as a cattle ranch, then became a spa, and is now owned by the government. The lady in charged helped us with finding a hike. It looked like the weather was holding, so why not?!

It thundered all around us and a bolt of lightning struck about a half mile away. We could see rain in the distance in all four directions, but none ever hit us.

We were instructed to take the gravel, 4 wheeler road for about a mile, then look for the trail on the left side of the road. The trail isn't very clear and is defined by blue ribbons tied on tree limbs. Well, okay.

We actually walked by the trail and never saw it. We were a mile beyond the trail by the time we figure it out. The 4 wheeler trail is a marvel by itself. It doesn't seem possible to drive anything on this trail. It does go to two other ranches further North. We finally doubled back and found the trail.

Much of the trail was marked with these ribbons. Without them it would be easy to get off track. We ended up taking the wrong turns frequently.

Our four mile hike turned into six miles. A lot of it was at a river bottom along running water. Rose got herself muddy. Cathy washed her off in the stream when we finished. I drove the truck over to pick them up from Rose's bath. She got herself dirty again when I had her get in the wrong door!

It was a good day even with the weather and Rose's muddy feet. We were dog tired by the time we made it home.

By the way, our home for the next three days is at Fort Wilcox RV Park. With our Passport America Discount, we are paying about $17.00 per night.

On to Wilcox, AZ, March 13

I had announced I will be heading to Wilcox to my friends in the park. The plan was that I would head out to a little known RV park in Sunsites, AZ, stay a few days and if the park was satisfactory, Cathy would bring her trailer and join me. I was expecting my PC to be ready before I left. I kept getting a promise from the tech that it would only be a day more, then I could pick it up.

That one day more turned into several. When it was finally ready, I used up all my scouting time and opted to move with Cathy to an RV park we had scouted previously. I picked up my PC the day before our move.

My going away party. Little did I (or anyone else) know that I would be here another 3 days, waiting for my computer.

But, as I used my fixed computer, I encountered more problems with it locking up. I returned it to the techs before our move and told them I would pick it up in another week. So, that was that. I'm off on a ten day side trip with Cathy and no computer.

Actually, I looked forward to this mini vacation without the small blog update diversions. I still have my camera and can get caught up later!

The Second Ridge, March 11

Before my PC went down, Cathy and I had the chance to do a hike with the Canadians, Lorne and Lisa, before they headed to other places. I think it was the post I was trying to do about this hike when the technical problems began happening. At any rate, we did a hike near by at a trail that took us to "The Second Ridge".

Cathy, Lisa and Lorne, looking over the area near our RV park.

It's located behind Tucson Estates, on the North side of Kenny Road. The ridge took to an elevation that allowed us to look back at the neighborhood area near our RV park. I didn't have my GPS device with me, so I didn't have any information on any Geocaches near the trail.

The mountain Cathy is pointing to in the background is Golden Gate. She scaled it last month.

When we got to the top of the ridge, we found a pile of stones that could only be there to hide a Geocache. It's the first time I ever found one by just stumbling over it.
This trail appears to be popular with the people residing in the area. Most of the signatures in the log book reflected people from the neighborhood. It was a neat walk and some of the flowers were beginning to bloom.

Up and Running Again

My PC had a problem with the internal wireless card. It was the thing giving me the blue screens and locking my computer. The techs had a hard time finding the problem because there is no test for that card. They had to do the old fashioned sleuthing to find the problem. Anyway, three weeks and $300.00 later and I'm back.

I haven't yet figured out a way to get caught up with the blog again. Cathy and I spent the last 10 days in Wilcox, then the Tombstone area. She had friends visiting and we all had a great time. I'll post on the Chiricahua Mountains and the hikes we took there. It was awesome.

I've still a little work to do to get the PC working the way I want it to. All my programs had to be stripped. My data was saved and am able to retrieve most of it. I'm struggling with reloading my programs right now. I no longer have the original discs I bought for Microsoft Outlook and Money. They most likely went with the 30 years of stuff I had to get rid of to do the RV thing.

I'll manage, though!

Stay tuned and I'll be updating shortly.

From a Remote PC

I'm temporarily down. The dreaded "blue screen of death", as the tech put it, won out over me. The PC has been in the lab for the last 5 days now. They have another 2 days to go. If they can't fix it, then it will be another few days until I can get a new computer. A REAL budget buster.

In other words, patience. I be back!

Tucson Museum of Art

On the first Sunday of the month, the Tucson Museum of Art is open, with free admission, to everyone. We have the two for one discount in the Tucson Passbook, which would bring our fees of $16.00 to $8.00. But, you can't beat free! Our Canadian friends, Lisa and Lorne joined Cathy and me and were kind enough to do the driving.

I-10 is under extensive reconstruction and is not scheduled to be completed for three more years. The museum is located in the old part of town, near the Presidio wall. The other side of the Interstate. That means we have to negotiate the many detours around the I-10 construction. Sure enough, the way to the museum that was open only yesterday, is now blocked by a squad car. We did finally make it, with outstanding navigation by our co-pilot, Cathy.

We purposely arrive almost an hour early. The museum doors open at 12:00. There are supposedly a lot of historic houses around the museum area. Cathy printed out the information on them so we could do a self guided walking tour.

It wasn't until I stepped off the curb to get this pic, when we found the sign designating this as the Corbett house.

The trouble with that was we didn't really know where the houses where. There didn't seem to be any historic markers that signified the old houses from the new. We did come to realize there were historic signs on them and began to know what to look for.

We made it around the block and found ourselves at the entrance to the museum. We chose to kill the last few minutes before the doors opened by taking a stroll in their garden.

Tucson Museum of Art.

The museum is one of those types that don't allow pictures to be taken. They are kind enough to trust you and don't make you put your camera in the car. I can never understand such a rule, especially with modern digital cameras. They can easily be used without distracting flash bulbs going off. Oh, well. You get a break from my sometimes overdone photography!

There are five galleries inside. Three of them are in the main building and there are two more in outside annexes. Actually, the annexes are two of the historic old houses on this block.


The theme in the main gallery was "man's imposition on nature and the earth". There were a lot of doctored photos, you know, those superimposed photos of fire over other things, that were all over the place. One of them was of a roiled up fish tank over a landscape. It was interesting. Sometimes I get a little sarcastic, but I really enjoy these things.

In one of the annexes was a display of pre-Columbian relics from Peru and South America. It was a stretch to call them art. To me, it was a bonus. I lingered at this gallery while the rest of my party was looking for me. I like these types of displays.


When we were finished with art, we found a nice Mexican restaurant nearby. It had a nice atrium and the weather was perfect for an outside lunch. The sparrows and pigeons entertained us while we ate. Lorne and I dropped a few crumbs for them. We left after a while and had a lazy remainder of the day.

Most Excellent Tomatillo Salsa

Cathy gave me this recipe for salsa. I've made it about four times now. This is an excellent base salsa. It is mild. But, if you want some kick, just add your favorite hot thing. Whether it be crushed pepper flakes, pickled jalapenos, cayenne, habaneros, or what ever. You can make this with the kick you want. I use a mini food processor I picked up just for this. If you have all the patience in the world, you can use a knife and chop too.

• 1/2 Pound Tomitillos
• 1 Pickled Jalapeno Chili, finely diced (fresh is okay)
• 1 Tomato, Diced (or 1 can diced tomatoes, drained)
• 1/4 Cup diced Red Onion
• 2+ Tbsp Cilantro
• 2 Tbsp Fresh Lime Juice
• 1/4 Tsp. Salt to taste

Remove husks from tomatillos, wash and dice into 1/4 inch pieces. Add remaining ingredients. A Serrano Chile may be substituted for jalapeno. Cover and refrigerate for an hour to allow flavors to blend.

Have fun. Make this your own thing, with your own slant!

A Lazy Day

Ah, today is a down day, for me. There is nothing planned. As long as my computer will cooperate, I'll let you know about my down day. The days have stretched into a full week of 80 degree plus temps. The sky is clear, the stars are amazing at night. Sleep is great because the night time temps roll down to the 50's. Is this paradise? No! But then, where is it?!

I did a dog walk with Cathy and Rose for the usual 2 miles in the back of the park. We bushwhacked a good part of the walk to try to find a wet area in the desert. Cathy remembered it before she was acclimated to the terrain and the trails here. We couldn't find it.

It didn't matter though. We enjoyed watching Rose bound after real and imagined rabbits. Every once in a while, we would have to remove a cholla cactus from her paw. This is pretty much routine now. She would pick one of these up and then stop dead until we can get over there to remove it. If she has one that is really hurting, she will try to remove it with her mouth. That's when things get hairy. Now she has the stickers in her paws and in her mouth as well.

Have you ever tried removing cactus quills from your own mouth? You can imagine what Rose is feeling when we have to do it to her.

We ended the dog walk. My agenda for today was to clean the bath room. I never look forward to doing it, as you can imagine. I was in a lazy mood. Maybe because of the hike yesterday. Maybe because I just feel this way every once in a while. It doesn't matter, I was just in a lazy mood.

I did manage to get the bathroom done. Then I watched the golf tournament and while doing that, I stretched out for a nap. I had a growing list to do at the grocery store and that's what I ultimately ended up doing.

It was the crown to a lazy day.

(posting between blue screens... what the hey!?)