Going Down the Rabbit Hole

 Our morning routine is pretty much the same whether we are on the road or at home. We wake up, turn on the news for background noise to see whose closet the FBI is raiding today and start reading blogs while sipping on our morning beverages (coffee for Barb, Mountain Dew for me). Basically multitasking, to see what is going on in the world via T.V. and text at the same time. After catching up with our blogger friends we will often “go down the rabbit hole” so to speak. After reading the blog of someone I know, I will go down to the comments section and click on a commenter that I do not know. More often than not, commenters have their own blogs. I will then read their blog and again click on a commentor on that blog that I do not know and carry on further down the rabbit hole. Depending on what we have going on that day this could go on for about an hour with twists and turns and tunnels through blogs that I have never read before.

While most of the blogs we read are RV related in nature, going down these rabbit holes have led us to some blogs that we would have never otherwise found or read. Some are quite interesting, and we have made some new virtual friends we would have never met. One from Prince Edward Island is not only interesting but also helped us out a lot last summer. We have found others we enjoy from Fargo, New Jersey and even as far away as New Zealand! There is something about getting a peek into someone else’s life that is interesting. I am not going to name names as I don’t know if they would want me to but give it a try some time, you never know where that path will lead you.

The other rabbit hole we went down this week was similar but different all at the same time. Still the same twists and turns down paths that we did not know what lay around the corner but not in the virtual world this time. The other day, our friends Dale and Ruth had posted on Facebook that they stopped by Colossal Caves just outside of Tucson. Colossal Caves was not even on our radar but after seeing their post and having left Santa Fe a day early, we had time to kill so we stopped by to see the caves.

We wanted to do something a little different than the basic tour so Barb read the different options to me. Let me stop here and confess that I am a little claustrophobic. Okay, maybe more than a little. I can thank my older siblings for this as they used to smother me with a blanket when I was younger until I freaked out. On a scale of 1-10 I would say I am a 7 on the claustrophobic scale. I can take a lot of things but there are some that I start to freak out. I have never totally freaked out as an adult, but I have come close a few times. The most recent when I was taking off a jacket and the zipper stuck. I tried and tried. Then Barb tried but we could not get the jacket off. Then I started to freak out and needed to get the jacket off and I mean NOW! I tore it off my body like a sweatshirt and threw it across the room. The worst I’ve had was an MRI tube where I started hyperventilating but somehow managed to calm myself down and get through it.

I can do, and enjoy caves, but not tight confined spaces. So, when Barb was reading me the description for the “Ladder Tour” which required scrambling on your hands and knees and skinnying through crevices I was a little more than hesitant. But I said I would give it a try. 

We arrived at the Visitors Center, got checked in and got fitted for a helmet with headlamp. 

At the appointed time, down the rabbit hole we went! Our tour guide, Dalton was awesome! With only 4 in our tour, we were able to ask lots of questions and take our time.

Lots of formations, lots of history, lots of twists and turns. You could get totally lost down there. When we got to the tunnels and crevices, I sent Barb in first.

The hands and knees stuff were not too bad as they were not very long, but a couple of the crevices where you had to go sideways and suck in your gut for several yards started to get to me. “You can do it, you can do it” I kept telling myself. I started to hyperventilate a couple times, but I made it and once through the crevice I was fine.

Same with the ladder portions. Most were no problem at all, but a couple were a little tighter and you had to squeeze through them. 

At the lowest point of our tour, we came across come barrels of water that were apparently put there in the 1950's to be used in case of a nuclear war. 

Thankfully, I made it through without crying like a little girl. There is another tour that Barb wants to do called the Explorers Tour that requires you to belly crawl through holes and tunnels. That is a hard no, more like a hell no! 

In the end I totally loved the Ladder Tour and would do it again.

What other fun did we have this week? Well, we stopped by Chiricahua National Monument and explored the peaks and valleys of the area.

There was one pet friendly hike, so we took that one first. As we were starting, there was a hell of a racket coming from a tree not too far off, so we went to investigate. There were a dozen Coati running up and down and all around these trees. We have never seen these raccoon-like creatures before and here there were a dozen or more! They were tearing the bark off a dead tree; I think trying to get to the bugs and grubs under the bark.

We watched them for about 10 minutes before moving on.

After that hike we went and checked into our site at Bonita Campground before exploring the peaks. Vehicles over 24’ are not allowed up the peak road so we took off our luggage rack and carried up the road.

More incredible views and vistas along the way.

Once we were at the top, we put the girls in back and went hiking.

Another very cool area, well worth the stop!

The next day we carried on towards Casa Grande where we stopped by the Casa Grande Ruins. We took the ranger led guided tour there. Interesting, but having just been to the Gila Dwellings, it paled in comparison.

Somewhere along the way, Wilcox I think, we stopped by to see Rex Allen. The Singing Cowboy who starred in many a western back in the day. 

Our adventure for this week ended with a stop by the Silverado Campground in Eloy to see our friends Dave and Leslie. We met these Albertans several years ago in Quartzsite and not seen them since they stopped by our place in South Dakota several years ago. 

We spent the first afternoon catching up over a fantastic supper Leslie prepared and more than a few cocktails. 

The next day we went on a 3 1/2 mile hike through the Casa Grande Mountains. A pretty easy but scenic trail.

One cool thing they showed us was the neighborhood that is being built using 3D printers. They have a huge printer set up that lays out the exterior walls of the house. 

Each layer of the house is about 2" thick. 

Once that is done, they put a traditional roof on it and stucco the outside over the plastic and paint it. In the picture below you can see one house that has been stuccoed and another painted. 

All too soon it was time to move on to our next adventure, so back down the rabbit hole we go. Who knows where the next tunnel will take us!