Tucson, Tombstone and Bisbee

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Three days in the Tucson area is just not enough to see everything we wanted to see in the area. The Desert Museum, Saguaro National Park, Old Tucson, Pima Air Museum…….not to mention other local attractions such as Tombstone and a mine tour in the quaint little town of Bisbee Arizona. As our friends and family up north are huddled in front of their heaters enduring temperatures in the negative teens and twenties, Barb and I deliberated which sites to see while suffering through temps that reached over 80. Oh, the sacrifices we make in the name of adventure!

In the end, we decided on the national park, the desert museum, Tombstone and the mine tour. Decisions we would not regret.

Our first few days in the area were spent at Snyder Hills BLM area. This area is located off of Hwy 86 just south of Tucson and is a great spot for a couple days of free camping.

Snyder Hills site

 

Sunsets from our site

We could hear these guys around the trailer at night so we kept Daisy on a short leash!

Our previous two weeks had been filled with meeting new people on the road, our trip to Tucson involved meeting up with friends as well. Who do you suppose were spending the night in Tucson on their trip from Florida to Lake Mead? That’s right, our friends Steve and Joan! As big as the country can seem at time, it is amazing it can also seem so small, what are the chances they would be passing through when we were there? We were able to get together for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Although it was a quick visit, it was great to see them and…..bonus….Joan gave us a bag of freshly picked pecans from Alabama!

The Saguaro National Park is only about 10 minutes from Snyder Hills. Although it may not have some of the prominent geological features found in other national parks it was still very interesting. Although much of the area has been protected since the early 1930’s it did not become a national park until 1994. Cattle grazing and human encroachment has severely diminished the Saguaro in the area, thankfully within the park boundaries they are virtually untouched.  The Saguaro, called the Monarch of the Desert, starts out its life with a seed the size of a pinhead. At the end if it’s first year the Saguaro is ¼” tall, at 15 years, 12” tall, 50 years, 7’ tall. They start growing “arms” at about 75 years old and a 25’er can be as old as 200 years old! Given this it is understandable why they need an area of protection.

A few of these "monarchs" were well 100 years old!

I see 4 varieties right next to each other 

 

A fallen soldier

In addition to the Saguaro, there is a huge number of other plants, animals and birds that we have not seen before. Although considered a desert, there is as much life out there as you would see in a Wisconsin forest. Truly amazing.

Barb hiding behind an Ocotillo cactus 



Pencil Cholla Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus

Fish Hook Barrel Cactus

Teddy Bear Cholla

Our next adventure was the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. The cost was $20.00/person to get in and is a combination museum/zoo along with a botanical garden, art gallery and aquarium with lots of historical artifacts from the prehistoric era to Native American. The most interesting part for us was seeing all the different types of plants and cactus in the area. While walking the desert earlier we saw all sorts of interesting plants but had no idea what they were. Now, we at least know the names of a couple, useful information as everything here is new to us.

Headed down into a cavern

Testing out her new bat ears.

 

 

The next day we traveled an hour to Tombstone Territorial RV Park. With our Passport America discount the park was less than $19.00 for the night.  Tombstone is a typical tourist town full of shops trying to lure you in to buy their wares. We spent the day in the town of Tombstone walking the streets going in and out of each of the shops. If you are able to look beyond these and let your mind wander and look at the architecture of the buildings and imagine what this town was like back in the late 1800's it is quite interesting. The highlight of our trip there was attending a reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral as well as viewing the shops, wagons, pictures and articles from back then. We were hesitant to pay the $10/person to attend the reenactment thinking it was going to be a corny skit with bad acting but we had come this far so why not? What actually occurred was quite the opposite, we were entertained and educated for 30 minutes by some pretty good actors who got the crowd involved throughout. We walked away feeling the $20 was well worth it and it made our trip.

30 shots were fired in 30 seconds

 

Wyatt standing over Billy Clanton while the McLaury brothers lie nearby

Doc Holliday and one of the McLaury brothers

Spoiler Alert!.........The Earp Brothers survived

Leaving Tombstone we headed back towards our campsite and stopped at a the ghost town of Fairbank where we walked among some of the old buildings and cemetery. Here is so much history in this area that it is hard not to get caught up in it and imagine what life must have been like in the 1880's. The town was the railroad hub for Tombstone and surrounding towns but slowly died over the next few decades.

 

Most of the grave sites were broken crosses and piles of rocks

1919

Mati Nelson......a relative?

Feb 25, 1899

On our last day in the area we headed to Bisbee to visit the Queen Mine. We took the rig with us as it was on our way to the next stop. We called ahead to make sure there was parking that would accommodate us and were told it would not be a problem. They lied. We pulled into the lot and it became quickly apparent that not only could we not park there, we could not even turn around! Luckily we were able to sneak into an RV park adjacent to the mine and get it turned around and found a sketchy spot to park the rig. The rig parked, and tensions high, Barb and I headed into the Queen Mine building. We paid our $13.00 and headed in for the tour. The Queen Mine, one of the greatest copper camps the world has ever known. In almost 100 years of continuous production before the Bisbee mines closed in 1975, the local mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 price) one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world. This staggering amount of wealth came from the estimated production of 8,032,352,000 lbs of copper, 2,871,786 ounces of gold, 77,162,986 ounces of silver, 304,627,600 lbs of lead and 371,945,900 lbs of zinc.

Donned with hardhat, rain suit and flashlights we headed to the mouth of the mine where a motorized mine car and trolley carts awaited us to take us into the mine.

The bicycle type thing below was how the mine boss traveled throughout the mine checking on his workers. Legend goes that the workers would steal the bike and hide it from the mine boss so he had to walk if he wanted to check on them! The cart behind the bike was the typical cart used to take the ore out of the mine. The shoots above the cart was one of the methods they used to fill the carts. In the early days the young strong men of the mine would be assigned to move these carts which would weigh 3/4 of a ton. Later, they used mules which could move 4 carts at a time. The mules were later replaced by the motorized carts.

Another method used to filled the carts were these loaders.

Several types of drills were used throughout the mines history, starting with pointed steel rods hammered into the rock wall to a depth of 7 feet. Miners would get an average of two holds drilled each day. Hand drilling was replaced by drilled driven by water and air, the latest drill would take on 7-10 minutes to drill 7 feet into the rock. Once 25 holes were drilled each hole was filled with several sticks of dynamite and detonated to get to the ore.

And no mine is complete without the crapper cart!

Next up, we add two new states to our travels....New Mexico and Texas!

Thanks for stopping by......Go Packers!



Oh Mexico.......

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Throughout our marriage Barb and I had an understanding. We would split our vacations up, we would spend ½ of our vacation time each year together and spend the other half apart. I would usually spend my “apart” half fishing or hunting up north, while she would spend hers someplace warm such as Cozumel or some other warm weather location south of the border with our daughter or friends. This worked out well as I had absolutely no interest in going to Mexico or any other warm weather location. There is just too much to do here in the states!

So what after 52 years finally got me to cross the Mexican border? Why to go to the dentist of course! Even as I write those word I cannot help but think how crazy that sounds. When I was at the dentist for my annual checkup I found out I needed two crowns at a cost of $1,800 a piece! With no dental insurance, that would put a serious damper on our budget. We had heard that dentistry in Mexico is much cheaper from other blogs that we had read. After contacting several of these bloggers and found out their teeth had not fallen out we made the appointment.

When the day finally arrived, I started getting nervous and having reservations.  I can’t stand going to the dentist back home so what the heck am I getting myself into? Now I have entered Canada dozens of times, you stop at the border, give them your passport, answer a handful of questions; where are you going? What are you brining across? How long are you staying…….The entry into Mexico was amazingly easy. You park your vehicle in a secure area on the U.S. side of the border for $6.00 and walk across the border. No showing of the passport, no questions to answer, you just walk across the border! When you come out the other side of the gate it is like you are in another country!

A tourist getting greeted at the Mexican Information Center

 

 Street vendors start approaching you within 100 feet and try to lead you to the closest dentist, pharmacy or optometrist. We had researched which dentist we wanted early on and found a couple of reputable dentists that we would be comfortable with. In the end we chose Sani Dental so we ignored street vendors to Sani building. The entry was very clean and professional, the employees spoke very good English and asked me to fill out a form. Once that was done I was led to another waiting area that had about 15-20 people in it (everyone appeared to be from the U.S.) Along one side there were 9 doors numbered 1-9 that people were led into when their names were called. When my name was called I was led into door #3 which ended up being the x-ray room. They took a panoramic x-ray of my mouth and went back out to the waiting room. When my name was called again, I went into a different room where a dentist and assistant waited. They went over my x-rays and detailed the recommended work; two crowns and a filling. I had heard that some places will try to talk you into root canals but this was not the case here. After agreeing to the work to be completed we set up an appointment for the next day.

 

Waiting room

 

Dentist done we headed back out to the streets to look around. We walked up and down many of the streets being bombarded by street vendors trying to sell their wares; purses, hats, belts, jewelry……you name it. These vendors are relentless and it was sensory overload with someone trying to get your attention constantly. We ignored most but did buy a hat and a purse (Barb bought the purse). Both items started out at $25.00 but we haggled down to $13.00 and $10.00 respectively. We knew prior to arriving that we wanted to get some prescriptions refilled so we headed over to the pharmacy. There is probably 6 or more pharmacies on each street but we knew which one we wanted. We headed there and were greeted at the door and told them what we wanted. He led us to a clerk who filled our list for us. Prices were ridiculous comparatively (6 months of blood pressure medicine for less than $4.00). We stocked up on the items we needed and headed over to the liquor store where we each for a bottle and Barb picked up a couple bottles of vanilla.

 

Barb had said she wanted to get some true Mexican food while we were there and I vowed not to eat anything. But my stomach got the better of me and I said I would try something. We walked around looking for someplace good and found a restaurant that was crowded so we figured it had to be safe. The price was about the same we would pay here but the food was very good.  

Sport'in my new hat!

Ready for some real Mexican food!

Done for the day we headed back to the border with passports in hand. We were almost to the desk when two drunk women stumbled up to us asking if they could go ahead. We let them, they went to one desk while we went to another. We had to declare our liquor and prescriptions and we were on our way. The two other women were still at the desk and the officer was asking them what their hurry was and why they did not wait in line like everyone else. Evidently the outside cameras picked them up walking past the 50 or so people behind us and right to the front of the line! Out of curiosity we waited on the other side of the gate for about 10 minutes waiting for them to come out of the building but they never made it! While we were waiting we watched other officers and dogs searching vehicles coming back into the U.S. They were really tearing apart one truck!

There is nothing like the smell of burning bone to wake up the senses. That is what I was experiencing the next day for an hour and a half as they prepared and fitted the temporary crowns. As far as this part of the procedure went it was no different than in the U.S. Getting the novacane  shot sucked but after that no pain or discomfort. It is weird being at a dentist where you cannot understand a word they are saying. The dentist and her assistant were talking constantly and occasionally the assistant would relay instructions. The dentist only spoke limited English; “open” “open wider” were the only words I heard her say. Complete for the day I was told to return on Monday for the metal crowns and again on Tuesday for the porcelain finish.

For the first three nights in this area we stayed at Westwind RV and Golf Resort. Using Passport America it was $25.00 a night for 3 nights. A little on the high side but we did not know what the weather was going to be like back when we made the reservations and we wanted to make sure we had AC if Daisy was going to be in the trailer all day. Besides, we had not had full hookups since Casper, Wyoming back in October. The resort itself was very nice with a pool, laundry facilities, a full array of activity courts and of course the golf course.

Westwinds RV and Golf Resort

Sunday was moving day, but before that we took advantage of the water and electricity to wash the windows, vacuum and get all our laundry done. Chores completed, we hooked up and moved 15 miles down the road to the Quechan Casino right across the border in California. Here we are only about 10 minutes from the Mexican border crossing and the camping is free. This is our first time casino camping and were pleasantly surprised. Although there were quite a few rigs, it was very quiet. It was also well lit at night and patrolled by security. We spent the afternoon walking through the casino, playing the slots (we lost $4.00) and watching football. I did manage to lose one of my temporary crowns but luckily there was no pain or sensitivity issues.

Casino camping at its best

The next day we spent the morning touring the Yuma Territorial Prison. The prison opened in 1876 housed a total of a total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within the walls during the prison’s 33 years of operation. It was a very interesting tour viewing the artifacts, viewing pictures and reading about some of the prisoners. The cells themselves were just as interesting. It is hard to imagine spending any length of time in one of them. We were told that some of the cells were haunted and that you could feel "the presence" of some of the inmates within the cells. The only "presence" we felt was when we were in the Dark Cell which is much like the solitary we know today. It is a cave-like cell with no light, the presence we felt while in that cell were about a dozen bats flying around our heads! If you are in the area I would recommend this tour.

Before heading back we found a gas station with diesel for $2.52! That is by far the lowest we have seen in since we have been on the road. The highest we paid in the last 10 months was $4.19, if it stays low like this we will save a lot of money on our way to Florida!

Back at the dentist that afternoon, the appointment was at 2:00 but when we got there we were told that the crowns were not ready and to return at 3:30. After returning they fitted the crowns to make sure everything was good and sent them back to the lab to have the enamel coating put on. So, we returned the next day and within an hour I was walking out with my new crowns. The entire bill came to $420 which included x-rays ($60), two crowns ($160 each) and one filling ($40). Overall I would do it again, the price was right and they were extremely professional. One word of caution be prepared to wait.

On our last night here we received a call from fellow bloggers Scott and Detra , they too are in their first year of fulltiming. They are originally from the Toronto area and are a very nice couple. We had a lot in common, and spent a couple hours swapping favorite places and travel adventures. A special shout out to Carol (Starzz), thanks for following our blog!

Scott and Detra

One last picture.... saw this and could not resist stopping to take a picture. I think I found a way to pimp up the hood of our GMC!

Time to leave Yuma and head east, over the next month we will be making our way to Florida. Along the way we have stops planned in New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and finally Florida. Who knows what adventures are in store for us!

2 Days in Quartzsite

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The trip from Lake Havasu to Quartzsite was less than 90 miles, by far the least amount we have traveled in a day but we liked it! We have not been to Quartzsite yet and when were a few miles north of town we started seeing RV's boondocking out in the desert. When we actually pulled into town it was like we were in RVland. We have never seen so many RV's or RV related businesses in one location. Being newbies everything is new and exciting so we took in all the sights and sounds of the area. The real RV season for this area does not peak for a few more weeks, I can't imagine what it will look like then. The weather on day one was awesome with the temps in the upper 50's. That certainly beats the single digits the kids are experiencing in Salt Lake and the negative temps our friends and family in Wisconsin are enduring this week! However, day two we work up to rain and snow in the hills, the high today only got to 37. What a difference a day can make!

Our home for the two days was a boondocking location called Dome Rock. We had read about this location from a fellow blogger and had the GPS coordinates loaded. As we approached the area we started to see RVs scattered throughout a several mile stretch of Dome Rock Road. It is quite intimidating pulling off the blacktop onto a two track dirt road in a new area for the first time. How does one even know that once you get on this road that you will be able to find a place to park or even turn around if you don't? Seeing several other big rigs in the area helped reduce these fears and we did find a secluded spot relatively easy. After setting up we headed into town as Barb said she would buy me a birthday lunch.....that's right it was my birthday! We found a really good pizza place Silly Al's, if you are in the area I would recommend their pizza.

View towards the road

View from the front of the rig

Prior to coming down here we had contacted two other RV'ers who were also in the area and we hoped to meet. We had met both of them online but had yet to meet them in person. The first couple was Allen and Donna Ferguson who were actually staying on Dome Rock Road as well. We had an idea what their rig looked like from pictures but how to find them with miles of boondocking along this road? Well, as we pulled back in from lunch, there was their Bighorn! They ended up parking  a couple hundred yards from us and walked up when they were all settled. Allen and Donna (RV'ing With The Fergs) are a very nice couple who have been fulltiming for several years and are here for about a month.

Donna and Allen with their rig in the background

The next day we drove the truck over to another boondocking area several miles away and met up with two other couples who we knew from blogs and the RV Dreams website.  Steve and Dianne (Living The Dream) have been fulltiming for several years and are from British Columbia. They have one of the more interesting rigs that we have seen, they transport two 4 wheelers in an enclosure right behind the cab of the truck and their 5th wheel behind that! Red and Pam have been on the road for about a month longer than us.  One thing we realized while meeting with them is that if we are going to spend any real length of time down here is that we need to figure out how to get our Polaris Ranger down here as well. The off road trails are everywhere! After visited for a couple of hours we headed back to our rig for a quick lunch and visited the Ferguson's. Our goal on this trip was to scout out the area for future visit but the highlights ended up meeting three very nice couples we hope to meet up with down the road!

Steve, Dianne, Red and Pam

Steve and Dianne's Hauler

 

How's Barb's ankle you ask? The bruising is diminishing and it is slowly getting better, she insists that she can go on hikes but I am trying to hold her back. We did go on one mini hike up a nearby hill to an old mine that we could see from our campsite.

Mouth of an old mine



View from inside, that tiny little spec in the middle is our rig!

Saguaro cactus dot the landscape.



This poor guy did not have any arms so Barb lent out a helping hand......arm

Tomorrow morning we pull up stakes and continue our journey south to Yuma where we will be for the next week while I get my dental work done in Mexico!

Happy New Years Everyone!!!!!!!!

Terror at 6,600 Feet!

Friday, December 26^th started out as normal day, we spent the morning with the grandkids and got the rig ready for the next leg or our journey. We left Salt Lake at about 1:00pm destination Cedar Pocket in the Virgin River Recreation Area. Little did we know that the day would include a terrible tragedy! About an hour south of Salt Lake it began to snow, and snow, and snow. As we began climbing a few passes, there were a few areas where the snow covered the road and I had flashbacks to one of our first adventures "Class of 2014 Graduation". We, and many trucks had slowed down to 45mph to climb a few hills and as we approached a particularly slow truck right at the 6,600 foot summit I move over into the left lane to pass is when it happened…… there in the middle of the left lane was a Christmas Elf! There was nothing I could do, you don’t dare swerve on a snowy road. I just gripped the wheel and hope for the best but I heard the sickening “thud thud”. Barb said “What was that?” “A Christmas Elf, I just killed a Christmas Elf” I replied in terror.

 

Sickened by this unavoidable tragedy we continued on for an hour or so until we needed fuel. We pulled into a truck stop, I fueled up while Barb took Daisy for a walk. She returned with a look of horror on her face and said “There are parts of the Christmas Elf stuck to the rig!” I went around the other side and sure enough there were elf parts stuck to one of the jacks! The only thing we could figure out was Santa was flying over the pass, blinded by the snow storm and had to make a sharp turn to avoid hitting the mountain. This poor elf, drunk from a little too much Christmas Nog lost his balance and fell out of the sleigh and well……you know the rest. I can only hope that Santa does not find out it was me but just in case, I am going to be super nice this year!

Road kill Elf parts

 We had never been to this recreation area and we were pleasantly surprised by the size of the sites as well as the quality of the restrooms. A $8.00 for the night we were very happy with this stop.

Our site at Virgin River Recreation Area

  



Our boondocking site south of Lake Havasu

The next day, we continued our journey south into Las Vegas where we stopped for a RV/truck wash as the rig got very dirty driving through all the snow and slush. From there we entered California and eventually back into Arizona where we ended our day in Lake Havasu City at a BLM camping area with about a dozen other rigs. One of the harder things to do when boondocking in a new area is finding a suitable site. We have done some research prior to leaving Salt Lake but until you get to the area you don't really know the terrain, whether  our rig would fit or if the sites in the area we picked were open. As we drove through the area we thought had suitable sites we saw several other big rigs out in the desert so we pulled over and walked the area. As luck would have it there were a couple sites that would accommodate us and we pulled the rig into one. There are pros and cons in boondocking near other campers. There is safety in numbers and we felt safe leaving our rig there while we explored. The down side is that you have to put up with the off road vehicles driving by and the noise of the generators at night. As far as campsites rank, it is pretty near the bottom but warm, sunny and free! We stayed for two nights exploring the area for future visits.

We did get on one hike while we were in the area. The SARA Wash Crack in the Wall trail is a 3 mile slot canyon trail where it narrows to arms width in some areas and has several drop offs that need to be negotiated. Daisy was having a hard time with several and we had to "repel" her with her leash. She was none to happy about that! There is one particularly steep drop off of about 7' that had a kind of smooth rock slide from top to bottom. When we got to this slide Barb went first. Thinking she was Super Women she sat on the slide and away she went! When she hit the bottom she swore several times and hopped away from the rock. Evidentially, when she hit the bottom her ankle buckled and shot pain through her body. I made it down a little more slowly bracing myself with my feet on both sides of the slide. We then sat down to assess the situation. Now neither Barb or I know a lot about physics, heck, we don't even understand E=mc^2 but we think the ankle buckling had something to do with mass, velocity and the hard ground. Whatever the reason she said she could keep going and walk it off but after another 1/2 mile I could see she was hurting so we headed back. When she got home, we put ice on it and it started to stiffen up. She needs to stay off of it but Barb does not do well at sitting down so we shall see how the next few days go. 

 

 

It got very narrow in some areas.

Daisy navigating one of the slides

We took the upper trail on the way back. Lake Havasu in the background.

 

Speaking of the next few days, tomorrow we hit the road again for a couple days at Quartzsite. Thanks for stopping by!