Time changes are hard

We finally left Az.

We had been there over 2 months, time to move on. Because Arizona doesn't do the daylight savings time, we gained 2 hours in 1 day. Took us a few days just to get back in sync. When we traveled to New Mexico we gained an hour from daylight savings time. Then we went to Texas and gained another hour because we went to the Central Time Zone. Tough enough, changing just one hour, let alone two.

We haven't really traveled much in one day since we got to San Diego on Dec. 16th. The towns we have gone to haven't been that far apart. In fact, our last 3 moves were only 50 miles each. For 3 days we traveled around 300 per day. First we got to El Paso. Next night we were in Fort Stockton. Now we are at Lake Medina, about 20 miles north of San Antonio. We stayed here for 5 days because it is such a nice park. There are lots of deer here. Sometimes I have seen as many as 11 deer, just looking out from the windows. They wander all over the park. One day, as I was looking outside, I saw lots of deer, squirrels and a new type of bird. Felt like I was in a zoo. I thought it was black, but when the sun hits it, it is a beautiful midnight blue shade It has a long tail, kind of looks like a roadrunner, but wrong color Wonder what it is? I have never seen it flying, just walking.

After we rested a few days, getting used to the time change, we went sightseeing. A few miles from here are some Caves. This is our 3rd set of Caves we have seen on this trip. These were different than we had ever seen. It is a living cave, with lots of water. The pathway is very rustic, you have to be very careful. There is a lot of water on the stones. I almost slipped and fell. Indistinctly I reached out to brace my fall. I accidentally touched formations, which is a no-no. Glad the guide was in front of me. In some places, you barely squeeze thru. Sometimes there are handrails, but none in the area I was in. There are several pools of water. Amazingly, we saw several plants. Most people thought they were fake, but they were real. In the back of the cave was a 90' waterfall. There were areas so low that we had to bend over to get thru. I took several pictures, but will show them later. For some reason, I can't upload any of them. I'm sure it is just some dumb thing I'm doing or not doing.

Tomorrow we are heading to Mission, Texas. That is about 30 miles from Brownsville, the very tip of Texas, I have relatives that live in IL. that are wintering in Mission. We are going to spend a few days with them and head to Odessa, Texas. That is in West Texas. I have relatives in Odessa, Midland, Southlake and Plano. The last 2 towns are close to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The park we are in right now is in what people call the hill country of Texas. In spring,the hills come alive with flowers. When we leave tomorrow, we will be going right thru the best area. Because of all the rain, this year will be the best show they have had in along time. There are lots of bluebells and other flowers. Should be beautiful.

West Texas certain has a lot of wind. We didn't get much sleep in Fort Stockton because of a wind storm at night. Denny thought the winds were at least 30 MPH. You really feel the wind in an RV, especially up in the bedroom area. That is also another reason we had a hard time with the time change. No sleep that night.

Ant Alert

Last week the park said it was ant season. They said to surround your tires with comet/bon ami. I have no idea why that prevents ants from going into your RV. We didn't do it. Denny kept saying we don't need to do it because he hadn't seen any. Wrong! We got home today from sightseeing and our carpet had ants. You could actually see them moving in a line. We are leaving tomorrow so putting out the comet wouldn't do any good. Denny vacuumed them up and threw away the bag. Hope that gets rid of them. We'll know we when get to our new spot tomorrow.

Our park had 2 man made lakes. Lots of ducks. We saw them everyday on our walk

More ducks

We went to the Kartchner Caverns today. Beautiful and amazing. It is a living cave so no cameras were allowed. Couldn't take water, camera's, backpack, jackets or anything into the caves. It is 70-72 degrees with 98% humidity. Pretty muggy and stuffy. I felt a drop of water. They say it is a cave kiss-means good luck.

It took me 4 days to get thru on the phone to make reservations. There are 2 tours going every 30 minutes. The only space they had this week was the Big Room tour at 10:45 today. Nothing else for the entire week. Next year we'll try for the Throne/Rotunda tour.

We have had a change of plans. We were going to leave Saturday, but decided to leave tomorrow, heading to Texas to see my relatives. It has been quite awhile since we traveled more than 50 miles to our next campground. Tomorrow we will be going 276 miles. That is about as much as we like to drive in one day. 

We have been in Az. since Jan. 14th.

Onward to new territory!

The Chiricahua Apache Indians

East of Bensen is the area where the Chiricahua Apache Indians lived. With the desert and rolling hills, you can really imagine the Indians riding their horses and seeing them on the ridge, just like in the movies. The day we went there was very cold and windy. We were in our fleece jackets. It is 67oo' at the top of the mountain. In the picture below, you can see Denny walking the path back up. Notice the snow to the right. The path is very uneven.

Another picture of the path leading down. Hard to see, but there is ice on part of the steps, making it very hard to walk on. Luckily the handrail was there. We had planned to go on a mile trail, but it was too cold and windy. We had warm jackets on, but we also needed hats and gloves to be comfortable.

These are the pinnacles that were formed millions of years ago from volcano's.

Many of the rocks are balanced in such a way that you can't imagine how they stay there without falling down.

An overview of all the pinnacles.

This was an amazing place to see.

After we came down into Wilcox, we went to the oldest continually open store in Az. It is said that even Geronimo even shopped there.

We had lunch in an old railroad car in Wilcox. We really didn't expect to find such good food in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

I hate those Senior Moments

We decided to drive to Bisbee Az. It is almost to the Mexican border. I was surprised that it is in the mountains. We drove thru the desert, up into the mountains, rounded a curve and there was the most picturesque town I have ever seen. The Senior Moment is that I forgot my camera, water and purse. What a time to be without your camera! Also had no ID, credit card or money. Luckily Denny had cash. I have never forgotten everything all at the same time before.

There is a Copper Queen Mine tour there. There are many copper mines in the area. That is what Bisbee was all about in the 1800's and early to mid 1900's. At one time it was the biggest town between St. Louis and San Francisco. The mine tour was amazing. It is a horizontal mine. It took us 1500' into the mine and we were 300' below the top of the mountain. We were in a mine car with a 9" bench that we straddled with our legs. We had hard hats, slickers and a hand held battery powered lamp. Neeeded the lamp and hard hat, but I think the slicker was just for effect. Really made you realize all that the miners went thru, using only hand held tools, mainly a pick and shovel. That mine closed in 1949, but the other mines in the area didn't close until 1975. Our tour guide was a retired miner that worked in one of the other mines until it closed. It was very interesting to hear his stories. When he started in 1954, he made $3.50 per hour. That really wasn't too bad a wage for those days.

After the tour we went into Bisbee. We wanted to have lunch in the hotel restaurant. It looked like you would expect the Cartwright's from Bonanza or the sheriff from Gunsmoke to walk in. They only had one waiter so we went across the hall to the Saloon. They served the same food. It was pretty good, better than I expected. The hotel was built in 1881 and is still open. After we finished, it was too late to wander around town, but there is always next year. It is a beautiful town.

Peace and Quiet and Good water

We are now in St. David Az. It is about 50 miles south of Tucson. We will be here for 2 weeks. It is so nice to have peace and quiet again. We never did get a good nights sleep at our last park. Even in the evening, sitting and relaxing was noisy.Hard to get any sleep right next to a freeway and train tracks. We will definetely go back to Tucson, but not to that park. Many times yesterday, we commented our peaceful it was. We basked in the silence. One of the reasons I picked this park is that it has 5 artesian springs on it. The water is so good. Seems strange to get it out of the tap. Haven't done that since we got to Az. on Jan. 14th. We will be sure and fill our jugs before we leave. There are several things we want to see in the area.

Pima Air and Space Museum

Denny loves all the Air and Space Museums. I think it is a man thing. I like all the old and unusual planes. That's it. Denny has a tendency to look at every single one, so it takes hours.

Good looking pilot

This is the stuff I like. It is the smallest plane ever flown. It was only made to break the record of the smallest plane. It flew once, just to see if it could and it did. The wing span is only 6' 6" long. The length is 8'.

Not sure what this is,but it is a very unusual plane. They only made a few of these. It didn't do what they thought it would.


Many of you know that my father was a pilot in WWII. This is one of the planes he flew. Just thinking about him being at the controls of such a large plane always gives me this amazing feeling.

Had to take a picture of this. This wreckage was brought up in Lake Washington in the 70's.

Across from the Museum is the Davis Monthan Air Force Base. They have the only military "bone yard" area in the US. All of the military planes are brought here to mothball for scrap or future use, if needed. There are planes from the Navy, Army, Air Force and some civilians. There are acres and acres of them sitting on the ground. They cover all the glass and fragile areas with a very thin plastic so that the interiors don't get hot. It is all the white you see on the planes.

Finally, this is all the sightseeing we did in Tucson. There are many things we didn't see. That is the best thing about retirement. There is always next year. Tucson is a very interesting place. We really enjoyed it.

One of the best dinners we had was in the middle of nowhere. We really don't go out for meals much except when we are sightseeing. Most of the restaurants in those places are fast food types. At the Desert Museum, they actually had a sit house restaurant with cloth napkins and tablecloths. It was one of the best meals we have ever had. I had mentioned in an earlier blog about all the food they make out of prickly pear cactus. I had a prickly pear cactus margarita. I hesitated because it was in the middle of the day, but I wanted to see how it would taste. The color was a beautiful hot magenta. Not sure if that was from the cactus or what. My chicken breast, Southwestern style was wonderful. It also had prickly pear in it. Denny had a Kobe beef burger.

I'm finally caught up with all my blogs. There was so much to see in Tucson. Because I wasn't sleeping well, I didn't feel like doing anything when we got back to the RV. I just wanted to sit.

What is a DOOF?

We went to the Colossal Caves south of Tuscon. Next to it is a 130 year old working ranch. As we were looking around the ranch, I came across this metal chime moving with the wind. For some reason, I was reading it right to left and I was stymied to what is a DOOF. Finally asked Denny and he said it was FOOD. What a concept. I was laughing so hard, I was bent over and no sound was coming out. I probably shouldn't point out something making me look and feel so stupid, but you have to be able to laugh at yourself. That night I was still laughing at myself. How stupid I felt. I guess old age is my excuse.

This a phone booth from the 1920's. The explanation is in the next picture.

The Colossal cave is between 12 and 20 million years old. This picture gives you an idea what it was like inside. The steps and floor are uneven. Have to really watch yourself. My camera battery went dead inside the cave. I had been afraid of that. Hard to change batteries in a dark cave. We were walking right behind the guide. She heard me telling Denny about my batteries. She stopped and positioned her flashlight on my camera so I could put new ones in. That was so nice of her. Nobody seemed to mind, everyone was taking pictures. None of them really turned out well enough to show you because I didn't know how to slow the speed down. I just used my flash. These caves were discovered it the late 1800's. In 1933 the CCC ( Civilian Conservation Core) put in floors and handrails. It took 2 years and they were paid $1.00 per day. Can't imagine how they did it. They stayed at the neighboring ranch where the DOOF sign was. There are tours that you can go on that you carry a rope and a lighted hard hat. No floors or rails.. No Thank you. Our tour covered 1/2 mile and went up and down the equivalent of a 6 and 1/2 story building. The cave is 3 and 1/2 miles long.

Biosphere2

North of Tucson is Biosphere2. It was a science experiment starting in 1991 for 2 years. Four women and four men were sealed in a 3 acre glass building. There was no outside contact. They had to raise all the food they used. There were 5 different areas, a rainforest, desert, savannah, ocean and marsh. They had a farm where they raised animals for food and a garden for fruits and vegetables. It was called Biosphere 2 because it was to duplicate Biosphere1, which is the earth. The University of Arizona still does experiments there.

The glass building is the actual greenhouse.

Surprised to see snow on mountains in the middle of the desert. The mountain is called Mt. Lemon. It has a ski area. When we were in Tucson, the road to it was closed because of so much snow.

This building supplied all the air to the greenhouse. As we exited the door into a hallway surrounding the structure, it was like a strong wind tunnel. Hold onto your hats! Then we actually exited into the sunlight.

Below is the desert area. You can see the glass surrounding everything. It was very thick with many layers.

This was the coral reef, ocean area. The water was 25' deep. The favorite pastime of the 8 people that were there was to swim in the lagoon for relaxation. There was a gym that was rarely used. They worked such long, hard hours that all they wanted to do was totally relax.

After the experiment was over, most of the public thought it was a failure. They couldn't control the atmosphere enough on the inside. There were leaks. They were hoping to use something like this on Mars or the Moon for people to live in. The scientists didn't call it a failure. It didn't do what they wanted, but it was invaluable for other things.

Saguaro National Parks & the Sonora Desert Museum

A couple of the "must see's" are the 2 Saguaro National Parks, east and west and the Sonora Desert Museum. I never thought much about cactus before, thought how dull. I like trees. Until you really see a lot of cactus and how odd and colorful they can be, you don't realize how beautiful they really are. The desert museum is wonderful. It is a world class zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden all in one. The Indians used all parts of the cactus for food or clothing. Nothing went to waste. I bought several food items using the prickly pear cactus. That is the one below that has round leaves. I have seen it in the vegetable department in stores up north. I bought prickly pear iced tea, syrup and honey. So far, Denny doesn't like the iced tea, but I thought it was good. A very different taste. I'll let you know about the honey and syrup.

This the roadrunner, the state bird of Arizona. Never seen a real one before. I remember it from the Disney cartoons That is Denny's favorite cartoon.

Bad Things Happening

Hopefully bad things only happen in three's. We have been pretty lucky along the way, but this week we had 3 things happen in a row.

First, coming back from seeing Biosphere2, we had a large rock hit our window. Made quite a ding. Luckily, we found a place to get it fixed the next day. First ding on the windshield.

Still on the way back from Biosphere2, we stopped at a Wal Mart to stock up on a lot of stuff. Our credit card was rejected It was quite shocking, we have never had that happen. That is embarrassing when you have over $300 of stuff already in bags and there is quite a line behind you. I didn't have our other credit card, but Denny used his debit card. When we got back to the Rv, Denny called. They had cancelled it that day. Seems that a company where we had used it in California had their computers hacked into. There was a 3rd party involved so our credit card company cancelled it automatically. Good thing. They will send us a new card with a new number. We had used our card about an hour before at Biosphere2 and it had gone thru.

Our 3rd thing happened the next morning. Denny was draining the water from the shower and it overflowed onto the ground. Shower and sink water is called gray water in RV speak. This wasn't our fault. The problem was in the park. Denny went to the office and there had been trouble with it before in this spot. We went off on our sightseeing and it was fixed by the time we got back.

These things luckily are still in the minor category. All fixable.

White Dove of the Desert

We visited the Mission San Xavier del Bac, about 10 miles south of Tucson. It was built in the early 1700's by Mexican missionaries. It is amazing the workmanship and knowledge that they had many years ago. It is so beautiful that it is called the White Dove of the Desert. Outside of the Mission, Indians on the reservation were selling Indian Fry Bread with various toppings. I had heard of it, but never had it before. It is like a tortilla, but very light and puffy. It was wonderful. We had an Indian Taco, but it is also delicious with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. I bought a package of it somewhere else and hope I can make it. Of course, the way I cook, that is probably wishful thinking.

This is the front of the alter area. The tall white candles are on the alter.

This is one of the side chambers.

The chamber on the left is the alter. Each side has a separate chamber. The detail is amazing. The top of the dome is 52 feet high.

Front view

Side view of the entire complex

Hee Haw--It's a Rodeo

We got to Tucson Thursday, Feb. 25th. We only had to travel 60 miles from Casa Grande. The Tucson Rodeo was going on, so off we went. I have never been to a Rodeo and Denny hadn't been since Darin was 5 years old. He is now 42. The Tucson Rodeo is one of the top 20 in the country. We looked a little out of place because we didn't have the cowboy hat, boots or big silver buckle, but we had a fun time. The show started out with Mutton Bustin', but it was so fast I couldn't really get a good picture. It was so cute. The first category were 4 year olds on a sheep, riding bareback. They didn't go far, but it was adorable. They just got right back up like it was no big deal. The age groups went up from there.

The picture below is of the bareback horse riding. Look at his position. Can't imagine those guys don't have back problems. Can't remember what the time limit was. Some made it, some didn't.

Below is the Barrel Racing. Only girls do it. Didn't see any girls doing horseback riding, roping or bull riding. Is that sexist or what! Probably too dangerous or something. This age group is 16 years old.

Below is the bull riding. The time is 8 seconds, but not very many guys lasted that long. Wouldn't catch me out there. During the rodeo, there were several injuries.

Now this guy looked even more out of place than we did.

We went on a Friday, a beautiful day about 75 degrees. The finals were on Sunday. It rained an inch that day. The place was one big mud hole, but the show must go on. I'm so glad we didn't go that day. We knew it was suppose to rain that day, so we stayed around the RV.

For the first time, I picked the wrong RV Park. I had a feeling when I made the reservations that I had made a mistake. Thought of changing, but never got around to it. Big Mistake. The park itself is fine, in fact it has the best hot tub so far. The problem is that it runs parallel to the freeway, plus on the other side of the freeway is a railroad track. The trains run several times day and night. We haven't had a good nights sleep since we got here. We really like Tucson and will come back next year, but not at this park. The people are very friendly, but too noisy for us. There are some full time people here. Not sure how they can stand the noise.