January 1 - January 15, 2006

January 1 Sun

Went to the same church as we attended last week, got some cash from an ATM, went for a swim and soak in the hot tub in the afternoon.  Played a game of scrabble. We were supposed to be affected by the rains and winds to the west but the mountains saved us from it.

January 2 Mon

Watched some of the Rose Bowl parade.  Got about .10 inch of rain - just enough to make water spots in the dust on the truck so the truck got a spray from the hose.  Garrey used the hot tub and Karen got into building a puzzle.

January 3 Tues

It was a beautiful day with a short 40 mile drive to an RV Park at Salton City.  We knew there weren't many attractions there and the area smells strongly of sulfur but we wanted to see it anyway.  Garrey thought the sunset was more beautiful than Indio because the expanse of the area was so great with the mountains in the distance.   The Salton Sea was a beautiful blue.  Karen even dared put her hand in the murky water--why was the water so blue when it seemed to be so dirty.

All of our expectations were fulfilled.

 

January 4 Wed

Karen drove the truck and trailer for a short distance in Oregon and it was generally agreed that Garrey is a terrible passenger so she hasn't driven the rig again since then.  Today she took over and drove the 120 miles to the RV park in Yuma, AZ.  Garrey assumed the role of providing unwanted advice, sloppily navigating, and generally being a nuisance.  He did get a picture though of Karen sitting in the driver's seat wondering if she should drive off and leave him there in the sand dunes (in the background of the picture) at the southern tip of California.

 

January 5 Thurs

Our RV park is about 10 miles east of Yuma so we went back to town to see the historic district, the Yuma Crossing area and the famous Yuma maximum facility prison.  

Our first stop was the Yuma crossing park.  This is the narrow area of the Colorado River that early explorers and settlers used to cross from east to west or west to east.  Before the river dams, travelers were funneled to this part of the country for hundreds of years and the natives had water for agriculture.

There has never been much of anything here though in history but miles of desert.  That's what made the old Territorial prison a natural location.  There was no place for an escapee to go that wouldn't be worse than staying in the prison.  We didn't find the prison but saw the general area where it must be located.  There is no signage for points of interest in Yuma and we drove around for about 45 minutes just trying to find the center of town.  We walked around the old town and had a lunch of tacos on Main street.  

The city has apparently started a large urban renewal project that includes destruction of streets and buildings and probably rebuilding the city.  Unfortunately they are now in the destruction of streets phase of the project.  The demolition of the streets is evident throughout the core of the city with streets closed and numerous detours in the center of town and ten miles east of town to the area where we are staying.

The Shangri La RV Park here, advertised nightly rates of $24.95 then told us when we got here that the rates went up on January 1 and it was now $35.00 per night.  They also advertised that they had wireless internet connection but hadn't mentioned that it cost $3.16 per day. 

The Yuma Chamber of Commerce is proud of saying it's sunny here 95% of the time.  Our short stay here confirms that.  What they don't say though is that the wind blows between 15 and 20 mph 95% of the time and you cannot put your awning out if you want to be able to use it again tomorrow. 

January 6 Fri

This morning when we left Yuma our plan was to drive about 120 miles and spend the night near Gila Bend.  When we got there the wind was blowing hard and the air was filled with dust so we filled the truck with gas and drove on.  The next plan was to drive another 60 miles and stop near Casa Grande.  We never did see the highway exit at Casa Grande that our campground book mentioned so we headed for Tucson with a new plan to stay at the next RV park we saw.  About 40 miles northwest of Tucson we found the Picacho Peak State Park in the Sonoran Desert. 

And what a find it is.  The scenery is spectacular, the RV spots are far from the highway and it is very quiet and peaceful here.  They have sites with electric but no fresh water or sewer connection.  That's not a problem for our rig and the showers they have are clean and convenient.

We sat outside for the afternoon and evening and took a series of photos capturing the color changes as we watched the sunset.  Click here to see the slide show of the evening colors.

January 7-9 Sat-Sun,Mon

This is real desert living.  The morning sunrises and evening sunsets were an inspiration for the rest of our stay at Picacho.  The temperature was never below 22 degrees in the early morning.  We did some long and short walks and enjoyed our time.  We went across the highway for lunch one afternoon.  We wanted to take a picture of every saguaro cactus we saw as they were all unique.  They live to be over 200 years old and get their first branches at around 50 years of growth.  There were a lot of different cacti--flat prickly pear, barrel, cholla, teddy bear cholla, buckhorn cholla, fish hook barrel, chain fruit cholla, ocotillo, to name a few, plus creosote bush, triangle borage (hay fever plant), and Palo Verde.  The most significant Civil War battle in Arizona took place near Picacho Peak when a Union detachment met a Confederate scouting party which the Confederates lost.

January 10 Tues

Drove to the Butterfield RV Park in Benson.  It's a nice, clean park right next to Safeway and a shopping center.  We ate lunch out.  There isn't much else to see around Benson but Karen took the truck to explore the area.  There wasn't much to see!!! The park has its own high power telescope/observatory so  Garrey looked at the moon for a while.

January 11 Wed

Drove to mile-high Bisbee going through St. David, Tombstone and the huge San Pedro Valley with Sierra Vista sprawled out along the far mountains.  As we neared Bisbee the Mule Mountains with their dry grasses and green trees surrounded us and they were beautiful. We camped right at the Queen mine and on the lip of the Lavender pit mine so our campsite was quite exposed to the sun and the elements.  The nights were in the 20's and low teens but the days were mostly in the 50-60's and warm.  The wind blew hard a couple of nights and kept us awake but we can sleep any time  ;-).  Shirley met us soon after we arrived and took us to her winter home which is up one of the side valley.  It's a really neat place and she had a lot of work done on it over the past year and did a wonderful job on its design and furnishings.  She served us a delicious zucchini quiche and a squash soup.  Then we did a walking tour of Bisbee seeing the lovely Copper Queen Hotel, the art galleries, antique and gem shops and various other markets and had a drink and happy hour treats at a local bar.   

January 12 Thurs

 

Went to Tombstone.  Above is a view of the Tombstone Hills  and a fake set where we saw a live 3-person-comedy western show which had lots of great one-liners.  The view of the hills hasn't changed since the famous shoot-out.  We went into the Bird Cage Saloon which is one of the only original buildings in Tombstone with a new facade--very small with a high ceiling; no wonder they would rarely miss in their gunfights.  It has a number of bullet holes in the walls.  We walked the streets and explored some of the shops.  We had lunch in a shop that had a fine western singer but we were one of only a few eating there. Shirley and Karen spent hours in one of the antique shops looking a Western wears.

P.S. Walking the streets of Tombstone we saw a guy on the board-walk dressed as an old time sheriff and Karen was reminded of her brother-in-law David who died suddenly last year.  He knew all about the Western days--cowboys, Indians, wars, and had all the regalia to wear from those days much of which he made himself.  He had the privilege of being the sheriff of Tombstone for one day after he and some others traveled to Tombstone from Missouri in a covered wagon a few years ago.  She strongly felt his spirit there.  

January 13 Fri

We took a tour of the underground parts of the Copper Queen Mine in the morning and Shirley and Karen explored downtown Bisbee a little more in the afternoon.  We went to Shirley's for dinner that evening.

January 14 Sat

Garrey decided to stay at the trailer and do a few things on his own while Shirley and Karen went to San Pedro House for a walk and bird watching on the San Pedro River.  They saw two white-tail deer at the beginning of their walk.  The San Pedro River runs from Mexico and meets the Gila River eventually in AZ.  They saw a great blue heron, a couple different falcons, northern shovelers, ? ducks with burnt orange on their side, and more common ducks, wrens, etc.  It was a nice walk. We then went to Sierra Vista for lunch and drove up into one of the canyons to see the property of the Nature Conservancy--a grand area.  We went on to Hereford and then to Naco on the Mexican border.  Then to Warren where the elite and huge homes of the Bisbee copper mine executives lived.  Reminded me of Calumet Avenue in Calumet, Michigan where Karen grew up in the Copper Country.  

January 15 Sun

We went to a small Methodist church in Warren with a friendly congregation.  Later Shirley and Karen drove around all the narrow streets of Bisbee looking at the unusual houses and unique patios as well as all the Victorian architecture of Bisbee.  They also drove up Brewery Gulch with many old time saloons.  They picked up an end table Shirley bought at an antique store.  Garrey made a special chicken enchilada dish for Karen's birthday celebration.  She also opened her gift of candles with copper flecks in them which she almost bought but didn't have enough cash on her--so she was happy!!!  Her birthday is tomorrow.