Arizona – Page 5 – TooBusyForWork

Titus Canyon, Artist Palette, 20 mule team, and heading home

Folks, you just thought I had a lot of pictures in previous posts! Get ready for even more.

The most amazing thing we saw at this year’s Encampment was a 20 mule team pulling newly built borax wagons. The wagons are 2 years old, and carefully created by a wagon builder in Montana to the original specifications. They are huge! The Death Valley Conservancy paid for them, and they helped fund the mule team too. The mules are from Bobby Tanner, an outfitter and packer in the Sierras, and he is one of only a handful of people able to manage such a team.

See the FedEx truck? Yeah, so did everyone else! The road was closed, but he thought he could get past the NPS, CHP, and the Sheriffs. Didn’t work out too well for him.

This is Kevin’s picture, taken from a high hill so you can see the bigger picture. The wagon train consisted of two huge wagons for borax, a water tank, 18 mules, and 2 horses. Yes, the term “20 mule team” is a bit inaccurate, but that’s the way it was done historically. And the team isn’t driven from the wagon but through a “jerk line” wielded by Bobby Tanner in the blue shirt and hat on the horse in front.

And I got the most amazing video I have ever made! Click on the link to see it, and turn up the volume to hear the mule bells. Watch towards the back of the team to see a mule “jumping the chain” to change the wagon direction. The wagons had solid axles, and they had to be turned by brute force.

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We didn’t hit many of the standard places for Death Valley pictures because we have done them so often. We did make an exception for Titus Canyon and Artist’s Palette. Titus Canyon requires a high clearance vehicle and some confidence, but it is a lovely drive. It is one way on a very rough gravel/rock road with tight turns and steep climbs, but the views are well worth it.

You eventually drive down a wash with narrow walls

The town of Leadfield boomed for about 6 months and died. It was a hoax.

Someone didn’t believe the road needed high clearance. This resulted in a dead car and two days of the canyon shut down until they could tow the car out.

On the road into the canyon from Beatty.

Look at the layers curling more than vertical! That is an example of the stress the land has undergone

The Artist’s Palette is another famous section of one way road. The formations has different minerals that provide a wide range of colors. And no, the green isn’t copper.

It is pretty, isn’t it? I hope you now believe Death Valley is more than sand dunes and dull brown rocks.

We left this morning for the 1200 mile trip back to Iowa. We made it to Kingman, AZ at Fort Beale RV Park. Quite a change from the spacious spot we had at DVNP, but such is life. We did get rewarded by a fantastic sunset tonight though. Too bad it is the result of smoke from the fires in California.

Bisbee Arizona

We arrived Friday afternoon in Benson Arizona. We are staying at the KOA which is small, crowded, but wonderfully quiet. We immediately started laundry! We had lots and lots because it had been almost 2 weeks since we last did it. Saturday however we had a lovely day in Bisbee, about an hour away. We first took a golf cart tour of the town. Bisbee is a mining town set into the side of a mountain, so there was no way we could have walked through it. Since the older roads were laid out before cars, many of them are barely wide enough for small car (or golf carts!). In addition our guide grew up in the town and knew all kinds of interesting stories. It was cold and windy, so I didn’t get many pictures, but these will give you an idea.

Mountain towns mean retaining walls. Many have been decorated by artists.

Lots of small houses brightly colored are a fixture in Bisbee

After a lost 3 hours on the tour we had a nice beer at a local bar followed by a so-so dinner at another spot. Then we took another tour, this one about Bisbee ghosts! I don’t believe in ghosts, but it was a fun historical tour.

We got back at 10:00 at night, which is late for this girl! It was so worth it.

Today we had a lovely lunch at a local restaurant and did more laundry! Tomorrow we leave for Alabama. The plan is to take I-10 to I-20 to US 277 at Abilene to Wichita Falls to Oklahoma City where we catch I-40 the rest of the way. We’ll see how the plans work! We will basically just be driving until we get to Little Rock. We then plan to take an extra day at Hot Springs National Park to take one of the hot baths. Then back on the road.

Last day in Phoenix area

We are sitting inside on a last, rainy day at White Tank Mountain Park. Outside stuff is mostly packed up since we knew the rain was on its way. Tomorrow we will just pack up power cord, water softener, water hose, and bikes, hopefully after the rain ends. It is always surprising how much “stuff” accumulates inside and out when we are in one place for a while.

We have had some good things happen while we are here. First, the scenery still is spectacular everywhere we look.

Take a look at some of my favorite saguaros.

Many of them have branches clustered along along a horizontal plane.

In this one the side branches are just getting started

Baby saguaros look a lot like basic barrel cactus when they are little.

You can also see lots of cholla varieties in the backgrounds.

There are lots of flowers around too, even though the main bloom isn’t for another couple of months. Yellow seems the dominant color.

These have just started blooming. They also have seed heads on them that almost look like tiny dandelion seeds

Kevin took these two pictures along a trail near the campground.

There are are a few in the blue/purple family

Kevin found this on a cholla, almost blooming

We took a trip to a supposed dirt road west of Wickenburg only to find out it had been paved! The guide book to 4×4 trails is obviously a bit out of date. On that trip (last Saturday) we had a real mess in Wickenburg. They were having a big rodeo and history festival in town – Gold Rush Days. They even close their schools for the entire week, which is amazing to me. Carnival, parade, rodeos, UTVs, trucks, and thousands of people were between where we wanted to be and where we were! It took 30+ minutes to make a detour through town, and we completely gave up on our initial plan of having lunch there. It looked like a nice town though, so Tuesday we went back. We visited the Desert Caballeros Western Museum, and all I can say is WOW! It had some very good historic exhibits, but the art exhibits were astonishing. Caitlin, Remington, and many other famous western artists have originals paintings and bronzes displayed here. It is truly a gem, and worth much more than the $12 admission. They also had a special exhibit of Native American art pieces from a private collector. The items were mostly Navajo and Hopi, with some sprinkles of other groups. Baskets, pottery, and rugs were only a few of the items, and they were amazing.

Tomorrow we head to Benson for three nights at the KOA. It will let us get our tanks flushed well and do laundry. We are also planning on a trip to Bisbee. We visited there 20-25 years ago, and we have always wanted to go back. Then off through NEw Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee to Alabama and one last trip to the Tiffin factory for some small maintenance items.

White Tank Mountain Park and Phoenix

This is a beautiful place! We arrived Monday, and I was amazed at the scenery. Everything is quite green (for the desert) due to the rains. In fact, it rained quite a bit on Wednesday. There was quite a bit of water along the road and in low spots.

The second one is taken through the windshield, but it shows the view I get to see.

Thursday we went to the Desert Botanic Garden on the far side of Phoenix. It was totally worth the drive and the money! Take a look:

Hummingbirds! Do you see him at the edge of the bush?

This one was very cool. They aren’t flowers but seed pods.

Some of the yuccas were just starting to flower.

We also had lunch at the upscale restaurant inside. They also had a wonderful plant store where I forced myself to not buy a thing! It was very hard since the succulents were incredible. I love desert landscaping and succulents, but there is no room in the coach and the cacti won’t be happy at the house with the cold weather.

One of the nice things about being in civilization again is that we can eat regular food. I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they are mostly balanced. It is lovely to have fresh veggies, fruits, fish, and meats. Those were hard to come by in the boondocks. I have enjoyed cooking, and I will definitely keep it up until we leave. We are planning on just heading to Alabama from here, and I want to have some food in the freezer before we leave.

Missing in action

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been trying to find the time and energy to post about our time at KOFA and then Quartzsite, but it seems overwhelming. Instead I am just going to provide a brief summary of the last four weeks, then my next post will be more recent.

We spent a week at KOFA in an great boondock site with friends. I started getting sick there – standard sinus problems I get on a far too frequent basis. On Monday, 14 January, we moved to Quartzsite with some different friends. I kept getting more sick, but treated myself with stam and keeping up with my allergy meds. Finally I acknowledged I felt like crap and was coughing so badly that I needed a doctor. We went to an urgent care facility in Lake Havasu, a bit of a drive, but I wanted a place with good patient reviews. Steroids and antibiotics to get rid of the bronchitis were the Rx. Within 24 hours I was sooooo much better! Steroids do that.

We did do a few things in Quartzsite. Funnel cakes and Indian tacos were a hit (different days). We also bought a couple of new camping chairs plus a little folding table. We had a lovely time with our friends, and ended up staying until Saturday, 2 February. We stayed in the town of Quartzsite at a full hookup site at Quail Run RV Park. Took a bit to get used to being 5’ from my neighbor instead of 100’, but it was nice to have unlimited power and water. I got to do all our laundry in our own unit, a big improvement over laundromats in Quartzsite!

On Monday, 4 February we checked in to White Tank Mountain Regional Park just west of Phoenix. Absolutely gorgeous, but I will pick that up in the next post.

A summary of some RV related information. We were having trouble keeping the batteries up even though we weren’t using that much power. Kevin found a hygrometer to measure their “goodness” only to discover they were not in good shape. Sigh. We drove to Phoenix to buy 6 new ones. Expensive, but needed. The solar worked better than we thought, even on cloudy winter days. We needed up needed the generator only about an hour a day most of the time. Everything else worked really well. We used the satellite when we needed, the refrigerator kept things cold or frozen as needed, and the weather wasn’t too terrible though significantly cooler than normal.

Happily in the desert again

We left Needles on Monday, 7 January, and we are now in a boondock site in the Kofa area off King Road, about half way between Quartzsite and Yuma. This area sits between the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and the Yuma Proving Range which makes it interesting. We can see transport and bombers go overhead, hear bombs being dropped a long way off, and still be hopeful of seeing mountain sheep. It is classic Sonora desert country. The name is an acronym for King of Arizona, a mine in the area. It stamped its gold with “K of A,” and the name stuck to both the mountain range and the wildlife refuge.

Of course the mountains are lovely too.

We are here with 7 other RVs, both trailers and motorhomes. We are all members of the RVForum spending time here before we camp at Quartzsite for a couple of weeks. No services, but we are all self sufficient with solar and generators. We figure we will leave when we need to dump the tanks, maybe Saturday or Sunday.

We haven’t been doing much, just relaxing and hanging around. I hope drive some of the backroads in the area before we leave. There seem to be some interesting looking places to go.

We are RVing again!

We spent Sunday night in a La Quinta on the north side of Tucson, and it wasn’t very nice. It was more expensive than the others, and we got upgraded when they didn’t have our room cleaned at 5:30 (really?), but it just wasn’t very good. We had a wonderful lunch of green chili chicken enchiladas at Adele’s in Las Cruces on the way in. Definitely will be remembering that spot!

We got into Needles just after noon Pacific time on Monday, New Year’s Eve. I was slightly nervous about the power in the RV, but everything was fine. We had left a penny on top of a frozen container of water to make sure the freezer didn’t get warm, and it was fine. The coach’s batteries were fully charged on the solar, and we happily pulled it out of storage into Desert View RV Park that was only a few blocks away. It is so nice to be in our own space again. The park is nice with mostly long term residents. Our site isn’t very big, but the long term sites are bigger. The park was having a karaoke night for NYE, and Kevin and I joined them. Well, I did some singing, and Kevin was a great audience. Nice folks here, and we have a good rate because we are staying a week at a significant discount.

Tuesday we just relaxed. I had enough driving! We did some organizing, cleaning, and shopping, but mostly we just relaxed. We weren’t too interested in doing much since there was a dreadfully cold wind on both Tuesday and Wednesday. We had planned on going to Oatman, AZ on Wednesday, but we chose to just visit Davis Dam.

There wasn’t a lot of power being generated which matched the low levels of the river. We also drove through the Davis Camp Campground, a public campground just below the dam on the Arizona side of the river. The dry camping sites were gorgeous – right next to the river. The full hookup sites were very crowded though, and I doubt we would want to stay there in the future.

Today we took the belated trip into Oatman. I love the views on the way there.

The drive past Oatman is spectacular too.

And of course, if you go to Oatman you have to take pictures of the “wild” burrows.

Kevin has been doing some organizing in the motorhome. He put together a shoe rack I bought, and luckily it fits perfectly on the closet floor. I was tired of a confused pile of shoes on the floor, and now we can see them all. Even better is the cabinets he has modified for a spice rack. The doors were hinged, but had no pulls. Kevin rearranged the pile of wires and flexible hoses behind the door and added the pull.

He had ordered this spice shelf and bottles while we were home. They fit very well. There are actually two cabinets, so he is going to order another spice cabinet when we get home this spring. It will be awfully handy.

That is enough pictures. I am recovering from a sinus cold, and I am now going to bed!

Out of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona and into Nevada

Yup, lots of driving. No pictures either because I never remember to take any when we are just driving to a destination. We left Oklahoma on Friday morning after visiting my sister, my niece, niece’s husband, and their four month old baby. The baby was such a solemn little guy he was inadvertently hilarious. We stayed in a lovely campground in Oklahoma City, Twin Fountains near the Cowboy Hall of Fame. I definitely will stay there again on another trip.

We ended up Friday night in Santa Rosa Campground in, surprise, Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It was an old KOA so the sites were a bit narrow, but it was a nice and quiet place. Surrounded by that classic New Mexico landscape, I could smell pinons and enjoy the sunsets in that clear New Mexican Sky. Another one worth a repeat for sure. There is a little restaurant at the campground that wasn’t too bad, so no cooking! Nice after a long day of driving the motorhome. I am getting in the grove for 400 mile days: drive a few hours, take a nice long break (30-45 minutes) then finish it up.

Saturday was another 400 mile day. We spent the night in the parking lot of the Twin Arrows Casino outside Flagstaff. We ate in the (well-reviewed) buffet at the casino, but it was so-so at best. Add into it the smoke that you had to walk through to get to the food, and it is definitely not a place to return to. The parking lot was nice though! Many RVers say they only pull into parking lots late at night, but we like to stop our drive no later than 4 or so. Here it was a good thing because the RV parking got quite crowded by evening. We got to position the coach so the driver side windows looked east onto the sage, and it made for a lovely sunrise. The long ride on I-40 made me want to plan a much more leisurely trip where we can stop and see all the lovely places we just drove by on this trip. Maybe 2-3 weeks, just sightseeing.

Last night we made it to Pahrump and spent the night in the Wine Ridge RV Resort. Very nice place though we didn’t use all the facilities. We did do lots of laundry and got our shopping done though. We will be in Death Valley for almost two weeks, and there isn’t much shopping there so we really stocked up. We actually stocked up more than I intended to since the baby back ribs and the meatballs were both BOGO. We should have plenty of meat! I also used the convection oven to cook up a bunch of maple bacon for future BLTs. Surprisingly the little store at DV generally has nice produce. We plan on leaving today with empty waste tanks and full fresh water and propane tanks. Weather shouldn’t be too bad though the forecast is for higher than average temperatures in the low 90s-upper 80s.

It is hard to get internet in DV, so posting will be limited except when we get into a town.

Military bases plus quilting

Odd title, but we did a couple of quite different things today. First we went to Fort Huachuca and it’s fascinating Buffalo Soldier Museum. Buffalo Soldiers were what African American soldiers were known as before integration of the Armed Forces after World War II. Supposedly the curly hair reminded the Native Americans of buffalo (bison). It was a good thing the museum was good because it took a very long time to get a pass for the post. It took my driver’s license and a long questionnaire, followed by a criminal background check and military records check before I got the pass, about 30 or 45 minutes total. While most of the post was very modern, I took a few pictures of the older part because I like the history.

EC965990-E2F9-40E8-A519-4A1C997DA4E8 — A duplex housing a Major and a Command Sergeant Major.

9C4C0D2B-24E3-4B4E-BB2B-887DD7FFE8C8 — Just looking into the distance across the old parade ground.

D02EC9F5-3E07-42E9-A011-9C98F5618541 — An old mission-style building.

72372CDC-0CF4-4EB8-A9BD-1EF4DFEDD482 — Old barracks now made into offices.

We did exciting things like laundry at the campground, and I got my latest Quilts for Kids project completed. I am pretty pleased with it. I did the quilting on my Bernina sitting at the dinette table, something much harder to do than using the quilting machine at home.

2B069882-93B1-456E-947D-80139E7AE5E4 The design is called “I Spy” because of all the different fabrics. I used a dark blue thread for the meander quilting. I probably should have used yellow, but I didn’t have any nor did I want to go to the store, so blue it was. It feels nice to get this one done. Next I need to work on the microwave bowl holders with the cute fabric I bought here, but we are leaving this campground tomorrow. I like the area, but the campsite is not nice at all. There isn’t room for the truck, so we have to park it in the overflow area, and it is quite inconvenient. We will probably head some place north of Phoenix for tomorrow night. Thursday and Friday we will be at Willow Beach below Lake Mead. A full hookup campsite! Of course that assumes the Government doesn’t shit down again.

Oh, and tonight I made baby back ribs in the Instant Pot again. Yum, yum! You notice no pictures; they didn’t last long enough.

Ghost towns and tourist towns

We decided to visit some old mining towns today – Courtland and Gleeson. They aren’t too far from Huachuca City or Tombstone, our ultimate destination. Courtland had obviously been a big mining district. There were tailing piles and mining roads scattered across the hillsides.

4E9E7A97-A68A-4215-AF84-64B328CE688F — Lots of rock buildings (sorry for the bad lighting)

ABA2B853-EE31-48CB-9E0C-1B7CD00F663D — Adobe buildings too

772D8EDF-1F8E-40F2-A83F-9D60D83380BB — This one looked scary!

AB77E2B7-02FA-4437-9BE5-FAE3A9A61FA5 — Distant views

122EAC6B-36A5-4A03-BDF7-E2607C9DDAFD — Yet more buildings, or at least their footings

300EDC3C-5DE3-4705-BBB8-EAC1F582B6E5 — Mine tailings. This one is still active. See the tiny white spec?

Now for Gleeson. Not as many pictures because a number of people still live in this community. There were even a number of mailboxes.

F5B4C86B-BDF8-412D-A619-51652BDD4C26 — This was a big building

17C0EF8F-3F35-4388-8D41-5B8981349CC2 — Leftovers of the mill and headframe

439927B0-C87F-4237-9D5A-AE1E52E9EE71 — Way at the top of a hill. Maybe a church?

After the ghost towns we headed to Tombstone. We picked a great day without many visitors since most people must have been planning on football. Lots of neat old buildings plus lots of relatively tasteful tourist shops. I was pleasantly surprised. We did take a stagecoach ride though. The driver/narrator was a hoot and deserved his tip at the end.

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This evening I pressed and sandwiched the Quilts for Kids project. I even got it quilted on my Bernina! It was the first time I have done free motion quilting on an entire quilt on the Bernie, and it went pretty well. Of course the quilt wasn’t big, about 40×45”. I will post a completed picture when I get the binding on.

Oh, and the Eagles won the game.