Back in the "Y"

Long road home

So. January 14 to March 2nd.
Seven weeks.
Seemed like enough.
Hankering to get home.                                                    
Enough of the gyspy life --- for now.

Looking forward to: grandchildren, our bed, showers whenever we want, ditto laundry, taking up more space.

Nina says: I'll take snow over cacti any day!!!

Well, I'm NOT excited by the foot of snow that still blankets southern Michigan. Addendum: very crusty icy snow after a touch of freezing rain two days ago. Nor am I enthralled by the very cold temps still embracing this place we call home. However, the positives are listed above, plus a thousand and one insignificant taken-for-granted things that you just do without in a space the size of the Pickle Bus.
Last week the weather had turned chilly everywhere but western Arizona. Those two nights we stayed in Bisbee? Cold!
So we headed east. We spent an extra night at Oliver Lee State Park near Alamagordo, New Mexico, when we looked at a weather map and realized we needed to slow down our northeastern progress if we wanted to  stay behind a New Mexico/Texas/Oklahoma snowstorm. We drove 50 miles south to El Paso, then made our way east and north, dodging the crappy weather. An overnight in Lamesa, Texas, in an RV "park" behind a metal building convenience store that boasted a drive-up window for cigarette and beer purchases, and then two very long days of driving and we pulled into our driveway at 314 N. Clubview Dr.
The 1st birthday party for our favorite grandson is this Saturday. And we'll be there!!!!!

Guadalupe Mountains National Park near Salt Flat, Texas, was a bit frosty last Saturday, the 28th of February.


Love the southwest!

 

Green Valley, AZ. Thanks Jaci & Cory. Great to meet you, Don and Sue!

Back in Bisbee

 Best climate?? Not on the day we arrived! Yesterday in Bisbee (southeastern Arizona) the temp was 47; it was raining and the wind was gale force. Bisbee's motto is "We're at 6000 feet - far away from reality." We had called ahead from Roper Lake State Park, two hours to the north, and Martha, manager at Queen Mine RV Park, said she'd save us a site. There are only 25 spaces that form a circle in a parking lot at the top of the Bisbee Open Pit Mine.

Queen Mine, which operated until 1975, is right next door. This morning we took the tour. We donned hard hats, rain slickers and lights, climbed aboard a rail trolley with about 25 other people, and got to see the inside of a mountain.



 Bisbee is an old mining town with most of its houses perched haphazardly on colorful hills and most of its downtown buildings as old as 1905. It has evolved into a funky artsy community where one can shop in antique stores and art galleries, and find prickly pear balsamic vinegar along with handmade soap that smells like dirt.

Today the sun was out, but the wind still feels mighty cold for the southwest.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

South of Ajo, Arizona, four miles north of Sonoyta, Mexico, we found these 516 square miles of Sonoran Desert. Organ Pipe National Monument - A Biosphere Reserve. The rangers like to say this is the "heart of the Sonoran Desert." It must be. We camped smack dab in the middle of thousands of saguaros, chollas, prickly pear and organ pipe cacti, along with creosote bushes and ocotillos just coming into bloom.

Because two rainy seasons occur here each year, summer and winter, the park is lush with desert vegetation.

We liked it so much we stayed one night too long. That is, we got up this morning to leave and the Pickle's battery was DEAD! Michael has always said three nights without power is our limit, but the evening before last we had driven the 4 miles south to Lukeville, AZ (border crossing to Sonoyta, Mexico) and left the engine running for a good 15 minutes while shopping in the convenience store (did it really take that long to decide between Bud Light and Corona, Michael?) We feared it wasn't long enough to give us another night, and yep, we were right. (Schultz claims that if he had remembered to disconnect the connector between the house battery and the engine battery before trying to start the engine this morning, the engine battery wouldn't have drained into the house battery. Yeah??)

Camper neighbors are friendly, especially at Organ Pipe. The '69 VW bus from New Jersey had a jumper cable and our next door solar powered Montana neighbor had a diesel truck. Together the Pickle came to life!!

Highlights of our stay at the park included a 5-mile desert hike to the remains of an old silver mine, a Honda ride on a gravelly road through a dense  population of saguaro giants, two evening talks with Ranger Stalker in the campground's outdoor amphitheater (of course, one talk was "Star Stories") and sitting at the top of the Desert View trail at sunset while FaceTiming with granddaughter Lillian. She received a cactus identification lesson from Grandpa as well as a view of Mexico.

Ocotillo coming into bloom

 

 Oh, and did I mention it was warm?



Cholla cactus

Organ Pipe cactus



Cloudless in Patagonia

View from our "living room"

 We're on our 10th day here at Patagonia Lake State Park in southern Arizona, and, seriously, today is the first day we've seen a cloud.  There's one sitting right now over the hills to the south. 75ish has been the daily high - shorts and flipflops - and what keeps that temperature from getting monotonous, is that each evening, as soon as the sun begins to drop into setting position over the hills across the lake, the temperature drops, too.  So much so that jeans and sweaters become necessary.



On the Birding Trail

And then we turn our chairs facing west to watch the sunset, usually rather unspectacular, since there are no clouds to catch the shades of orange and red.

This is how we spend these monotonous days: hiking on the birding trail most mornings, and reading away the afternoons.

Nina swims!

Quite a life we're enjoying right now.





Rainy Night in NM

Drops of rain on windshield
Downtown El Paso

 Saturday, January 31st, we drove and drove, across Interstate 10, up and over the Davis Mountains in southwestern Texas,  after spending a rainy night at Davis Mountain State Park near Fort Davis, Texas. We drove through shrubby desert no-man's," Loose Livestock" - type land with a few buttes here and there.
 We finally got off the interstate at Ft. Hancock, southeast of El Paso. We needed gas. Ft. Hancock is a tiny border town with some irrigated flatlands surrounding it. Michael noticed that old Hwy. 20 parallels Interstate 10 from that point into El Paso. So we took it all the way.  We drove a flat road past groves of pecan trees and newly planted fields. And that is how it came to be that the Pickle did downtown El Paso, stoplight by stoplight, through the southeastern new outskirts of El Paso, through an old section of the city (so many auto dealers -- it makes the mind reel!!) right through downtown, stoplights, go lights, checking my phone's map, crossing the New Mexico line, out of town south and west, and finally to Hwy. 9.
  Hwy. 9 runs east-west and hugs the Mexican border. We drove it some 50 miles to the little town of Columbus, NM,  home of Pancho Villa State Park.

 By now we had a rainy day on our hands. It continued to rain throughout the night. Our experience with New Mexican state parks, at least in the southern half of the state, is that they have little natural splendor going for them to begin with. A scrubby rocky campground in the rain is even less of a thing of beauty. So we weren't sad to pick up in the morning to head west into Arizona, hopefully to some sunshine.
                        History Lesson
 We couldn't leave the park, though, without visiting the Visitor's Center. It tells the story of Pancho Villa's raid on the little town of Columbus on March 9, 1916. The raid lasted just a few hours in the early morning before the U.S. 13th Cavalry stationed there used machine guns and rifles to catch Villa's men in a crossfire and turn them back to the south. Death toll: 70-75 raiders, 10 American civilians, and 8 U.S. soldiers. President Wilson then ordered General Pershing with 1000 cavalry troops to the area. They set up camp at Columbus and pushed into Mexico in a hunt for Pancho Villa. Pershing at this time chose to use transport trucks instead of mules to carry supplies into Mexico. He himself rode in the backseat of a Dodge Brothers car. It was the beginning of the end of the U.S. Cavalry.( I couldn't help but think about my dad who was stationed with the Cavalry - the last of the Cavalry - in Arizona- before he was sent with the infantry to Europe at the beginning of the U.S. involvement in WWII.)
    

Big Bend

Ahh, that big bend in the Rio Grande River where the river's pearl-ized sea green water wraps itself around the southwestern "bump" of Texas. Lyndon Johnson helped make this area a national park in 1964. No wonder. The Chisos Mountains tower over the heart of the park. Prickly pear, yucca, ocotillo, and sotol  plants fill in the desert landscape down to the river.
 We stayed three nights in Big Bend - two nights in Rio Grande Village campground on the east side of the park and then a third night at Cottonwood Campground on the southwest side.
 Driving to our first campground we spotted a small flock (herd?) of mountain goats resting on an upper canyon ledge. A couple of young ones cavorted from rock to rock. The watchman-big guy standing at attention alerted us to their all but camouflaged presence.


 Heading off from the campground is a Nature Trail that winds over a backed up pond area that's part of a stream running to the Rio. We were greeted by a great blue heron. We watched it high stepping- it slowly through the water, then fly off in front of us. Later on it sat at the very top of a tree near the pond. The trail continues either down to the river or up a rocky hill to an overlook and a great view of the whole area. From the top,
you see the campground on one side and the river and the little town of Boquillas on the other side. BTW there are a few enterprising neighbors from that town who keep a display of beaded items - ocotillo cacti, road runners, peacocks along with painted walking sticks - on the trail where it divides. A donation jar sits there, too.

 



The Honda Dream lives!! It passed its first 2-person transport to Boquillas Canyon about 6 miles from the campground. That included a pretty good short but steep incline and a few twists and turns. We then walked and climbed down (and back up) a mile to view the narrow entrance to the canyon with its majestic walls and the peaceful Rio Grande

meandering through. Another neighbor serenaded us from the other side of the water. The river is narrow there. A donation jar sat in the middle of the trail. It was HOT in the canyon at mid afternoon. Michael found a little shade under a mesquite tree at river's edge. We watch a black phoebe and a Says phoebe darting for insects. A couple of snapping turtles sunned themselves on nearby rocks.

Seminole Canyon

 This was a new stop for us in southern Texas. The Seminole Canyon campground sits out in the Sonoran desert 40 miles west of Del Rio, a large city where we stocked up on groceries.
Our first morning at the campsite we toured the adjacent cliff dwelling remains with Guide Jack and 7 other adults (plus 3 kids who were all coughing and sneezing, but still cute.) We climbed up into two cliff overhangs that were used 4000 or more years ago by early Pecos River inhabitants. The paintings at least date to 4000 years ago. A somewhat common pictograph found in these caves as well as others along the Pecos River Valley is an image of what is believed to be the Deer God. Deer was, of course, the main source of protein for these indigenous people so was very important,

but also, the bumps on the ends of his antlers are thought to represent peyote buttons. The Deer God legend has him bringing peyote to the first people of the earth.

When I stepped out of the Pickle our second morning there I was greeted by three deer standing close by and then I looked up to see to see an absolutely glorious sunrise. No peyote connection here, but I couldn't help but feel some leftover ancient vibe hovering.


Add caption

  We also hiked about 3 miles along the rim of the canyon and the Presa Overlook Trail. It was mid afternoon and WARM! Shirtsleeves!