Settled in Picacho Peak

We haven't done any sightseeing per se since I last blogged, just enjoying the abundant sunshine and warm temperatures. We did pick up our son-in-law's parents yesterday and went to two casinos, run by the Gila Indian Reservation in Chandler - about 8 miles from where Jill lives. We first went to the Lone Butte Casino and lasted 5 minutes - the smoke just drove us crazy and they did not have any non-smoking area. We learned that their second casino has a non-smoking area and quickly drove down the road to the Wild Horse Casino and lasted about 4 hours there. The non-smoking was there but it didn't matter - you were breathing in that nasty smoke anyhow - just couldn't filter it out. The casino was packed - lots of older folks and many women - we wondered why? Yudit and I got settled into the slot machines and Dave and Itzhak ran to pick up the grandgirls from day camp since both their parents were sickies - Jill with a bad cold and Erez had hurt his back and couldn't move. After the guys got back to the Casino we drove back to Jill's house to pick up the three granddaughters and the four of us old-folk grandparents plus the 3 girls went out to eat. Fun time, the girls are amazing, if not typical girls vying for your undivided attention. We got back to Picacho by 8:30pm. Lots of driving yesterday!

We have also spent time the last couple of days looking at other RV campgrounds, looking at how they are laid out, what the fees are if we choose a park model home to sit for 6 months in the winter, what a park model would cost if we purchased. We have been sorely disappointed with what we have seen - these campgrounds pack the winter RVers in like sardines and your view out your window would be looking right into your neighbor - they being about 5 feet from you! Picacho Peak is looking more and more favorable every day. We also want to look in Apache Junction which is due east of Phoenix. What I have seen on the Internet we will again be disappointed. Tucson is out because it is typically 10 degrees cooler and night time temps here in Picacho are averaging 40. With being say 30, we would have to disconnect the water since it would freeze at night. And, Tucson is farther from Jill so - we will not look at all.

Sunday Dave and I are cooking a big meal at Jill's house for all. Should be fun - right now the headcount is at 19. Turkey, stuffing, and all the makings - should be yummy.

Meteor Crater

Since Tuesday we have been visiting in Chandler (Jill's house). The girls' last day of school was Wednesday and we were invited to attend the Jingle Jog party at 1pm at the school. Dave went to the function while I stayed back and helped make dinner for later in the day. We made arrangements to pick up our son-in-law's parents Friday morning and the four of us would drive to Winslow to see the Meteor Crater. We had been to this in 1986 and we remember that all that was there was the crater and walking trails around the rim. No explanation, no buildings, no nothing. This facility and it's educational components has been run privately by one family for over 100 years and it was amazing as to what they have done - very informative, lots of hands-on exhibits, and well designed. We had a back-up plan if we couldn't get to Winslow since blizzards had been in the area since Monday and there was a winter driving cautionary for yesterday. Back up plan? Of course - a casino. There are 9 in the Phoenix to Flagstaff corridor so what ever the day would bring, we would still have fun.

We got on the road about 10 and drove up into Flagstaff where there was plenty of snow and the temp had dropped to about 34. The roads were clear even though we could tell that within hours of us coming into Flagstaff, there was fresh snow on the ground about 3 inches deep, so we kept on going and got to the site about 1:30pm. About 50,000 years ago an iron-nickel meteorite, estimated at 150 feet in diameter and weighing several thousand tons, crashed into the plains near Winslow and with the impact, the immense shock waves sent out over several miles, pulverizing and vaporizing anything in it's path. A giant bowl shaped cavity was formed, 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet wide. There have been many meteorites that have crashed into earth but this site is the best preserved and first proven meteorite impact on Earth. Very impressive. This terrain so closely resembles the moon and other planets that NASA used this site as it's officially Apollo training for the astronauts. On our ride back home (south) it was fun to watch the temp gauge in the car steadily climb back up to a balmy 54 by the time we got back to Phoenix by 7:15pm.

Rain!

What is this? We are supposed to not have any bad weather until next summer - winters here are to be dry, in the 60's and 70's, and sunny! Saturday evening rain came in and rained until late yesterday afternoon. This weather system is the same one that is causing all the havoc as it travels through New Mexico, Texas Panhandle, and into Kansas and Nebraska and on with heavy snows, blowing snow drifting and low temperatures. Just glad we didn't have to shovel anything. As I look outside now it's sunny and about 57 and that's good. We traveled to see the family Saturday and spend time with them - fun. Helped them decorate for the holidays and I spent most of the time with Lia and Emi - doing nails, straightening their hair, listening to music, just hanging out. Dave's time was with Zoe - she commands alot of attention. Sunday we just bummed around the RV, catching up on emails, watching the rain, etc.

Monday (yesterday) was spent running into Casa Grande for some shopping after Dave got into see a doctor because he felt run down. One thing that we discovered and will do something about after the holidays - our family doctor (who just retired) was in Vermilion - and we do not plan to be back to Ohio any time soon. What do we do about doctors? Dave was recommended a family practice right in Casa Grande - and we both agreed that Arizona will be our base for some time in the future so it makes sense to establish doctor(s) here, making it easier to get a checkup and prescriptions filled. Later in the afternoon I drove us into Tucson to go to Camping World to pick up some parts that broke, and on our way back, we spotted an Airstream RV dealer. We will look into this dealer after the holidays to see what they have in stock.

We will have a fun day tomorrow - we are invited to Emi's school at 1pm for a Jingle Jog where the student and their parents/grandparents can jog with them around the track and then have a holiday cookies and snacks afterward. We will then go to the grandgirls' house afterward for dinner and more visitation. Fun being this close!

Woodpeckers and Ruins

We are allowed hummingbird feeders here at the park so the other day we picked up a cheapo feeder and a hanger to put outside our RV. What a treat we got. Within 5 minutes of Dave setting up the feeder we were treated to not only hummingbirds (didn't get a picture yet) but woodpeckers. Those birds are big! These two are called Gila Woodpeckers, found in southern Arizona and into Mexico, spilled alot of the nectar out while trying to get their beaks into the holes. We got one picture showing the woodpecker's tongue thrust into the little hole. This morning we also saw the Gilded Woodpecker - will have to get some photos to share. We have now decided to get more hummer feeders - they didn't put a limit as to how many!

Mid morning we got our first Arizona visitors - our son-in-law's parents drove from Chandler to the RV to see it and us. After a nice visit we drove to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Casa Grande about 20 miles north of Picacho Peak. The Ancient people, Hohokom - meaning 'all gone' or 'all used up', lived in this arid desert sometime around 300 CE until the early 1400s. The structures that are left from these people are quite impressive. The main building which is 4 stories high and 60 feet long is a wonder to see. A roof so to speak has been built over the main building to try to protect what is left after hundreds of years of erosion and the sun's harsh rays. You can see people standing to the left of the building to get a perspective on how large it is. The Hohokoms knew where to place windows to capture the summer solstice and winter alignment, placing windows to exactly pick up the alignment and then all people gathered inside for worship and contemplation. What is mind boggling is how did they build this thing without today's modern conveniences (engines, cranes, etc.) During the time the Hohokom lived in this area, it was very different from today's environment - water was abundant then, they harvested crops, hunted in the adjacent areas for wild animals. Very interesting place - want to go back there and spend more time going through the exhibits inside the visitor's center.

Rainy Days

The folks in the office here said that this is the dry season - we should not see any rain until April. Well, we were about to build Noah another ark - we have had heavy rains for the last 2 days and nights, this morning finally seeing the sun peak through. We heard that north of Phoenix got very heavy snow - glad we are sitting here! We also can see snow on the mountain tops when we look south towards Tucson. Yesterday we were astounded at seeing a beautiful rainbow. Dave jumped outside and took some pictures - but with the heavy clouds, you cannot see Picacho Peak. You see a small Park Model to our right - against the Peak, but we know we will not have anyone between us and them. Also - there is a huge saguaro cactus right out our backwindow. We have great views - cannot complain about this at all! The office said that rains bring abundant flowers - so we'll see. It is so nice to walk outside and not have a coat on - daytime temps for the next 10 days is in the mid 60's, the nights cool mid 40's. We like this weather! We have lots of trees and bushes and cacti right behind our RV and we are hoping that when the blooms start, we will have a showcase to view. We also need to go get hummingbird feeders - these little birds are everywhere! According to a birding site for Arizona, there are 18 different kinds of hummers here - you will have to wait for Dave to get some pics after we put up the feeders. Every morning we have been serenaded by the Gila Woodpecker and her two babies - driving Grace nuts - she wants them!

We have had our 6 month dentist appointments done, clean shiny teeth for the next 6 months at least. Casa Grande, the next largest city, caters to the winter RVers - the town has every kind of store you need, so traveling 20 minutes north on Interstate 10 is a very easy drive. Casa Grande even has quilt shops, yeah! Casa Grande has 9 major campgrounds but we chose this one because of being away from people and being out in the wilds, so to speak, and the cost. We have to pay for electric - typical when you are staying more than 30 days. The only complaint we have for this place is that they do not have free WiFi for the internet. We bought the one they suggested and it is really fast - we will try it for 30 days and then see if we continue it. For the next couple of days we get caught up on stuff, and then hopefully this weekend we will get another grandgirl fix.

Settled in Picacho Peak

We moved Saturday, about 92 miles north of Benson, to Picacho Peak RV Resort, a 55+ community right off I10. We are about 55 minutes from the three granddaughters, so this is a great place for us. No problems getting here, took us some time to decide which site we wanted - wanted to back into a spot looking out over wash area where we thought that a) the cats would be busy watching the birds and wildlife, and b) we are up close to the base of Picacho Peak Mountain away from all the people coming in or out. Stunning view out our windows to see the sun rise over the mountains on our left and then have the sun set on our right side, pass right over the peaks of Picacho. We see saguaro (sah-war-o) cacti, palo verde trees, mesquite trees, many different kinds of desert fauna - should be pretty in a couple of months when things start to bloom. We even have our own saguaro right behind our unit! And, yesterday as we were settling in, Chip and Grace saw a mommie woodpecker and her 2 babies crawling around the saguaro yelling at each other. Lots of hummingbirds - will have to go out and get a feeder or two. We just realized that since the end of August we have been camping in view of some mountain range. Today as we look south towards Tucson, we can see the Catalina Mountains are snow capped. Pretty cool. We will be here for about 2 plus months, not sure what the middle of February and on will bring if we decide to move north.

Yesterday we drove to Mesa, AZ which is about 20 miles east of Phoenix, where our middle granddaughter Emi had a soccer tournament. Her team did great - came in first place at the end of the day. After the game we all grabbed dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Arizona - the Sweet Tomato. Our son-in-law's parents just arrived the day before for a 6 week visit and we will plan some fun things to do with them during their stay. We said our goodbyes and drove the hour trip south to the campground. Jill is thrilled we will be this close to them for a couple of months. Will be a fun couple of months!

Whitewater Draw

We spent these last 4 days huddled inside the RV - and waiting until the warmer weather came. It did yesterday and we got through the 21 degree nights without any damage. We did have snow flurries on Monday, thankfully no accumulation, and found out that we are 20 degrees below normal - all of Arizona is suffering with this cold. Enough! We needed to get out and decided yesterday to drive to a place called Whitewater Draw, a wildlife refuge for birds flying south into Mexico. It is located about 25 miles southeast of here, not far from Bisbee. We were about 10 miles from the border of Mexico - again, lots of Border Patrol out. Dave has wanted to take pictures of birds and wildlife with his different camera lenses and he had great opportunity yesterday. We have no idea how many cranes we saw but the log where we had to sign in said that this past March 2011 - a count was done and 20,958 were seen. How they counted them is beyond us! Needless to say - we saw many. The picture on the left shows gray splotches - these are the cranes and as far as you could see in all directions. Some sleeping, some talking, some doing a mating dance, some chasing each other. This Draw had a nice walkway and two different decks out over the ponds with observation scopes where you could get great vista views of these magnificant birds. This past winter we saw sandhill cranes at South Padre Island, as well as Whooping Cranes on a separate tour on the Island, when we walked on the boardwalk of a nature preserve near the ocean. These sandhill crane birds are big, and noisy. We also saw them flying overhead when we walked Tent Rocks National Monument while we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico. What we know is these birds fly south from as far away as Siberia! and upper Canada down through Nebraska, with a stop over on the Platte River (there's that river again), and then on to New Mexico, then south into Arizona - stopping here, and then moving on into Mexico. The migration starts around the beginning of October and they start the return migration in March back to upper Canada for the summer. Adults are about 5 1/2 feet tall, weigh about 10 pounds, and have a wingspan of about 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 feet. Big. And noisy. We could hear them calling to each other while in flight as we turned down the dirt road near the entrance to Whitewater Draw. Spent about 2 1/2 hours just staring and looking and being in awe of these birds. We also saw different kids of hawks, ducks - waders and divers, eagles, small woodland birds, we think we saw Snow Geese. Dave had a great time taking photos, and I just watched. I could not believe I saw that many in one place. In January there is a Sandhill Crane festival the the town we were in sponsors and many people come from all over to watch and have fun. Glad we were able to be there without the people - I am sure people noises would have scared them away.

The cranes were quiet for a couple of hours and then, like a bell going off, about twenty to thirty would rise and fly away south. Wait a minute and another thirty lifted and flew off. And another thirty, etc. Amazing to see. Today, Friday, we are doing our cleaning, laundry, packing up, we leave in the morning to head to Picacho Peak RV Resort, about 50 miles south of Phoenix. We plan to stay there until the beginning of March. We will also be close to our 3 grandgirls, they will be a short 55 minute drive from our RV. We plan to check out many other campgrounds, looking for a best-fit for next winter. And of course get our grandgirl fixes, do many sightseeing things - we know this area really well since we have been in Phoenix every 3 months or so for a couple of weeks over the last 8 years. And, we want to catch up with our friends Phil and Sandra who we met last winter in Texas, and again in September when they were working the dude ranch in Wyoming. Since this is their first winter in AZ, maybe we can show them some fun things to do. The neat thing about this wintering south of Phoenix - we do not have the constraint of time and now can take our time to see and experience.

Copper Mine Tour - Bisbee, AZ

Yesterday we went to Bisbee which is about 40 miles south from us and 10 miles from the border of Mexico (saw lots of Border Patrol out). We had been in Bisbee 5 years before but did not get to go on the copper mine tour, the world's largest and richest copper mine yielding over 8 billion tons of copper,2.8 million ounces of gold, 77 million ounces of silver and much more in less than the 100 years of production. This mine also had 2500 miles of tunnels. The discovery and production of these metals made Arizona. Five years ago we came here with our 2 granddaughters and we got lost on the way and missed our tour time. The weather here is really lousy - threat of snow for the next 2 days so we dressed warm for the tour, the temp inside the mine is a cool 47 all year. However, 47 was warm compared to the 39 outside! We have gone on tours of ore mines, iron mines, diamond fields, forestry (lumber) industry, copper mines - but this particular mine - wow. Our guide worked in the mine for over 17 years up until it closed in 1975. He knew his history of what and how the copper was extracted. He was born in the town, lived across the road from the mine and saw first hand the boom Bisbee experienced. Today the town has thrived not only on this tour attracting people, but birding is supposed to be great in the spring/summer months, Tombstone only being 12 miles north and artists have established themselves with lots of craft stores.

We first had to sign a waiver that if we were injured while inside the mine - they were not liable. Should that tell you something? Dressed in yellow reflective coats, hard hats, a belt with a battery that has a light attached - we boarded an electric small train and moved 1500 feet deep inside. We stopped at various times to get off and go into shafts where the room we were in showed how the miners worked at extracting the metals, another room (stop) was to show how the men loaded up the cars of stone to be either pulled out by man or by mule, how the miners bore holes in the wall to load up dynamite, and so much more. Even saw a portable toilet - a two seater! Having spent many years in a steel mill, I am attracted to heavy industry and always in awe of how things were done. But this tour really made me glad I didn't have to work in a place like this. It was never said but I googled that 125 men lost their lives while in the mine, explains all the orbs that show up in my pictures (guess I am still a ghost magnet).

Dave and I were frozen by the time our 1 and 1/2 hour tour ended. We had dressed in layers but the cold, dampness really seeped into our bones. Can you imagine working like that day in and day out? After our tour we drove about 1/4 mile down the road to the Lavender Pit - an open/above ground mine pit - how they do it now. Did a little sight seeing, stopped in the town and got refreshed by coffee and pastry, then toured the Historical Museum which was originally the general offices of the Queen Copper Mine Company. A good day. Now we sit inside snug and warm waiting out the two days of snow and cold nights. We are shocked that more RVs are not stopping to pass through on their way to ? we passed campgrounds on our way to Bisbee and they are not even half full. Wonder?

Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate, Tombstone, AZ

Yesterday we drove to Tombstone to hike the Presidio ruins trail. This presidio is part of the San Pedro Riparian Nature Area that we hiked the other day to the ghost town of Fairbanks, under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management. Presidio is Spanish for fortress, and was built as an outpost for the Spaniards in 1776 but abandoned in 1780 due to numerous Apache Indian raids and the harshness of the area. Amazing to us is that after centuries of wind, rain, hot sun - harshness of the environment, that there is anything left of the adobe structures. This picture to the right is the walls from the chapel. To put this into perspective - when we visited Taos, NM the guide said that the adobe structures had to be repaired and replastered every year to be maintained. The walk was easy and went quickly - we saw scat of animals but didn't see any, saw birds flitting in the distance, saw holes where it could have been snake holes or mouse or rabbit or some other small animal, but when we stopped to listen and look, only heard the wind rustling the bushes nearby. Again - have to say how barren this area is. As far as you could see - small green bushes, dirt, mesquite trees, washout areas. Saw the San Pedro river again, and knew we were near it because we saw the tell-tale sign - yellow cottonwoods standing in a row like a ribbon into the distance. With no rain for the past 2 weeks we were amazed that water was still flowing in the river. Off in the distance we could see an abandoned railroad track. Eventually we had to walk along this track and I was waiting for the whistle of the train to tell us to get off!

While walking around the ruins and reading the plaques as to what we are looking at, we came to a wrought-iron cross with the names of the 3 captains that died in battle and of the 39 soldiers who also lost their lives during the 4 year period. A bench was set up right neat this memorial overlooking the San Pedro (if you look close you can see the river). This whole area was so 'out there' in no-man's land, it is a wonder anyone survived at all. Barren, the threat of Indians, starvation, venomous predators, etc. Wow. The ruins were well marked as to what was there, how the people lived, how the structures were built, etc.

The road into and out of the ruins - well, let's say that Dave should look at all the nuts and bolts of the truck - we shook, rattled, got our teeth jarred from the raw road. Even a sign that said - not maintained. We traveled on a road like this when we went to the Organ Mountains in Las Cruces and was not happy - and there we were again, getting beaten up. Truck is dirt caked, and making sounds now from loose bolts and nuts.