San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area

Yesterday's weather was beautiful - clear skies, 72 - so we inquired about hiking trails and drove to an area just west of Tombstone to Fairbanks - a historic town, but a ghost town. This town started in 1881 and was quite a boom town, with the rapidly growing Tombstone down the road, three rail lines came through and quickly became a supply and transportation hub. Fairbanks had an elegant hotel, schoolhouse, restaurants, bars, post office, several businesses and of course homes for the residents. By the mid 1970's the last residents left town and the buildings were left abandoned. Most have been razed but a few still stand. There was a warning to not enter the buildings because they were infested with rattlesnakes. Fairbanks is located on the San Pedro River and when we drove from Benson to Fairbanks we crossed over this river and it was dirt dry, so naturally when we walked through the town to view it, there were many trails to go, one of which was to the San Pedro River. We opted not to walk there since it was a dried up until we met an older lady and a teen with an ancient dog walking back from one of the trails. The woman said that the river goes under ground in St. David (where we crossed over the bridge of the river) and that indeed, the river is flowing if you take the trail, you will see it. Also, she said that her friend grew up in this town and lived across the road at the horse ranch, and as kids her friend and brother used to play in the abandoned school house. She also said to go to the Presidio (down the road a bit and gave us directions) where the remains of an old Spanish fort was located. She thought it was very interesting.

We walked to the old cemetery - was very quieting to the soul. I could picture the procession of the funerals up to this mountain and then with rituals of the burial's service, then placing of the stones on the grave. Someone had visited one of the graves recently and placed a small stuffed bear on it with beads and a plastic dinosaur toy. My mind was so active in seeing these visions that we didn't stay long. I said a prayer for all these people and we hiked back down. Walked to the
river and found it to be a lovely, peaceful area. And the water was so clear, did not go in it though. A bench was set up so you could sit and watch the world go by. Next week we will go to the Presidio ruins and see what that is all about. One last thing - as we neared Tombstone on our way to San Pedro Riparian Area we noticed a Border Patrol check point on the north side of the road. We didn't have to stop but on our way back to Benson, there were Border Patrol cars out everywhere watching the roads. We read on the news this morning that Arizona wants to put a fence up across the entire length of the border between Mexico and Arizona. Private donations have been coming in since July to fund this project. Maybe Arizona ought to look at what Texas does and take lessons.

Heavenly Camping Experience

We decided the other day that Benson is not a fit for us in the winter months, so we drove to Sierra Vista to look around and do some shopping. This town is about 25 miles south of us, very easy ride. On the way back we looked for 3 different campgrounds to review - just in case something really hit the mark. And we found one - in Tombstone. Very lovely, looks like it could be a great match if we have trouble finding a park after the end of January's stint near Phoenix. The other factor is that maybe next winter this campground would be the place to start our winter stay.

Once we got home I did laundry and decided that last night would be a great night to go to the campground's observatory for their free star gazing show for resident campers. They charge to the public if not camping here. Little did we know that Butterfield RV Resort (where we are) is the only campground in the US that has an observatory within the park. People are now coming from all over to camp one night to see the show. Sad for them if they come and it's cloudy, or the moon is out - too bright to see other constellations, or windy (the opening of the observatory cannot handle the stress). The show started at 7pm. Had to dress warm since the top of the building opens up to the sky. As the gentleman set up each viewing - we took turns gazing into the telescope - he gave us background as to what we were viewing, how far away (trillions of light years), saw various constellations outside our universe, viewed open cluster (bunches of stars), a closed cluster where gravity held the planets together, a dying star and a new star, and other views, then got the wowed at the very end. We saw Jupiter and it's four main moons through the telescope. Jupiter is the brightest star you see at night and right now it is rising out of the south at dusk. Here's what it looks like - not our picture but from the internet.... And this picture doesn't do it justice - there are two bands of gray around the planet that we could see. While I was up and viewing through the scope I saw a shooting star but was told that in all likeness, it was probably a satellite. Still, pretty cool.

Pretty special day - how many of you all have been to an observatory and looked directly through a telescope into outer space? Seen a new planet beginning or one that was dying?

Benson, Arizona

We packed up Saturday morning in Las Cruces, New Mexico and drove 250 miles west to Benson, Arizona, our home until the beginning of December. We have paid for the month and we will move before that, it is much cheaper to pay for a month versus paying by the week. We had no issues with the brakes on the trailer, thank goodness. Dave still has to tweak the disconnect while we are here, it is still a tad too short on sharp turns. We have signed up for Thanksgiving buffet dinner here so at least we will be some sort of 'family' on the holiday. They have so much food that they split the meal up to two different times - one sitting for the main meal and then you come back at 6pm for dessert. I signed up for home made cranberry sauce - a recipe from my maternal grandmother - I think it was one she passed down from her grandmother from England. This is a really nice campground, has everything we could want and level sites. Our view out the living room area is the mountains.

Benson is a small town but has 9 campgrounds. We have already checked out this one as to staying here long term in the winter and decided it is not a fit for us, price is right - but there are train tracks about a mile from here and at times it gets too noisy. There are 5 more campgrounds right in this vicinity - and another 3 up the road are club-type campgrounds meaning that you have to be a member of that particular camping club. We are members of one of them - Escapees - and did check out that place yesterday, they have a 6 to 8 year waiting list to buy a lot which you can either park your rig on or put a small one-bedroom park model. However, it has a great view being tucked into a side of a mountain and you look down into Benson. We do feel that Benson is a tad too far out of the way - if we had to fly back to Cleveland we would have to travel to Tucson or even Phoenix to get a decent flight - too far.

There are hiking trails, birding trails, caverns, copper mine tours to see while we are here - so we will be busy for awhile - until we get bored and want to more closer to Phoenix.

White Sands National Monument

Yesterday we drove to White Sands National Monument, the world's largest gypsum dune field at 275 square miles of blinding white - looks like sand, dunes. Amazing. We had been to the sand dunes in Michigan but this was awesome. The surrounding San Andres and Sacramento mountain ranges, part of the original Rocky Mountain range of 70 million years ago, have gypsum within it's peaks and the ranger who talked with us showed us the white band in the mountains of where the gypsum lies. Weirdest feeling, this sand. It is so soft. And hard! We drove around the park, stopped here and there to take pictures and walk on the dunes, watched kids on saucer sleds sliding down dunes, walked the Alkali Trail for about 2 miles then headed back to get to the area where at 4pm there was a ranger guided sunset walk. Very informative. She explained different aspects of how vegetation grows, or dies, pointing out tracks in the sand, showing us how the dunes move in feet every year. One of the amazing things is you could dig about 4 inches down and find wet/water. When it rains, the water has no where to go and just sits in this basin. Did you know that gypsum is the major ingredient for dry wall? It is also in tofu, beer, shampoo, fertilizer for crops, to name a few. The 'snow plow' guy is out every day plowing the sand off the roads. Sometimes 3 times a day if it's windy. Looks like snow from a distance. The tracks in the sand typically are gone by the next day. It is amazing that most of the vegetation we saw survives - the ranger said that most have a root base of 30 to 40 feet deep to get at the water. This picture is a sumac that has roots down 30 feet and when the dunes are moving, the plant will adapt and grown deeper roots to survive. Many animals will burrow into the base to live. We were on land that belonged to the White Sands Missile Range and were treated to a number of (we think) Air Force jets flying overhead. At times you could here when they broke the sound barrier (boom!). Fortunately there wasn't any missiles or target shooting going on that day, when there is the park is closed. The sand, feels like talcum powder.

Still in Las Cruces

Has been a quiet week. We got the RV in last Monday to the dealer and they had the brakes fixed and we were back at the campsite settled by 1pm. I think until we pull the rig any distance will I feel more relaxed, still a little scared of what happened. Since last Monday we have putzed around town, Las Cruces isn't a place that we would come back to for any length of time, only for a night or two as we pass through going east or west. Very steeped in Spanish culture and everyone speaks Spanish as well. We are only 15 miles from the border of Mexico, and fortunately there isn't any problems.

We tried a couple of nights last week to catch the full moon rising over the Organ Mountains near Dripping Spring but with the fading light, this is the best I was able to capture. What struck us the most was the quietness of the area at sunset. A few birds came out but nothing else. We had to watch for rattlesnakes, thankfully didn't see or hear any. Still very dramatic. To see the lights come on over the city to the west as the sun was setting and the darkening purple/pink of the night to the east - breathtaking.

This town is very easy to get around and by the third day here we did not need a GPS. We drove down to El Paso couple of days ago to look at RVs just to get a feel of what other options we may want if we park this rig somewhere. Nothing looked appealing. Have managed to get to some great Mexican restaurants - Dave got his hot chili pepper/jalapeno breakfast fix. We will definitely do this one more time before leaving. We have sat tight since Friday since it's been overcast and dreary, catching up on things. We plan to go to White Sands National Monument tomorrow since it's the best weather day of the week. We will be leaving here hopefully by the end of the week, about 1 1/2 weeks earlier than we thought, to head to Benson, Arizona to do sightseeing. We are bored here, not alot to see or do. When we do get to Benson - about 4 hours west of here - we will be close enough to Jill and family that we could spend the holiday with them, if they will be home.

Organ Mountains and Dripping Spring

Friday we decided to go hiking, to get out of the funk of having this rig broken and knowing we cannot move until fixed. The Organ Mountains which sits on the east side of Las Cruces has an interesting history. Back in the 1870s a General Van Patton set up a mining camp and built a hotel near a spring (called Dripping Spring) for those drawn to the mountains and fresh air. A large hotel, picnic area, and even a roller skating rink was built. Then he sold it to a doctor who turned it into a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients of which his wife was afflicted. We understand during a rainy time this spring is really dripping - but all we saw was ruins of the reservoir and a slight drip-drip of water. Amazing how the buildings are still standing after all this time. Long story short, the doctor ran into financial difficulties, the sanitarium closed and the land passed to a rancher and then another. When we started out on the hike we knew it would take us up 1000 feet but what we didn't know was how hard it would be to walk this path 0f 2 miles. This area is run by the Bureau of Land Management and these folks have paved the roadway with large stones making it very difficult to walk up and very uneasy and unsteady on the way back down. Thank goodness for our walking sticks - we slipped and slid on the way down. Never the less, we did it, walked around the ruins, got some neat photos, and then rewarded ourselves afterward with a trip to Si Senor restaurant about 2 miles from our campground, one of two run by the same family, the other in Chandler, Arizona near where the grandkids live. Food was yummy but Dave suffered big time afterward because he enjoyed the hot sauces a tidge too much - many Maalox's later he finally had a settled stomach. Saturday our legs were very sore from the walk. We said we would not go back to the other walking paths there, the stones made it too difficult to comfortably walk. We have some other things on our to-do list before we leave here so we may stay for the month, or not.

Missing the Sunsets

While it is nice to be in a more southern area of New Mexico, we were spoiled with the awesome sunrises and sunsets of Santa Fe. We haven't come across these colorful skies anywhere else we have traveled. Truly amazing. Needless to say - words cannot express what you see. Here are a series of photos taken on the last night spent in Santa Fe - spectacular! I have kept these photos because some day I want to make a quilt with all these colors to remind us of this enchanted area.