Hello there, welcome back to the story.
Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, February 19th, at
the end of our last full day in Yuma, Arizona. Wednesday morning was
a travel day. We are heading from Yuma, Arizona to Tucson, Arizona
for a rally with one of our FMCA Chapters, the Overland Trailblazers.
Today we are driving 175 miles to Arizona City, a small community
just south of Casa Grande, Arizona. We were on the road about 10:30
and arrived at the High Chaparral RV Park about 3:00. We had to make
a fuel stop along the way and while we were there we had lunch. The
Bullocks are also going to the same rally and were traveling with us.
We got checked in and parked and did a minimal set up since this is
just an overnight stop. The Bullocks were parked right next to us.
We had cocktails together, the first time Jackie has enjoyed happy
hour for several days. After cocktails Peggy served up some
tortellini soup that she had made a couple days ago. It was great.
We had dinner, talked for a bit, then went back to our coach for the
rest of the night.
Thursday, February 20, we were up and
out early as we wanted to get to the Pima County Fairgrounds, where
the rally is being held, before the threatening weather moved in.
There is a terrible, very cold winter storm heading in from
California. As we were packing up we had some very light rain, but
it passed and by the time we left at 9:00 it was cloudy and windy,
but no rain. We were going 75 miles southeast to the Pima County
Fairgrounds on the outskirts of Tucson. We have been there for
rallies before and it is a pretty nice venue. We arrived about 10:30
and the parking crew got us into our full hookup spot and we began to
set up. As it turned out we didn't get any rain at all, but it was
pretty cold. After we got set up I took all my sound equipment down
to the rally meeting room. I am the “sound guy” for the rally,
except for tonight because they have a band which has it's own sound
equipment. I just took my stuff down and put it in the corner so it
would be there tomorrow when I go down to set it up for the rest of
the rally.
About 5:30 we went down to the rally
room for our welcoming dinner. The rally hosts and some other
volunteers had done a bunch of tri tip on the BBQ, along with all the
fixings. It was fun seeing a bunch of the same people we hung out
with in Indio in January. The dinner was good and after dinner they
had a country band perform. It turns out that the band leader is the
brother of the president of the Overland Trailblazers Chapter, so
they came cheap, as in free. They were actually quite good, although
we left about halfway through the show because Belle, Peggy and
Vernon's little dog, was not feeling well and they wanted to get
back. After we got back to our coach we relaxed with the TV and went
to bed early. Both of us are fighting colds and didn't feel a
hundred percent anyway.
Friday, February 22nd, we
woke up not to the expected rain, but snow! And not just a little
snow, a full fledged snow storm. We got an email from the rally
hosts that all three of the events that had been scheduled for today
had been canceled due to the weather. We had been scheduled to go to
Karchner's Caverns, an Arizona State Park featuring a cave system
that had only been discovered about 25 years ago. We were told that
the trip was being rescheduled for Monday. Peggy and Vernon were
going to visit a big cattle ranch, and the other choice was the Pima
Air Museum. Because of the bad weather and icy roads, everyone
stayed home. I went down to the meeting room during the day and set
up my equipment and the pot luck dinner scheduled for 5:30 was still
on since the meeting room was very close to the RV parking. We went
to the dinner and had a big selection of really good food. The snow
continued until late evening, leaving about 2 or 3 inches on the
ground. After dinner they had some organizational stuff for the next
day, then we went back to the coach and relaxed with the TV until
bedtime.
Saturday, February 23rd, we
had a full day of activities scheduled, all occurring on the campus
of the University of Arizona in downtown Tucson. The rally committee
had set up three different tours, a visit to the University's Richard
Caris Mirror Lab, the Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium, and
the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research. The rally was split into three
groups and each group was scheduled for each of the three activities,
just at different times. The group we ended up in was scheduled for
the Mirror Lab first, then the Planetarium and then the Tree Ring
Lab. We elected to skip our first activity for several reasons, it
was too early, we would have had to leave at 8:00, it was too cold,
still below freezing at sunup, and there was still a lot of ice and
snow on the roads. It would have been interesting as the Mirror Lab
is the countries premier “factory” for making very large concave
precision mirrors for large telescopes. They are currently working
on mirrors for an observatory in the mountains of Chili.
We left the coach about 10:00 when it
had warmed up a bit and the roads were clear. Apparently those in
our group who did leave early were stuck in traffic on the freeway
for a while due to a weather related accident. We arrived at the
Science Center and Planetarium for our 11:00 tour and joined our
group. The Planetarium show was very interesting and well done, they
have recently installed new digital projectors and computers that
allow some very fun displays of the solar system and the universe in
general. After the sky show we took a guided tour through the
Science Center, which includes displays about all kinds of things,
including sharks, geology and minerals, and several other physical
sciences. It was a great tour and we were glad we took the time to
go. After the tour the group walked through the UofA campus to one
of the dormitory complexes and the Highland Market and Cafe that is
part of the complex. They had a wide variety of lunch items and a
nice coffee shop and the group all had lunch. Lunch was not included
as part of the rally, but we were all there at the same time and sat
together.
After lunch we walked a short distance
to the Laboratory of Tree Ring Science. This is a one of a kind
laboratory dedicated to the science of dendrochronology, or the
dating of trees. Our very knowledgeable and entertaining docent
explained that this is a fairly recent science, dating back to the
early 1900's, which was actually created right here at the UofA.
dendrochronology is used as a technique in many scientific endeavors,
especially archaeology and anthropology. We had an hour long tour
with lots of information and demonstrations. After this tour we were
done for the day, so we picked up one geocache that was right next to
the tree lab building, then drove back to the campground. We went
down to the rally room at 5:30 for dinner, which was provided by an
outside catering company tonight. They had lasagna, salad and bread
and it was filling and tasty. After dinner they had a local
historian give a talk on the history of Southern Arizona, with an
emphasis on Tombstone, one of the places we are scheduled to visit
during the rally. He talked about 45 minutes and was very
interesting. After the talk we went back to the coach, watched a
little TV and went to bed.
Sunday, February 24th we
left the RV park with the Bullock's and drove the 56 miles southeast
to Tombstone, Arizona. Now all of us have been to Tombstone a number
of times in the past, but it is always interesting to see some of the
stuff again, and now that the weather has cleared up and warmed up a
bit, it was a pretty drive. Lots of snow on the ground still and the
mountains were all white. The rally had also arranged for two tours,
a tour of the old silver mine in town, and a trolley tour around
town. We got to Tombstone a little early and went to lunch at one of
the Mexican restaurants in town, Cafe Margarita. The service was
good, but the food was not much to talk about. I had red chili and
the meat was so tough it was almost inedible. The others had
different types of burritos and no one was happy with 
the food. The
only thing I had that was good was the tortilla soup. After lunch I
went on the mine tour while everyone else stayed above ground. Peggy
doesn't like being underground, Jackie didn't want to do the 60 steps
in and out of the hole, and Vernon got winded early and left right
after the tour started. I thought it was an interesting and
informative tour and was glad I went. After the mine tour we were
supposed to take the trolley ride, but the trolley broke down, so it
was canceled. We walked a little bit on the main street, then got
back in the car and drove back to the fairgrounds. We went to dinner
at 5:30, which was hamburgers and beans cooked by the rally staff.
After dinner they had a local cowboy singer come in and do a 45
minute musical show that was very good. After the show we went back
to the coach and watched TV.
Monday, February 25th, was
supposed to be a free day for the rally, but it turned out to be the
day that they rescheduled all of Friday's activities for. Jackie and
I left the coach about 11:00, went out for a quick lunch, then drove
to Kartchner Caverns State Park for a tour of the Kartchner Caverns.
The Bullock's went the other way for a tour of a working cattle ranch
south of Tucson. As I said earlier, Peggy doesn't do caves. The
Kartchner Caverns tour was one of the things that I was really
looking forward to, as it is something that we have never done. This
cavern system is one of the most recently discovered large caverns in
the United States, having only been found in 1978 by a couple of
amateur spelunkers. They went to the land owner, a doctor by the
name of Kartchner, and told him about the cave and that they thought
it should be protected and preserved. Kartchner agreed and they went
to the State of Arizona which took the necessary steps to purchase
the land and create a State Park. In 2003 the park opened to the
public for the first time. They did not allow any type of phone or camera to be brought into the caverns, so the photos are from the Internet.
The big draw for this cavern is that it
is pristine, having never been vandalized or looted, and it was a
“living cave” in which the various formations were still growing
due to the water in the area and the fact that there were no large
openings to let in air, which would dry out the cave and kill the
growth process. The State did a great job putting in nice, smooth
concrete walkways and railings, as well as lighting, without doing
too much damage to the cave. They also installed steel air lock
doors at the entrances to keep out the external air, thus keeping the
cave alive. It is the first, and only, fully wheelchair accessible
cave system in the world and the tour was not strenuous at all since
there was very little up and down. The cave system is under a series
of large hills and doesn't' go very deep into the ground, only a few
hundred feet at the deepest. You just walk into the hill and then
you're in the cave. We have been to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico,
which is, of course, much larger more grandiose, but this was a very
nice tour and a great facility that the State has built. The tour
was about 90 minutes and we had spent about an hour before the tour
going through the visitor center.
After the tour we drove back to the
fairgrounds, rested for a half hour, then went down to the rally room
at 5:30 for dinner again. Tonight they provided some very tasty
chicken soup that they got from Costco. The food was good and we had
a nice time visiting with people. After dinner they had another
speaker, this one a docent from the Mission San Xaiveir, south of
Tucson. One of the tour options for tomorrow is the mission. He
gave a talk for about 45 minutes, but was not an especially good
speaker. After the lecture we went back to the coach and watched TV
until bedtime.
Tuesday, February 26th, we
left the coach with the Bullock's about 11:00 and went to lunch at a
nearby Thai Restaurant called Lucky Thai. Peggy and Vernon had eaten
there the other day and said it was very good. I thought the food
was good, but not fantastic. The flavors were not as big as I would
have liked, but it was still good. After lunch the four of us drove
to the other side of Tucson for a visit to Mission Copper Mine, also
called the Pima Mine. This was another of the tours set up by the
rally group. The Mission mine is a large, open pit copper mine which
was started in 1960 by the American Smelting and Refining Company.
It is one of three such mines the company operates in Arizona. The
company is now called ASARCO (basically the initials of the old name)
is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Grupo Mexico, a large Mexican
industrial conglomerate. They have a very nice visitor's center and
gift shop and we spent a half hour or so walking through it and
looking at exhibits. Then a tour guide takes you on a bus on a tour
of the facility. The first stop is at an overlook on the very top of
the facility which allows you to look down into the pit and see the
operations. This part of the tour was 
Wednesday, February 27th,
our first free day of the rally. We left the coach after lunch and
went out to do laundry. We had quite the pile as it has been almost
three weeks since the last time we washed clothes. After the laundry
we stopped and Jackie got a haircut, the first one she has had since
the end of December. She usually goes about once a month, but was
hesitant to go until the cut on her head she got when she fell in
January was all healed. While she was getting a haircut I went into
the Safeway next door and got a few supplies. After our chores we
headed home and put everything away. At 5:30 we had cocktails with
the Bullocks, just the four of us, and then did some steaks on the
BBQ, along with some potatoes and creamed spinach. After dinner we
talked for a while, then went home and watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, February 28th, my
brother Russ's birthday. Happy Birthday Bro! Today was another free
day, at least for us and the Bullock's. There was a tour, for those
who wanted to go, of the Sonora Desert Museum on the west side of
Tucson. However, the Bullock's have been a couple of times, I have
lived in the Sonoran desert most of my life and didn't need to see
what it looked like, and Jackie didn't feel up to all the walking.
So, we decided to have another mostly free day. The four of us went
to lunch at a nice Italian restaurant just a few miles south of the
fairgrounds which was called Argenziano's. We had eaten here a
couple of years ago when we were last at the Fairgrounds for an
Escapee's rally and remembered the food as being very good. Our
memories were correct, the food was very good and plentiful. After
lunch we went out, with Peggy along for the ride, and did some
geocaching around the area. We had a good afternoon, getting 15 new
finds, and one DNF in a couple of hours.
After caching we went back to the coach
and did some chores. I put away most of the outside stuff in
preparation for our departure tomorrow. At 4:30 we went down to the
rally room for the last night's dinner and entertainment. In keeping
with the generally Southwest theme of this rally, the host's had
brought in a Mariachi band from Pueblo High School, one of the local
Tucson schools. The band was called Mariachi Aztlan and over the
years the group has won numerous awards and contests and have
appeared all over the United States. When they started playing and
singing it was easy to see why, they were fantastic. They played for
about an hour and put on a really good show. After the show there
was a nice dinner of chicken enchiladas and Mexican rice, which had
been provided by La Mesa RV, one of the rally's sponsors. After
dinner everyone said their goodbyes, I packed up my sound equipment,
and we went back to the coach for the rest of the night. This has
been an extraordinary rally, one of the best we have attended, but
now I am ready for a few days of relaxation.
Friday, March 1st, the start
of the “meteorological spring.” Today was a travel day and we
were going 205 miles east to Deming, New Mexico. Since it was a
fairly long trip we got an early start, getting on the road at about
9:15. We arrived at the Low-Hi RV Ranch in Deming at 1:00, got
checked in and parked, and spent the rest of the afternoon getting
set up. At 5:00 we had cocktails with the Bullock's and Jackie and
Peggy played cards for a while. They went back to their coach about
7:00 and we had a light dinner on own, watched some TV, and went to
bed a little early.
Finishing this wonderful and exhausting
rally marks a great place to get this episode posted. After a week
here in Deming, New Mexico we go back to Arizona, spend a few days in
Wilcox a few days in an RV park in South Tucson, and then it's back
to the Fairgrounds for a week with the Escapee's RV Club Escapade
rally. Until next time, remember as you go through life that there
are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become
family. Make some new family. See ya soon.
