WEDNESDAY MARCH 2nd 2011 298844

Up and ready to get on the road about 9.30 a.m.  Already nice hot and sunny.  Too bad we are leaving!

Alison had left for her class in town earlier, so after our "goodbyes" to Norman we headed out.

Here we are all set ready to leave.   The view never ceased to amaze us.

Thanks once again Norman and Alison for being such gracious hosts.   We do look forward to doing this again - if you would allow us to.

From Tucson we headed into Tombstone.  After all you  do always have to do some "tourist" things when on vacation, don't you?

Once on the road the scenery changed again.  The mountains looked very different to what we had seen around Tucson.  But still very impressive.

The roads were almost deserted.  Made us wonder what it would have been  like to travel these "roads" at the time of Wyatt Earp.

We really enjoyed Tombstone.  It was truly like taking a step back in history.   You could easily forget it was 2011.

You could ride the stage coach through town.

The Sheriff wandered around keeping his eye on the cowboys hanging around the saloon.

Of course we went through every store there was, managed to spend far too much, and take too many pictures.  But we had such a great time.

Naturally after such a hot busy afternoon there was only one place to go - the Local Saloon for refreshments!

You could see where some of the gun fights took place in the saloon, the bullet holes are still there!

Luckily we were not taken to the town hall or the jail after our drinks.

So once again on the road!

Fabulous fun place, we will return!

From Tomstone we were heading to the KOA Campground in  Lordsburg  NM.

The scenery still unbelievable!

A short drive from Tombstone, west of Bisbee we came across a huge Copper Mine, which was founded in 1880.

Today 20,000 lbs of copper ore is still mined daily.

Just for you info - there is also a gift store in the parking lot, look out area.  Lots of copper "goodies" for sale!

Further along the highway and now in New Mexico in the town of Apache, we came across Geronimo's Monument.  The momument was erected to signify Geronimo's surrender.   Apache was on the verge of becoming a ghost town when we drove through, with just a handful of buildings and so few of them occupied.    All very interesting and informative.

Arrived at KOA about 4.30 p.m. after a very exciting day of "history".

It was also a nice warm day, although it cooled off very quickly when the sun set.

Had wifi at camp, but it kept cutting out, so became very frustrating trying to send e-mails and use skype.  But as you can see, we were still in the "wilderness".

TUESDAY MARCH 1st 2011

Once again another beautiful morning.  Just the type of day to get out and enjoy it, and do a little exercise

 To make the most of such a wonderful day Alison and I took off to hike the Desert Trail head Mountain Trail.   The scenery was fabulous,  as was the warmth from the sun.

It was amazing to see the city of Tucson looking like a tiny village way below us.

 We were very lucky and the trail was not at all busy.  Not an extremely difficult trail to hike, but very different to any trail I had ever been on. It
certainly was a fairly steep trail, as you can see.  You had to watch where you put your feet, or suffer the consequences.   Never the less, very beautiful.

You can see some of the Saguaro growing here.  
They do grow their arms after 100 years, and become very tall.

 

Here we are getting closer to the peak, having already been hiking for an hour and a half.  

Unfortunately, I was not able to go the further half an hour to the peak, my lungs were not used to this type of hiking.  I believe Alison told me the peak was around 4,000 ft. - but don't quote me on that.  That figure could have been related to another mountain.  But my lungs felt like it certainly could have been 4,000 + feet.

So we turned and headed back, which was very disappointing for me, as I would dearly have loved to reach the peak, where you can stand and see either side o the mountain.   I will have to get in training and re-do it all on the next trip!

While coming down the mountain Alison and I were almost confronted with a wild pig.   It was just a head of us and ready to cross the trail in front of us.  Must admit it was not a very pretty looking animal.   Alison assured  me we were quite safe as these pigs do not see very well at all.  I was pleased to hear that.  These wild pigs do frequent Alison's property along with coyotes and rattle snakes.  We did not see any of these on this trip.

While we were away Mike stayed to change the oil and filter and wash our little camper.

On our hike Alison and I found a name for our camper.
It will now be known as  El Campista.   (Hope this is correct - Alison) ?

It was a perfect morning to clean vehicles.

 Must admit El Campista looked really good all nice clean and shiny.

We all sat out side with our lunch and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

 I spent some time outside through the afternoon catching up on all my notes and a little reading.

When Mike has finished with the cleaning he joined me outside and with the help of SALLY we managed to plan our route for the following day, when once again, we would be hitting the road!

After another fabulous dinner we all sat around and chatted until it was really far too late, but a whole lot of fun.

It will be hard to leave Tucson - but we have some great memories - and stories, should anyone want to hear them.

                     Here you can see how beautiful the sunset is in Tucson.   Thank you for this Alison. 
                                                          And a Good Night to you all.

MONDAY FEBRUARY 28th 2011

Brilliant sunshine greeted us this morning, but still a little cool.

After breakfast Alison headed off to her class in town and Norman took us on a tour of their grounds.

WOW!   Every turn you make you see mountains.   The scenery was so different to our part of the world, but extremely beautiful.

You can see how tall the cacti grow in their gardens

So many different types of cacti grow around the property, also a lot of different wild life.

Last night we heard the coyotes, but didn't see them.

Norman told us of the rattle snakes and wild boar that frequent his grounds.  The coyotes do visit as well.



We bundled into Norman's " truck - The Hyiatt Express, and took a drive into town.  The boys had a thrilling hour exploring The Hot Rod Store (toy's for big boys!!).   OK - so I didn't mind it either.

When Alison's class was over we all met for lunch, in a 50's type diner.  Great place, and delicious food.

After lunch Norman and Alison headed back to the house and we took Norman.s van up the mountains, exploring.   Thanks for the loan of the wheels Norman.

Once again fantastic scenery, and weather.

We headed to Desert Mountain, which was so busy with tour buses we didn't hang around to go through the zoo area.   Well worth the drive though, even if the road did seem to disappear.


From there we headed to the Old Tucson Studio's, where many of the old Western Movies were made.  It was very interesting, but a little expensive to actually wander through.   Still a lot of fun regardless.


Then we headed to the International Wild Life Museum.   This turned out to be a great place.  We spent a few hours wandering around there, and took too many pictures.

One for You Sandy!

 And for Mike.

  After that we headed "home".  Just in time for Happy Hour.   Sat outside for a while until it cooled off.  Then sat around the fire again.    Once again our hosts served fabulous food, beer and wine.  We feel like Royalty.  Thank you so much guys!

None of us were late to bed, as we were all tired.   Night Night!









SUNDAY FEBRAURY 27th 2011. 298466

Quite sunny when we woke up, but by the time we went for breakfast the storm had arrived and it was snowing and extremely windy.  We decided it would be best to hang around for a while to see if the weather improved a little, as we did not know the roads or the mountains in this area.

By noon hour the weather had improved a little so we got ready to head out.   A lot of the mountain tops were still snow covered, although there was not much snow on the roadways. Some of the mountains  actually were white stone.  It was still very windy.  It did seem weird to see palm trees and snow together.

Crossed over The Continental Divide.   We haven't done that since our trucking days.

The section of the Rio Grande we went over showed the width of the river, but the river bed was almost dry.

A little further along we saw lots of tumbleweeds rolling along.  Neither of us started singing!

Crossed into Arizona about 1.30 pm.  This is the twelfth state we have entered since leaving.

It did get quite sunny, but still the wind hung in.

There was so much fantastic scenery to see we couldn't possible show it all in this blog.

Tell you what - go check it out for yourselves.  You would not be disappointed.

We made it to Tucson by about 4.00 p.m. and even found Alison and Norman's house with no problem at all.

It was a really lovely home, and the scenery was superb.

Still nice and sunny, but it was the coldest day of the year, so a little cool to sit outside.

Not a problem we sat around a lovely fire, catching up on all that had gone on in our lives in the last two years of not seeing each other.

Truly a wonderful way to spend a cool evening.



Must thank you both, Alison and Norman.  The beer and very tasty ribs were perfect.

SATURDAY 26th FEBRUARY 2011 297969

We woke this morning to brilliant sunshine, and which ever way we turned we could see mountains.

Very good scenery.  Wonder if we will feel the same when we have travelled over these mountains.

After breakfast I sat out a while not needing any sweaters today.   The forecast for the day sounds pretty good too.  But not so good for our arrival in Tucson.   It appears there is a cold winter front to reach there in time for our arrival tomorrow.  We are hoping their winter is rain, not snow.

All packed and ready to leave at 9.45 a.m.   As we were pulling out, can you guess who we saw parked about 6 sites from us?  Yes, you got it.  The older Class C camper we passed in Georgia.  Wonder if they are heading to Tucson as well.

Just a few miles from the State Park we saw three deer having breakfast at the side of the road.  Two took off as we approached, but one was quite brave and just watched us drive by.

The mountains became much larger and very impressive as we progressed along the road.  How many mountain pictures can I take?

Rode along the two lane highway 7 then onto I-10 and stopped in Kent for gas.   We could see the large Texaco sign, but when we pulled off the road to go there we found that Kent no longer existed.  It was a ghost town.  Back on to I-10 again..

We saw quite a few horses running along a fielded area next to the Interstate.  Then we realised they were actually wild horses.  The road was even named "Wild Horse Drive".

Stopped for a while just west of Van Horn at a look out point.   Very picturesque area.

                         You can see how the "shrubs" are looking very different here.

It really was a wonderful spot to take a walk around.   You can see we were quite a way up the mountain.

A short distance from the look out point, on the North side, was a Border Control Area where there were quite a few Mexicans awaiting a ride back to Mexico!



                   Here we are heading to El Passo.  Not really very busy around here.

 

Good ride into New Mexico.  Took so many pictures, we don't know which to publish here.   It is all so different from anything we have seen before.

We too had to go through a border control .  There were two cars ahead of us and the first one in  line drove the "sniffer" dog crazy.  So that car was asked to pullover, and the wonderful looking German Shepherd could not wait to get to the car.

Lucky for all of us in the line up we were just told "Thank You, Have a good trip."  The person in the little black car was not so lucky!

It was a good ride through to Las Cruces, but we did not hang around there as it is supposed to be the "Murder Capital" of the world.  Must admit it did not look too bad though.

We headed to Rock Hound State Park, which was right at the base of the mountain.  So pretty.  But, could not get any site with hook ups and although the scenery was really great, we did not feel comfortable with the park.   So we headed into Deming and treated ourselves to a very nice Hotel with Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge.

Time to relax - 4.15 p.m.   298466
Free Internet here so did some blog, e-mails and skype before going for dinner then to the lounge for a night cap - or two!

Very cool and windy, forecast still for bad weather.  Probably good choice to be in the Hotel tonight..

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25th 2011 (10 months to Chrismas Day!) 297498

Here I am sitting out writing these notes before we leave in the brilliant sunshine, but, if I don't go back inside my fingers will fall off.  It is freezing!   Radio station told us it was 32f in Abilene.  So I wasn't far wrong.   Even all the birds and squirrels have hidden some where warm.   Left the site at 10.15 am.    297498
Before we left there was a comment made on the local radio which made us chuckle.  "It's time to plant your gardens".  Sounds crazy to us.  We do that May 25th, not Feb. 25th!

A short drive from the camp we passed through a wind farm, which continued for many miles.   It looked quite erie.   All you could see any way you looked were wind turbines.

A few miles from this area we went through Midland TX, which is the home of George W. and Laura Bush.

The Interstate took us along the industrial area of Odessa TX, which appears to be high in industry.

The main industry being oil. 

Drove by many oil fields along the plateau.

We could finally see hills forming on the horizon, then approximately 12 miles along we were at the foot of the mountains.








 Pulled into Balmorhea State Park 3.30 pm.297969

All set up and sat out in lovely warm sunshine.   Not a cloud n the sky.

Every picnic table has it's own roof to keep the hot sun from you.  WOW!!!

Here we are all set up.   One good thing about this site is the fact we do have WIFI here so we can catch up with everyone.

As the sun set it did get quite cool quickly.   BBQ supper but ate inside so food wouldn't get too cold.

When the sun had set the night sky was amazing.  The stars looked so much bigger than what we see (well this is Texas!) and it felt you could reach up and touch them.

 What a nice end to the day!

Oh, by the way - we do still have the soup can working very well.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 24th 2011 296932

Cloudy start to the day, but not as cold.   All packed ready to leave at 9.45 am.    296932

The nearer we got to Dallas, the darker the sky became.  At one point it got so dark we checked the scanner for weather alerts.   Nothing too bad mentioned, just risk of thunderstorms and high winds.  We have had high winds all the way from New York State.  Getting used to them now.  However, they did not mention the extreme rain we encountered that lasted about an hour just outside Dallas.  At times we could just see the vehicle ahead of us.  Then the sky cleared as quickly as it had got dark, now 85f.  And stayed that way for the rest of the day.   We do remeber the weather like this when we were trucking Texas.

Just east of Ranger TX we could see a huge cloud of smoke a head of us.  

As we got nearer it got larger.


It turned out to be a picnic area that had caught fire.

Due to the high winds it had spread both sides of the picnic and rest area.


The fire fighters were doing a real good job.

       The Terrain seemed to change every corner we turned in this part of the state.                        

From Ranger we headed to Abilene State Park.   Arrived about 5.30 pm.   297363

It cooled down very quickly.  Not sure if it was due to the approaching mountains or the dessert area.

Still complete fire ban, all due to the high winds and dry trees.

Relaxing evening.