The Southwest in February

We arrived in Las Cruces, NM, on February 3, and parked at Hacienda RV Park.  We had stayed here last year and knew this to be a comfortable spot for Abe and us.  

Saturday afternoon we drove east of Las Cruces to the foothills of the Organ Mountains and hiked up the Soledad Trail.  This easy climb follows a trail up the canyon on the alluvial fan.  Pretty scenery!  Wonder what that “X marks the spot” means?  Even though we were there late in the afternoon there were lots of folks walking up and down the trails. 

Sunday we found a new church to attend in Las Cruces.  We had attended Easter services here last year in another ELCA church so thought we’d check out a new one and glad we did.  Prince of Peace Lutheran Church was located near the University of New Mexico campus.  We found the congregation to be younger, peppier, and eager to visit.  Our kind of folks!  The sanctuary had been recently remodeled and was beautiful.

Monday, February 6, we moved once again to make our way to Tucson.  We planned to stay here for two weeks to finish touring the area.  We also planned to fly to San Jose for a weekend…more about that later.  I wonder how many cameras were looking at us as we drove through this border crossing on I-10.  Profiling at its best!  Two white-haired geezers in an RV apparently

didn’t pose any threats.  We were waved through.

We drove to Green Valley, just south of Tucson on I-19 to visit the Titan Missile Silo Museum.  This intrastate interstate runs from Tucson to Nogales, AZ, just a few feet north of the US-Mexico border.  We were surprised to see this signage!  You’ll notice it gives the distance to the next exit in kilometers not miles!  We thought that was due to the heavy traffic to and from Mexico, but when I looked it up I learned that the signage anticipated the US conversion to the metric system in the 1980’s.  Right!!!

The Titan ICB Missile Museum was the only remaining Titan II site open to the public, ran by a private foundation.  All other silos were destroyed at the end of the cold war.  According to the docent who led our tour, “the Titan II was capable of launching from its underground silo in 58 seconds and could deliver a nine megaton thermonuclear warhead to its target more than 6300 miles away in less than thirty minutes.”  From the mid-60’s to the mid-80’s, 54 Titan II missile complexes across the United States stood "on alert" 24 hours a day, seven days a week, acting as a deterrent to nuclear war.  Jerry is standing outside the museum near a little red and white sign that said, “Watch for Rattlesnakes”!  I was rather surprised he agreed to pose there!!!

The photo of the photo shows the layout of the underground facility:  Far left was the crew quarters, in the middle was the access stairs and the control room (and the only part we saw), and far right was the missile silo itself.  

The control room reminded us of how far comuting and digital information had come since the facility was built.

The Titan II missile was never fueled, nor did it ever have an active warhead.  The agreement with the Russians specified this site only could be used as a museum and the blast doors could be opened only halfway.  The Cold War came alive as we wandered the hallways and heard the very grim stories.  The docent reminded us that the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the US came to a nuclear war with the USSR.  From the outside, we could peer down onto the top of the Titan II missile and the silo that extended 8 stories into the ground.

In the photo Jerry is standing at the viewing platform above the silo doors.  Once again we were reminded to watch out for rattlesnakes!  I imagine this would be a big problem in the summer.

It was pleasant to be parked in a nice RV park in Tucson and it gave us a chance to stock up on supplies, do a few chores on the bus, and even pick oranges, lemons, and grapefruit from the trees around the park.  However our primary reason for staying here was access to a good airport so that we could fly to San Jose, CA, the second weekend in February to see our family.  Lauren’s birthday was 2/5 and Jill’s was 2/12, so we made this weekend our official winter get-together. 

We flew to San Jose on Thursday, 2/9, and arrived in time for dinner with Jill and Lauren.  At 4, she’s old enough now to remember us from visit to visit and to talk about “stuff”.  Friday Lauren was off to school to get ready for their Chinese New Year celebration and program.  Jill took the day off so we got groceries, ran errands, picked up Joy at the airport and went to the festivities at Lauren’s school.

Of course I’m terribly biased, but Lauren was the star of the show!  Her class of 20 or so did a little dance routine.  

Lauren and her best friend Sydney lead the dance and got to wear  special kimonos.  Her favorite rain boots added just the right fashion touch!

After the performance, complete with a Chinese dragon, each classroom had a potluck.  Lauren probably had the most family in attendance…Jill, Bob, Joy, Jerry and I! 

Lauren travelled without a fuss in her car seat wherever we went…usually Grandpa on one side and Grandma on the other.  Part of the easiness of it all was the fact that she always had one of her friends with her.  In the photo she is giving Snuggles a bottle!  This was a Christmas present and no one seemed surprised that she wanted a puppy that took a bottle!  Such a girl!

Friday night we had planned a special meal and everyone pitched in!  Joy and Lauren are working on the rolls.

After dinner I did a little repair work on the mermaid tail that I had knitted for Lauren.  A couple of the flower bunches were loose, so I stitched them down again and she and monkey posed for me.  Jill said when Lauren received the tail she wanted to wear it and be carried around the house!  I think she sleeps in it some nights.  It’s really just a big wrap around blanket with a tail.

Bob and Lauren are painting a picture from “Frozen” on Saturday morning.  Lauren is definitely going to be right-handed and had pretty good fine motor coordination to stay inside the lines.

We had thought we would go to Santa Cruz on Saturday but Route 17 over the coastal mountains was closed due to mudslides!  The Bay Area had had lots of rain and many roads in the area were about to flood.  We learned on the news that the dam at Oroville, above Sacramento was in danger of failing.  Lots of rain in California…too much all at once!  

So, we stayed in San Jose and entertained ourselves by entertaining Lauren.  She demonstrated her scooter skills for us.  Notice her fancy helmet that has a crown on it!  She was pretty good at riding up and down the driveway.  You might notice that once again she has her favorite boots on.  Very stylish little girl!

Saturday evening Jill and Bob went to a show in San Francisco, so Jerry, Joy and I stayed with Lauren.  She chose macaroni and cheese for dinner and ate really well, but didn’t seem to feel well the rest of the evening.  She finally went to sleep on the sofa and about half an hour later up came all that macaroni and cheese.  What a mess!  Joy and Jerry tried to clean the couch while I cleaned and settled Lauren.  She obviously wasn’t feeling well and certainly wanted Mommy, but they didn’t get home until about midnight.  Long story short, I think she had a touch of the stomach flu.  Fortunately none of the rest was affected.

Sunday Jerry, Jill, Joy and I went to the Campbell Farmers’ Market and to the mall, while Bob stayed home with Lauren (what a good Dad he is!).  

By afternoon she was feeling better, so we could celebrate Jill’s birthday with a cake and presents.

Sunday evening we went to dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant and then did some more Lauren watching back at the house.  She posed with her favorite stuffed animals and, of course, Monkey!

Monday morning, February 13, Joy flew back to Portland and we flew back to Tucson.  What a fun weekend!  Too short, but we knew we would see the Klucks again as we headed north in April.

Tuesday, February 14, we continued our explorations of the Tucson area and went to Mission San Xavier del Bac, was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692.  In 1783, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain was able to begin construction on the present structure using money borrowed from a Sonoran rancher. He hired an architect, Ignacio Gaona, and a large workforce of O'odham to create the present church.  The oldest intact European structure in Arizona, the church's interior is filled with marvelous original statuary and mural paintings.  The current church dates from the late 1700's, when Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. (according to the church’s tour information).

The interior of the church was spectacular.  We saw floor to ceiling statuary, frescos, and ornate paintings.  The restoration of the interior was begun in the 90’s, although came to a halt before completion when the grant ran out.  Beautiful art work!

Sunday, February 19, we met Allie Goudy, with whom we had become acquainted at Trinity Lutheran in Canton, IL, at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley.  Allie and her husband spend 6 months in Canton and 6 months in Oro Valley, just NE of Tucson every year.  We had been to many little struggling Lutheran Churches with barely enough Sunday worshippers to fill ¼ of the pews.  This church was just the opposite.  I don’t think we’d attended a larger church!  Five services were held each weekend and I think I heard that about 800 worship each weekend.  We chose the 9 AM service, a “blended” service, rather than the 7:45 traditional service during which Allie’s choir sings, and the seats were almost full.  It was a very friendly church with a great sermon, and it was wonderful to have a visit with Allie!

After church we drove a little further north to Saddlebrooke to have lunch with friends we had first met Anacortes Lutheran Church.  In fact all three of we ladies were in the church choir together!  Chuck and Jan Mallory have moved to the Tucson area and Hildy and Jeff Radke are snowbirds, living in Sedona during the winter.  Jan took us to lunch at the country club, but Chuck was under the weather and couldn’t join us.  What a great afternoon!

Monday, February 20, we moved southeast of Tucson about 60 miles to Tombstone Territories RV Park, a highly recommended park out in the middle of nowhere!  On our way there, we saw about 300 Union Pacific locomotives parked on a siding south of I-10.  Apparently there was not enough rail business to keep all the engines active.

Tombstone Territories RV Park was surrounded by mountains and sat on the bluff above the San Pedro River.  The views were wonderful but we noticed the change in elevation…cooler and windier here.  We knew there were lots of things to see in the area so we had a busy week ahead of us!

Our first area to explore was the Cochise National Monument.  Time for a little geology discussion, thanks to Wikipedia:

Located approximately 36 miles (58 km) southeast of Willcox, Arizona, the monument preserves the remains of an immense volcanic eruption that shook the region about 27 million years ago. The thick white-hot ash spewed forth from the nearby Turkey Creek Caldera, cooled and hardened into rhyolitic tuff, laying down almost two thousand feet of dark volcanic ash and pumice, highly siliceous in nature, which eventually eroded into the natural features that we see at the monument today.

We hiked to the fire lookout on top of Sugar Loaf Mountain and had spectacular views!  In fact, we could look across a valley to see the rim of the Turkey Creek caldera…remnant of the volcano that covered this area with lava and ash.  The highest peak in the Chiricahua sky island (an isolated mountain range) was 9,763 feet.

We were amazed at the balanced rocks and the hoo doos.  The peak in the background of Jerry’s photo has a little knob on top…that’s the fire lookout!  Chiricahua National Monument was not busy, and unknown to us, but beautiful with lots of great hikes to explore.  We’ll come here again!

Tuesday, February 21, we were off in search of another hike and drove to the Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains, another sky island south of Willcox.  This was the famous area, which was the hideout of the Chiricahua Apaches, seeking refuge from the U.S. Cavalry.  Cochise is buried somewhere in this mountain range, among the granite boulders.  We found more spectacular peaks and spires and trails.  What gorgeous country!

We found a small campground at the end of a five-mile dirt road, on the way to the trailhead.  There were a scattering of homes along this road, which included four creek fords and five cattle guards!  Satellite TV service might be a challenge, but this house seemed to be covering all bases!  What a place to live! 

At the base of the hills was an apparently large ranch called Cochise Stronghold Ranch, with a brand to match.  Check out the fence.  Yep, we were in the Wild, Wild West!

On our way to visit Fort Huachuca, in the foothills just east of Sierra Vista we saw this puzzling spot in the sky.  

We soon found out that an aerostat was deployed from the army base to control drug traffic across the border!  The Tethered Aerostat Radar System is a balloon-borne radar.  The aerostat is a large fabric envelope filled with helium. It can rise up to 15,000 feet while tethered by a single cable, which has a maximum breaking strength of 26,000 pounds.  The aerostat was about twice the size of the Goodyear Blimp. The 275,000 cubic foot, aerodynamically shaped balloon measures 175 feet long by 58 feet across the hull, with a tip-to-tip tail span of 81 feet. The aerostat system lifted a 1,200-pound payload to operating altitude for low-level radar coverage.  The photo at the right shows it tethered, but I “stole” this shot off the internet…we never saw it parked here.

Fort Huachuca was another in the series of Indian forts established after the Civil War to protect the frontier.  Fort Huachuca became known as the home of the Buffalo Soldiers and the history museum presented their story in detail.  The fort has continued to be active to the present day and is the only Army base between El Paso and the California coast.  Today the primary mission of the fort is Military Intelligence.  We toured the Military Intelligence Museum, too, and even saw a piece of the Berlin Wall! 

Sierra Vista with a population of 44,000 and an elevation of 4,600 feet was the closest “big” town.  The weather is cooler than that of Phoenix and Tucson, and seemed to be a booming town, reminiscent of Visalia when we first moved there.

Bisbee was another destination to explore.  Jerry’s memories of working for Kennecott Copper in Utah made him curious about the copper mining in SE Arizona.

The first copper mining operation was an underground mine through the hills of the town.  We imagined the entire town riddled with tunnels!  Eventually the mining practice converted to an open pit mine on the south edge of town.  It had been closed since the 1970’s, but evidence of the mining was everywhere…the pit at the side of the road, the rusting equipment, and the mine tailings.  Of course not a tree or a blade of green grass to be seen…just cactus everywhere!

Old Bisbee Microbrewery, in the middle of the old downtown area, was the perfect place for lunch.  Great beer and chili-brats…Yum!

The old mine headquarters, a spectacular old building, had been converted to a Mining History Museum.  This was another spectacular museum full of intriguing information about SE Arizona.  The Smithsonian had assisted in the display creation.

One of Bisbee’s unique claims to fame was their ballpark.  Warren Ballpark was recently home to the Bisbee-Douglas Copper Kings of the independent Arizona–Mexico League and was the current home of the Bisbee Killer Termites (you just can’t make this stuff up!). The Stadium was built in 1909 by the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company as a recreation for the miners and their families, pre-dating the construction of Chicago's Wrigley Field by nearly five years!  Pretty cool!

Our final exploration was old Tombstone…that infamous town of the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.  As the RV park hostess pointed out to us…”there’s more to Tombstone than that gunfight!”  We stopped at Boot Hill, yep, right on the edge of town, and paid the $3 to learn about the residents of this cemetery.  There were quite a few “unknowns” and a lot of folks had been “shot” and “hanged”.  A few headstones were quite descriptive, like this one.

Tombstone, a short 10 miles down the road from the RV Park also had a great microbrewery!  We stopped in a couple of times and enjoyed their patio.  Sadly, they didn’t serve food, so we made our way down the street to the Crystal Palace for sliders and onion rings.  Perfect end to a day in Tombstone.

Sunday, February 26, we went to church in Sierra Vista at Sierra Evangelical Lutheran Church…another winner!  They were in the process of updating their sound system and we saw six large flat screen TVs in the sanctuary!

We learned that this church has an active knitting group.  We received a visitors’ gift pack, which included a knitted hot pad.  Nice!  Draped on every other pew or so were prayer shawls with a lovely note included.  That was a first!

Monday, February 27, it was time to move again.  Our destination was the north side of Phoenix where we have reservations for 9 nights.  Northern Illinois friends Jerry and Sue Hipple will join us 3/1 – 3/3 for a railroad trip to the Grand Canyon.  We hope to meet up with several other friends who are snow-birding in the Phoenix area.  More stories to come!