I FINALLY CATCH UP MY CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAIN DRIVE PHOTOS AND…..A GRAVE IN THE DESERT

I THINK THIS MAY BE A PETRIFEID DESERT HOG MONSTER…….OH REALLY:))

When out with Pheebs around 5:15 I could see our night sky was struggling to rid itself of a persistent cloud cover.  Looking out an hour later it was apparent the sky was winning and by 7:45 old Sol came beaming over a low gray cloud bank atop the Mule Mountains and set the east side of the hazy Huachuca Mountains ablaze.  It was yet another gorgeous sunrise in the great American Southwest.

MOST OF TONIGHT’S PHOTOS ARE FROM OUR DRIVE UP THE EAST SIDE OF THE CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS FROM PORTAL ARIZONA A WEEK AND A HALF AGO AND CONCLUDES THAT ADVENTURE

IT SEEMS THE WORST OF THE 2011 CHIRICAHUA FIRE OCCURED ALONG THE SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN RANGE

LOOKING BACK INTO THE SAN SIMON VALLEY FROM WHENCE WE HAD STARTED FROM

MOUNTAIN FORESTS ARE IN ABUNDANCE

From the way our Motorhome is situated and without climbing out of my recliner I can see through a right side window the south end of the Huachuca Mountains.  Through our large windshield I look directly south to Mexico and out a left side window I have only to turn my head slightly to see the full length of the Mule Mountains.  Some of my past sunrise photos over the Mules have been taken right here from the comfort of my recliner.  And oh how nice those warming rays of sunshine always feel when they beam their way into the coach every mornings.

WE REACHED OUR MOUNTAIN TOP DESTINATION OF RUSTLERS CAMPGROUND

PARKED THE JEEP, LOADED UP OUR PICNIC SNACKS AND HEADED OFF TO A PICNIC TABLE

IT WAS A BIT OF A WALK FROM THE JEEP

PICNIC TABLE WAS IN THE SHADE AND BEING ABOVE THE SNOW LINE WE FOUND IT TOO CHILLY SO MOVED OUR PEANUT BUTTER AND JAM SANDWICHES A FEW FEET AWAY TO A SUNNIER SPOT ATOP A ‘FOOD STORAGE LOCKER’

BECAUSE OF BEARS (YOGI AND BOOBOO) CAMPERS KEEP THEIR FOOD SAFELY IN THESE STEEL CONTAINERS

MUCH WARMER HERE IN THE SUN

IT WAS SOON TIME TO HEAD BACK TO THE JEEP

Our Thursday morning shaped up real nice and I was able to get all the Jeep’s windows cleaned.  One of the annoyances of RVing is having to do laundry and there is just no getting around it.  With Pheebs holding the fort down Kelly and I slipped into Sierra Vista with a big bag of my laundry.  Finally locating the laundromat on Sierra Vistas west side I got right at while Kelly walked over and browsed a couple Goodwill type stores nearby.  Nice big laundry facility complete with an attendant to supply a million quarters and to be of help if needed.  I didn’t run into any problems and an hour or so later I was done.  From there it was off to McDonalds for a coffee to go, a stop at another Goodwill store and a quick dash into Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy's.  It was Kelly doing all the dashing while I stayed with the Jeep.  Well somebody has to, right.  We were back to the rig around 1:30 and I hung some of my damper stuff out on chairs to dry.

WELL GEE THANKS FOR THE WARNING AND BESIDES WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO DIE IN ANY OF THE MACHINES IN THE FIRST PLACE

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF A CAR THIS IS…..SOMETHING ENGLISH I WOULD EXPECT

Nancy and Pat walked over and we all headed out to have us a look for a grave.  Took us a little looking but Nancy finally located it.  No answers to the pile of stones but judging from the shape of it and the way rocks from a nearby creek bed had been purposely piled we all agreed it was safe to expect it to be a long ago gravesite.  An old railway line ran through here back in the mining days so it could be a railroad worker under the pile of stones, a desperado, an Indian, an old miner, who knows. The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) fellas told Pat there are a lot of people buried out here in these lands.  We didn’t have a shovel with us so it shall remain a mystery who or what lies under this pile of stones.  Now you don’t think we’d dig somebody up do ya??  No I didn’t think so…………….

HEADING OUT INTO THE DESERT IN SEARCH OF A GRAVE

KELLY, PHEEBS, NANCY, AND PAT

NANCY POINTS TO WHERE AN OLD RAIL LINE ONCE RAN THROUGH ON IT’S WAY TO CHARLSTON

NEARBY AN OLD CAMPFIRE RING

I am a recliner person.  I eat in my recliner, I sleep in my recliner, I write my daily posts and edit my daily photos in my recliner, I nap in my recliner, and I read in my recliner.  I like my recliner almost more than anything and in fact I have two of them.  One in our Bayfield home and one in our Motorhome.  I wouldn’t ever want to be without my recliner luxuries.  Couches smouches, love seats pickled beets, beds peds, chairs schmares,, nosireeee, nuthin finer than my recliner.

THE CHIRICAHUA FIRE HAD SWEPT RIGHT UP TO THE EDGE OF RUSTLERS PARK

FIRE AT LEFT BURNED DOWN TO THIS ROAD BUT RUSTLERS PARK TO THE RIGHT WAS SAVED

In the dozen years we have been RVing back and forth between Southwestern Ontario and the Southwestern United States we have learned a few things along the way and one of those things is a hard and long learned lesson that took us awhile to catch onto.  At the end of any traveling day and for anytime you are in your RV it is of paramount importance that you have a comfortable place to sit down and relax.  And I don’t mean at a breakfast nook or a dinette table and chairs.  No, I mean a ‘COMFORTABLE’ place to sit down and stretch out.  In both our Class A Motorhomes we weren’t long in hauling out our breakfast nook in one and table and chairs in the other.  In our Triple E Commander my comfy and all purpose recliner sits where the dinette used to be installed.  People ask, ‘well where do you eat’??    Our happy face answer to that is, ‘anywhere we like’.  For us comfort is a priority and we figure the little used space of an eating area is way better served by the comfort of a cushy all purpose comfy recliner.  Maybe don’t make too much sense to most folks but it sure makes a whole lot of good darn sense to us.  Of course some bigger RV’s have both the comfy recliner and a regular dinette eating area and that’s great but if there’s only room for one then give me the comfy recliner option every time.

LUCKILY SOME CABINS ON PRIVATE LAND WERE ALSO SPARED THE RAVAGES OF FIRE

THROUGH A BREAK IN THE TREES WE COULD SEE WESTWARD INTO THE SULPHUR SPRINGS VALLEY  TO THE WEST WHERE JANNA AND MIKE LIVE AND HAD I HAD THE EYES OF AN EAGLE I MIGHT HAVE SEEN THEIR PLACE WAY ACROSS THE VALLEY

THAT KNOBBY PEAK TOPS THE DOS CABEZAS MOUNTAINS NEAR WILCOX ARIZONA

IT’S A RUGGED COUNTRY OUT HERE AND IT IS THAT WHICH IS SO APPEALING TO ME

WE ENCOUNTER SOME SNOW ON OUR WAY TO ANOTHER AREA WE’RE CURIOUS ABOUT….. BARFOOT PARK

IT WAS OBVIOUS THE FOREST FIRE HAD DESTROYED SOME BUILDINGS HERE AT BARFOOT PARK

ONLY THE CEMENT FOUNDATIONS WERE LEFT

FOUND OUT A FEW DAYS LATER THIS HAD BEEN AN OLD ABANDONED BOY SCOUT CAMP AT ONE TIME

WE BEGIN OUR DESCENT DOWN THE MOUNTAINSIDE THROUGH THE SAME SNOWY PATCH WE JUST CAME UP ON

AND THIS IS WHERE KELLY WAS OUT PLAYING IN THE SNOW

Noticed Tioga George has had some problems with reader’s comments not showing up in his posts.  Like us, George uses the ‘Blogger’ format and just this morning I noticed a reader’s comment in our Gmail but it never showed up in our blogs comment section.  I quick check in our Blogger spam file found it there and we were able to re-direct it to our comment section.  It’s hard to remember to check one’s spam file every day but it’s something to keep in mind.

OUR DESTINATION IS SOMEWHERE WAY DOWN THERE IN THE SAN SIMON VALLEY

NO GUARDRAILS ON THESE MOUNTAIN ROADS SO ONE MUST ALWAYS BE AWARE OF JUST WHERE ON THE ROAD ONE IS

THE LEFT FORK IN THE ROAD GOES TO PARADISE AND WE HAD CAME THAT WAY SO WE TOOK THE FORK TO THE RIGHT WHICH LED US BACK ALONG CAVE CREEK TO PORTAL

CROSSED BACK INTO NEW MEXICO ON OUR WAY TO RODEO WHERE OUR RIG WAS

PASSED THE SUPERB CHIRICAHUA DESERT MUSEUM ALONG THE WAY

WE WERE FIRST IN THIS MUSEUM WHEN THEY WERE JUST IN THE PROCESS OF OPENING IT ABOUT 8 OR 9 YEARS AGO…..IT HAS SURE GROWN SINCE THAT TIME

PHEEBS AND I WAIT FOR KELLY WHILE SHE BROWSES A SECOND HAND CRAFT STORE IN RODEO NEW MEXICO….PHEEBS EYES ARE GLUED TO THE DOOR WAITING FOR MOM TO COME OUT

Todays photos of our Chiricahua Mountain drive ‘finally’ catch me up with my back-logged photos.  Bugs me when I can’t keep things on a current daily basis.  Seems like anything that happens today that doesn’t make it into my daily post suddenly becomes old news to me and old news doesn’t interest me much.  That’s why my blog is daily because to do it any other way holds no interest for me.  Old news is…….well, just old news.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  An inter-office softball game was held every year between the marketing and support staff of one company. The support staff whipped the marketing department soundly.  To show just how the marketing department earns their keep, they posted this memo on the bulletin board after the game:  "The Marketing Department is pleased to announce that for the 2017 Softball Season, we came in 2nd place, having lost but one game all year. The Support Department, however, had a rather dismal season, winning only one game."

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Q: Why shouldn't you tell a secret around a clock?  A: Time will tell.

Making fun of dead people is a grave mistake!

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Knock Knock
Who's there?
Ooze!
Ooze who?
Ooze in charge around here!!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Omar!
Omar who?
Omar goodness gracious, wrong door!

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Omega!
Omega who?
Omega best man win!

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WE ARE LIKE BEES….WHEN THE TEMPERATURE DROPS WE DON’T BUZZ AROUND MUCH

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MORNING WALK
We knew it was coming and it came.  Wind, rain, and cooler temperatures.  Had been windy most of the day and those gusting winds picked up early evening.  Slide toppers began to noisily flap.  Kelly pulled her bedroom slide in around 9 and I had to finally pull in our bigger living room slide about 11.  Just too noisy.  Rains came splattering down around 4 a.m. but didn’t last long.  Stepping out with Pheebs in the darkness around 6 I could tell it was cooler.  Not cold, just cooler.  Winds had shifted into the west and were light so we put our slides back out.  Always a little more crowded inside when the slides are in but we still have access to everything and are able to move around Okay.

OVERNIGHT WINDS HAD HAD THEIR WAY WITH US

Had us a coolish morning walk on a hard packed reddish desert floor through yellowed grass, mesquite shrubs, and an occasional prickly pear cactus or chain fruit Cholla.  A few passing clouds had stopped for a rest atop the Huachuca Mountains.

CLOUDS SITTING ON THE MOUNTAIN TOPS

AN EARLY MORNING CLOUDY START TO OUR DAY

MORNING’S SUN SPILLING SHADOWS INTO THE HUACHUCA MOUNTAINS SOUTHERN CANYONS

With a windy cool and cloudy morning going on neither one of us were energized to head off anywhere adventurous so piled into the Jeep and headed into Sierra Vista on a few errands.  First stop was Napa to get a new tire pressure gauge.  My last two bought from the Canadian Tire Store in Canada broke.  Canadian Tire is sometimes referred to as Crappy Tire so maybe that had something to do with it.

OUR AMARYILLIS IS DOING WELL WITH FOUR BLOOMS AND A FIFTH ON THE WAY

In need of a few grocery items we slipped into Sierrra Vista and popped into Frys Supermarket.  Well Kelly did while I stayed with Pheebs in the Jeep.  I’m a little gun shy of this store.  I once unknowingly stopped at this major supermarket on Senior’s Day and was lucky to get out of their with my skin still intact.  Those Seniors can be brutal and I didn’t know if today might have been Seniors Day or not and I wasn’t about to take any chances.  I knew Pheebs and I would be safe in the car.  However, I had forgot to tell Kelly I needed peanut butter and definitely requiring that absolute necessity of life I had no choice but to go in.  Luck was on my side and it wasn’t Senior’s Day.

DARK CLOUDS FOR THE FIRST HALF OF THE DAY

MEET OSCAR THE GROUCH’S SECOND COUSIN SNOSKER THE CLOUD GRUMP
From Frys it was over to a store called Marshalls where Kelly picked up a new curling iron and a couple squeaky toys for Pheebs.  I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Marshall Store.  Pheebs and I stayed in the Jeep and held the parking lot down.

THESE 3 PIGEONS WERE HAVING A BLAST IN THIS FRYS PARKING LOT WATER PUDDLE
<<< THIS IS WHAT THE CURLING IRON DID TO KELLY’S HAIR
Kelly bought a new ‘Conair Infinity’ curling iron for her hair a couple weeks ago at Walmart and Tuesday morning tried it out for the first time.  You can see what happened below when the curling iron burnt off a chunk of Kelly’s hair.  Reading reviews on this curling iron later one can see many complaints by buyers.   This faulty curling iron is an accident waiting for a head of hair to happen upon.

DESERT DRIFTWOOD

NO THIS IS NOT DESERT DRIFTWOOD…..IT’S PHEEBS:))
Walmart was next on our list and that is where Kelly returned the faulty curling iron.  With her Smart Phone she showed the lady a picture of what the curling iron had done to her hair and the lady ran out of the store screaming.  Well Okay not quite but she did put a note on the curling iron box saying defective.  And then she probably ran out of the store screaming.

AFTERNOON WALK AT OUR HOUSE

ALTHOUGH CLOUDS WERE IN PLACE FOR ANOTHER GREAT SUNSET IT JUST NEVER HAPPENED AND AFTER A HALF HEARTED ATTEMPT THE CLOUDS JUST TURNED GRAY AND THAT WAS IT

Luckily we know our way around Sierra Vista reasonably well and were able to locate our next stop.  It’s a sandwich place Kelly likes called Schlotzsky’s.  I had a smoked turkey breast sandwich and Kelly had a pastramil and swiss cheese.  It’s the second time we’ve been there and I’ve noticed it’s a popular eatery for Fort Huachuca military personnel.  Speaking of Fort Huachuca, Kelly and I were fortunate enough to get onto that U.S. Army base a number of years ago and have us a look around.  Canadians are not allowed on the base so how did we pull this one off.  Well, you can read about it in my Februrary 3rd 2009 post and it had something to do with quickly Switching Driver's Seats before we got to the main gate.

I WAS HALF WAY THROUGH MY SANDWICH BEFORE I REMEMBERED TO TAKE A PHOTO…. NOW I KNOW THIS IS MY SECOND FOODY PHOTO IN 4 DAYS BUT  I WANT TO ASSURE MY READERS I AM NOT TURNING MY BLOG INTO A FOODY BLOG…..WHEW, CLOSE CALL THERE.…IT WAS A GOOD SANDWICH

Afternoon was spent in the rig because the wind had picked up dropping the already cool temperatures even lower.  We’re sorta like Bees.  When the temperatures drop too much we become sluggish and lethargic staying close to the hive.  Just as we are not cold weather people we are not hot weather people either.

GROANER’S CORNER:((  The Economy Is So Bad::
- The economy is so bad that I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
- I ordered a burger at McDonald's, and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
- CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
- McDonald's is selling the 1/4 'ouncer'.
- Parents in Beverly Hills and Malibu are firing their nannies and learning their children's names.
- A truckload of Americans were caught sneaking into Mexico .
- Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
- The Mafia is laying off judges.
- BP Oil laid off 25 Congressmen.
- Congress says they are still looking into the Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!
- I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, and our bleak future, that I called the Suicide Lifeline and was connected to a call center in Pakistan. When I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck..
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- “A drummer who became a policeman ended up pounding a beat.”

- “The other day I held the door open for a clown. I thought it was a nice jester.”

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