Mountain Road & Coronado Nat'l Forest

There is a gravel mountain road east of Tucson that will take you to Benson, AZ the long way.  Tanque Verde Rd ends and the beginning of Reddington Rd begins.  I'm not really sure why this road was built other than as a ranch road, but it sure is rough.  It also takes you to some of the most pretty areas around Tucson.  The Coronado National Forest covers most of the area and is quite wild.  There are a lot of "sign hunters" in this area and that must be the reason the sign above is made out of steel.  

There were so many beautiful areas that it was impossible to capture them all.  Down in the valley was a stream that had numerous waterfalls.  Of course since it hasn't rained in a couple months, the waterfalls were dried up. I would like to come back when they are flowing and get some photos .  The area is very rocky and difficult to walk around in other than some hiking trails.  These trails are beyond my ability to hike now, but it would have been great a few years ago.   Gerry and Sharon took a short walk down a trail to check it out and said it was a nice walking trail.

Al retrieving the cache

There was a geocache about 2 miles off the main road on a ranch road and we decided to drive there and pick it up.  Wow, that was one rough road and we had to take it both ways.  The truck was fine on the road, but it had us bouncing around the cab of the truck like rubber balls.  We did find the cache and also the small lake back there.  The lake was very beautiful and I wonder how the water level stays so high.  I found the cache and Al crawled out on a rock to retrieve it.  I tried to come in from the side, but Mr. Cactus didn't want me there and gave me a reason to not try that again. 

The area has numerous cattle roaming around and every once in a while we came upon small groups grazing in the fields.  They must be sturdy cattle since the hillsides must be difficult for them to negotiate.  I don't know the different breeds of cattle but there were 4-5 different ones there.  They must not see many people and stared at us as we drove by.  

 

We drove through some wild groups of Saguaro cacti that were even nicer than the ones in the Saguaro National Park.  We were very surprised to see so many old and large cacti growing in the wild.  Many of them had to be over 150 years old and they were in great shape.

By this time we were getting worn out by the rough road and were ready to head for home.  We still had about 43 miles of dirt road ahead of us, however it was in pretty good shape and we were able to make good time.  We did pass this water tank that was decorated like a work of art.  You never know what you are going to see out here in the desert.

And that is how we managed to drive over 130 miles and spend 7 hours on the road.



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Superbowl Giants vs Patriots

Well, as everyone who likes football knows, today was Superbowl Sunday with the Giants playing the Patriots.  Everyone asked me who I wanted to win and my reply was that I wanted both of them to lose.  Since that was impossible, I was rooting for the Giants since they are in the same division as my beloved Washington Redskins. Incidentally, the Redskins beat the Giants twice this year and lost to the Patriots in the last few minutes.  Well, that is another story.

I prepared a football pool for the park and also joined one run by my children.  I wound up winning the pool from the children and was shut out in the park pool.  Go figure.

There were about 45 people who gathered at the clubhouse today to watch the game.  The park provided the liquid refreshments and some of the people brought the snacks.  There was plenty of both to go around and there wasn't any excuse to go hungry or thirsty.  The park has a large screen projection system and also a large regular tv.  The color and sharpness on the regular tv was great, but the projection tv didn't have such a clear picture.  It was nice to see the game on the large screen and hearing all the people cheering and making comments during the game was great.   Gerry and I both had a great time.

BTW:  The Giants won the game 21-17 in the last few seconds.

We delivered the winnings for Ron C after the game and got a chance to see their new trailer.  It sure is nice and they have a lot of space to roam around in.  I know they will enjoy the trailer in the future.

All in all it was a great day out here in the desert.

Ranch Sitting

The other day I was reading a blog and they mentioned that a cousin needed someone to ranch sit while they were gone.  Laurie & Odell
I immediately thought of my cousin Sharon and her husband Al and thought they would be a good fit for the volunteer position.  Al agreed and fired off an email to the ranch owner and they set up a meeting today to discuss the position.  I went along for the ride and to check out the ranch.

When I say ranch, it is a little stretch to call the place a ranch.  It consists of 8 acres and most ranches out here are in the thousands of acres.  In any case Al, Sharon and I made the drive out there this morning.  Gerry had some craft work she wanted to finish and skipped the trip.  Al & Sharon talked to the lady and got all the particulars and decided they wanted to take on the job.  They have set it up to stay there beginning March 1 or thereabouts.  

The drive down there went by more quickly than I expected.  There is a shortcut by taking Dragoon Rd and saved us about 15 miles of driving.  Along the way we went through the small town of Dragoon that only had a few buildings and one of them was quite old.  I managed to get a decent picture on the fly to give you an idea how old the building was.  It looks like it is vacant now and was used as a tourist trap in the past.  There is a wooden Indian woman in front of the place.

It was a scenic drive and we passed many cotton fields that are now picked and bales stored by the edge of the road.  There were three of them in this area just waiting to be picked up.  The fields in this area must be irrigated in order to produce any crops.

A few miles down the road was an area called Texas Canyon and there are many large boulders stacked on each other.  It is a favorite site for photography, however we were running short on time and I only got a few photos as we went by.  The area is also where a Titan Missile silo was located during the cold war.  It has since been demolished and there isn't much to see there now.

 

Goldshop, Geocaching and Guadalajara Restaurant

Gerry left a piece of jewelry at a goldsmith's shop a week or so ago and today was the day to go back and see what they could do to repair it.  At first they didn't think it was repairable, but now they think it is possible.  She left it with them until next week and hopefully they can fix it as good as new.

We decided to geocache a little while we were in that area of town and set out to find some caches.  We began our search and found 7 caches in short order, even though they were a few miles apart.  One cache was a five gallon bucket buried in the ground in an alley behind some houses.  They had disguised the lid to look like rocks, but since we knew what to look for, it stood out very clearly to us.  

Another cache was found in an Art statue in front of the racetrack.  We had to look for this cache for a while before we found it.  Then as usual, we were surprised to see how obvious the cache was.  Some are like that and others are very difficult to find and we have to register them as a did not find.  DNF.  I hate those.  There are a number of these art exhibits throughout Tucson in various places and I think they add a lot to the town and area.


The last three times we have eaten in a restaurant we have run into people from the park eating there also.  Tonight was no exception.  We like the Guadalajara restaurant and like to get there early for the Happy Hour specials and stay long enough to listen to the Mariarchi musicians play their tunes.  Just before they started to play Ron C dropped by our table after waiting 45 minutes to get a table of their own.  Friends from Tennessese joined them and were enjoying the restaurant also.  We got our fill of beer and food and barely were able to waddle out of there.  Great time as usual.


Cousin Sharon and Al are thinking about taking their 5th wheel to a ranch south of Willcox and watching the ranch for a month.  They are going to go there on Saturday to check it out and asked us to go along.  It is about 100 miles one way and I am not sure we are up to that long of a drive.  We will have to wait and see how it goes in the morning.  


Time to hit the hay after watching the Gold Rush show. 

Cashbox Pawn Shop

Pawn Stars presents an interesting look at the pawn shop business and we heard about a good pawn shop in Tucson that has a lot of nice jewelry.  Mention jewelry and Gerry's eyes pop open and she is ready to hit the road.  Today was the day to check out the Cashbox Pawn shop on Craycroft Rd.  

Gerry went for the jewels and I headed for the gun section of the shop.  They had a very large selection of shotguns and rifles, including a nice Coach double barrel shotgun.  If I had a use for it, I would have bought it on the spot.  It was super clean and looked great.  They had a nice selection of pistols but it would be almost impossible to buy a pistol in Arizona since we have a Maryland address.  It is much easier to just wait until we get back to Maryland.

Gerry found a nice ring that she is interested in, but didn't buy it today.  She wants to think about it for a while.  I think she enjoys shopping more than she likes buying.  That is fine with me.  I do believe there is a trip back to the shop in the future.

We topped the day off with dinner at the Village Inn and took advantage of their free pie on Wednesday.  Last Friday night we ran into Dan from the park, at Cattletown restaurant and tonight he found us at the Village Inn.  Great minds must get hungry for the same food at the same time.  Kim and Dan's parents, Nola & Ed were with him along with a well mannered 2 year old.  Don't ask!

The meals were so large that Gerry only finished half of hers and I struggled to finish mine.  Both meals were very tasty and something we would order again.  Now I will have to finish this entry and enjoy the Cherry pie that I brought home.  No, I will not share it.

Our friends Ron & Dee C moved into their new mobile home here in the park.  It isn't actually new, but it is new to them.  Ron spent most of the day moving their belongings from their 5th wheel trailer and into the new home.  Dee was a little smarter than him and spent most of the morning knitting a sock.  What?  In any case, congratulations on your new home.  At least you don't have to cut grass in this one.