Less in Tents

Tripometer –  13,230 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

Election Day

Our number one priority for today was to send off our absentee ballots for the mid-term elections. We had submitted our requests for and received our electronic ballots a couple of weeks ago but had procrastinated printing out the ballot files due to sheer laziness. At lunchtime today we ran into Deming to the library to print the forms and then to the post office to mail them with today’s date. On the way to the post office we passed the office of the Republican Party of Luna County. Neither of us could figure out why a skeleton wearing a republican party t-shirt felt like the right decoration for them to use on election day. We had hoped this might be a premonition of the election outcome.

As soon as Kelly could tear herself away from work this afternoon we ran up the mountain for one last shot at Thunder Eggs. When we went searching for rocks on Tuesday we were so taken by the beautiful agates that we almost ignored the possibility of finding thunder eggs. Today we spent a good bit of time trying to figure out what to look for and which specimens to keep. This entailed a good bit of smashing rocks with the hammer and against one another to determine what types of rock might contain crystal pockets and which don’t. The odd part of this activity is that we were actually spending our time smashing rocks together looking for essentially what amounts to glass. Not a safe nor very productive activity. Paul, as designated rock cracker, was always fairly diligent about wearing his reading glasses while smashing rocks together, but at one point near dusk a shard of crystal material broke off of a smaller rock and sliced his hand open enough to embed itself in his palm. After seeing what was possible and judging his Walmart reading glasses to be insufficient protection from THAT, we retired with the samples of rock that we think might have larger pockets of crystals. It’s frustrating to bring home rock samples with no idea of what lays inside. We had discussed taking the possible thunder egg samples to the delapidary down the hill but decided that was a good way to get waylaid talking to the old fellow for the rest of the evening. We will likely purchase the equipment necessary to cut these specimens open when we get home. For now we’re saddled with carrying 20 pounds of potentially useless rock around with us until we get home.

We’ve included a picture of our top 5 potential thunder eggs above. The eggs are formed by gas bubbles in lava and each of these samples displays signs of bubbles on the surface but we really have no idea if our observations mean anything until we get them open using something other than a rock hammer.

The second we returned to the trailer tonight we turned on CNN’s election coverage and set up for a night of watching the election results roll in. Dinner of pork and beans was all we had patience for preparing this evening. Wolfe Blitzer had our rapt attention until long after our bed times.

Tripometer –  13,203 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke this morning to stronger winds on the mountain than we have experienced to date. Kelly worked for most of the daylight hours inside the trailer rather than at the lovely little gazebo we have over our picnic table due to the wind. Periodically during the day we saw dust storms in the distance moving their way through the valley at our feet. We were extremely thankful that we decided to stay a couple more days in this campground. Driving the rig in this wind would have been downright dangerous. Paul spent his time today working on the blog and cleaning the rig for our move across the country to Louisiana.

We have always wanted to visit New Orleans. Up until this point in our lives we have reserved a New Orleans vacation for a special occasion. Perhaps time or monetary constraints would prevent a long or expensive vacation, we held New Orleans as an easy and affordable vacation destination for just such an occasion. Now that we will be travelling through the area, we have decided to splurge on a nice long visit to the Big Easy. Today we booked 10 nights in an RV park located a mere 6 blocks from the heart of the French Quarter. The old motto holds true: Location, Location, Location. We decided that the location of the RV park in NOLA warrants the hefty cost of $105 – $150 per night. We are tremendously excited.

 Tripometer –  13,187 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

After a lazy Sunday morning of coffee and breakfast at the Deming Denny’s, we set off up the mountainside in search of gemstones. The wind has not diminished much since yesterday, but we also decided it isn’t going to kill us, so off we went in search of our fortune. The temperature today was a perfect 60 something degrees and the strong New Mexico sun made it feel like a warm summer day. We were ecstatic to be outside enjoying the weather.

The mountainside most easily accessible from the campground has obviously been worked over very well. Evidence of other rock hounds bashing at rocks is everywhere. Piles of broken rock, chipped boulders, and even a couple of smashed thunder eggs littered the washes where rain water cascades off the mountainside. We immediately started finding agate in a variety of different colors, but most of it was either too small to work with or firmly embedded in rocks too large to move or even break up. No surprise. We were able to find a few really nice specimens and were really excited by the sheer quantity of gemstone quality material that we were finding. Above is a picture of some of the nicer agate samples that we pulled off of the mountain.

We have been trying to take Ranger along whenever we do outdoor activities. He has no problem staying in the trailer for a few hours when we can’t bring him along, but if we’re going to be hiking up a mountainside we naturally default to bringing him with us. Today we brought him along for our climb up the mountain but the quantity and variety of cacti on the mountainside above our campground made this a huge mistake. Ranger still has gained no respect for ‘plants that bite back’. He blunders along paths and between cacti with reckless abandon. During the three or so hours that we spent on the mountainside today, we probably pulled thorns from him every 15 minutes or so. Naturally this made us feel awful about bringing him along and we cut our time short to get him back to the safety of the paved roads and sidewalks of the campground. We will definitely leave him at home next time.

Excited by our limited success today and looking forward to a busy work week for Kelly, we decided to book a couple more nights at this lovely park. Another factor that weighed heavily in our decision to stay here a few more days are the shower facilities located about 50 feet from our trailer. For the first time in many weeks, we’ve found a heated bathroom with truly hot showers. Thankfully the New Mexico State Park authority is less worried about scalding people than they are about providing lovely hot showers for their guests.

Special Note: Although Ranger has yet to start avoiding cacti, he has developed a response to thorns. Whether he steps on the tremendously painful small ground stickers or runs headlong into a larger cactus, his response lately has been to come to one of us with the injured appendage for thorn removal. He has melted our hearts more than once when he stops walking, turns around, and lifts his paw with a worried expression. Please take this out?

 

Tripometer –  13,160 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

With the work week behind us, we intended to do some serious rock hounding today. Being almost absolute novices at rockhounding in the Southwest, and certainly completely ignorant of the rocks and minerals to be found in the state park, our first stop was the visitors center in the state park. The visitors center was constructed in the early two thousands and it was clear to us that they designed the displays specifically for rock enthusiasts. Our camp host, the same woman who helped us get into a site two days ago, was also behind the counter and our chief source of information on the park and the rocks to be found within. Once again we were impressed with her knowledge and willingness to help. After speaking for quite some time and gathering all of the information that she was willing to give, we decided to visit the lapidary just outside the park entrance.

We have driven by the little rock shop at the base of the mountain a few times since we’ve been in this park and have joked a couple of times that the shop is more of a “de-lapidary” than a lapidary given its appearance. As it is the only rock shop within a mile of the state park, we figured they would likely be an excellent source of information on the rocks to be found up in the mountains here. Rock people are a special breed. The owner of this shop was no exception to this rule and as expected when we walked into the place we were waylaid for almost two hours discussing everything from the tremendous selection of geodes and thunder eggs on display in the shop to religion, politics, food, weather, geological processes, climate change, the sexual revolution of the ‘70s and, of all things, railroads. We don’t think the old fellow in the rock shop gets many visitors, but he was certainly interesting to talk with!

We left the delapidary with instructions to climb the washes in search of both agate and ‘thunder eggs’. This area is known to be a rich source of geodes. Thunder eggs are formed by the same process as geodes but instead of being hollow rocks with crystal formations lining the inside, thunder eggs are solid structures that have been completely filled with crystallized material. The delapidary had many sliced open thunder eggs on display and for sale and they were gorgeous (and also tremendously expensive). Possibly the most frustrating aspect of looking for thunder eggs and geodes is that they appear to be normal looking roundish rocks with no striking exterior features. There are two ways to find out if you have a gorgeous specimen – 1) smash open the geode with a hammer thereby destroying the beautiful interior OR 2) cut open the sample with a rock saw or the like… which we don’t have. The folks at the delapidary told us that if we found a single thunder egg on the mountain we should consider ourselves lucky. Not the brightest outlook.

The weather on the mountain today was extremely windy. We returned to camp in the late afternoon with every intention of climbing the mountain in search of the perfect thunder eggs, but were put off by the sheer force of wind whipping around the mountain. When we set up the trailer we have what look like four car jacks, one under each corner of the trailer to minimize movement caused by people inside the trailer and the wind. With as much movement as we were experiencing in the trailer today, it honestly felt as though we hadn’t put the jacks down at all. Instead of braving the wind on the mountainside we decided to spend the rest of the evening in camp reading and watching a bit of TV. Our campground is located just high enough on the side of this mountain that we have excellent TV reception. Something we haven’t had in quite a while.

Tripometer – 13,139 mi

Gas Gauge – 1002.257 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – $14

Cans of OFF – 4

There came a knock at the trailer door this morning at 8am. The camp host came out of the campground to let us know that our future campsite had been vacated and she had put a lawn chair in the site to reserve it for us until we could get our trailer up the hill and into the site. What a nice thing to do!

We quickly got all set up in the campsite and Kelly got to work with an excellent cell signal in the shade of a picnic table gazebo in our site. The backdrop was spectacular. Paul cleaned up the trailer and put in some quality time on the trip blog.

After work, Kelly ran into town to restock our groceries. On the way she ran across JB’s Barber Shop and RV Park. We both thought this was such a funny business plan, we had to share. Ranger and Paul took some time this afternoon while Kelly was shopping to familiarize ourselves with the state park and some of its trails. A quick hike around the perimeter trail showed that the hills were absolutely covered in prickly pear. We have seen lots of prickly pear over the past few weeks but neither of us recall seeing it be the predominant species across such a wide area. It is beautiful.

After putting in a long day of work and chores we decided to take an easy evening in camp to watch some TV and read books. We’re both thrilled with the amenities at this little state park and we’re both looking forward to spending the weekend here.

Tripometer – 13,081 mi

Gas Gauge –  983.676 gal

Location – Rock Hound State Park, Deming, NM

Lodging – FREE

Cans of OFF – 4

We’ve noticed on the past few move days that as soon as we start packing up the trailer Ranger starts power napping. He passes out either under the table or trailer and doesn’t come out until we call him to put him in the car. Even after 4 months of travelling over 13,000 miles, Ranger still can’t sleep in the car. At his most inactive he lies in the back seat but refuses to lower his head to rest on the seat. We’re guessing that he’s figured out the signs of a long travel day ahead and knows he needs to get some sleep because he won’t be able to sleep in the car.

As we walked into the park office this afternoon to check out, we were accosted by a baby goat in an RV checking out at the same time. We’re not sure how we left without a picture.   🙁

We headed North out of the RV Park and had driven to almost the mid point between Tombstone and the next town north, 15 miles from ANYTHING when we realized the gas gauge was on dead empty. Comforting ourselves with the knowledge that we had 2 gallons of gas in the can for the generator if all else fails, we made it to town and the gas station and filled the tank with 20.48 gallons of gas. Hopefully that will be the largest fill-up of the trip.

We stopped for lunch at Adolfo’s Taco Shop in Willcox, AZ. Besides having the best tacos of the trip so far (and that’s saying something), we ran into the most amazing artwork that we’ve seen in the Southwest. The painting above was large and in charge of almost an entire wall in the restaurant. Is this the Southwest equivalent of a velvet Elvis?

We pulled into Rock Hound State Park fairly late in the evening, almost dark in fact. Predictably there were no sites left in the park for the evening but while talking to the camp host we learned that at least one person was planning on leaving in the morning. We were directed to drive back to the Visitors Center and park across the street until a site opened up. Not really happy with the campsite itself, we were ecstatic about the cost, free! We left the whole rig attached and called it an early night on the side of the road. As we fell asleep tonight and woke up the next morning, we were reminded of where we were by the sound of cars going over a cattle guard a mere 50 yards from the trailer.

Tripometer – 12,863 mi

Gas Gauge –  963.196 gal

Location – Tombstone RV Park & Campground, AZ

Lodging – $37

Cans of OFF – 4

Halloween!

After getting ahead on her work yesterday, Kelly was able to get away from work a little early today. We went back into Tombstone to hit a couple of the attractions that we missed over the first two days. We were also hoping for a spooky time given the fact that we are in a town called Tombstone on Halloween.

Tombstone was founded in 1879 by prospector Ed Schieffelin after finding what was to become the largest silver strike in Arizona’s history. According to some estimates, over the course of mining operations in Tombstone, Ed Schieffelin’s mines would bring in $40 to $80 million dollars or $1.1 to $2.3 billion dollars in today’s money. Our first stop was the ‘Good Enough Mine,’ the most accessible of the original Tombstone silver mines. We took a 30 minute tour of the silver mine with a very authentic looking miner and enjoyed hearing how hard rock mining was done 150 years ago (by hand with a lot of hard work).

On the way out of the mine, Ranger spotted his first donkey just outside of the mine’s entrance. Thinking this would be a good opportunity to introduce Ranger to farm animals, Paul allowed Ranger to get too close and the donkey took offence (immediately following the picture above). The donkey (Jenny) lowered her head and started advancing on both Paul and Ranger with obvious ill intent. If it weren’t for the quick action of Kelly and the tour guide, we think either Paul or Ranger would have received a rather nasty donkey bite.

After hitting a few different shops in town not on the main street, we topped off Halloween in Tombstone by visiting the Boot Hill Cemetery to walk amongst the gravestones as the sun set. Our first stop in the cemetery was to the graves of Tom McLaury, Frank McLaury, and Billy Clanton — the three men killed in the gunfight at the OK Corral. Much to our delight, there was a wedding ceremony going on at the back of the graveyard. We didn’t want to be obnoxious so we grabbed a shot of the happy couple, elderly officiant dressed in 1880’s top and tails and what must have been the officiant’s wife dressed as a ghostly bride. We’re not quite sure what type of people get married on Halloween in the Boot Hill cemetery, but we think they’re guaranteed to be interesting people.

We honestly expected that Tombstone would have bloomed a bit on Halloween. We thought we’d see a lot more people in town celebrating the day. Sadly, the town was just as dead on Halloween as on any other weekday. Maybe last weekend was crazy busy? Or maybe we’re just weird, thinking this makes a neat destination for Halloween.

 

Special Note: Where are all of the old horse-drawn wagons and carriages on the East Coast? In the west we see pre-automobile wagons, coaches, and other equipment constantly. Frequently we’ve seen these types of vehicles decaying in fields and behind houses rather than being used for whatever purpose. We can recall being excited as kids to see something so old at home. Perhaps the weather preserves them better than the tropical jungle-like weather that we have in Maryland?

Tripometer – 12,857 mi

Gas Gauge –  963.196 gal

Location – Tombstone RV Park & Campground, AZ

Lodging – $37

Cans of OFF – 4

We have been enjoying the sound of coyotes in the night at this RV park. The property immediately behind the RV park is a large open hillside that we are sure is full of rodents and rabbits that the coyotes hunt in the dark. We hear them carrying on assumedly every time they get a kill, which is sometimes several times a night. It’s almost enjoyable waking up to a dozen yapping howling critters seemingly surrounding the camper. Ranger doesn’t agree.

Today was largely a work day. Kelly pounded away at social media from the front porch of the RV park recreation center while Paul dove into some reading that he’s been putting off.

We went into town tonight after dark to find some food and a drink at one of the saloons in town. We chose Big Nose Kate’s Saloon that is located in the old Grand Hotel on Main Street in Tombstone. Big Nose Kate was Doc Holliday’s girlfriend and features large in the OK Corral story. Tombstone struggled to exist for so long between the historic gun fight and when Hollywood picked up the story making the area an attraction, that most of the original history in these old buildings is gone. Either way, we enjoyed a couple ‘Big Ass Beers,’ a nice dinner (the food was pretty good!), and returned to the trailer for the night.

Falling asleep this evening we kept hearing what could only be a baby goat somewhere in the RV park. The RV park has several campsites set up for people travelling with livestock. The sites on the far side of the park all have large pens and shelters for horses, cattle, or in this case goats? We’re going to have to take a walk down there tomorrow to see the little guy. It certainly sounds adorable from our side of the park. A baby goat’s bleat is a wonderful sound to fall asleep to… if you’re far enough away.

Special Note: Ranger has a new favorite food. He has never been especially food-driven, even going so far as skipping meals because he doesn’t like what he’s been served. At several times during this trip we have had to take detours to specialty pet food stores to find the dog food that we know he’ll eat. Lately we have been buying Oreos for our dessert in the evening. Dessert foods are always a treat that he enjoys, but neither of us expected him to have such a reaction to Oreos. We can’t touch the package at any time during the day or night without him dropping whatever he’s doing (including other treats, toy, naps, or other dogs) to come investigate the sound. Tonight he almost sprained himself and Paul trying to get out of the upper bunk where he was napping when Kelly went for the Oreos. Dog knows you can’t expect us to remember to give him a quarter of an Oreo if he’s not front and center begging for it.

 Tripometer – 12,850 mi

Gas Gauge –  963.196 gal

Location – Tombstone RV Park & Campground, AZ

Lodging – $37

Cans of OFF – 4

Cell signal at this park is awful. Kelly tried working at the campsite but very quickly abandoned the picnic table for a table outside of the RV park rec room. Over the next few hours Kelly was joined by several other similarly disgruntled remote workers forming an impromptu work club on the front veranda of the Tombstone RV park. You can’t make this stuff up!

As soon as Kelly completed her work for the day, we climbed in the car and drove into Tombstone. Tombstone is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but we discovered online and in person that they are being threated with de-listing due to questionable historic practices in the town. What exists in Tombstone today is a weird mix of truly authentic old west history with carnival, side show icing on top. The number of tourists in town was incredibly small even though it is mid-week during the school year. There were no waits in any store or attraction and we enjoyed a relatively leisurely walk up and down main street with the dog, loving the lack of tourists. Again, we were stunned to find that Tombstone is extremely pet friendly. As we were walking from the car to the downtown district we got hawked for several attractions and asked to bring our dog. Many of the shops on main street have signs permitting dogs in the stores and many stores without signs invited the dog in personally.

To get a proper lay of the land, we hopped on a tourist trolley for the official 20 min tour of town. Ranger joined us in the back row. Prior to this trip we have both seen several movies featuring the story of Tombstone and through some internet searches on the drive here we pieced together the true story versus what we’d seen in the movies. The tour of town didn’t reveal any new information on the gunfight at the OK Corral, but it did yield a few pieces of trivia about the town of Tombstone that don’t appear in the histories that we had read. Firstly, Tombstone is home to the Guinness Book of World Records’ largest rose bush. The rose bush was brought to Tombstone in 1885 from Scotland and has been lovingly tended to ever since. It covers over 9,000 square feet and its gnarly truck is roughly 12 feet around! Secondly, Tombstone was the long time home of Emmitt Kelly Jr., also known as Willey the Clown or the most famous clown ever. Lastly, the image of the side yard above is the Tombstone courthouse. If you look carefully behind the building you can see the (reconstructed) gallows from the first hangings to occur in Tombstone in 1884. How’s that for morbid tourism?

We had an option to see a 30 minute comedy gunfight for 5 more dollars when we bought our trolley tour tickets. Of course we opted in. Again, dogs were invited but we were warned ahead of time that there would be lots of shooting during the show if our pup was frightened by gunfire. We were fairly sure Ranger would be fine, as he’s been around gunfire and fireworks and has never shown distress. As the show started and the gunfire commenced, Ranger started showing ever-increasing signs of being uncomfortable, culminating in Kelly having to take him out of the show. We think it was the gunfire combined with the actors behaving rather erratically. With the distraction that Ranger caused we didn’t get any good photos of the show itself, but we got a nice shot of the show’s set!

On our way to Tombstone yesterday we were looking forward to watching the 1993 ‘Tombstone’ movie starring Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Paxton, and Sam Elliott before we toured the town. When we arrived at the RV park and didn’t have sufficient cell signal to download the movie, we were all but heartbroken. In town today our #1 goal was to find a copy of the movie so that we could watch it tonight. Surprisingly, we found the movie on sale at only one store on our first day in town. Even at $22 we decided that we had to watch the movie while in town. We grabbed a copy and ran back to the trailer for movie night.

Tripometer – 12,843 mi

Gas Gauge –  963.196 gal

Location – Tombstone RV Park & Campground, AZ

Lodging – $37

Cans of OFF – 4

We woke early this morning with the intention of getting a head start on today’s drive. By our usual driving pace we need to be in Globe, AZ tonight, but if we can make especially good time we could make it all the way through to Tombstone, AZ where we want to spend a couple of days. As a treat for waking at a reasonable time, we ate a great breakfast at the KOA concession for about $10.

The gardener left the hose running on the new plants next to our trailer all night long. By morning the mud was at least 6” deep on the entire back side of the trailer. With no other option Paul slogged through the mud the entire time we packed up the trailer swearing up a storm. By the time we were packed away and ready to leave, there was mud everywhere. Kelly, who manages the interior of the trailer as we pack up, was spared most of the mud… until she went to get into the car. One foot sunk into the mud at least 4” deep right next to the driver’s side car door. Needing to vent her frustration in a productive manner before hitting the road angry, we stopped by the front desk and gave them a precious piece of our mind.

Our first stop this morning was Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood. Having slept on the decision, we opted for a fairly large chunk (20 lb?) of partially polished petrified wood with beautiful coloring. What will it cost us in gas to bring this beast home with us?

Leaving Rt 66 for the last time, we headed south on small two lane roads into an increasingly flat and dry landscape. When you think of the town of Tombstone and your mind brings forward an image of what the countryside around town looks like, the reality of the landscape is exactly what you would expect. The only item missing from the scene was the two vultures arguing over a carcass.

It was on today’s drive that we finally put to rest any notion of going to Saguaro National Park near Tuscon, AZ. We have highlighted many of the national parks as ‘To Do’ if we’re in the area or find ourselves driving by. Saguaro is just too far out of the way and, let’s face it, not a huge draw for either of us anyway. Kelly was delighted when we passed the hillside pictured above that was covered in saguaro cacti from top to bottom. Now that we’ve seen them in their natural habitat we feel we can move on down the road without regret.

Driving through Pima, AZ today (Kelly points out that this town/area is the origin of the Pima Cotton brand) we spotted a wild pig running into the brush on the side of the road. These things are of appreciable size(!), we’d guess somewhere in the 30-50lb range. We don’t think we’d like to get into a fight over a garbage can with one of these little piggies.

On the drive into Tombstone our cell signal was strong, 4 bars of LTE signal for most of the trip. Standing at the check-in desk to the RV park we noted 2 bars of LTE, that’s fine. By the time we got to our site and halfway set up for the night we noticed that we had ‘no service’.    &%@#    A quick walk around the RV park showed that signal was sketchy at best in most of the park. The 2 bars of LTE that we got at the check-in desk was coming and going as if blown by the wind. Driving up and down the highway showed that this little RV park was located in a small depression and that the cell signal is great anywhere except here. Figures. The only thing we can do now is see how it goes in the morning and make a change as needed.

This RV park has rattlesnake warning signs everywhere…

Special Note: Arizona Sunsets. Anyone who lives in Joppatowne will tell you we have some of the most beautiful sunsets going, due in no small part to the smog coming from Baltimore. The Arizona sunsets that we have experienced are legendary and have made us question the superiority of our local evening show. We have been simply thrilled night after night by the sunsets here. The skies light up into an absolute rainbow of color that whirls overhead to meet, in many cases, a simply stunning horizon silhouette of mountains and mesas. This is a part of Arizona we will never forget.