July 9th , 10th,11th and 12th

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Another day of travel along the Mexican border and really hot.Not much to see but many border patrol vehicles and several border guard inspection stations to stop at. After trying to book into several motels with no luck, we ended up at La Hacienda. What a beauty!! Probably the worst one to date. Oh well, just had to sleep there. On the 10th we headed off for south Padre Island like horses to the barn. Needed to get to the coast after two and a half weeks of desert heat.

Now, not only is it hot, but, also really humid.  About 98 degrees and the humidity factor. We decided to spent 3 nights here and rest up for a while.

Did some beach time. Went on a catamaran for a 3 hour snorkel trip, which was really great.Not much in the way of fish, as there is no reef. Lots of eating, some drinking and relaxing.

July 8th Happy One Month Anniversary

Today is a marathon day! Most miles in one day on this trip - 314, plus we had breakfast in Marathon TX. at a cute little diner. We also reached the 4000 mile mark of our trip. The views are much the same as the last two days, brush, desert, and bare blue mountains in the distance. We saw a few cattle, a couple of deer, and one buffalo. We also saw a few horses, especially one beautiful grey stallion that ran along the highway.



Who cares, my bathing suit is in the trunk

  Near Del Rio TX, we crossed the Pecos River which joins the Rio Grande very near here. Then we crossed a second bridge over the Amistad Reservoir. Just over the bridge was a beach on the bank and Linde and Sheila could not resist a swim.



Happy Monthiversay!

Trip Highlights so far:
Steve - winding roads, beautiful views, Cliff dwellings
Richard - the whole adventure
Linde - Sea World, Tombstone, Swim in Pecos River
Sheila - Spectacular views; Interesting and humerous tidbits we pick up every day about people, history, biology, geology, plants, etc; roller coaster ride at Seaworld

July 5th, 6th, and 7th

A small corner of the hole

 Hwy 80 out of Tombstone, through the historic town of Bisbee, down to the border, and back up to Lordsburg passes http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211651657169317628289.0004a75bb01c7433ec030&msa=0 through some pretty rough and hot desert. The Valentine copper mine is just past Bisbee, and claims to be the 2nd largest open pit mine in the US. Prrrrettty big hole! The whole area here and into New Mexico seems to be a  big mining area as we saw a lot of them up in the hills. There also a few cattle around, though not as many as we expected.

 From Lordsburg, we did a small detour of 185 miles to see the Gila Cliff Dwellings. (pronounced Hila) These were adobe dwellings built in natural caves in the cliffs of the canyon by the Mogollon people around 1280AD. They were only there for one generation. The one mile hike was a partially  staired pathway with an incline of  about 180 feet, and the elevation (8000 ft) combined with the heat almost killed us, but was well worth it.  The last 40 miles to the cliffs and back out again, had the guys grinning from ear to ear. It was heard said "to hell with The Tail of the Dragon, it can't possibly be any better than this". Then on to Deming,New Mexico for the night.

Typical Desert View

Thursday, 7th, was a transition day, trying to get closer to the Rio Grande river and out of the desert. We drove along the Mexican border, and much of the time were the only cars on the road, except for dozens of border patrol vehicles. They have all kinds of surveillance equipment, and security checks along the highways complete with sniffer dogs. The guards were more interested in our cars than what we had in them. Then at the end of the day as we came back to our hotel from dinner, a Texas policeman followed us into the parking lot, lights flashing. Oh no!! what were we in for?? Our licence plate has a plastic cover which is illegal in Texas! So we said "no problem officer we'll take them off. Besides you have a big gun!" He said "not so big" and then felt embarrassed he had stopped us at all. Richard asked if he was getting a ticket too, and the officer said he didn't need to do the paperwork twice. He ended up helping us take the plastic covers off and then gave Steve a warning ticket. It was kind of fun changing this very serious, no nonsense cop into a regular kid we could chat to.   This all happened in Van Horn TX wher we spent the night.



Steve's Warning Ticket



July 3rd and 4th Tombstone

 What a place! Western characters walking around all over the place, horses, cowboys, gunfights (cheesy though) in the streets and bars, and also a lot of interesting museums, and stories. Though Tombstone suffered 2 major fires, a lot of the town was rebuilt during the silver mining days. The original buildings are still standing and used for museums, shops and restaurants. We took a stage coach ride, toured museums, watched some films about the history of Tombstone and saw a reenactment of the famous Gunfight. We ate and drank in the Crystal Palace Saloon, which has been in business for 130 years.

Richard and Celeste



Boot Hill

 





This man innocently bought a stolen horse, and was hung. Buyer beware!!

 

July 2nd,3rd and 4th Tucson to Tombstone

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Saguarro Forest

While in Tucson, we did some shopping and went to Saguarro National Park. The exhibits are excellent and very informative. You can see a lot of desert  and take pictures, but not really understand what makes it work and how the plants, animals and people interact until you see some of the films and read the displays.
On the way out of town on the 3rd, we drove an extra 50 miles to see Bioshere 2, Biosphere 1 is Earth. This was where 8 people lived for 2 years, attempting to live completely independant of outside resourses. The experiment was considered by many to be a failure as they did not reach their goal, but scientists believe it was a huge success because of all they learned from it about living in space. The 2 big problems were food and oxygen. They weren't able to produce enough calories to keep the people healthy, so all of them lost a lot of weight. They could have solved this by sending one person out, but no one volunteered and they all adjusted their intake. The oxygen problem could not be solved, and when they all started suffering oxygen deprivation symtoms, they had to have outside help. Later they found that the concrete inside the buildings, which was new, depleted oxygen as it cured. Back to present day-the Biosphere houses several different ecosystems, and is used by environmentalists to study the effects of different stresses on the environment.

Ocean and reef ecosystem

Rainforest



This is one of 2 giant 'lungs' used to equalize pressure inside the buildings to prevent the glass panes from exploding or imploding



June 29-30 July 1st

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We've turned left and are now heading east towards Yuma and into the searing desert heat. We could see the wall along the Mexican border from the highway.  As we crossed the Coloado river into the city the temperature was 110 degrees. At 6:30 AM we headed for Gila Bend and then south to Ajo, our next destination, arriving at 10:30 AM. We had been advised by many people to leave early and arrive early to avoid the worst heat of the day and that worked well. Our cars' 'air conditioning' consisted of  wet towels draped over our bodies and plenty of water. 



Desert camp for ilegal aliens



 



Saguaro Flowers





Organ Pipe cactus

Temperature in Ajo was 112. In Ajo there is a small refuge for a very rare fish that lives in the desert. Steve and Sheila decided to put the roof up for the next day's travel. Friday morning 6:30AM found us on our way through the town of Why (we think it means "Why live here?") and then into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Among the many beautiful varieties of cacti the Organ Pipe and Saguaro are truly stunning, to make it even better, they are all in bloom right now.



Back onto Hwy 86 east, where we stumbled upon Kitt Peak National Observatory, a 12 mile winding road took us from 2000 to 7000 feet. The 23 observatories are run by several universities as well as the American government. A tour of the 2.1 metre telescope was quite informative. Then down the mountain and off to Tucson for the next two nights.

San Diego June 26 - 28th

Sunday we  spent the day at Cabrillo Point. Lots to see and do there. Great views of San Diego and the naval base. The Military is very big in this city. We toured a historic lighthouse, checked out some tidal pools and then had a picnic lunch overlooking the ocean.

 The hillsides on both sides of the road were filled with thousands of headstones for naval personnel lost in various battles. Fort Rosecrans Cemetery









Dee and Wayne Johnson(NAMGAR members that Steve met on line) invited us to use their garage facilities, and for a home cooked dinner. The guys did a couple of minor things to the cars, and are so jealous of his setup. 5 bays with a pit and all the tools anyone could wish for.

On Monday Linde got her tooth filled after losing her filling on Saturday.Then we met Dee and Wayne in Old Town, where we caught the hop on hop off trolley for a tour of San Diego highlights. A special part of the ride was going over the Coronado Bridge to the peninsula, where we walked around the Hotel Del Coronado. It was built over a hundred years ago and has welcomed many of the rich and famous.

 On Tuesday, we were much surprised to find that the Sea World in San Diego, is not just an aquarium. It is a Disney type theme park that requires a full day to see everything and costs $70 per person. Dolphin, whale, Orca, and seal shows as well as turtle, shark, and penquin encounters. There were also theme rides, restaurants and gift shops. A circular glass rotating elevator took us up a 300 ft. tower for a wonderful view of the bay, harbour and city.Then the Bayside Skyride took us out over a small bay for another view of the city. The highlight ride for Sheila and Richard was the roller coaster that included a dunk in the river and an elevator that lifted the whole car to some thrilling harpin curves and another splashing end. After a very long but great day, we all dragged ourselves home with sore feet and aching backs. Oh, the several aquariums are really spectacular!