NOGALES AND SANDEI 1/26-29/2011

 Arrived at Sandei Jackson's (Wayne's God Parent's daughter) house in the evening of Jan. 26th, parked in her driveway.  We had a combined dinner of soup, salad and bread.  Yummy!   Then we visited late into the night before retiring to our trailer for a night of longed for sleep.
The nights have been getting chilly, down into the 20's.  Not the weather we want for our winter!  But the days are in the 60's and 70's.  That's the place we like!

 The 27th, while Sandei slaved away at work, we went back (We had gone there yesterday for a quick look, but it was late in the day, so we decided to go back.) to the Tumacacori Mission for a more extensive day of looking and touring.  We were very impressed with the history here and how early in the settling of this area the Spanish were involved!  This mission was also established by Father Kino at the same time as the San Xavier Bac Mission.  It is the sister mission to it, but this one has not been kept up and is not used today as a church.  It is a Federal Historical Monument.

We spent most of the day here on a guided tour and wandering around after.

The fruit garden and fountain was a nice restful place.  While there, we decided to purchase an annual National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass so we can see more of these wonderful federal historical places as we travel.  We are not old like Ron and Liz, so we had to pay a lot more that they did.  3 more years and we will be able to get an old geezer one for cheap!

That night we went out to dinner at the Kino Springs Country Club.  It was a very snazzy place with all the right ambiance and the food was wonderful.  This was once the the historic Estancia Yerba Buena Ranch and estate of Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons.  There are few places we recommend as places to visit, but this is one!  In fact, Wayne's brother, who writes for Golf Today Magazine, did an article on this golf course and club in the November 2010 issue.  You can see it at http://golftodaynw.com/november-2010-issue/.  Turn to page 27 for an interesting read on this place.

The next day, Jan 27th, Sandei put on her tour guide hat and took us in her new truck on a tour of her stomping grounds, which included a tour of theVista Grande Ranch, which once belonged to her uncle.

We went to the "wall" on the Mexico/US border.  You can see the small old one and the new one.  The locals say the new one and the stepped up Boarder Patrol is really helping to keep illegal aliens from crossing the border. 

Here we are in Mexico.  We were illegal, as we did not have our passports with us at the time!  Now we can say we have been from Alaska to Mexico during our travels in the last 9 months!

With Ann in the forefront, it gives a little perspective of the size of this wall we erected to protect our citizens from illegals entering our country.

This current border was established by the Gadsden Purchase on December 30, 1853 when the US ambassador to Mexico purchased what is now the lower portion of Arizona and New Mexico for $10 million ($243,629,630 today).  This marker is there to commemorate this trancastion.

The Boarder Patrol at work.

A 200 year old mesquite corral that is still used today on the ranch.

Near a retired silver mine we had our picnic lunch.  Nice, nice, nice!!!

The left overs of the mine.

The Spanish were here a long time before we were.  I used to think that teaching Oregon pioneer history was amazing and so full of interesting stories.  But Arizona has Oregon topped in this area.  The history begins so much further back in history!

A deserted border crossing spot.

The land and its flora is so diverse here.  This is part of a cattle ranch dating back hundreds of years.  This ranch is where the movie Big Country was filmed.  After we got back to Sandei's place, we had a delicious dinner of ham and beans and watched the movie, that Sandei just happened to have that was filmed where we had been that day.

A wonderful time we had with Sandei, but it was time to get on our horse, so on Saturday morning (Jan 29th) we hitched up and headed east on Hwy 82, stopping along the way to explore creeks, little towns and such.

The road was easy and the scenery was magnificent.

We arrived in St. David after turning north on I-80 and pulled in to St. David RV Park for 5 nights of hookups.  When we were sitting on out trailer that night, surrounded by electricity galore and other niceties brought about by being in an RV park with hook ups, we realized that we had gone 10 nights dry docking on our own batteries and water.  We giggled at our enjoyment of "Power".
It has gotten very cold here and it even rained some, so we are happy for full hook ups and electric heaters.

MISSION MINE 1/25/2011

  Tuesday morning, 1/25/2011, we headed out from our casino parking lot in Sahauarita, AZ to tour the Mission Mine, an open pit copper mine, a few miles south of us.  First we spotted the perimeter process of removing the debris from the inside of the open pit mine.

 It looked like these 5 huge cats were having races down the hillside!

But then we were able to figure out that they were fabricating the new desert that they would later plant with desert life to let nature reclaim what man had disturbed.

 Then we got to the museum and the mine headquarters and after a little money exchange, we boarded a bus for a fascinating 90 minute guided tour.

 We were amazed at the 2 1/2 x 2 mile hole in the ground!!

 The dump truck you see below does not look big here, but later we stood next to one and we were amazed, especially when we learned that this one down in the pit is almost twice the size of the one we stood next to!!!!

  Then we got to tour the huge, on site place where they processed the ore and removed the copper.

 The place was huge and smelled like pine because of one of the chemicals they used for the process!

 Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and friendly.

 Inside the plant.

 Here is one of the old tires that came off one of the smaller dump trucks. and two really handsome tourists.

This is the description of the tire.  Each one must be replaced every 3 months and costs $46,000.00 each!!!!  There are six on each truck!

 Ann above next to one of the smaller trucks and our truck next to the same truck below.

It was a fascinating day and then we went back to the Titan 2 museum to finish there.

TITAN II MISSLE MUSEUM 1/24/2011

 On January 23, we went to church and again stayed in the parking lot of the Diamond Desert Casino in Tuscon.  Actually, quiet and actually peaceful.
On the 24th, we broke camp and drove about 15 miles south to the next Diamond Desert Casino and found their parking lot to be even nicer.  After we set up we unhitched the trailer and went to tour the only remaining Titan 2 nuclear warhead launch site in the USA.  This lone, decommissioned missile launch site remains to remind us of the world might we once held prior to many post cold war peace agreements changed us from a stance of "Peace Through Strength" to the stance of trying to be friends with the bad guys.  Oops, my opinions are showing.  Anyway, Wayne had always dreamed of seeing the insides of this piece of history and so we took advantage of being here.
Here, Ann sits in the control room as a retired Air Force Colonel described how things worked here from 1963- 1983.

 Wow!  This is the actual missile that was here to carry a nuclear war head to one of three sites in the world if the button had been pushed.  These giant rockets, were also used to launch several space explores into space.  Powerful they were!  But so small compared to the ones we use today to launch the space shuttle.

 I have only dreamed of being this close to this unit that I studied about, watched on the news and saw in movies as I grew up.

 The blast corridor leading from the control center to the rocket blast silo.

 Suits used by the 4 Air Force crew stationed there if there was a fuel spill.

 After the tour inside, we were taken around on the outside of the site and led to a museum.  It was all very, very fascinating and reminiscent of a past when the world always felt on the brink of disaster.  But due to these big guys, the other guys were afraid to push their launch buttons, thus we were always safe from attack.  "Speak softly, but carry a big stick."  "Bullies only prey on the weak." was the thinking of a time gone by, surrendered to diplomacy, friendship with and trust of the enemy.  It reminds me of the story of the boy that trusted the rattlesnake, that after the boy picked him up and tried to help the snake and was bitten by him replied to the startled boy, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."
Below is the nose cone that housed the nuclear warhead on the top of the rocket.

Wayne has seen on TV and news clips these engines on the bottoms of so many rockets launched.  Wow!  It was amazing to be taught how they worked and then to actually stand next to them!!  They are so much smaller that imagined!

 

We spent most of the day here and then went back the next day, after spending the night at the casino, and spent another couple hours!  Fascinating!

ARIZONA DESERT BEAUTIES

 As we travel this country of ours, we have learned to appreciate different forms of beauty beyond our green Oregon.  The Arizona desert gives us a few plants to admire.  Due to our lack of skill in capturing in photos the intensiveness of our discoveries, these pictures do not begin to capture the "Ohhh!!" and "Ahhh!!" that we express as we see these.  But here are a few of our recent favorites.
A purple cactus!!

 A snakebush???

 New babies bustin' out all over!!

 The standard!!

 "DO NOT TOUCH!!!"