Tombstone - Fall 2008: Day 1

Dear Friends and Family:


Tuzigoot's manufacturer, Tiffin Motor Homes, has an owners club, called the Allegro Club because some of the company's models are named Allegro, like our Allegro Bus. NM has a chapter, the Zia Chapter. One of our members organized an extended weekend rally at the Tombstone Territory RV Park, located about 12 miles from Tombstone, AZ, interestingly enough, and where better to spend Halloween weekend than Tombstone -- Oooooo? Seven rigs, 14 people, came to Tombstone. Six of the rigs were Tiffins; one was an SOB (which we learned meant some other brand), but we're an inclusive group.


But first, I will note that on the way down we lost the cover to Tuzi's hot water heater. Either the latch wasn't secure (I don't recall messing with it, or checking it) or it worked loose on the way. The last time we made a trip to AZ, in Tuzi-one, we lost the hot water heater cover, too. Weird, huh -- Oooooo. Also, inspecting Tuzi's tires, during our overnight stay in Deming, NM, I found some sidewall cracks. Wasn't sure how worried to be about them. More on this later.


The Tucson Territories RV Park is a large park, well set-up for groups and large rigs. Had a nice kitchen and dining/club room that we used. Not too many people there at this time, but we understand it fills up for the winter season. It's fairly remote, 25-30 miles from the nearest grocery store, but has great panoramic views and a very friendly, helpful staff.


First day, 10/29, morning, we went to Kartchner Caverns State Park. This is a very new cave, in the sense that it was just discovered in 1974, purchased by AZ from the Kartchner family in 1988, and opened to the public only in 2003 after considerable construction and stringent design work aimed at preserving this active "wet" cave. For example, we went through four or five air-locks getting from the entrance to the cave itself. This maintains the natural atmosphere. Access is by a tram that takes you from the visitors center to the entrance. Also, nightly they hose down all the paved paths in the cave. There's no food, no picture-taking, no back- or fanny packs, no touching (the cave walls and formations) in the cave. The period from 1974 to '88 was one of secrecy and intrigue -- the discoverers above all wanted secrecy to prevent vandalism of the cave. The first time they took a State Parks official they blindfolded him, drove in circles a while, then to the cave after dark.


One neat thing is that the introductory video you see before entering the cave features the two discoverers. They explain and re-enact some of the discovery scenes. They had previously found a sinkhole partway up the side of a small mountain, thought it might lead to a cave (these guys know caves), but couldn't find an opening. On a later trip to look again, they found that the cave was exhaling -- the distinct odor of bat guano. They dug around, found an opening and eventually worked their way through a small tunnel -- in some places barely allowing head and shoulders through an opening -- some 400 feet into a room filled with formations like the ones in these pictures (copied and pasted from the website).







These are "soda straw" stalactites. The longest is about 20 feet long.



We've often found that the guides at historic and scenic landmarks really make the visits by their knowledge and enthusiasm. That was the case here: an octagenarian couple (I'd guess), he was the guide, she was the trailer, making sure no one transgressed or lagged behind, led and followed our group. He had lots of stories and theories about the chemistry underlying some of the formations. She carried a large flashlight that I suspected she would use on anyone who strayed. One piece of technical information from our guide: What's the difference between a cavern and a cave? A cavern has a gift shop.


One formation new to me was helactites. Couldn't find a picture, but these are small, ribbon-like, gravity-defying formations that grow horizontally and twist and turn in all directions. They look like petrified fungi of some sort. Water flow, mineral content, and air flow are believed to be the factors shaping these formations. Our guide thought that maybe microbes, one-cell living organisms, not just chemical reactions, might contribute to these formations.

(Note: When I say we went to the cave, that’s an editorial we. Susie doesn’t do underground confined spaces so she was one of our group that stayed in camp.)


After the cavern, the group then went to Sierra Vista for lunch and those who wanted to, including us, toured historic Fort Huachuca after lunch.


Fort Huachuca was one of a gaggle of forts strung across the SW in the late 1800s to protect settlers and travelers in the area and to fight the Indian wars. After Geronimo was captured and things settled down, many forts closed, but Huachuca remained active and it was from here that General Pershing led a “Punitive Expedition" into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa, who had attacked Columbus, NM, in 1916 and killed 18 people. Various other missions such as intelligence and electronic warfare have kept Huachuca in business until this very day.


This statue, called The Eyes of the Army, celebrates the Indian scouts who guided the cavalry. You could say that intelligence and communication have been the Fort Huachuca missions for over a century.


Fort Huachuca sits above the desert floor on the flank of the Huachuca Mountains, which gives it a good view of the border country and its climate is not quite as hot as you might think. From various soldier quotes that we read in the Fort’s museum, though, it was not a particularly beloved spot. Mostly, though, they complained about having to do common labor building and maintaining the fort, rather than real soldier duty. Various luminaries served there including Patton and the father of Fiorello LaGuardia, who was the fort’s bandmaster.



The museum has some interesting exhibits and a good video thoroughly describing fort history. The famed Buffalo Soldiers served here in several capacities, as is well-represented at the museum.

A busy, interesting day. Here's a campground sunset.

Next, Day 2.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

Oklahoma! September 2008

Greetings, Family and Friends:

My sister, Verla, turned 50 on September 25, the same day I turned 66. To mark the occasion she put on a dance party in Edmond, OK. We went -- via the Ford Explorer, not Tuzigoot. (We couldn't leave until Friday and the party was Friday night, so there wasn't time to take Tuzi.)

Earlier this year Susie and I had gone to a friend's 66th birthday dinner, which was fetchingly-themed with Route 66 memorabilia, so we adopted that idea and had this birthday cake created for the party. It depicts Highways 50 and 66 (get it?) and is topped off with a couple of buses from my collection.

Here's some of the birthday revelry:

My brother, Lael, flew in on Saturday. He and his wife, Katherine, are preparing to sail from their dock on the Chesapeake Bay to Australia over the next year or two, so it may be a while before he gets to see us again. Pictures and more at their Painted Skies website. Here's a picture of Mom and kids:

We've made several trips to OK in recent years in which we just zipped over and back on I-40. Enough! I said. This time we'll get off the beaten path and see some other country, and some family. So, leaving Edmond on Monday we headed for NW Oklahoma, where both my parents grew up. I rode with Lael in his rental car and Susie followed as we careened across the landscape. Our destination was the farm where my mother and her four sisters were raised. Cousin, Dennis, now farms and maintains the home place and we're grateful to him for preserving the buildings as we remember them from our childhood visits. I drove a tractor for my grandfather the summer between my junior and senior years in HS and have some great memories from that time. Here are pictures from an earlier visit (2003). If you look closely, you'll see that I was wearing a Route 66 t-shirt even then.

After a good visit with Dennis and his son, David, we drove on to nearby Buffalo for lunch and more visiting with two more cousins, Ross and Charlene, and spouses, Marsha and Frank. Ross had given me great directions to the cafe: "It's two blocks north of where the stoplight used to be."

We left Buffalo (school mascot: the bison) in mid-afternoon and drove straight through the OK panhandle and stopped just across the border for the night in Clayton, NM.

Several years ago I bought a book titled Miles from Nowhere: In Search of the American Frontier, by Dayton Duncan. It was published in 1993 and is about US counties that had less than two people per square mile in the 1990 census. I've been recently rereading it. Lots of interesting insight into today's frontierspeople. Anyhow, one of those counties is Cimarron County, OK, the last county in the panhandle and another is the adjacent Union County, NM. Lots of wideopen spaces. I love it. Here's the Union County courthouse and some wideopenness:

Tuesday morning, on the way to Springer, NM, I spotted a sign for the Dorsey Mansion, so I U-turned and we drove 12 miles up a dirt road to see the mansion (a maneuver you can't do in a Tuzigoot). I've read articles about this place in NM magazines and newspapers and thought it would be neat to see. The mansion was built by a Senator Dorsey, close by the Santa Fe Trail, and was quite the place to be in the late 1800s. Here's a picture and some text from the website:

Construction on the rambling 2-story log house began in 1878, with completion in 1880. In about 1884, he began to remodel his home, adding the stone castle structure that included faces of his wife Helen Dorsey, his brother John and himself carved in stone on the castle tower. (Along with a few gargoyles.) Among a few of the amenities of this magnificent house, is an art gallery, billiard room, library, 9 bedrooms, a 60 guest dining room, servant quarters and the first indoor bathroom. (Prior to that, he had a spacious 8 hole outhouse behind the mansion.) But, not to be outdone, the grounds boast an 1800's swimming pool, with 3 islands and a gazebo!

Unfortunately, we found, you have to make reservations for a tour and you can't get close to the building, without ignoring a No Trespassing warning. Rather jarringly, there's a large junk yard on the property, just to the right of these pictures. Out here in the middle of nowhere you wouldn't expect either a mansion or a junkyard.

Here's a windmill and stock tank along the road to the Dorsey Mansion:

We then made our way across the mountainous regions of northern NM -- Eagle Nest, Red River, Taos. From Taos we headed south over what is called the High Road to Taos. Beautiful day, beautiful fall colors. The ancient village of Truchas is a fascinating place on this route. Assorted pictures:

So, lots of family fun and fall foliage packed into five days.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

p.s. I think our front door looks particularly welcoming at night, so here's a home-again picture:

Brass Band Festival

The reason we were in Silverton this particular time of the year was the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band Festival. This was the 27th installment. I attended one of these eight years ago (and neither of us can recall why I was there and Susie wasn't) with the Reinert family and have been wanting to go back, but each year something intervened.


Some history: Before the Festival began there was a Silverton Brass Band. The leader of the band got the idea of inviting other brass musicians (the conductor remarked that in this band there are no instruments that float or burn) to come to Silverton and play along. They recruited Paul Maybery, of McAlester College in MN, to conduct and there are now 45 invited musicians plus one operatic soprano who participate. They all volunteer their time and there's a waiting list to fill openings. The band practices for the first half of the week, then puts on four concerts over the weekend. The concerts are free, but buckets are passed for donations.


I went to the Friday night concert with Dick Reinert. We thought the concert would be too late and long for Jason, so he and Susie stayed in Tuzi and watched the Olympics. We all went to the Saturday noon concert.


The program listed nine numbers. It turned out that the same program was used for all four sessions, but Maybery adds and subtracts numbers to change the performances. Friday night he must have thrown in another nine numbers -- often Sousa marches, but other stuff, too. Scott says they start out with a huge stack of sheet music and they have to be ready for last minute on-stage changes.


The big surprise this year happened in the Saturday noon concert. Maybery decided Friday night that they needed to show they were up with current events. So, he got online, found piano music for the Olympics theme, took a screen shot, somehow ran it through orchestration software to produce the music for all the instruments, then handed it out just before the concert. As far as we could tell, the band got it perfect. Gave you a chill.


The Friday night concert had a lot of variety. Started with a long piece (an overture for you musicologists) by Wagner. Maybery talked about Wagner's music as being complex, but not beautiful ("makes you want to go out and invade Poland"). He quoted Mark Twain: "I have it on good account that Wagner's music is better than it sounds." It finally came to a stirring end. We had "O Danny Boy" and a novelty song about Teddy Roosevelt, the idea being that he was so taken with big game shooting, and so near-sighted, that he started going after farm animals. The band did a medley of H.M.S. Pinafore songs, attributed to Sullivan, only, Maybery said, because Gilbert wrote the words and the band wasn't doing words, so there was no reason to credit Gilbert. Maybery told a story that Sousa had arranged some Gilbert and Sullivan music for a concert in New York. After the concert a man asked him who did the arrangement. "I did," said Sousa. "Well, I knew it wasn't mine," said Arthur Sullivan. "It's better."


One of the evening's highlights for me, surprisingly, was the operatic soprano, Mona Kreitner, who has been singing with the band since 2002. Turns out she just completed a PhD and her thesis was: "A Splendid Group of American Girls: The Women Who Sang with the Sousa Band." Who knew? I was specially moved by the songs she sang because I was at the same time reading my book club's selection, "Bel Canto," by Ann Patchett. It centers around an opera star who has been invited to a South American country to sing at a birthday party for a Japanese businessman who the country's government hopes will build a plant in their country. Patchett writes very movingly and convincingly on the diva, her music, and her effect on all who heard her. I don't know opera, but I was primed to be moved by an operatic soprano and I was. Here's a picture showing soprano and conductor:

I'm not sure about the Cowboy designation in this banner. Overheard some other folks puzzled by it. As you can sort of see from this picture, band members dressed in a variety of ways. There were both Union and Confederate soldiers, and various bowlers, hats, and vests. The Johnny Reb soldier I could see was barefoot.


Back to the program. More numbers I greatly enjoyed included a Sousa arrangement of "Swanee" and related American folk songs, and "In the Mood." A Silverton electrician in the band played the xylophone ("Nola") and tap-danced -- not exactly Sousa-esque music. Things wrapped up with "Nearer My God to Thee," and the grand finale, "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Saturday afternoon I didn't mind hearing some of these songs again and Susie and Jason both enjoyed that day's program, too.

Here's a last shot of Silverton:

That's our RV park in the left center. I should add that the stream in the foreground was a favorite play area for Jason and Vanya Reinert, Scott and Terri's seven-year old son. Many rocks were thrown.

We drove home Sunday, the route to Durango being not as dramatic as the trip in from Ouray. Stopped in Farmington to pick up grandson, Tony Hinkle, who was coming to Albuquerque for his Dad's birthday, and got home in late afternoon.

The plan was to fly Jason home on Wednesday. Our route was through Orlando and we decided, because of hurricane uncertainties, to change plans and fly to Raleigh on Tuesday, via BWI, so that's what we did. I flew back on Wednesday through Orlando with no problem.

So, it was a fine two and a half weeks in Colorado for us all. This was the first time Jason had been away from his parents for an extended time and that went well. I should note that one of his memories will no doubt be swatting flies on our patio on Monday. Killed more than 100, he says, and with his statistical bloodlines (Mom and Dad, not just grandpa), I'm sure that's accurate. Same time next year? Perhaps so. When will Malia join us? Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

Silverton - 2

Silverton is a scenic and fascinating place. Its mining heyday was in the early 1900s. Nowadays tourists and high-mountain enthusiasts provide its livelihood. The narrow-gage RR from Durango brings a lot of people to town in summer months. One shop-keeper (jewelry, I believe) said if it wasn't for foreign visitors, the town would dry up. As an example, another shop proprietor said he recently sold 150 postcards to a lady from France (we bought four).

I've been here several times over the years -- a few times after bicycle-riding from Durango (about 50 miles over a couple of high passes) in the days I did that sort of thing and a few times after backpacking expeditions in similar such days -- and always enjoyed the amenities and atmosphere (what there is: you can buy t-shirts saying "Got Oxygen?") here.

Here are some retired tour vehicles:

Saturday afternoon Jason and I hiked up a road on a mountain across from our RV park to this waterfall splashing down the mountain. The above Silverton pictures were taken from here.

Jason clings to a perilous perch beside the waterfall. Not really risky, though, Mom and Dad.

One more Silverton post to come -- the Brass Band concerts: the reason we were in Silverton. Great music and entertainment! But first, I'm flying Jason home today, returning tomorrow if flights are available.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

Silverton -1

Friday morning. Jason and I took a 4wd tour. Driver, Joe, and his faithful black-lab sidekick, Charlie, took us and a married couple from Memphis on a two-hour round trip to Clear Lake, situated in a high-mountain bowl just above timberline. The tour vehicle was an 85 Suburban, with its top removed, so we could stand up and get the best views.




When we got to the tour office, Joe was trying to alleviate Memphis-Paula's fears that she would die on the mountain, either from lack of oxygen or by rolling down it. He and Memphis-John played good cop (Joe) bad cop (John) successfully and off we went. For the most part she enjoyed the trip. Here are a few pictures:

All bodies of water surrounded by rocks call for rock-skipping and -throwing:

This waterfall flows out of Clear Lake.



One thing we learned: gold and silver mines in the Rockies are generally near the peaks. In contrast, in the California mountains, gold, especially, was found in streams. The difference is due to the age of the mountains. The Rockies are relatively young -- the gold hasn't yet been washed down into the canyons and streams below, while it has in the older CA mountains.

A Silverton slogan is "Experience life as it should be." Our driver fit that mode. He said he moved here a few years ago hoping to buy a tour concession. In the meantime, he started doing contract tour-driving and by doing that found out how much paperwork was required for running a tour business and decided no way. He and Charlie are living the good life just the way it is.

And, so, come to think of it, are we.

Cheers,

Rob, Susie, and Jason

Idaho Springs to Silverton

Going west from Idaho Springs, I-70 climbs to the Eisenhower (and Johnson, a former CO governor and senator) tunnels. The two tunnels are about 1.7 miles long at an average elevation of 11,112 ft. and take you under Loveland Pass, which tops out at 11,992 ft. The tunnels make a good resonator for Tuzi's airhorns, too. As you travel through the Rockies on major highways you can't help but be amazed at the abilities of the explorers, fur-trappers, and miners who first penetrated these mountains, squeezed through the canyons, scaled the passes, survived and thrived. The road-builders are pretty impressive, too.

We stopped for lunch in Frisco, then continued west, over Vail Pass, then through Vail. The lodges, homes, and condos run for miles. Then, just past Vail, no more trees. Kind of a jolt after our previous few days. (Incidentally, bark beetles are really thinning out the CO forests, as they did not long ago in NM. The Winter Park area is particularly hard hit.)

This is new country for me. From Vail Pass it's 150 miles of gentle downhill all the way to Grand Junction. You could put it in neutral and coast. I-70 parallels the CO River, which last we saw at Grand Lake, for much of this distance, most spectacularly in the Glenwood Canyon. Much of I-70 is elevated here, as you see in cities. Here's a website pic.

We spent the night at the GJ KOA, then headed south Thursday morning toward Silverton, 120 miles away. At Montrose we took a side trip to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. That gave us some practice in driving Tuzi up a narrow, steep road, which we would soon put to use. We disconnected the PT and took the scenic drive along the canyon's south rim.

This is an impressive canyon, narrow, steep and deep, as the following pictures show. Maximum depth is nearly 2800 ft.

Here's a website picture:

These aren't

We had lunch in Montrose, then headed south, over the Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, via the Million Dollar Highway. This road is carved into the side of steep mountain slopes, as seen in the following internet picture.

This picture doesn't do the road justice. There are no guard rails because there are no shoulders in which to plant them. And there are probably no good pictures because there's no place to stop and take them. You hug the yellow center-line and try not to glance at the waiting chasm just beyond the outside white line. There was also repaving going on that required us to squeeze up against the side of the mountain for a sizable distance. Anyhow, Tuzi did well, going up the mountain at an acceptable (slow) speed and engine-braking safely down the other side. I did clip a couple of cones that had been set up a bit too far into my lane, but no harm, no foul.

Here's a website picture of Red Mountain.

Got to Silverton in mid-afternoon, got parked and fed, found Dick Reinert who has been here all week, with his son, Scott, who will be playing in the Brass Band concerts. We'll be here three nights.

Gentlemen, start your horns.

Cheers,

Rob and Susie

Winter Park - 2

Tuesday continued fair and fine and we made this our Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park day. Grand Lake, on the west side of the park, is about 45 miles north and east of WP.

First on our schedule of activities was a short hike up a stream that empties into Grand Lake (the largest natural lake in CO). Here's Archer Falls and a group picture at the falls overlook.

And here's Grand Lake itself. Water from here gives rise to the Colorado River.


After lunch in the village of Grand Lake, very scenic, we drove into the National Park and up to the top and Trail Ridge Drive. From the Visitors Center some of us walked on up to a knob that is at 12,000 ft. elevation. Been there. Got the pictures. (Mike and Karen were there, too. Unfortunately, didn't get their pictures.)

On the return we stopped by Lake Irene, lovely, then took an ice cream break in Grand Lake.

Here's a family picture of Valerie, Malia, and Jeff. Focus??

Then it was back to the cabin to cook up our remaining hamburgers and start preparing for departure the next day.
Cheers,

Rob and Susie