John, Bill and Rick on the Queen Mine Tour

Queen Mine Tour

Lora, Colleen and Jo Ann

Bill and Garrett

A Kiss for luck and We're on our Way!

Our mechanic came through for us and had us on the road by 11am.  The trip down to Kartchner Caverns was uneventful and boring…and we were ok with that! The campground was nice with large spaces and a lot of room between the sites.  Bill’s brother, John, and our sister-in-law, Lora, had arrived just a few minutes ahead of us. Bill’s son, Garrett and his fiancée Carrie and Carrie’s mother Ginny showed up just a few minutes behind us.  All present and accounted for we proceeded to pop open the beer and exchange stories of our trips down.  Dinner was “on us” that evening and we were all finished and in bed by 9pm.  Real party animals! We didn’t tell them what was in the chili that Bill made for dinner for fear they wouldn’t eat it. Everyone raved about it and there wasn’t a smidge left.  What was in it, you ask?  Bison and soy protein.  Low fat and yummy. That’s how we do it. Our friends Rick and Colleen came down from Benson (the following day) where they are staying since they are “motor-homeless” right now.

The rest of our time here was spent enjoying each other’s company, taking day trips and touring the caverns.  The caverns were amazing, Bisbee was “cute” but not really a place Bill and I wanted to spend our time.  We did take a tour of a copper mine  called the Queen Mine while we were there which was something different and made for a few good photo ops but, again, not really all that exciting.  We “peeled away” from the others who stayed and enjoyed themselves in Bisbee and headed to Tombstone.  Tombstone had a fabulous museum and we spent a lot of time learning all about the history, the gunfights, the hangings and the brothels.  A Sarsaparilla at Big Nosed Kate’s Saloon, seeing some of the old playbills at the Bird Cage Theater and a visit to Boot hill were the highlights in this extremely “touristy” town.  It was fun and I have a zillion photos to prove it!

The weather has been warm but windy. Too windy.  We are at 4600 feet and the temperature has averaged about 75 degrees. We have to hunt down Rufus’s outdoor water dish every morning even when we fill it with rocks. Were we a bit smarter we would probably just bring it inside.  But it is kind of like hunting for Easter eggs and gives us something to laugh about every morning.  So far we are 3 for 3 and have located it every day!

So, in summation, Kartchner Caverns is beautiful and I am so glad we came here.  We were lucky enough to see both of the caverns.  The Big Room closes on April 16^th each year so that the migratory bats can use it as a nursery.  How they know the date is beyond me but on April 16^th at 5:30am the bats could be seen coming into the campground. I saw them. The Throne Room was very different.  If you can only see one of the caverns I would recommend the Throne Room. When we actually got to the room and they turned on the lights it brought tears to my eyes.  Awesome just isn’t an awesome enough word. The time with Garrett and getting to know Carrie a bit better was worth the drive in itself. We can’t wait to see them again in about a week up at their home in Fountain Hills.  I wish the wind would go blow somewhere else. But not in Tucson as that is where we are headed tomorrow.  John, Lora, Rick and Colleen will be migrating to Tucson with us for a few days.  Then they will peel off to their respective homes. 

We Found Paradise.....

And it was in Yuma! Well, Paradise Casino anyway! We spent our first night in the RV parking area of this very small casino.  Bill helped the local economy by playing poker. We ended up down $5! A good dinner and a good breakfast in the morning and we were off to Gila Bend. That is where we are sitting as I write this.  Our speedometer quit working and our batteries weren't charging as we drove down the road.  We made it here to Holt's Shell Station...a truck stop and small RV Park. Bill thinks it's the alternator...and the mobile mechanic came out to our campsite and removed it this afternoon.  Of course there isn't an alternator for us  here in Gila Bend...so they have sent out for one and hopefully it will be here tomorrow. We hope it will solve our problem as we can't move on until it is solved.  I will try to post a photo of our mechanic if I can pull it off of the internet.  He is a bit of a celebrity or perhaps he is just notorious here in town.

YEP! That's our guy!  A bit of a brawl which resulted in felony assault on a Police Officer which landed both he and his wife in the "big house" courtesy of Arizona's famous Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  Here's a link to the article and I will let you decide who the injured party is.  Bill and I have already formed our own opinion of the whole nasty deal. http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/photoGallery/index/2201745/

 We liked him and hope he can get us up and moving again soon....

So, here we are. We decided to drive through town (1755 friendly people and 5 old grouches so the sign says. Where does our mechanic fit in?) and we found a great spot which would prove to be our first  serious photo op. Who says there's nothing here in Gila Bend?

Keep your fingers crossed that we can head out to Kartchner Caverns tomorrow.  We're meeting up with our son, Garrett, his fiance Carrie and her mom Ginny, Bill's brother John and my sister-in-law Lora and friends Rick and Colleen. We're supposed to make dinner for everyone and we don't want them to go hungry!

Our home for a while....

Older,Wiser,Better......The Disclaimer

The Disclaimer: If you're thinking that this years blog will be better than the one from our last trip, wichmanntrip.blogspot.com , think again.  (notice how I got a plug in for my last blog which I actually turned into a book. I like to think that it means that I am now an "author"...but I have a friend who really IS an author and her books actually sell to people other than herself. Hers also do not have spelling errors and typos like mine. They also don't ramble on and on with compound sentences. I like to think of myself as a "free-wheeling" author but actually I just don't type very well and need a bit of work, many years of advanced education and, well, talent would be of some benefit to become an honest to goodness real "author".  My point should be well made in this rambling compound parenthetical analysis of my abilities to write. But I digress...)  While we  definitely are OLDER, we may even be WISER that doesn't mean that this one will be BETTER! We have fixed the notebook screen (remember the  screen was destroyed last time) so that I now have no excuse for misspellings and rambling sentences as I can SEE what I am typing.  That doesn't mean that they won't still exist...it just means that now I will have no excuse. Not much of a disclaimer is it?

Ok, now with that out of the way we are heading to Yuma, AZ.