DWE #3

It is Day Without Elfrida number 3.  Like us, the house seems sad and unkempt without her cheerful company. 

We have eaten the last of the food she cooked for us.  The kitchen has stopped tidying itself.  Laundry I put in the washer no longer appears folded and stacked just outside my bedroom door.  Dishes I put in the dishwasher no longer restock the cupboards - I must put them back myself.  Things stay just where we put them down.  Surfaces seem slightly duller without her presence.   We are bereft.  

Yet somehow, we must carry on.  I have experienced this feeling before.  I reach back into my past to recall the circumstances.  Yes, I remember now.  It is called Bachelorhood! 

The insights come flooding back!  It means spending time doing things other than having fun, which seems pointless until you realize that it is necessary to acquire and keep a mate.  The enemy is called entropy, which means things get dirty and messy all by themselves unless you spend time cleaning and tidying them. 

Yes!  There are three basic strategies to minimize the impact on Fun time. 

1. Some entropy can be encountered by "tidying as you go" which means expending small increments of time and effort that you probably won't notice missing if you can get in the habit.  This is effective but requires that you learn to do it without thinking.  That takes time and something called "maturity".
2. Some entropy is best countered by letting it build up until it reaches a critical mass.  This is based on the insight that some things are just as much effort to clean when they are slightly dirty as when they are very dirty.  Think laundry.  But effective use of this strategy requires that you budget sufficient time to complete these tasks before the potential mate arrives.  
3. Concealment is often a useful tactic if you have failed to allow enough time to implement the above strategy.  Stash the dirty items out of sight, perhaps spraying the general area with Febreeze so that the dirtiness goes undetected.  (Remember, women usually have better senses of smell than men.)  My personal favourite has been to figure out which bathroom my mate is likely to use, and cleaning it only.  I even marked other one as "out of order" to make sure it wasn't inspected!  But concealment is a risky tactic - if you deception is detected, it might be game over.

Here is the real insight though: even though I am no longer a Bachelor (I am happily married, thank you!) I can still employ the same principles to enjoy the tidy lifestyle to which I have become accustomed.

Perhaps young Ian can learn a thing or two....

Bisbee Queen Mine - Montezuma Pass - Border Road 61

After a night at the Hotel Gadsden with optional heat, dripping faucets, an unsecured wifi network named "linksys" that gets more bars the closer you are to the stuffed mountain lion, and a meal that more or less qualified as breakfast, we headed out to Bisbee, and funky mining town of houses perched on rocky outcrops.  $8bn worth of copper, silver gold & lead was extracted here from the late 1800s through until 1946, when the big mine played out.  The town almost became another ghost town, but for a bunch of hippies from California who liked the climate and free real estate.  This influence is still felt today, to judge by the number of coffee shops, organic food stores and new age services.

After a brief tour of the town, we went to the Queen Mine for a tour.

Entrance to the tour

Visitors don jacket and hard hat with lamp, and ride personnel cart 1500 feet horizontally into the mine, for guided tours by former miners

Afterwards, we headed out for Coronado National Monument to show Ian the Montezuma pass and the views in each direction.  (See earlier post)  Ian did most of the driving, to get some dirt/mountain road experience.

Shortly after leaving the pass, a man stepped out of the bush and tried to flag us down.  Ian wisely kept going.  If it was someone genuinely in distress, the frequent border patrols would find him and give proper aid.  If he was trying to evade the Customs and Border Patrol, well, that could spell robbery, car-jacking or worse.  Some guide books warn about this. 

We turned onto Forest Road 61 a short time later, and I showed Ian the pretty and lonely country along the Mexican border, through Lochiel and Duquesne.  We came across several new items since my earlier trip with Elfrida:

• two manned armored personnel carriers, stationed on local high points
• a newly graded road heading in a straight line towards the border, with a porta-potty every 500 feet for as far as the eye can see, purpose unknown
• nearby, a crew of three civilians erecting an antenna that looks like a metallic miniature palm tree; they are pointing at the blimp permanently moored over distant Fort Huachuca and reading some instrument; they stop and watch us as we pass.
• Several graders; they appear to be widening this road in places (probably a good thing)
• Several new CPB observation posts mounted on cherry-pickers
• A military transport truck carrying fuel, presumably for the armored personnel carriers.  The white pickup truck preceeding it is manned by soldiers in combat fatigues who signal us to pull off the road to let them pass.

We come out at the Patagonia Highway and make our way to Tucumcacori, where we stop at Wisdom's cafe for lunch on the patio.  Then back to Tucson.

Kartchner Caves - Tombstone - Hotel Gadsden

 We all went out for dinner in Catalina on Monday night.  We tried Bubb's Grub (famous for ribs, but closed on Mondays) or Lariats (nicer, but out of business) so we ended up at Mia Tierra, an evidently popular Mexican restaurant in Catalina.

Tuesday was Elfrida's last day, so it was her choice.  We went to Tohono Chul, a desert garden a few miles from our house.  The spring flowers where just starting to bloom.  April is probably the best month, we should come back for sure.

We walked through the garden and the desert trail, and then had lunch in the Tea Room.
After, we when back to the house to finish packing.

Ian stayed to work on his essay, while I drove Elfrida up to PHX.  We took the scenic route up HWY 79 to Florence, then 187/287/387 to meet I-10 about 20 minutes from the airport.  This is a very interesting route although I wouldn't recommend it after dark - cannot see the scenery, and apparently lots of animals on the road.

There is an interesting butte near Hwy 287 that looks like the core of an old volcano.  The nearby town is called Magma.  I think these facts might somehow be related.


Wednesday was a fine sunny morning.  We started our overnight trip into Southeast Arizona.  We took I-10 to scenic Highway 83, through Sonoita, to the Kartchner Cavern State Park.  Most caves lose their humidity when opened to the public, causing the cave to stop growing and the ecology inside to collapse.  This is an amazing living cave complex that took 8 years to prepare for opening; you go through airlocks to control humidity, get misted to suppress lint and dander; can only touch the designated seats and steel handrails, which are cleaned nightly, etc.  See the great story about its discovery at http://azstateparks.com/parks/kaca/history.html

The Big Room

Soda Straw stalactites - some grow sideways for unclear reasons

Next stop was the town of Tombstone, AZ.  Silver created the town; the infamous gunfight at the OK corral kept it alive.

True fact: The place was originally called Goose Flats.  When the miner John Schaiffler told his friend in Bisbee he was going to try prospecting in Goose Flats, his friend told him that the only thing he would ever find there would be his tombstone.  After striking it rich and becoming the big man in boomtown, he renamed it Tombstone.

If he hadn't, would anyone today be interested in the shootout at Goose Flats?

The main street

A grave marker at the Boot Hill cemetery - too good to be true, methinks

After an ice cream and watching a re-enactment of the shootout at the site of the original OK Corral, we headed off to Douglas, AZ for a night in the Hotel Gadsden, once the most opulent hotel between San Francisco and the east coast.

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This photo of Gadsden Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Mt. Lemmon

What to do with a young man who has just escaped to warm and sunny Arizona from the cold grey winter of Ontario?  I know!  Let's have a picnic at the top of a cold snowy mountain!

Actually, the views are stunning and the rock formations interesting.  However, I can now write a short essay on the relative merits of wood vs. stone picnic benches.

The view from Windy Point towards Tucson

Ian strikes a pose

Elfrida synthesizing vitamin D

Just another interesting rock formation

Ian in that thar pose

Snow - who knew?

Catalina State Park

After the Charoleau Gap debacle, we decided to use our newly-cleared calendar to take a hike in the Catalina State Park, which is about 3 miles from our house:

Elfrida and Ian - Pusch Ridge in background

Fording a stream or two

A saguaro cactus of the thrird order.  First order is the central stem only.  Second order has arms.  Third order, the arms have arms.  Does a fourth-order one exist?

Bumper stickers here are often overtly political.  I have no idea what to make of this one.

Charoleau Gap

Note: When a National Parks guide states "This unpaved road is suitable only for 4WD vehicles"  what they really mean is "This god-forsaken dirt track is suitable only for vehicles with winches, oversized tires, oilpan protectors, short wheelbase, steep entry/exit parameters, roll bars and bodywork you no longer care about.  That macho Ford Explorer V8 LTD with the heavy-duty towing package of yours is suitable only as FILLER for some of the potholes you are going to encounter.  Better stick to suburban grocery runs and the ramp at the Granite Club."

My first clue should have been the statement that "the 40 mile round trip from Tucson should take no more than 5 hours."

My second clue should have been the Sign In/Sign Out sheet at the entrance to the canyon.  The authorities want to be able to see if anyone hasn't made it out yet.

The first mile or so is quite doable.  But the road soon starts to show serious ruts and potholes, where you can drop a wheel and bottom out.  Then it starts to have the odd boulder protrude from the dirt.  Then it alternates steep dips with blind hillcrests where you simply cannot see over your hood to know what way the road bends, or what boulder you are about to polish your undercarriage with.

Just when you think you might still be able to master all these if your colleagues walk in front in tell you what to do, it starts to hit you with several at once.  Your colleages agree that 4.5 hours more of this will stop being fun about 5 minutes ago.  Now you must find a place wide enough to allow you to turn around.

Having done so, you now start to climb back up that steep hill with the sharp bend.  You stop to navigate past the boulder with all the rust scrapes on it.  Now, you discover that the Ford is too heavy a vehicle to start from a standing stop on a 30% gravel grade - all 4 wheels start to spin, and the smell of scorched rubber fills the air.  You can't go back down to get a running start - see previous comment re rusty boulder.  Luckily, when your two passengers get out the vehicle is just light enough to start rolling.

Elfrida and Ian catching up.  Note blind crest.

Thirty minutes later, you are back at the sign-in post, trying to think of something face-saving to write in the "Comments" section of the sheet to explains the early exit time.

I wrote "Needs more bumps."

Tucson Rodeo

Saturday was fine february weather - clear blue sky, high 70F. 
The first hour involved events for the kids and teens - smaller humans wrangling smaller quadrupeds. 
Events like "Mutton Bustin" - wrangling sheep.  Or a billy goat is staked to a 20 foot rope.  A six year old rides up, dismounts, flips the billy goat upside down, wraps a rope around at least 3 legs, and stands up in victory.  The billy goat is left to bleat balefully, only slightly traumatized.

Or barrel racing, where the rider guides the horse around three widely-spaced barrels, and then rides like hell towards the finish line.  Beatiful to watch for a skilled rider on a fast horse, finishing in about 20 seconds.  One six year old girl rode a shetland pony which frankly refused to go faster than a stroll, and took 3 minutes and 40 seconds.

But then a lunch break, and into the adult events, with progressively larger and more dangerous animals: steer wrangling, staying on a buncking bronco for 8 seconds, and finally bull-riding.  

In bronco busting, the rider has to stay on a [randomly-drawn, unbroken horse] for 8 seconds, holding on with at most one hand, and then get off safely.  The other riders pen in the bronco, and give the rider somewhere to jump to, to get off. 

Here the bronco loses the rider, and kicks him in the ass for his troubles:

A bronco merely wants to get you off his back; the bull wants to get you off and then make someone pay for the indignity.  Note Kathy's empathic commentary on the audio track...

Chiricahua – Forest Rd 61

Wednesday’s forecast was sunny 60s, so we headed out early (better organized) and took I10 east to Wilcox, to pick up scenic Hwy 183 to Chiricahua National Monument.  Hwy 183 moves through wide-open grasslands bordered by the Chiricahua Mountains, a nest of steep canyons where Cochise and his Apaches held out for years against the U.S. Army. 

Our National Park pass had expired so we bought a new one and drove up to the high point to admire the views over the weathered rock formations:

 

It was a bit nippy with the wind to have our picnic lunch there so we headed back down to the shelter of Bonita Canyon to make lunch on the camp stove.  We were immediately befriended by a Mexican Jay, which has the coloration of a blue jay but otherwise looks and behaves like a crow.  I made the mistake of tossing a bread crumb his way – about a dozen of his buddies materialized looking for their own bounty.  We read up on them later at home.  Apparently the travel in groups, and if one is threatened the other all swarm and harass the threat.  Also, the have a very well-defined range which barely extends into the US in southwest Arizona.

After lunch, we made our way down towards the border through Sunizona, Elfrida, and MacNeal towards Bisbee, where we picked up Hwy 92 through Palominas and Miracle Valley.  Here we went up through Montezuma Pass, east to west this time, and descended down into the Santa Cruz valley.  When we encountered the CPB holding pen (see previous post) we took Forest Road 61, a dirt road through beautiful lonesome countryside that skirts the Mexican border.  We worked to make sure we could clear this area before nightfall, lest we encounter somebody doing something they didn’t want witnessed. 

Javelinas!

The forecast for Tuesday was cool, cloudy with rain likely.  So we stayed home and got several house-related tasks out of the way. 

We put a normal birdfeeder on the other arm of our stand, to attract songbirds.  We have had success on that count – perhaps too much success.  There is such a procession of finches, sparrows, cardinals and even a pair of gila woodpeckers coming to the feeder that there are fights to access it and some of the birds perch on the hummingbird feeder while waiting.  This seems to have intimidated and chased off the hummingbird.

While we were rethinking the issue, the rain began.  The clouds descended until the Catalina mountains were no longer visible.  Then visibility dropped to about 100 feet, and it began to snow!  Big wet snowflakes about the size of nickels and quarters.  We actually got some accumulation, with the desert shrubs behind our house sporting a white coat. 

Eventually, the clouds lifted, showing us the mountains draped in white.  The sun came out for a hour or so, evaporating most of the snow from the ground and most of the way up the mountain.  We went to Home depot to by a second stand, with the idea of moving the songbird feeder to a position some distance from the hummingbird feeder.

We took advantage of the sunny break to put up the second stand, and move the seed feeder.  Kathy had given us a second hummingbird feeder; we thought we would put this on the now empty arm of the original two-armed stand.  Elfrida opened the garden gate, and went outside to hang it.  She noticed a strong smell, and then saw a javelina, staring at her from about six feet away, closer to the safety of the garden gate than Elfrida was! 

Javelinas look like wild pigs but are not – they are actually more closely related to the rhinoceros than to boars.  But they weigh about 50 pounds, are solidly built, have 2-inch canines and will bite if cornered. 

Elfrida beat a hasty retreat and called me.  From our side of the fence, we watched while about eight or nine javelinas moved past us, through the brush in the wash behind our house, over about a ten-minute interval.  Sorry, we were too engaged to think of breaking off to get the camera.

When we thought the coast was clear, Elfrida resumed her attempt to hang the second humming bird feeder.  No sooner had she picked it up, when the hummingbird flashed over to check it out.  It paused, looked up at her once or twice, and then perched on the rim of the feeder to drink from it. 

Snow, javelinas, woodpeckers and another close encounter with a hummingbird – not bad, eh?

Montezuma Pass – Tombstone

It was a nice day today, so we headed off to the Coronado National Monument.  The plan was to dash down the I10 to Vale, take the scenic route to Sonoita, and then down to Montezuma Pass via Forest Road 36.  

After a couple of false starts (we forgot first the map, and then the camp stove) we got onto I10 and then got caught in traffic caused by a road accident.  But we eventually got to the turnoff for scenic Highway 83 to Sonoita through ranch country. 

We hadn’t travelled very far before we came across a police roadblock, where we were diverted into a rest area where half a dozen vehicle were pulled over.  The police didn’t speak to us – nothing happened for about 15 minutes, and then a cortege of vehicles appeared, driving very slowly.  

First, there were a few more police vehicles, lights flashing.  Then came a couple of cherry pickers, presumably to lift telephone lines and other aerial obstructions out of the way.  

Finally, over the hilltop came a tractor unit hauling the biggest damn trailer I have ever seen.  The load was a rectangular shape about 20 feet high, 20 feet wide and about 80 feet long, covered by a tarpaulin.  It rode on a trailer with about 8 axles, each with four pairs of tires.  This thing was so wide it had extension axles bolted onto each end of a standard axle, hence the extra wheels.  And it passed us at about twice walking speed.  

Following it was a flatbed truck with what looked like spare wheels and axles, and another flatbed with wooden chocks & chains.  And then came an industrial tow truck pulling a spare tractor unit.  I presume that these “chase” vehicles were in case any breakdowns threatened to hold up the procession.  

Finally, there were a few more police vehicles and a string of bored northbound drivers, undoubtedly unhappy at following along behind a slow vehicle that took up the entire road width.  

We eventually got back on the road again, and made our way down to Sonoita.  

We continued on Hwy 83 down through wine country(!) to Parker Canyon Lake, a pretty blue patch among the pines.  We then picked up Forest Road 36 towards Montezuma Pass. 

This road is only 10 miles long but it is unpaved washboard and took us almost an hour to navigate the frequent bends and switchbacks.  It climbs through pretty country and offers some stunning view along the way.  

There is one fairly open patch, on which Customs and Border Patrol has erected a pen the size of a football field, with a tall chain link fence topped by barbed wire.  It has four porta-potties, two generators, search lights and few trailers for CBP officials.  We figure it is a holding pen for illegal immigrants caught attempting to cross through this area.  

The views from the top of Montezuma Pass are breathtaking.  There are open vistas both east and west, where you can see for miles on a clear day like the one we had.  The border with Mexico is a visible line across the otherwise open spaces.

Historically, this is the place where Coronado, with a retinue of 340 conquistadors and 700 indian porters first entered what would become known as Arizona.  I’m sure the local tribes don’t feel much like celebrating this.

From there we descended on another unpaved twisty road to the eastern plain, and back onto paved roads.  We stopped for a picnic lunch at a rest area which commemorated the site of the Battle of the Bulls, between the Mormon Battalion (The US funded Mormon refugees beyond its present borders to fight for them against Mexico) and a herd of rampaging bulls they encountered near the San Pedro river.

We needed to be back in Tucson by 5:30 pm.  Our original plan had been to visit the Chiricahua Monument, but the various false starts and delays forced us to cut back our plans.  So we headed up to Sierra Vista and then to Tombstone, where we skipped the usual tourist stuff we’d seen before and headed for an ice cream shop we knew there.  

One more stop for coffee in Benson and then we beetled back to Tucson on the I10 in plenty of time to meet the guy who installed the new dishwasher.  After a couple of setbacks, we have a lovely new Bosch dishwasher in place, hooked up and running.  It is so quiet that if you stand in the middle of the kitchen and listen, you hear the hum of the refrigerator more than that of the dishwasher!