Well you just invite your sister along and spend ten days showing her everything that you normally enjoy at a leisurely pace. For ten days we went Bluegrassing, mud stomping, Clydesdale spying, museum hopping, birding, caving, hiking more birding and even more hiking.

First we took in the Casa Grande Pinal County Bluegrass Festival. Many good bands and lots of parking lot picking. Gary entered the band scramble and his band, “Keeping the Faith,” won first place. Voting is done by noise level, Judy and Holly almost screamed themselves hoarse. The festival was preceded by a very heavy rainstorm, so we had to contend with a lot of mud all weekend. Several of our bluegrass friends showed up and we spent hours picking bluegrass favorites with them.

Next we moved to the Tucson, Arizona area to a state campground called Catalina State Park. We timed it perfectly and found a nice stall to stay in. The park filled to capacity every day. The had miles of hiking trails and two birding walks while we were there. We joined both walks and added 14 new species to our lifetime list of birds. Of course our list is not very long, so it is still easy to find new species.

We spent one day driving Holly’s rental car to Benson AZ, and toured the Kartchner Caverns. These are some of the best caves you will get to see. They work hard at keeping the cave pristine and unspoiled. The groups are small and the guides are excellent. Cost is about $20 and there are two separate tours to take. We took the Rotunda/Throne Room Tour. If you are in the area this is a must see: Don’t go without reservations, however. By the way, they have a nice campground on site. This time of year it was only partially full.

Harris Hawk in Free Fly Demonstration

One day we spent in the Saguaro National Park and the nearby Desert Museum. This is also a “Don’t miss” stop in the Tucson area.

Finally we spent a full day in Sabino Canyon National Recreation Area at the edge of the Tucson metropolitan area. We took the tram up the canyon and hiked the five miles back to the visitor center. The Sabino river was flowing strong so we got lots of practice doffing and donning our shoes to wade through the icy water flowing over the bridges.

Finally on Monday we sent Holly off into the morning rush hour traffic in Phoenix to catch her plane home, and we relocated to Lake Havasu on the California border to attend another bluegrass festival. Oh yes the weatherman is predicting another rain storm just before this festival starts. I hope it is not too heavy, we are camped in a dry wash.

Holly and Judy Fording the Sabino

Bare Feet Across the Sabino River

The tour is an hour and a half long and you walk about a mile. The groups are limited to 25. The caves are beautiful in themselves, but we are biased and think the Oregon Caves are better. Access is easy and the caves have concrete walkways throughout. Entrance fee is only $6 and it is only about 20 miles off I-40. I think we could have gotten Arcturus turned around in there, but you would be more comfortable arriving in you car.

After our spelunking adventure we drove around the corner to the Hole-In-The-Wall visitor center at the Mojave National Preserve. We found there was a mile or so hike that promised some petroglyphs and a climb up the ring loop trail in Banshee Canyon. The canyon itself has towering rock walls that make you feel like an ant. The walls are pock-marked with holes dimpling the surfaces. As you work your way into the blind canyon the walls draw closer and closer until the path becomes a slot canyon and begins to climb sharply. This then becomes a chute carved by the water and is barely wide enough to climb through. In three sections it is so steep and shear that they have drilled in pitons with large rings to haul yourself vertically up through the slot. You must go to the website and see the photos.  One of the photos shows Judy and Ed climbing the rings straight up the chute.

Hole-In-The-Wall has a no frills campground and would make a fine base of operations to visit the area.

After this adventure we were ready for a big meal and a good sleep. Tomorrow we will go east into Arizona and visit Lake Havasu City and London Bridge together.

After peeking at the weather our friends back in the Pacific Northwest are dealing with I am almost hesitant to mention that we enjoyed a day of 65 degrees inside the cavern and out. There was much more sun outside the cavern, however. Just another (ho-hum) perfect day in paradise.

We close with greeting from sunny downtown Needles, California.

Gary and Judy with Ed, Sarah and Jo.

Mitchell Caverns

Petroglyphs Accessable from the Ring Loop Trail

Gary Inspects One of the Many Holes

Ed and Judy Assend the Rings in a Chute in Banshee Canyon

The weather has been very cold and blustery in this part of Texas. On Friday we were subjected to a strong side wind from the right or north side of the coach as we traveled west along I-10 and it managed to get under the awning and billow it out. We stopped in a precarious spot and got a rope around it, and then we drove a mile or so until we found a deep cut-bank to hide from the wind. We looked like we were setting up camp as we unrolled the awning and rolled it up smoothly again. I have a couple pieces of old docking line from the sailboat around the legs of the thing now and it is all done up with sailor knots. “Bad Arcturus! No more sailing!”

We took a rest from driving today and got a nice bicycle ride in. We are now staying in a Texas State Park called Balmorhea. This park includes an artesian spring that flows about a million gallons an hour of crystal clear water that stays 72 degrees year round. They have a huge swimming pool that encompasses the spring and is about 25 feet deep. It is a popular scuba diving destination. The park also includes a cienega or natural wetlands area. Judy and I spent this evening trying to spot some elusive rail birds, but they eluded us. These are birds like the Virginia Rail that walk on the floating vegetation, and according to the ranger come out just at sunset. We observed a wonderful sunset, watched coots and turtles and all of the rare desert spring pup fish. The most amazing display was put on by the red wing black birds, however. Just at sunset we noticed them all stretched out side by side on the power lines by the highway. Suddenly they all took flight at once and started doing aerial acrobatics over our heads. There were probably 200 in the flock and they would wheel and turn as one. The big flock would suddenly wheel in two directions at the same time and suddenly there would be two swooping bands curving and spiraling independently. At times there would be three or four groups then they would swoop back into one big flock and wheel around to the direction of a single leader again. Now and then the flock would swoop low over the rushes and a fair number of the birds would dive straight down into the rushes and there would be a shush of wings as they all came to perch at the same instant. This happened several times until at last the whole flock was hidden in the rushes.

At the advice of the ranger we returned to the pool area just as it was becoming dark. Soon we heard the hoot-hoot-hoot and spotted the silhouette of the resident Great Horned Owl in an oak tree by the pool. The perfect cap for a busy day.

With this blog we welcome a new couple, Arnie and Mem, to our readership. We always enjoy thinking about all of our friends and relatives as we prattle on about our travels. If any of you have grown tired of these, just drop me a line and I will spare you the agony.

Meanwhile we bid you adieu from Texas. Gary and Judy

Judy Reaches out to Point to the Fish's Tail Helictites.

Just prior to moving into Oregon we made a quick, one day trip to Oregon Caves National Monument with our friends Judy and Henry Lahore. We have lived in Oregon since 1974 and we have never made it to this wonderful natural attraction before. Of course being such decrepit old fossils ourselves, we got to tour the cave for free, but the normal price of eight dollars each is really a bargain. There was only the four of us for the two pm tour. Our guide, (his name is Tom,) was so knowledgeable and patient that our personal hour and a half tour stretched out to two hours.

If you come through this corner of Oregon, (Grants Pass and Cave Junction,) you need to take the time to visit. There are some commercial campgrounds in Cave Junction that can handle any size rig, and a couple Forest Service campgrounds along the 20 mile dead end road up to the caves. We made it all the way to the caves in our 34 foot motor home, but I wouldn’t recommend this during peak season. They don’t have a very large parking lot at the end of the road. The grand old lodge, built by the CCC in the 30′s, was just about to open when we were there.

I will place a couple of our cave photos on the web site, but these do no justice to the natural beauty of the caves and you get none of the sound effects of the rushing and dripping water.

Time to send this along, so we will close with love for all.

Gary and Judy

Flowstone with Stalagtites, Stalagmites and Columns

Paradise Room in Oregon Caves

This mine has everything. A Glory Hole, a 3,000 foot deep mine shaft half full of water, tumbledown buildings, cyanide laced tailings, rattlesnakes, scorpions, ghosts and a hanging tree. Apparently the mine closed at the beginning of World War II. Everyone just walked away from the mine and the buildings were just left to tumble down. The big equipment has mostly been stripped out, but the cookhouse still has a huge wood or coal fired stove in it. The five door ice box stands open and dishes are drying on the drain board. The Assay office reminded us of the lab at Boise Cascade in St. Helens. There were pipettes, burettes and crucibles scattered about the work benches. This building is built from some of the same rock that was mined, and is rumored to contain near a million dollars worth of gold and silver. The mine produced over $200 million in gold and silver before it was shut down in 1942. They estimate there are two or three times that much left in the mine. Anyone want to buy a gold mine, I hear tell it is for sale. Some of the buildings at the mine were built in 1884, but they don’t look a day over a hundred years old. We cautiously ventured into some of the buildings, but often the rafters were sagging and the floor boards were loose or missing. There is a huge ironwood tree in front of the ruins of Henry Wickenburg’s house. This is the infamous hanging tree where eighteen men were rumored to have been hung for “high-grading ore.” Apparently the owners didn’t take kindly to the workers helping their selves to the good stuff.

The Glory Hole deserves some special comments. This was a cavernous mine, apparently hand dug. It was mostly a large room and the original miners left large central columns to support the roof. In later years seven men and their mules were in the Glory Hole chipping away at the high grade ore that made up the columns. They calculated a little too close and the whole shebang caved in on them. Their bones are still under the rubble with their mules.

One has to speculate, are the ghosts from the eighteen hanged men or the seven foolish miners and their mules? We didn’t stick around after sundown to check out this part of the mine ledgends.

This site is also used for filming movies of the old west and occasionally for centerfold photo shoots. If you go to our website you will see our version of a centerfold. www.dinsmore-enterprises.com/20060110.html

From Arizona we all send our love and greetings – Peggy, Ray, Judy and Gary.

Our Pinup in the Bunkhouse

Sourdough Prospectors Strike a Pose at Vulture Mine.

We have done several nifty things like walking over from Larado Texas to Nuevo Larado Mexico for a two hour visit. This was our second visit to Old Mexico. The first time was a 15 minute bike ride across the border from Arizona at Naco Mexico. We were not very impressed on the first visit. Our second visit did nothing to improve our opinion of Mexican border towns. The walk over was easy and took five minutes. The border guards motioned us right through. The return trip was another matter. We stood in line for 45 minutes. There was no hastle, we had our passports. It was just that there were thousands of people walking across the same bridge all at the same time.

The most impressive visit we made was to Seminole Canyon State Park near Del Rio Texas. This is part of the Big Bend Country. The feature of this park is the cave paintings by aboriginal peoples as far back as 4,000 years ago. You must walk down in this narrow canyon, guided by a tour guide. The caves are high on the canyon wall, and the paintings are all along the back of the caves. The sad thing is the paintings have weathered poorly during the last 100 years. As the surface of the rock spalls off, the paintings are lost forever. The setting was serene and we felt like we could connect back through the years to those people, hunter-gatherers, as they eked out a living in this harsh environment.

Photos are below.

This is the end of our first calendar year of Full Timing. I thought I would include a few statistics from the year. It’s the Engineer factor, you understand.

Distance driven in 2005 – 18,738 miles.
Fuel purchased in 2005 – 2,253.715 gallons.
Average cost of fuel in 2005 – $2.72 per gallon.
Average economy in 2005 – 8.31 MPG
Average cost for camping – $12.63 per night
Number of times we moved – 170 times.
Average distance each time – 108 miles
Number of times I filled the water tank – 88 times
Amount of water into water tank – 2,706 gallons
Distance we bicycled in 2005 – 1,318 miles

Don’t you feel sorry for Judy, being married to an Engineer.

General interest information for those of you contemplating Full Timing. Our grocery bill is very similar to our costs before we retired $5,700 vs $5,200. Heating expense is lower, $395 vs $1,567; this is for gas and electric. Insurance is higher $14,400 vs $4,300. The RV insurance is three times Home Owners, but medical insurance is out of sight. The medical, however, would be the same on the road or sitting in Scappoose. Total transportation costs are higher, $9,000 compared to 2,000. That includes all licencing, fuel and service. Note that two tires for the Honda cost $117: Two new tires for Arcturus cost $918. In all fairness those tires should last five years. Our tax burden is only a third of previous figures, and again that would be the same on the road or sitting in Scappoose.

All in all, you can Full Time in an RV without breaking the budget. The RV cost and upkeep is similar to a home. You don’t have to drive 20,000 miles a year. Many people travel to and from their winter camp and simply stay put. We are just not there yet.

We are off to a New Years party here at the Escapee’s park. We wish everyone a Happy New Year.

Love to all, Gary and Judy

Fate Bell Cave at Seminole Canyon State Park, Texas

4000 Year Old Cave Paintings in Seminole Canyon Texas