Casa Grande, Arizona – Week 1

We have been here in Casa Grande for a little over a week.  For the most part the weather has been pleasant with clear skies, not much wind and warm enough to keep water aerobics from being cancelled.  This is our second visit to Desert Shadows; we spent last Thanksgiving here as well and enjoyed the visit enough to plan an encore this year.

Our friends, Galen and Betty Jo, are here as well and last Friday we made a day trip to Florence.  They hadn’t toured the Pinal County Historical Museum so we made that our first stop.  This little museum has become one of our favorite places to visit, thanks to the historian/docent who has an endless supply of stories about the wonderful array of characters who’ve passed through Florence over the decades.  Every city has an industry for which it is noted – Florence’s claim to fame is Incarceration.  It’s home to two state penitentiaries, several privately-owned prisons and a number of specialized facilities, including one for juvenile offenders.  The first prison was built to relieve crowding at the territorial prison in Yuma and so the museum features many artifacts from those days, including the gallows trap door and a two-seater chair for the gas chamber which eventually replaced the hanging tree. 

Florence was once a well-heeled mining town and the museum has fine examples of some of the more upscale accoutrements of a by-gone era.  The Western movie hero, Tom Mix,  was killed in a car accident not far from Florence so one exhibit features photos and mementos of his presence in Florence which he visited on a regular basis.  Gene Autry was another movie cowboy to spend time in the area visiting friends who owned ranches nearby.

After a thorough examination of the museum’s displays, we walked around the historic downtown.  The visitors center was in the process of vacating the two-story brick building known as the Conrad Brunenkant City Bakery (built in 1889) and moving to the first Pinal County Courthouse; it’s also known as McFarland State Historic Park but was closed shortly after being renovated due to state budget shortages.  It’s great that the city will be able to make use of this wonderful old building, which dates from the late 1870s.

Another interesting structure on the walking tour is the Silver King Hotel, once the social center of the city and considered the height of elegance at the time.  It now houses a restaurant and several small shops, including one that sells what must be the most expensive fudge in the state. 

One of our favorite stories has to do with the second Pinal County Courthouse, built in 1891 and now undergoing renovations.  It looks pretty much like every other government building of that era but what makes it special is its clock tower.  The county went over budget in constructing the courthouse and didn’t have funds left for the internal workings of a clock.  So the hands were painted on and it is forever 11:44 in Florence, no matter what time you get there.

Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be a disappointment.  We recalled having a delicious ample dinner last year at a pretty modest price.  This year the meal was mediocre at best, cost $2 more than last year and seconds were not allowed.  Each family was asked to bring a salad or dessert, most of which went uneaten.  Rumor has it that turkey sandwiches will be served on Black Friday for $4 per person….using turkey we’ve already paid for.  We won’t be participating and we’ll likely find somewhere else to spend next Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile, we have a lot of confetti salad left over.

We have a little less than a week left in Casa Grande before moving up to Apache Junction to hibernate for the winter.  There are a couple of other attractions  we’d like to visit before leaving but it remains to be seen if we can get organized enough to accomplish much.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Tucson, Arizona

As we wind down for the winter hibernation, our touring dwindles to a much slower pace so by the time we arrived in Tucson we were all but marching in place.  This was our third visit to Tucson so we’d already seen the major attractions.  Given our faulty memories, we could have revisited them and been impressed all over again!  But we didn’t.  Our campground, Rincon Country West, had so many activities that we stuck pretty close to home for the entire week we were in Tucson.  Everyone we met was extremely friendly and welcoming.

On Veterans Day the resort had a “tea dance” from 4:00 to 6:oo and we took advantage of the nice big dance floor.  It doesn’t take more than a song or two to show us how out of shape we are.  Our tablemates, who spend their summers at 7000 feet in Colorado, had a good laugh over us trying to blame our breathlessness on the altitude in Tucson.  They weren’t buying it.

Intrigued by the idea of a “beading group”, I ventured to attend a session on Monday morning in the pottery room.  A delightful group of ladies were working on various projects and it soon became evident that their emphasis is actually on making beads, not just stringing or weaving them.  Which explains why they meet in the pottery room.  I’m so jealous that they all will be attending the big bead and gem show in February.

Our lone attempt at touring was to revisit Mission San Xavier del Bac,  known as The White Dove of the Desert.   The mission was established in 1692 by Father Kino and the structure completed in 1783.  As you might imagine, it has undergone many restorations over the centuries and is still being worked on as funds become available.   On our first visit in 2005, the building was partially obscured by scaffolding on one bell tower.  The results of that work are obvious in the photo.

The mission is on land which is part of the Tohono O’odham reservation.  Originally known as Papagos, the tribe is thought to be related to the Pimas, both descendants of the ancient Hohokam peoples who inhabited the Sonoran Desert for centuries. 

And now it’s on to Casa Grande for two weeks before heading to Apache Junction for the winter months.  We are looking forward to seeing many old friends in The Valley of the Sun.

Camp Verde, Arizona

We beat a hasty retreat from Bullhead City on Thursday, hoping to make the long steep climb to Kingman before the day became too warm. We needn’t have worried – it just never got very hot. By the time we got to Flagstaff we began to see snow on the mountain peaks and plenty of autumn color on the trees.

Although we’ve made many visits to Camp Verde, we had never taken the Verde Canyon Railroad into the otherwise inaccessible Verde River Canyon. This time we decided to loosen our grip on the budget and take the trip to enjoy the fall colors. The trip begins in Clarkdale, where we were once again introduced to Senator William A. Clark, the Butte copper baron we first “met” in Beatty, NV. And, yes, Clarkdale was named for him. He purchased the copper mine part-way up the mountain in Jerome and established the railroad to transport the ore north to meet the Santa Fe Railroad 38 miles away at Drake.

The weather was absolutely perfect for the trip and we spent the entire four-hour excursion in an open car rather than in the Pullman car. The tracks follow the Verde River, very calm and placid at the moment, but capable of turning into a torrent given enough snow melt near Flagstaff or summer monsoons upstream. We could see the damage done to trees by a recent flash flood.

For those who have done leaf-peeping in New England, the foliage colors in Arizona would be a disappointment, tending mostly to the golds of cottonwoods and sycamores, along with some amber and browns of smaller trees and bushes. But none of the oranges and reds you’d see with hardwoods.

Wildlife was in short supply except for a redtail hawk and what might have been a golden eagle. We did see a bald eagle nest on the red cliffs but it’s not quite the season for them to be nesting and last season’s fledges would already have flown the coop. The train was held up twice along the way by cows wandering along the tracks. Visible from the tracks is a cliff dwelling, once home to a pre-Colombian people now called Sinaqua by anthropologists. They lived in the area around 1100 A.D. It isn’t known what they called themselves so modern scientists have dubbed them Sin (without) Agua (water). The blackened ceiling of the cave can be seen from the train.

As we passed along the (mostly) red cliffs, the guides pointed out a number of rock formations which have acquired names. I suspect they were named by various guides over the years to keep the passengers amused. Not only do you need a very active imagination to “see” some of these forms but additional assistance might be required – say a few hours too long in the hot sun without a hat, some recreational drugs or a sharp rap to the temple with a blunt object. The named rocks are pictured here in their very own album.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we met fellow Fulltimers, Pat and Ed, for lunch inhistoric Old Town Cottonwood, preceded by the ladies checking out two local craft fairs. We’re hoping to see Pat and Ed again at a rally in December somewhere in the Phoenix area.

A mad dash to Sedona capped off our short stay in Camp Verde. Being Monday, of course we had to drop by a Beall’s Outlet for a senior discount on our purchases. We didn’t “find a dot, save a lot” but I did get two pairs of casual knit pants. The Goodwill is in the same plaza so we stopped in for a snoop through the book section. And then a bit further down the road we stopped in at a fabulous bead shop called The Bead Garden where I found the daisy spacers I needed and a bunch of other stuff that couldn’t be resisted. The bead stash has reached epic portions.

Next week’s report will be from Tucson where we hope it will be somewhat warmer and a little less windy.

Bullhead City, Arizona

We arrived here in Bullhead City last Thursday after a short but boring drive down from Pahrump. The weather has been very nice, warm and sunny but with a more or less constant breeze to keep things from being unpleasant. Our initial assumption was that Bullhead City was named for the bottom-feeder of the same name, given the city’s location on the banks of the Colorado River. Not so, we’ve since learned. The town was named for a large rock (or a small island) just north of Davis Dam, now submerged in what became Lake Mohave. Right across the river is the town of Laughlin, Nevada, home to a number of casinos and the famous Don Laughlin collection of classic cars.

It seems that Bullhead City, at least, caters to an older crowd with plenty of 55+ gated communities, senior citizen discounts, and doctors practicing geriatric medicine. And just about every franchise known to mankind.

From our campground, we have a lovely view of the bright lights of Laughlin. And, like Pahrump, the sunsets here can be nothing short of spectacular. And here’s the proof.

One of the “things to do” from this location is to pay a visit to Oatman, a gold mining town turned tourist trap. We toured it on our first visit and won’t be returning this time. It sits on a portion of old Route 66 which has all but disappeared. The town is home to a herd of burros who wander about, stopping traffic and mooching treats from shop owners and tourists alike. Before you even get out of your car, they know who’s packing carrots and who isn’t!

Another of the “must do” side trips from Bullhead City is a visit to Hoover Dam and the recently opened Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge across the Colorado River. I’m not fond of bridges or dams so I opted to stay at home with the new vacuum cleaner and practice housework. With trusty camera in hand, Howie drove off to explore both structural wonders at his leisure. The bridge is open to foot traffic so naturally he had to hoof it across; but he did admit to feeling a bit queazy when peering down into the current of the river far below.

One of the more interesting facts about the bridge is that construction was commenced on both shorelines simultaneously and the workers met in the middle where the two halves were within 3/8ths of an inch of each other, considerably better than the tolerance built into the plan.

As for Hoover Dam (formerly Boulder Dam), the statistics are mind-boggling, especially when you realize a government project was actually completed two years ahead of schedule and significantly under budget. And the sale of electricity has paid for the dam, with interest, and continues to pay for its maintenance. Lake Mead, the reservoir which forms behind Hoover Dam, is America’s largest man-made lake with 550 miles of shoreline and containing (shudder) 9. 2 trillion gallons of water.

If you are sufficiently interested in learning more about the bridge, you can check the Article that appeared in the October 17th issue of Parade Magazine. A link in that article leads to a Slideshow that tracks the bridge’s construction. (11/14/10 - just found another slideshow with some eye-popping photos)

Stay turned for next week’s report from another location here in Arizona. And let’s keep our fingers crossed that Flagstaff isn’t enjoying winter weather just yet.