Springtime in Alaska and a new endeavor

 

Well, it has been awhile.

 

I have been busy, lazy, but mostly lazy.

 

Trying to replace this blog with a video blog on you tube

 

my latest endeavor

 

If you want to follow along or occasionally check it out go you

 

youtube.com then search for

 

Alaskan_Gypsy

 

 (don't forget the underline between the words)

 

You can see the video mentioned above and others as I make them.

 

Both of family and traveling. I'm very new at this so hopefully i'll get better

 

and they'll be more enjoyable to watch.

 

Last summer I spent a great time watching the girls in Montana

 

then they asked me to spend the winter

 

so I got an apartment and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity.

 

 They had gotten a building so I spent 6 months at 40+ hours a week helping remodel it into a store which opened in December

 

Then I came home in January to hang out with family.

 

I've had a great time but now to go back in a couple of days

 

 to hang out for the summer with the kids in Montana.

 

Since my lease on the apartment is still active I have the option of staying in it

 

or de-winterizing the RV

 

After the summer I'll take the RV and hit the road for awhile.

 

like I said you can follow along on youtube (Alaskan_Gypsy) if you'd like

Off road, on road, and ,,,,,,,,,,fun in the sun

 

Once again it's been awhile.

Since I've been playing in the Southwest I figured this was not only a really cool picture but representative as well.

 

I spent Dec and Jan in Alaska enjoying daughters and two special birthdays. December 21 Imogin turned a big ol 1 and Jan 20 Ruby turned 3. Then down to Montana where Taylor turned 5 and back to Arizona where the RV & Jeep was waiting.

I met a father (Bill) and son (Nick) who are fellow travelers from Washington that have a Jeep and enjoying going out and playing as much as I do.

The good thing about off-roading with friends besides safety is that you can get more radical than you might being alone. Afterall you have someone to laugh at you when you do something really dumb, and winch you out when that really dumb gets really really dumb. (good thing we both have winches LOL)

Our first adventure was west from Catalina across the Rail-X Ranch. It started out easy enough but then got challenging then ,,,,

even more so. At least me rear axle thought so. Seems it sheared off the retaining pin at the Spring Perch allowing the axle to slide back 6" or so. A couple hours lying in the dirt later we got it together enough to get back and to the shop. Several hundred dollars later it's as good as used. LOL But I got to appreciate first hand the benefits of playing with friends.

After traveling several miles over some rough 4 wheel road we found this trailer. Though heavily vandalized the site was level with a rock wall around a patio area in the front. The issue was of the two roads one was a definite 4 wheel low crawl and the other was worse. How did they get that here?

 

One week it rained for a couple of days and just like a kid we had to go play. Some places were slippery, some places, wet,

 

but all places were muddy.

 

We tried a lot of areas around Tucson and Catalina. Found, usually by accident, some really interesting places. You know those "oh oh ohhhh crap" moments then a big sigh a nervous laugh and "that was fun lets do it again"

 

See where the road goes over the edge? Well it made a sudden left turn and a significant downslope. I was standing on the brakes and sliding, turning sideways, to bounce into the wash, the Jeep tilting like it was going to roll. Ok, that was fun but there was no going out that way so we drove the wash for maybe 1/4 mile and found a place to try and exit it.

 

the exit. Bill and Nick slid a lot and spun the tires. I, on the other hand, slid cross ways on those rocks and fell into that cut. The end result my right front wheel was 3 feet in the air and when I opened the door it was 6 feet to the ground. I couldn't try forward because if I slid anymore I'd roll over and couldn't back out for pretty much the same reason. So Nick grabbed my winch and went up the hill and anchored to their Jeep and we winched it out. My second opportunity to appreciate off-roading with friends. LOL

 

Sunsets are always beautiful in the Southwest and not always requiring the sun to be in them.

 

We were running shy on places to go near the RV's. Bill and Nick hasn't seen much so we decided to go south on our last excursion before heading to the mine up in Salome.

In Patagonia we stopped at the Stage Stop Inn for brunch. Since I used to live there we of course had to see the old house and other old haunts.

There use to be a restaurant called The Home Plate that we always ate at. That building was now the Patagonia Ovens and to my surprise my lunch receipt said The Home Plate. The food was good and surprisingly inexpensive. Our waitress was an old classmate of Jessica's which was nice.

Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, and Fay Dunaway was shooting Arizona Dream and the girls met them here getting an autographed Edward Scissorhands photo from Depp.

 

 

We headed south of Patagonia into Harshaw valley rather than San Rafael where all the movies are shot. Found out a new Silver mine was opening up outside of the ghost town of Duquesne. As a result some rough roads and abandoned buildings and mine equipment were no longer available.

 

The US / Mexico fence It's made of railroad track rails welded together and sank into the ground. Quite formidable.

As we got closer to Lochiel (an abandoned border crossing with ranch's and a couple of families living on both sides) the Border patrol had added the steel mesh wire. Notice the tires making the fence for a corral on the Mexican side.

Lochiel School. The red building on the right was the school the other was the teacherage.

 

It was a work in progress. But some nice memories. The girls and I lived on a ranch nearby and I cam this way over the mountain to work most days while they went the other way to Patagonia and school.

 

 

My 6 weeks in Arizona this time was full of interesting things.

Off-roading was a major thing especially since I had some friends to enjoy it with. This allowed them and I both to get out and have more fun by going places and trying things that otherwise we would not have.

I took a week and went down to Douglas (where I finished High School). While there I took a ride that I had always wanted to but never had. From Douglas, along the border to Cloverdale then up to Animas, Rodeo, and back.

While here that may just sound like a fun trip as there were some amazing terrain I crossed. At one spot was a monument for The Mormon Battalion I had heard about but never read much on due to laziness.

In 1846 Col. Cooke was assigned command of 550 volunteers and their families to carve a Southern road from the Council Bluffs Iowa to San Diego California. This was the only religious based battalion in the Army and came about because the Mormons had just been chased out of Illinois and approached the govt. for help relocating west.

The arrangement was that they would volunteer and via that service be moved west thus the families were along for the mission to carve out the Southern Route.

When the reached a point on the East end of Sycamore Canyon they were facing grades of over 50% downgrade up to vertical. They disassembled their wagons placing all their food etc. on mules and lowered the wagons by rope, reassembling them and moving on.

 

I've had fun visiting and exploring and will be leaving in a couple of days to the mining claim near Salome in the Harquala Mountains for some pretending mining and serious off-roading.

 

 

Bill & Nick waving goodbye. 8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Headed for store, 300 miles later got back home.

I got up Saturday and decided it was time I stop lollygagging around and get some work done.

Yes, its true, I live in an RV when traveling but today I wanted to do some stuff on the Jeep, oh and my ol favorite, laundry, and a project on the RV.

So, another quick breakfast at Claire's (not my fault Ashleigh she has good coffee) and then down the road to the store to get the wood for the project.

 

And being a newly reformed lollygagger I have learned not to enter the air conditioning of the RV when its 80 outside because then I tend to stay in there.

So, I needed to remember to extend the awning so that during those 15 min breaks (not length but frequency) from not lollygagging (my new word) I would have some shade to rest in with my ice cold water or that 1/2 tea and 1/2 lemonade stuff I like (still not my fault Ashleigh, at least its from the RV and not Claire's)

 

Suddenly I found myself 50 miles South at the San Xavier Mission.

The mission is an operating church located on the San Xavier Indian Reservation South of Tucson.

it was founded as a Catholic Mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692.

 

Construction of current church began in 1783 and completed in 1797

During this time Southern Arizona was a part of New Spain.

 

In 1783, Franciscan missionary Fr. Juan Bautista Velderrain was able to begin construction on the present structure using money borrowed from a Sonoran rancher. He hired an architect, Ignacio Gaona, and a large workforce of O'odham to create the present church.

Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Xavier became part of Mexico.

The last resident Franciscan of the 19th Century departed in 1837.

With the Gadsden Purchase of 1854, the Mission joined the United States.

In 1859 San Xavier became part of the Diocese of Santa Fe. 

In 1866 Tucson became an incipient diocese and regular services were held at the Mission once again. Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet opened a school at the Mission in 1872. Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity now teach at the school and reside in the convent.

 

It takes approximately 50 years for every branch on a Saguaro so this one is a kid as well as a Cactus not and Agave. And those dang Cholla's (Jumping Cactus remember to always have a comb in the desert)

 

 

In Cactus years this one would be an old fart like me in human years

Some knowledgeable people say that some Saguaro's are older than the redwoods. But I, personally, wouldn't know. I'm not that old.

 

Some more Prickly Pear and Cholla's

 

Here is a towable post for Border Patrol watching our Borders. Fitted with dark windows so you cant see/shoot them, multiple cameras and sensors, and the mandatory air conditioning.

Towable to a spot near the action. Wanna bet there's a microwave?

 

On the way to my next stop along Father Kino's Missionary work (in reverse order) we come to the Carmen Store.

When I got transferred to the Nogales Border Station we had no place to live and being I was a recent employee of the National Park Service at the Grand Canyon I made an arrangement with the Chief Ranger at the Tumacacori Mission site to let us live there even though I no longer worked for NPS

Jessica had a Cruiseair Scooter and she would drive, Amanda on the rear and Ashleigh would stand on the floor in front of Jessica. They would go everywhere on that thing especially here to the Carmen Store ( 4 miles) where we had an account. Some weeks that bill was big, it would have stuff like milk, bread, movies, candy, movies, candy ,,,,,,,,

One day they hit a rock and all went flying. Ashleigh got a broken nose which they tried to hide from me so I wouldn't take the scooter away.

 

The Mission San Cayetano de Tumacacori was built along the banks of the Santa Cruz River. Another in a long list of Father Kino's missions

 

 

The unrestored inside of the mission

 

 

 

Father Kino was never a resident priest at Tumacacori but crisscrossed the Pimeria Alta for 24 years establishing missions, trade routes,and mapping the area for New Spain.

 

 

In 1828 Mexico decreed that all Spanish-born residents were to leave the country.

Tumacacori lost it's last resident Priest. Scaffolding still clung to the bell tower. The NPS has no plans to restore Tumacacori but maintains it as is. (or as it was then)

 

 

As I mentioned the girls and I lived onsite for awhile when they were small. Here is our adobe house with the covered front area.

 

 

Ha ha, just joshin ya. Here's our house on the Mission Grounds. Those walls were 30 inches thick, once you got them hot or cold they stayed that way but it took a long time to get them there.

It was a two bedroom and had a big fireplace. It also had a big cooler which blew directly onto the electric stove in the kitchen which made cooking take forever.

 

 

Jessica had her own room and Amanda and Ashleigh shared one. Mine was the added on room that was used to dry red peppers before we moved there.

I had a heated water bed so it wasn't to bad. Many a cold morning I would awake to three girls in my bed because it was heated thus warmer.

Amanda and Jessica went to school earlier and a different direction than Ashleigh's pre-school.

So Ashleigh was to go to the neighbors and wait to get on her bus with their son.

More than I care to admit I would receive a call that Ashleigh didn't show up at the neighbors nor get on the bus. I would call home and Ashleigh would say she didn't feel good and chose not to go to school so I would have to take the day off and go home where she would be playing and having a ball.

There were some girls from a neighboring church trying to befriend the girls. They came over one day to take them somewhere and knocked down the basketball pole. Not a way to start a budding friendship at our house.

I taught Jessica to drive at a young age because being a single parent you never knew when she would need to drive.

One day I was coming home and had a flat on the Corvette I had. I hitchhiked home and got Jessica and the big red station wagon that was the family trickster.

We drove down and changed the tire (I needed a lug wrench or something I didn't have in the vette) when I was finished Jessica was standing there knowing she was driving the family trickster home but her face had "say Vette, pahlease say Vette) so I told her we needed to stop at a station to get gas and then tossed the keys and said you drive the vette but follow me.

She was in that car and ready to go (even took the tops off) before I could walk back to the ol red trickster.

We pulled into the gas sation that had 4 islands and Jessica pulled to a pump way over there no where near me. The guy getting gas near me said hey look at that kid driving the Corvette. She looks like she's only 12. I casually said yep she is as I walked away inside to pay for both cars.

Jessica went to her first ever concert while we lived here. I surprised he with two tickets to see Cher (her hero fo sho) I said that she could go with whomever she wanted cause I didn't want to go. She chose her friend the neighbor lady who conveniently said her car was broke and Jessica suggested they take the Vette.

I watched a this lady was driving away with my oldest kid and favorite car. But as for birthdays that one ranked pretty high for her.

 

Amanda's best friend lived next to the Mission Grounds. Her Dad had inherited Crayola Crayons and was such a nut case the company paid him to stay away. He made me sign a release of liability before Amanda could come over there to play.

 

And Ashleigh, well she learned early on that staying home sick from pre-school was a lot more fun than going. 8)

 

When the girls weren't riding around on the scooter or watching them shoot movies on the grounds.

(

The movie Young Guns II comes to mind. There was a guy in it all the girls were gaga over. They were in there with our video (VCR days) camera and was told they could watch but not film. So Jessica left it on and just carried it around with her arm hanging down.)

 

The girls would hang out at this tortilla stand and get free corn tortillas and beans all day.

When I stopped by I was telling the lady about it and she said you must mean Gloria. I said I didn't know her name but she sure liked the girls. Gloria had been doing it for 30 years I was told and still comes in occasionally to do so at 85. the lady called her and she was so excited She remembers he favorite mejas and said to kiss them and tell them Hi.

So, Jessica, Amanda, and Ashleigh xoxoxoxox from Gloria. And she gave me a tortilla for you guys but I ate it.

 

 

.

 

This was a fun day.

I left here and went to Patagonia where we lived after Tumacacori

 

 

This is where I went to Fire training, EMT training and worked as a Deputy/EMT as a Reserve (unpaid) Officer since I had my real job at the Border Station in Nogales.

 

While visiting an old friend here (Carl Bowdon says Hi girls.as well)

I received a call from the distant past.

 

An old girlfriend whom I dated between re-enlistments in the Marines. Guess she had run into my younger brothers (RIP Randy) wife who had given her my number. My brother and his wife always thought her and I ,,,, well you know.

Anyway there was a Monster Truck Rally/Mudbog event going on in Douglas that night and I was invited.

I got a room since she also invited me to church the following morning as well.

The church was literally miles from and other building. Seems a lot of Calvary people no longer wanted to drive `50 miles to Tucson to attend services and someone donated this rather remote land 12 miles from town and ,,,,

 

They had a potluck and then Delia and I rode up to Rodeo and Portal to explore.

When I left at 8 pm the Jeep was acting up and would only do 40 mph DOWNHILL. At 3 am I got home 150 miles later so this morning I called off at work and since I'm not allowed to work on vehicles in the park took it to the shop.

 

And I still need the part for the project. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Up the back, down the front. Mt. Lemon

I awoke Friday morning with that yearning.

You know of what I speak, the yearning to ,,,,,

A different beginning such as B&G, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, coffee, and milk, for breakfast not only that but Breakfast out. ie; I didn't cook it. So to Claire's Café I went which conveniently is next door.

Then, I wanted to go somewhere, somewhere away from the RV, not work, and not HOT. I looked at the mountains and thought, "that's where I want to go"

 

On the way I decided to stop at Peppersauce Canyon to check out the cave. Now, unofficially and supposedly this cave (which is quite large underground) was a refuge for outlaws back in the day.

 

It was a hike through beautiful country. Heck, I've been walking 2 miles everyday So I can do this. (did I mention the two miles was on flat ground alongside the road LOL)

 

I wasn't the only one going upstream through this dry wash. And neither of us had an ATV.

 

That's two, a sign? Or just glad I had ZOOOOOOM !!!!

 

Guess it was restricted to thin outlaws.

 

I don't think the snakes did this, nor the outlaws, or Indians before them. This type stuff really irritates me.

 

ummm, end of exploring the cave today. Guess I'll take their word on how big it is. But it was a really nice cool temp. in there.

So as they say, upward and onward. Literally.

 

road narrows or so the sign said, also unmaintained.

But hey I have a Jeep 8)

I ALWAYS follow the tow bar it's my aiming stake.

 

That's where we were, (we as in me and snakes) this is where we're at, and in a bit ,,,,

 

The fire damaged top.

Upward and onward is now down, down, down.

 

In 1906 Tim Barnum was the first Scout Leader in Tucson and during the summer his Explorer scouts would be posted on top of this rock to assist the Forest Rangers by watching for fires. thus the name Barnum Rock

 

This is lonely tree rock. Or balancing rock next to lonely tree. Or ,,,,

Either way certain scout leaders from Utah are not allowed up there

 

 

We would build pretty much impenetrable fences out of this when I was a kid. We'd wire the Ocotillo together in a shallow ditch. They'd grow, flower, and be strong. Nothing got through it

 

 

We called these jumping cactus because (I swear) you could be inches from them walking by and they'd jump out and get ya. Actually those pieces would break off just brushing against them. In cactus country you always want to carry a comb.

 

 

 

 

We'd burn off the thorns on the Prickly Pear on dry years and feed the cattle the flat part. I've eaten many jars of homemade Prickly Pear Jelly

The Prickly Pear is a hearty plant.

 When the girls and I lived in Patagonia there was a Prickly Pear next to the wall I wanted to get rid of. (kids and all)

 I dug, it came back,

I burned it came back.

 I chopped it came back.

 We found out we had termites (in a stucco house go figure) and the house had to be tented.

I asked the guy if he thought it'd kill a Prickly Pear. He said oh yeah, no problem so he put the tent over the Cactus, gassed it and the house.

A few weeks later the sucker bloomed. LOL

A lot of cactus are actually agave. I had a teacher in college on a field trip tell me I wrong when I referred to shin sticker (oops shindagger) as a cactus. I invited him to sit on it and then tell me it wasn't a cactus 8)

Don't you like all the desert plant names. They all sound painful.

 

 

If you remember a while back I did a post on living in a box canyon on Mt. Lemon.

The rules for my brother (11) and I (12) were pretty simple  Get up, do chores, eat breakfast, be back by dark. The world was different then and the miles around our cabin were my brother and my playground. We climb over the ridge behind us, then the next one to go see a couple of friends whose parents worked at the boys camp, we climb up the sides of the mountain and build forts, tumbled huge rocks down a canyon or found holes of water to swim in.

One time we were tipping boulders up at the end of the canyon by the (dry) water fall. We liked to watch then roll and bounce down the canyon wall and hit the big trees along the creek bed. One time we rolled a really big one and heard it cracking tree branches then my Dad saying something like hey boys I'm down here so be careful Your Mom says come eat. Or something like that, well, maybe not those exact words or that exact implied tone.

This was a favorite swimming hole. We'd climb down there and spend the sunny part of the day swimming. It was about 6 miles down the mountain from home so when the shadow crossed the water we knew it was time to head back.

Of course if we heard my parents car horn it was time to hi-ack-ko up to the highway.

If they needed to go down the mountain to town they'd begin honking the horn of the car. If we weren't back by the time they left they'd honk it as they drove. If they got past us we were in big trouble when they got home. usually if we missed them we'd high-tail it home and do something good like haul up some water, chop some wood, etc. to help mitigate the damage when they retuned.

Ever hear that saying spare the rod and spoil the child?

Well my Dad never had any spoiled children, well except the one sister. She may have been the second from the youngest but she may as well have been the baby. LOL

 

Can you see Lonely Tree by Balancing Rock?

It's right up there.

 

Oh, and a comb?

 

Not to look good.

 

But you could slide it between the Cholla cactus and your body with the splines going between the teeth then you grit your teeth and flip the comb. Out pops the cactus. Much easier than grabbing it with your other hand, then grabbing that one with your other hand, then ,,,,,,