Snowbird Journal--Jan 27th to 29th, 2009--Gilbert/Superstition Mountains & Apache Trail

We headed to Gilbert to haul some furniture for Jeff & Lisa. Of course, our real reason was to see G'son James.  It appears that all are settling into their new home very nicely.  On Wednesday we took off to one of our "must see" destinations--The Superstition Mountains & The Apache Trail. Most of you know that I was brought up to get in the car, drive like a bat to the destination and forget whatever might be between the starting point and the destination.  There have only been 5 or 6 times where I'm just forced to stop and take in the scenery.  The Supes are one of those places.  We both noticed that lichens grow on the rocks which gives the landscape a very different color.

Of course these mountains are home to the legend of the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine.  No one is really sure that the mine ever existed, but several people have become absolutely consumed with trying to locate it.  One source claims that the name Superstition Mountains was given because of the weird or para-normal happenings that occurred there.  I can certainly see how one might be captivated by the surroundings.  The Apache Trail or State Route 88 is the "main" road from Apache Junction to Lake Roosevelt.  It's one of those roads with plenty of twists and turns.  We followed the road to where the pavement ended and the dirt road began.  We turned around when we saw a sign that warned of curves and a single lane road ahead.  Sometimes driving a dually is a real pain.

Snowbird Journal--Jan 25, 2009--Rillito Park

Today was the day that we attended one of our favorite Tucson events--horse racing at Rillito Park.  The venerable old Rillito Park has been around for 50 years and is showing it's age, and some say that 2009 will be it's last year.  I hope not, as it was at one time the premier site of quarter horse racing.  It would be a shame if Tucson didn't have a racetrack. Now it has both quarter horse racing (straight line) and thoroughbred (turns and straightaways) on the same racing program.  We love going to the races at Rillito because it's a very small track and you can get up close to the horses, jockeys, and the track itself.  We go to people watch.  You've got the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. You've got the cowboys, and the wannabe cowboys. Then you've got the handsome Hispanic guys in their crisply ironed jeans and shirts with their boots and hats.  We don't bet a lot of money, partly because we usually don't have a clue as to what the information means in the racing form.  Actually it's not that we don't understand the info, it's putting it into usable decision making info.  I usually spend 15 minutes looking at the racing form info and then bet a horse based on the fact that it has a white sock on the left front foot.  For the third race we had moved to the beginning of turn 1 since I wanted to get a picture of the horses going around that turn.  As the horses thundered by I had my eye glued to the camera viewfinder and I heard the people around me gasp and groan.  A jockey lay motionless in the middle of the turn! Someone around me said that the jockey was run over by a following horse. Immediately track personnel and jockeys not in the race ran to the unseated jockey.  My first thought was that they would stop the race, but then I remembered other races where jockeys were unseated or horses were injured where the races went on.  My thought was that they would stop this race since the jockey lay in the middle of the track, shortly after the finish line.  The horses would be slowing down after the finish but normally they run through turn 1 and into turn 2 before finally slowing to a cool down speed.  Plus the wild card in this scenario was the riderless horse who was still following the race pack.  The mounted person who leads the horses to the starting gate rode to the exit of turn 4 and somehow indicated to the jockeys that something had happened ahead of them.  The group attending to the unseated jockey seemed to split into two groups--one continuing to attend to the jockey and the second ran to the entrance of turn 1 and starting waving at the oncoming riders, alerting them to go wide into turn 1.  Luckily the riderless horse followed the rest of them and no one was added to the injury list.  The unseated jockey was still motionless and since the race was now over we all waited for the track ambulance to arrive.  It did finally arrive, but apparently it was decided not to move the jockey until trained personnel from Tucson FD arrived.  After being placed on a backboard and stretcher the jockey was taken to Tucson Medical Center.  As he was wheeled by he was alert, moving his arms, and talking.  I assume his condition was okay, since the paramedics were advising him to quit moving so much.  These guy's and gal's may be small but they sure are tough.  A huge sigh of relief came from the crowd when they saw his arm's move.  We watched a couple more races and Betsy actually picked the winner of one race!  I have no clue what her reasoning was.  A nice day at the races, especially since the jockey seemed to be okay. 

Top Picture--Okay, which horse is not on Medicare.

Second Picture--And Down The Stretch They Come!!

Third Picture--Trouble In Turn One

Bottom Picture--Warning The Oncoming Riders

Snowbird Journal--Jan 20, 2009--Kitt Peak

If you'll remember when we went on the gold prospecting adventure in the desert we were south and west of Tucson.  Since we were in the neighborhood we took a side trip to Kitt Peak National Observatory.  This site was selected in 1958 and was chosen because of the low humidity and isolation which both enhance night viewing of the heavens.  The telescopes are located at 7000 feet in the Quinlan Mountains on the lands of the Tohono O'odham Nation.  I was very surprised at the number of telescopes up there--there are twenty three!  The views from the top are spectacular.  

Snowbird Journal--Jan 15, 2009--Barrett Jackson Auction Scottsdale

We traveled to Gilbert yesterday to have lunch with James and Lisa then on to sister Carolyn's in Scottsdale.  Today Betsy, Carolyn and I headed to West World in Scottsdale to look at the classic car's being auctioned off by Barrett Jackson.  All I can say is WOW!  It was fun to walk through the tent's that contained these beautiful machines.  Carolyn commented that she had never been around so many happy old men.  Apparently we all had smiles on our faces as we remembered the past.  

Snowbird Journal--Jan 11, 2009--Desert Gold Diggers

Since I had so much fun panning for gold in the Black Hills and when we returned home to southern Indiana we decided to join the local prospecting club to see how they do it in the desert.

We were concerned about trespassing on Federal, State, Indian, or private land, but the local club has about 30 of their own claims.  Once a month they have a group dig and today was the day for this month.  Betsy and I crawled out of bed at 5:30 AM to get ready to meet the group at 8:00 AM about 40 miles southwest of Tucson.  The temperature was a crisp 27 degrees, but the full moon was spectacular.  The directions to the meeting place were spot on.  After a brief meeting and sign in we all loaded into our vehicles and headed to the claim.  I was the only dually in the group and the "road" was just barely wide enough to get those big fat fenders through the trees, bushes, and brush.  I remember thinking at one point, "just keep on truckin' cause you can't turn around, and you've only got about 15 vehicles behind you".  We arrived at the claim with both fenders attached,  and actually for the most part undamaged.  The Dig Director took all the novices under his guidance and we headed off to the wash to see if we could locate some gold.  After filling our buckets with soil and sand we headed back to the parking zone and ran the sand/soil through different size screens to eliminate the rocks and bigger pieces of debris.  In the desert where flowing water is scarce you can still wet pan, but you have to bring the water with you.  The actual panning is done in a large plastic tub that's filled with water.  Another method is called a recirculator and it is a system where water is recycled from a reservoir to the top of a chute where the sand/soil is placed.  The water washes the sand/soil over a section of carpet like material.  The theory being that the gold will be caught by the carpet material.  After all your sand/soil has been run through the recirculator you remove the carpet from the device and put all the sand and hopefully gold that it's collected in a gold pan.  Then you wet pan the collection sample and hopefully come up with some gold. The obvious advantage to the recirculator is that you can process a lot more material than just using the wet panning method.  One of the area's I investigated was the wash itself.  I found a backpack and a couple of shirts.  Apparently items left by the illegal aliens who used the area to sneak in.  I heard someone else say that he was also in the wash and found a spot where water and deposited about 20 backpacks.  Another new member from Wisconsin and I were talking and  decided that with the obvious illegal alien traffic in the area (about 25 miles from the border) we didn't feel real comfortable coming out here by ourselves.  We exchanged phone numbers and in the future we may try our luck again.  I'm sorry to tell you that no one found much gold. I had one pan that had a few itsy bitsy, tiny, specks.  Another man found a small flake, but that was about it.  This particular claim is not known as a producer, but the one just up the road is.  We'll go to that one next time.  Betsy isn't in to this digging in the desert deal, so she uses the time to sketch and paint.  I might add that she's getting rather good at her art work.   We enjoyed the experience and found that most of the club members were very willing to share their knowledge.  We'll do this again. 

Top Photo--Jamie "Just Call Me Coronado" Heading Out

Second Photo-- How many buckets/containers does it take to prospect?

Third Photo--Feeding the recirculator

Bottom Photo--Betsy sketching

Snowbird Journal-Jan 2, 2009--AMARG At Davis Monthan AFB

I mentioned a couple posts ago about visiting "the boneyard" at Davis Monthan AFB.  I think it deserves a little more attention.  The formal name is Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group and it is located on 2,600 acres.  It was started in 1946 to store excess Air Force aircraft but was later reconfigured to store excess inventory for all the armed services and the Coast Guard.  Tucson was selected because of the low humidity, infrequent rain, and alkaline/hard soil which makes it possible to move and store the aircraft without having to put pavement down.

The facility breaks down into the following functions--long term storage, part's reclamation, short term storage, and sales of excess parts and/or whole aircraft.  One source states that there are over 4000 aircraft in storage.  I know it's quite impressive to drive by and see row after row of the planes.  

Happy New Year, part two.

I imagine when you live in the area with the most spectacular winter weather in the country you can expect and anticipate great visitors. 

The Hagars were here for a three day stay and we had a great time exploring southeastern Arizona. (see previous post to get the details)

On the 30th we had friends from  Columbus.  Sharon and Earl came by on their way from their California Christmas.  We had a great lunch with Amy, Jim and Elizabeth joining us. It was so good to see them and catch up on what is and isn't happening in Columbus.   

If all that isn't great enough-------today a man walked up to me and asked where we lived in Indiana.  Turns out it was Bill T. and his wife Vickie worked for me at Four Seasons.  They arrived yesterday for the 10th year.  They couldn't say enough wonderful things about the resort.  What fun we had renewing our friendship.  

Betsy

picture:  Sharon and Earl (look for the mountains around Tucson in the background)

Snowbird Journal-Dec 31--New Years Visit

Our first official visitors arrived on the 28th.  It was J & K from Colorado who we met when visiting Cousin John this August.  They are such a fun couple and always ready for a new adventure.  On the first day we started with  San Xavier del Bac, the beautiful Spanish mission just outside Tucson.  Then on to Tubac which is an artist colony.  And then to The Spice Factory at Tumacacori.  The second day J and I went to the airbase and took pictures of the aircraft in the "boneyard".  After that we headed for the Pima Air Museum.  J grew up as an Air Force kid and could name almost every aircraft in the collection.  In the PM J & K explored downtown Tucson.

The following day we loaded up early and headed for The Empire Ranch, Sonoita, and Patagonia.

We found Cousin John's favorite AZ Mexican restaurant in Patagonia and had a wonderful lunch.

And for once we had a waitress that wasn't a total ditz.  We were all tired so we didn't get together on New Years Eve.  The RV park did offer a byob, live entertainment party.  You know you're a part of "the senior crowd" when the New Years Eve party goes from 7 PM to 10 PM.