Hot times: Sun City, Rodeo NM, and back

Ok sports fans, here's the updates for the past few weeks.  Arrived in retirement city and settled in with my brother.  Sister and brother-in-law are staying next door so it's a family affair here for a few weeks.  We were in Sun City only a few days and we headed out for our niece and nephew's vineyard in the Chiricahua foothills.  We stayed with my brother from Vashon that spends his winters down here in the middle of nowhere.  It's 50 miles to Douglas and the Mexico border.  It's 20 miles to Animus for gas.  

Wilcox, AZ.  Stopped for lunch.  Good spot to pick,

Southbound on AZ 80 towards Rodeo from I-10

Brother's rental next to the Post Office

Chiricahua's from his rental home

Road to Copper Horse Vineyard

Diva in the shade

Rodeo from the vineyard

The "patio"

Rodeo General Store and Cafe.  The only place to get breakfast in this town of 100.

Arizona Cypress tree in front of the rental

We spent a lovely day with them at the vineyard.  Temps in the 80s during the day but down to the 40s at night.  Life in the high desert.  We sat, drank good wines and spen the day chatting and catching up on our lives.  

The next day we and my brother drove to some "local" sights.  We headed off to Tombstone's tourist trap and Bisbee AZ.  Tombstone has 3 blocks of "old" buildings where the asphalt street has had sand and gravel laid on top for that rustic look and some dust for "realism".  Each of the blocks has some indoor gunfight show you can pay admission to watch.  We didn't.  We caught a drink at a local bar and hit the highway south to Bisbee for lunch at the Copper Queen hotel restaurant.  

Tombstone street scene.  At least it's free, as was the parking at this time of year

Bozo thought he found a hot spot but it's a candy shop.  Sorry, dude.

Hey, at least he's outside the courthouse, not inside for disorderly

Bisbee's kind of a funky old town.  Built to support and supply the local copper mine it had it's boom time, till the mine closed.  Its now a tourist and art gallery town.  The Copper Queen restaurant's kitchen was closed for remodeling, bummer.  It had been open just a few weeks ago when my sister and her hubby were down here.  We ended up eating at Santiago's Mexican grill next door.  We'd go back there anytime. Good drinks and food at a decent price.  On the way out we stopped at the hole that ends just south of town.  If the mine hadn't played out Bisbee would probably not exist today.  The deepest part is at the far end of the mine and the dig extended up the canyon, literally to the edge of the town.  There's a drainage lake at the bottom that is deep green from the mineral leaching out of the hillsides.

Flies are a recurring theme around Bisbee.  Keep going and you'll see why.

Museum next to the Copper Queen Hotel has some old mining equipment displays. 

Winch

Cars and trolley engines used in tunnel hole mines

Copper veins in the rock

Lots of copper in this one

Why the Flies. 

Bronze public restroom doors at the plaza down the hill from the hotel entrance

Copper Queen hotel exterior 

Lunch at Santiago's

On the way out we stopped at the hole that ends just south of town.  If the mine hadn't played out Bisbee would probably not exist today.  The deepest part is at the far end of the mine and the dig extended up the canyon, literally to the edge of the town.  There's a drainage lake at the bottom that is deep green from the mineral leaching out of the hillsides. This is now a roadside attraction.  There's even a large designated parking area on the pit side of the highway so you can get out to look at the enormity of the pit.  Actually, it's kind of depressing.  There are large ridges along the sides of the highway for miles.  These are the spoils, the slag hills, that resulted from the mining and milling.  These kind of landscapes are all over our country.  The results of surface strip mining.  At least now some are being filled in and the surface restored.  

Looking west, back towards Bisbee, which lies at the top of the gulch

The eastern end and the low point with the green leach/lake

Onthe way back to Rodeo we stopped at Apache, NM.  It's only three houses and an elementary school alongside the road at an intersection with the dirt road leading back into Skeleton Canyon.  It has history and figures in the surrender of Geronimo as well as several well-known outlaws of the west (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton_Canyon) If this ain't a live link copy and paste it into a browser).  Just north of the houses is a monument but as my brother commented, it does seem to reflect the locals giving the Apache the single digit salute.    

Peloncillo Mountains in the background.  These are the eastern side of the San Simon valley

Chirichua Mountains at sunset from the monument

We decided to stop at the Saguaro National Park on our way back to Phoenix.  It's just outside of Tucson and has east and west sections.  The east section is a sky island.  This is an elevated mesa and canyons with plants and animals you would not expect to find in the middle of a desert.  The west section is the saguaro landscape where you can drive through the park through various elevations and see how the desert plants change according to the microclimates and soil types.  This is not a paved road and most of it is restricted to high clearance vehicles.  If you tried to take the family sedan through there you might make it with skill, luck, dry roads and good weather but the chances to do damage to suspension, engine and drive train from the rocks and ruts are pretty high.  This is not the place you want to break down. We drove from the visitor's center, #1 on the map, up Hohokum to #6 and then on to the Golden Gate road north to the highway back to I-10.  It was about an hour and a half trip because you ain't going fast on that washboard.

A long dead saguaro.  

At first I thought these were hornet nests as we drove up but they are the remains of arms. Birds and other critters use these as homes well before the cactus dies

There's an outlook and picnic area with a nice viewpoint back to the south and west (see 8 on the map)

The roof is made from dead saguaro cactus.  The fiberous stalk is actually fairly strong.

The bright sun prevents the actual depth of this depression to show in the photo.  This drainage rut is about a foot deep and only 18" wide.

Well, I've been kind of following the NCAA games while doing this.  I've still got to cover our trip to LA for the finals of the WBC and our return through Joshua Tree National Park.  That's for tomorrow.  I've got to get that done so I can clear the deck.  This next weekend Rae and Miles come in so the three of us can use our Final Four tickets.  We're a bit pumped because Gonzaga is coming to town.  HELL'A'DEAL!!!

Caio for now.