Memories of AHHHHHHHHjo..(Ajo, AZ)

  My brain is in serious need of a boost, so I am drawing on one of our favorite Winter trips…Ajo, AZ (Jan and Feb of 2010)..I know that Al and Kelly and Bob (Mountain Man) will remember this place…

We arrived on Dec. 28th, 2009…in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve in the Sonoran Desert…We campers gathered around a huge campfire where we roasted hot dogs, and watched the beautiful moon come up over the mountains.  We had music…and some people karaoke sang…and some people even danced…I believe I was guilty of the dancing part, and if I would have had one more cocktail I was going to Karaoke sing.  Lucky for the campers, I couldn’t find my derriere with both hands so Dennis took me back to the camper about 8PM and put me to bed. Yep..I don’t think I  have been that over served since that day!..I vaguely remember Dennis heating up some left overs for dinner..Me? I was snoring ..

We stayed at Hickiwan Trails RV Park, and I hear now it isnt’ near as good as it was..We could walk out into the desert anytime.  At night you could hear the wild burrows baying outside, but we never seemed to find them in the daylight.  Finally, on one of  our gazillion walks into the desert we discovered them..As you can see, it doesn’t take much to excite me..a few wandering donkeys can make my day..HEE HAW!

The town of Ajo (pronounced Ahhhho) is very pretty.  The Spanish influence is evident, as we are only about 32 miles from the Mexican border…We found much evidence of Hispanic citizens who had come through the desert..milk jugs, serapes, shoes, backpacks…but we never encountered anyone.  The U.S. Border Patrol Station was only about 2 miles from us, and the helicopters were always in the air..

If  you ever go that way, make sure you get a permit to drive onto the Cabreza Prieta Wildlife Refuge (permit is free and good for one year)…One of our favorite day trips was the 16.5 mile road trip to Charlie Bell Pass…which took us about 2 1/2 hours.  This is NOT for your average car…You will need a 4 wheel drive vehicle for this one.  Once you arrive at the end of the road, you have another mile and 1/2 walk down to the old Charlie Bell Well…and some very old Indian petroglyphs…

 

 

Here we are at the beginning of our walk..If you look over my cap, you can see the view across the pass.  No, we didn’t go across.  I didn’t bring my jammies and wine. 

 

 

We had been told that the petroglyphs were not easy to find.   They had been painted on some dark rocks down in the wash by the well..  We began walking around the wash area and then went up the other side…I was just about to give up when MacGyver  (no surprise to me) found a couple…This was sooooo very neat.  We were the only human beings (that I knew of) around and it was so quiet.  If you know me, then you know I was touching every rock, thinking/hoping I could to channel some ancient Native American History into my humble spirit….

 

Here is a link to the Charlie Bell Road, written by one who has been there.  There is some great information on this link. I wish we had found that info before we headed out, but I think our trip was made even more fun by us floundering around looking for the petroglyphs….

One of the other things I loved about that Sonoran  Desert was looking for  Sonoran Desert Rose Chalcedony.  Every time took our walk amongst the cactus, I would fill my pockets with little and big “roses”…Here is a picture of some of my finds..

Rose Chalcedoney has many characteristics, but the one that stands out is the similarity to a rose shape.  I loved finding these little gems…That big one on the right has many roses in it. I just  happened upon that one by kicking over this rock with my shoe.  The other side of that big rock is just nasty and looks like any other rock…I hope to someday try my hand at making some jewelry out of some of those smaller ones…

Our campground South of Ajo was on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Nation.  Our park had a unique rock formation recently made by some natives ….This is called “The Man In The Maze”…

If I had wings, I could have taken above pic from higher up and you could actually SEE the labyrinth..…Alas, I am vertically challenged, so I will show you the decal I bought out there to may further explain it…

I absolutely LOVE  this … I keep this decal on our Hiker as a reminder of those ancient first Americans.  Here is another of my famous “hyperlinks” (hyper being the key word in describing my excitement about this)..Man In The Maze…

Just in case I  haven’t bored you to “nodding off” and snoring yet , I will attempt to further drive you to snoozing and drooling with a couple more pictures of this favorite place of mine!!

The Bayfield Bunch and Bob (Mt. Man) will surely recognize Ol’ Flattop Mountain on the right….  While camped at Hickiwan for those two months, I made it a habit to watch for the sun to begin setting from our camper window (in my jammies, naturally.)   Then I would throw our camera around my neck,  jump on my bike, (Rum and Coke in hand), and without spilling one drop I would high tail my Schwinn to the Western edge of the park to catch those sunsets.   I wanted pictures without camper tops and other man made objects blocking my view…I must say, I got some very rewarding results.  I feel I should get extra Kudos for this.  I think I deserve extra credit just for the fact that I’m darn sure I was the “twilight entertainment” for others in the campground…”Look, Mabel…Here comes that lady in her clown outfit, camera flying…I wonder what she has in her Christmas mug?  Maybe we should alert Border Patrol”…

                                                                  There is absolutely NOTHING like an Arizona sunset….This photo above, with that mystical stream of light coming from the Heavens, took my breath away…

OK! OK!! I’M FINISHED!!…DON’T FORGET TO WIPE THE SLOBBER OFF YOUR MONITOR BEFORE YOU TURN ME OFF!!

High School Football…What a GREAT TIME!

 

 

This past week has been a mental challenge, to say the least.  While hoping our elders will adjust to their new assisted living home, we feel that they are not happy at all and rest assured we have been told so..After 3 weeks they still call it their prison cell ..This does not bode well for them being in a safe place so we may travel this Winter.  Time will tell, and if they want to go home, we will move them back, BUT…they MUST  have some help  pretty much full time.  Somehow I don’t think this idea will “fly” either…

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”….If Den and I have learned ONE thing from this, it is reflected in this serenity prayer…Aging gracefully, that’s what we want to do.. and NOT burden our kids mentally or physically…OK, enough about problems..let’s get on to some really  FUN stuff we did this week!! HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL!!!

  Last night we drove 20 miles to Kaneland High School to watch the Kaneland Knights football team play Streator…Our granddaughter, Taylor, is a freshman now and a proud member of the Kaneland Knight Poms..WOOT! WOOT!  To make a fun time even MORE awesome, the sunset was absolutely spectacular over the football field.

Taylor LOVES to sing, dance, and be on stage..What better place than a football game??? (As an old, decrepit ex-cheerleader, I TOTALLY understand!)

They put on quite an extensive half-time show..and the sky and the sunset were incredible!!

There is something invigorating about High School football and Fall…and young talented people enjoying it all…I have to interject that this school has one of the top football programs in the area, and draws from a huge rural populace.  They also have an excellent curriculum and many great elective programs…The Heiser kids are very fortunate to be in this school district…Peyton will be a Freshman next year, and Campbell will bring up the rear as a Freshman in 2018…Holy Schlamoly, I will be 70 and MacGyver will be 76!!…Rest assured,( God willing and the creek don’t rise), MacGyver and I will still be in the stands at those games!! I sure wish we lived closer to our Wolff cubs, but we are very mobile and plan to be a part of their lives as much as possible.

These wonderful cool Fall evenings have made for great campfires on our deck..I have all the Autumn décor’ out ….

 

….and Thursday night we had a spectacular full  moon as it came up in the East…

 

 

Is it just me, or is that moon absolutely HUMONGOUS????

 

 

 

 

I think I have verbalized this before, but Fall is my favorite time of year.  The farmer’s around here are late with their harvest…MacGyver says it will be about 10 more days before he goes into the corn…This will make me a farmer’s widow yet again for another year…I’m not looking forward to his absence, considering the snarl we seem to be caught up in, but he can get away if needed and that’s a good thing.. I also intend to go down to visit the Wolff family the 4th of October for a few days.  Just because Dennis is “tied up” doesn’t mean I have to vegetate, right??

Thanks for checking in with us, and not giving up…Oh, I forgot to mention that the reason I took so long to blog is that we got a new desktop computer..and it has Windows 8, which means I am now on a learning curve that has turned into one continuous circle…Bear with me!!!(and speaking of bears, HOW ABOUT THOSE CHICAGO BEARS????)

Autumnal Anticipation

Farewell Summer, Oh I’ve had fun, but Fall is what I love!

Bright new colors catch the sun, crisp clear evening have begun,

And OH, that Harvest Moon above!

OK, Jack, bring on your frost.  We’ll have a campfire every night.

And fallen leaves that trees have lost, from chilly winds they’re gently tossed,

As flocks of geese begin their flight.

Oh, Fall, I relish all you bring as yet another Summer ends,

And different birds begin to sing.  Oh, I’ll be loving everything!

I welcome you, my Autumn friend!! 

                              D. Cave 08/30/2011

 

 

 

Tailgating, Cross Country..and Law West of the Pecos

 

I just had to post this picture.  My new header pic was taken at the Jersey Lilly in Langtry TX…Today at a garage sale I purchased a book called “Pictorial History of the Wild West”, by James D. Horan and Paul Sann.  I happened upon this photo of the Judge Roy Bean’s “courthouse”in that book. (Al of the Bayfield Bunch would love this book)…I remember going to Langtry, TX in 2007 to visit the place he was infamous!  I am going to post a couple more photos of that trip..I am a real history freak (a freak in many ways)…

Who is that old cowpoke leaning on the bar, anyway???…..Oh yeah, he’s married to that cowgirl “wanna be” on the right..

Well, it’s finally officially football season.  Enough of those stupid pre-season games…LET’S GET ON WITH THE REAL DEAL!! As you might guess, this family supports the Chicago Bears, and never misses a chance to find a new way to tailgate…

Just put a TV in the back of your PT Cruiser (making sure it’s tucked in the garage in case of rain), drag over a couple picnic tables and some coolers of beer and YOU TOO can tailgate in style!!

Our weather here has finally cooled off and Fall has arrived…Yesterday, Dennis and I attended a Cross Country track meet in Sandwich that our grandson, Peyton, was running in.  Both our daughters were in track in high school.  I never did enjoy running for any reason when I was younger…And now that I am much older, running would require some adult diapers and an EMS team right following !!

That’s Peyton leaning on his knee …They still use a blank gun to start the races here…..In the last pic, Pey is second runner, grimacing like he is going to drop…

 

 

Here is Peyton (front) coming down the home stretch…RUN, PEY, RUN!!

 

There were almost 50 runners and Pey finished 29th…Not bad for a kid who never has been in track before..and for only his second  race!! I hope Peyton will continue to enjoy this sport.  His Mom and Dad are both runners, as are his Aunt Chris and Uncle John..There must be something in the gene pool here..Some of it must come from MacGyver, who was big in track and field as a pole vaulter…OK, you just know I have a picture somewhere on this computer that I can post of  MacGyver pole vaulting, right?? RIGHT!!!

 

 

In closing, I just gotta show  you what our neighbor across the street has been building in his driveway…At first I thought it was a playhouse for kids, then it began to evolve into what I quickly recognized, having seen a few in various campgrounds as we travel…

TRA DA!! A Teardrop Camper, all painted up and ready to lie down in…(you obviously cannot stand up)..If there is anyone out there who is of small (very) stature, isn’t claustrophobic, likes his TV on the ceiling, and only has a Volkswagen to tow with…here is your poison!…Just for the record, I love my hubby sooooooo much….just not THIS much!