22 – 30 November 2005 Sunny Acres RV Park, Las Cruces, NM

Back to our temporary home base, even though there’s been no news on the job front for Wes. Congress is concentrating more on positioning themselves for the 2006 midterms than completing work on the budgets overdue today, it seems. But we’ll be able to do more examination of the real estate market while we’re here, and the weather’s not bad. In fact, we enjoy our first Thanksgiving meal outdoors here. The park holds a Thanksgiving feast, supplying turkey and eating utensils; park guests supply the rest of the meal. I make a fruit salad and a pecan pie made with Las Cruces pecans. I notice people gobble up the pie faster than the salad. Fortunately, Wes is able to get a piece of my pie before it disappears. I’m not so lucky. The rest of the potluck meal is terrific, and we have a nice visit with some of the other campground guests.

After Thanksgiving, our life falls into a fairly boring routine, since we’re just basically playing the waiting game. We ship the broken computer back to HP, and await the return of the repaired unit. We hang out in bookstores. We reorganize things in the trailer, trying to optimize our too-limited space. We defrost the freezer and clean out the refrigerator. One day we go to El Paso and shop at the Ft. Bliss commissary. Can’t wait to go stock my pantry once we move back into a house! Stutz enjoys our time in Las Cruces, since he gets to go to the Doggie Dude Ranch regularly and play with other dogs. He gets tired (which we like) and quite dirty (which we don’t like so much). A bath is definitely on the agenda.

A cold front moves through not long after Thanksgiving, bringing 45 mph winds and kicking up an amazing amount of dust—the bane of living in this part of the southwest. The winds only last for a day, though, but then the temperatures drop. We huddle in the trailer at night, happy for the propane furnace and ceramic space heater.

Christina takes us to see some more houses for sale. Although none of them are entirely unacceptable, none of them really send us, either. All would need at least a moderate amount of work before we’d be happy with them. We visit one property high in the foothills of the Organ Mountains, which appears to be more of a party retreat than a full-time home. It has a gourmet kitchen and two strange master suites (basically just big bathrooms with space for a bed) as well as a 2,600 square foot solarium with pool. Unfortunately, the skylight roof on the solarium has failed, so that area is basically a write-off, as the pool area is trashed. The rest of the house would need tens of thousands of dollars of work, too, but the views of the city are fantastic. It’s just too weird, though, so we’ll keep looking.

19 – 22 November 2005 Butterfield RV Resort, Benson, AZ

We liked this place enough to come back and try it again on the return trip to Las Cruces. The relaxed atmosphere appeals to us and it lacks the hustle-bustle of Phoenix. Plus we want to accomplish some of the touring that we missed on our last trip through. To that end, we drive out to Kartchner Caverns the first day. The caverns were discovered in the 1970s, but their existence wasn’t made known until the 1980s when the state purchased the land in order to preserve it. The park complex is very new, and the displays quite interesting. A lot of attention is made to preserving the caverns—there are several air locks as we enter, we’re misted with water to prevent lint from coming loose, and we’re warned not to touch anything. It is a spectacular cavern, since it’s so pristine. We tour the Rotunda/Throne Room portion of the caverns, but the Big Room tour is booked. This part of the caverns is only open between October and May, when the resident bats are gone. We would like to see the Big Room one day.

The second day we drive to the wild west town of Tombstone. It’s also amazingly intact, although it’s become a bit of a tourist mecca—seems one can’t explore many of the historical buildings without paying to take a tour. Interior photographs of most buildings are prohibited, as well. So Wes sets up the 4x5 camera just off the board sidewalk and takes some unobjectionable public photos. I spend time in the shops Christmas shopping. Back at the park that night, we do computer work again, but somehow, even on this second visit, we never get over to the observatory!

16 – 19 November 2005 Apache Palms RV Park, Tempe, AZ

Our trip to Phoenix has been scheduled primarily to check on my mom’s winter house in Sun City West, since her health is preventing her from returning to Arizona for the time being. We have run into a little problem finding a campground, however. Since Phoenix is such a popular snowbird destination, most of the RV parks in the area have a “55+” rule—a criterion we don’t yet meet. It’s been a long time since we’ve been too young to do something or go somewhere! I grumble about this in a message to Wes’ mom Dottie one evening, and she offers to drive over from California and be our “chaperone” at one of the geezer parks. This plan eventually gets rolled into doing a number of tourist things, such as visiting Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West. Once that plan is hatched, I widen my RV park search and find this place in Tempe, which welcomes campers of all ages.

We arrive at the park in early afternoon, after the easy drive from Benson. Metropolitan traffic isn’t Wes’ favorite for towing, but we manage to get to the campground deep in the heart of Tempe without incident. We have a frustrating time trying to get the trailer backed into our reserved space, however, since one of the campground personnel keeps trying to “help”. I can’t seem to get rid of him, so the process ends up taking a whole lot longer than it should. But we finally get settled in, Stutz gets a walk, and we take off to run a few errands. We try to stop for dinner at a purportedly Mediterranean café, but it turns out to be a hooka bar, so we escape and head back to the trailer and make spaghetti there. Good thing, too, because Dottie arrives while we’re cooking. We enjoy a nice dinner and get her settled in on the front sofa bed. Our first guest!

Next day we’re up bright and early, on our way to Scottsdale and Taliesin West. Traffic’s a bit heavy, but Dottie’s new Mini convertible makes the trip fun. We have reservations for the 9:15 “Behind the Scenes” tour, definitely the tour to take for FLW fans like us. The tour takes us through all the public and some of the private spaces, including the recently renovated quarters of Mr. Wright and his wife, which are open to the public for the first time. We hear talks from some of the Wright fellowship members, including Wright’s personal physician. Mid-morning, we are served tea and goodies in the dining room. All in all, a fantastic experience. Taliesin West is in better condition than Taliesin East in Wisconsin, which explains why the archives are located here. Fellowship apprentices are working here just as they were when we visited in Wisconsin, but their workspace is not part of the public tour.

We head back to the trailer to rest, shower and get ready for our dinner that evening with Jack and Sydney Shalita, the parents of Wes’ best high school friend Eric. We meet them at their house in a gated community in Chandler, have a good visit, and then head out to a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner. The food and service are wonderful, and we leave the place well-stuffed. The next morning, we’re all up early again, dropping Stutz off at daycare, and heading out for another action-packed day. We drive first across the valley to Mom’s house in Sun City West. The place looks pretty good, if a little lonesome, but fortunately there’s no sign of the termite infestation that occurred earlier in the fall. Everything appears in order, so we head off to our next agenda item—going to the first IMAX showing of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. We find the theater, after a couple wrong turns, and get settled in with our healthy theater lunch (hot dogs, nachos, popcorn) an hour or so before the show starts. The movie is great, and definitely worth seeing in IMAX format. After the movie, we zoom back into Phoenix to pick up Stutz from daycare. He seems to have had a good time. For dinner that night, we go gorge ourselves (and empty our wallets) at the sushi restaurant recommended by the Shalitas. I think we’ll have to eat in for the rest of the month. Dottie departs the next morning, and we follow shortly after, having accomplished quite a bit in our short visit!

14 – 16 November 2005 Butterfield RV Resort, Benson, AZ

This is our stopover spot on the way to Phoenix. Benson offers Kartchner Caverns State Park, with Tombstone and Bisbee not far away. The park is not exactly a “resort”, as I would define it, but it is very clean, has a pool, spa, nice laundry, and lots of planned activities. Oh, and an observatory, with scheduled astronomy activities! Definitely a snowbird place, although the “birds” haven’t yet arrived in force. The staff is very friendly and accommodating.

But upon our arrival we have a minor computer disaster. Wes’ computer, which has been acting strangely when plugged in to charge the battery, now fails to charge at all. There’s nothing more useless than a laptop that won’t charge! So we unhitch, get the animals settled, then head in to Tucson, home to stores like CompUSA and Best Buy. On the drive, we consider our options—new computer? Or repair—which could take time and cost an undetermined amount of money? We find that his computer is well out of warranty, although still less than 2 years old. We finally decide to dive into our emergency fund and buy a new computer, with the idea that I can inherit Wes’ “old” one if it can be fixed. Many hours and dollars later, we’re headed back to the park in Benson with the new computer. Our main consolation was that we found a Rubio’s for dinner and had tasty fish tacos…

So the next day, instead of touring the area, Wes spends the day setting up, updating, and installing software on the new computer. Butterfield has good WiFi (for a small fee), so he needs to take advantage of this opportunity. It’s a good productive day, though, and the new computer is up and running well in short order. As a bonus, we discover that the campground allows RV washing, so in the late afternoon we stop and give the Airstream a long-overdue bath. It’s sure pretty when it’s shiny!

11 – 14 November 2005 Rose Valley RV Ranch, Silver City, NM

The trip to Silver City from Deming is only about 50 miles, so we don’t spend much time on the road. This RV park is outstanding, though—situated in a natural desert environment, adjacent to open land and a cemetery, so there aren’t any noisy neighbors. The parking spaces are far apart, too, so even the neighbors within the park aren’t very noticeable. Our cell phones don’t work here, but the park offers good WiFi, so we do have some communication.

One of the main things we want to do in this visit is go to Gila Cliff Dwellings national monument. We set out late Saturday morning, as the monument is only about 45 miles from Silver City, and the mornings here are rather chilly. Shortly, though, we find out that the 45 miles winds through twisty mountain/forest roads, and the trip takes close to 2 hours. Stutz sleeps most of the way. Once we arrive at the monument, we check in at the visitor center and then head up to the monument itself. As usual, Stutz isn’t allowed to hike with us up to the cliff dwelling ruins, but he enjoys a nice walk around the parking lot and then settles down for a nap in the car while we hike.

The cliff dwellings at Gila were built by the Mogollon people, around the end of the 13th century, and although the Mogollon were contemporaries of the Anasazi, they weren’t members of that Puebloan group. They built their homes in a similar fashion, and we can only guess as to exactly how they lived. The Gila dwellings are remarkably intact, and visitors are allowed quite a bit of freedom to explore the main cave and its structures. We even see some 700-year-old corn cobs on the floor of one of the dwellings. We hike around and take photos for about an hour, then it’s back to the car and the twisty trip back to town. Stutz gets very anxious on the way back; perhaps he’s a bit carsick! He calms down after I move him to my lap in the front seat.

We spend the next day doing a little exploring in Silver City. We visit the city museum and learn about the town’s colorful history, then walk around taking pictures of some of the historic buildings. Silver City has quite a few interesting local galleries, but the after dark the town seems to have a bit of a cruising problem. There are several nice restaurants in the downtown area, but we opt to head south of town a bit for a tasty Mexican dinner.

8 – 11 November 2005 Dream Catcher RV Park, Deming, NM

Now Deming wasn’t ever a place we had on the agenda, but Escapees RV Club has a Rainbow Park here, and I wanted to try that. Extra cheap for Escapees members--$10/day plus electric for full hook-ups. The park is nice, with wide spaces, but is fairly dusty and treeless, which makes us more aware of the wind. It’s interesting being here with other Escapees, though; these people are all hard-core fulltimers. And, as usual, all are much older than we are. We skip the planned activities the first day, in favor of having a catch-up day in the trailer. Wes has been called for federal district court jury duty in Wyoming, so he writes his letter requesting to be excused from that, then we print some photos and get caught up on rebate submittals and other paperwork items we’ve put off for too long.

The second day, we head out in the truck with Stutz, in search of New Mexico ghost towns—good photographic opportunities. We drive south past Columbus, NM, (but turn around before we reach the U.S./Mexico border), but we don’t find anything much there. Pancho Villa State Park—can’t believe they named it after the bandito who invaded the town in 1916 and killed 17 people—looks a little interesting, and has a nice campground, but we didn’t bring the Airstream on this journey. We then head west toward Hachita, where some good ghost towns have been reported to be. Again, we find nothing. So then we drive north toward Lordsburg and Shakespeare ghost town, which is actually listed on our Rand-McNally map. Alas, Shakespeare is located on private land, and is only open for tourists the second Sunday of the month. So we call it a day, stop for root beer floats in Lordsburg, and head back to Deming. 200 or so miles of driving, with nary a photo stop. We do see a lot of border patrol and national guard troops in humvees and APCs on our trip skirting the international border. I guess Gov. Richardson’s state of emergency has paid for this extra help in the war against illegal immigration.