Day 13 - April 5 Tombstone, revisited

Our last day in Tombstone before we head out to Tucson.

Today we:
- Visited the Worlds Largest Rose Tree, really a tree more than a bush. It was planted in the spring of 1885.
- Rode the Trolley to Boot Hill where we took in the local sites, the graves marked with the notables as well as the unknowns.
- Took in a comedy gun fight where the bad guy almost won, but alas the good guy did right in the end.
- Had late lunch at the Longhorn Saloon. Late lunch's are starting to become a habit....
- Back to the trailer to play sword fights, dolls, and video games..

Some of the pictures of Tuscon: WebPicasa Tombstone Az. Pics

Day 12 - April 4, Tombstone, gunfights, museums,

Today was a walk around historic Tombstone.

First stop was a gun fight at the OK Corral, or rather near by the Corral in an alley off of Fremont street. Seems the rumor that the fight took place in a corral was another of Hollywood's made up stories. Seemed to sound better than the gun fight off Fremont Street.

Then we boarded the local stage coach for a trip about the town. Took about 30 mins to see the major sites, buildings, houses that still remain. Tombstone has a pretty stories past, only a portion of which we see/hear about on the tours.

Another late lunch at Big Nose Kate's.

Day 11 - April 3 Arrive in Tombstone, Az

Today was a short drive day. Just 136 miles from Lordsburg to Tombstone, AZ. No wind or dust today, thank goodness.

After getting checked into the park we took a walk around the main tourist part of town, took in dinner at the Crystal Palace and back to the house for the night.

Day 10 - April 2 Travel Day, time to gather up some dust

Today was a travel day. Heading from Alamogordo toward Tombstone, Az.

We spent most of the day fighting a very sandy head wind across southern New Mexico. There were a few spots with limited visibility but fortunately nothing dangerous. We will need to do some serious dusting of the truck, trailer, and each other if/when we get out of sand country....

Stopped for the day in Lordsburg, NM. We should make Tombstone in about 2-3 hours tomorrow.

Rosalie and Gigi topped off the day with a bit of technical experimentation by firing up and connecting with a Skype video chat.

Day 9 - April 1 We were not fooled, and we like pistatios

Today's big adventure was a trip to the world famous Eagle Ranch Heart of the Desert Pistachio farm just down the road from the Edgeington RV park outside of Alamogordo.

We spent about 3 hours learning all about Pistachios, how they grow, are harvested and packaged. We sampled their Pistachio wine (didn't care for it) as well as the Pistachio gelato which Rosalie really, really liked.

Rosalie and Peppy Pistachio

Some Alamogordo pics: Picasa Alamogordo:

Day 8 - Mar 31 White Sands National Monument, Junior ranger badge 8

Seemed like it was going to be a good day today to get out and explore the White Sands dunes, turned out it was.

We headed out to the park fairly early by our standards. Stopped off at the visitors center to pick up the Junior Ranger packet and the obligatory sand sled and headed for the dunes.

The dunes here are primarily made up of gypsum and are a sugary white. They would make any ocean beach blush with shame. The gypsum from the surrounding mountains dissolves in the rain runoff which makes its way to the two lakes that comprise the runoff basin. There is no outlet for the water so it collects in the two lakes. Then the summer comes along and evaporates the average of 10" they get a year. The resulting minerals that remain are what eventually make up the dunes of White sands. The relentless wind pulverizes the fragile mineral until it becomes the sugary sand dunes we slide down today.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that we did not have to walk the 3/4 mile of so to the dunes as we had at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. In this park they had plowed a road out through a section of the dunes where we found covered picnic tables set up about 50' from a usable dune. I suppose they will need to move the tables in a year or so, else they will get covered.

The dunes here are not near as high as those at the Great Sand Dunes, which I suppose is why it's called the "Great" sand dunes. But adequate for a four year old. Unfortunately the sleds are plastic and not really designed for adults. Both of us big people tried of course but we seemed to slide down slower than walking up, the plastic deformed and we just did not move much,

We had to call it a fairly early day as the wind started kicking up and none of us were interested in seeing the inner workings of a sand storm, no matter how tame it was.

Back to the park station to complete the Junior Ranger requirements. Rosalie was sworn in and received her 8th ranger badge.

A late dinner at a local Mexican restaurant rounded out another great day on the road.

 

Day 7 - Mar 30 New Mexico Space Museum and time around the house

It was a split up day.

Leroy went to the local space museum located on the mountain side overlooking Alamogordo. It is not the largest museum around but was interesting none the less. White Sands, just out side of Alamogordo, has a rich history connected with our rocket development history. The first A bomb of course was set off 70 miles to the north, rocket motors and systems were tested here, safety restraints developed for the astronauts that resulted in automobile seat belts were tested here. This part of the Chihuahua desert has been busy over they years. They still do testing out here, closing the park and a near by US highway a couple days a week for up to two hours.

The ladies of the house stayed at the park and played dolls, did the laundry (thanks girls..), explored the RV park, did a bit of schooling,  and had a bit of one on one time together.

Dinner of hot dogs and mac and cheese rounded out the day....