Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Methinks not. We were to have a Circle The Wagons camping weekend starting on Friday. The place we are scheduled to stay is south of the Denver area. If you look at the snow forcast map above it's in the red area at the bottom center of the picture. Red in this case means 16-22" of snow between tomorrow and Friday morning. I'm not complaining, we really need the moisture. The weather folks could be wrong too. It seems as if they're more wrong than right these days but I have a feeling that this time they will be right.

We will just have to wait until Friday morning to make a final decision. I will leave my RV at the storage lot till then and hope that if we decide to go I will be able to get it out of the lot. The lot is not paved and it can get pretty muddy after a heavy rain or wet snow.

In the last few days I have been cruising around the area with my new camera looking for subjects that would make good HDR photos. Yesterday I went south of here to a field that had a lot of old classic...but junk cars. They are always interesting to photograph and I think a few shots turned out pretty well.

The processing of the photos can be as complex as you want it to be and it's easy to "over do" it. I purposely "over did" it on a few shots just for the fun of it. The picture to the right is a bit overdone but when your subject it the wrecked interior of a car, you need a little something to make it interesting.

This morning I went to a historic old town that is now just a suburb of Denver. It still retains it's small town feel however in the old downtown area. There are lots of things to take pictures of and I wanted especially to take some pictures of buildings and not get too crazy with the processing. I also knew that today would be my last chance for a few days to do this if the weather people are right about their forecast.

The weather was perfect for shooting today with brilliant blue skies and a healthy dose of clouds. A lot of times here in Colorado the sky is the classic Colorado cobalt blue, but there are absolutely no clouds in the sky to give contrast to that blue.

I spent the better part of the morning wandering around taking pictures and got back home about noon. Processing the pictures occupied a good portion of the afternoon. It was a day well spent.

My next objective is to find a church or public building and take some pictures inside. HDR can be really effective in that situation. There is a large Catholic cathedral in downtown Denver that would be perfect and perhaps next week I'll get a chance to go down and try my luck.

Here's a couple more pictures....



















Thanks for visiting.

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that it's not snowing....the bad news is that it's not snowing....

The Denver front range area narrowly missed a really intense spring storm. Heavy snow is predicted for the mountains, the front range north of us and blizzard warnings are out for the plains east of us. Yesterday we basked in 79 degree temperature and we'll be lucky to hit 50 today.

As much as we would prefer the 79 degrees, the front range is desperate for the moisture. This year is racking up to be one of the driest on record. The good news is that the mountains have had an above average amount of snow this year so drinking water is not an issue. Plants and animals along the front range will suffer and wildfires are almost guaranteed.

The storm will move out of the area Tuesday but by Thursday another small storm will move into the area. This is bad news because The Circle has a Circle The Wagons, RV weekend planned. This trip is just kind of a warm up test run before the main season begins. We have planned to spend Friday and Saturday nights at Mountaindale RV Resort which is about 70 miles southwest of here. This is not my normal style of camping as I prefer the more remote locations but it will do fine for a quick weekend get-away, and with all of The Circle present, we will have an "entertaining" time.

Thanks for visiting.

Going To The Chicken Dance

Yes, you read it right, I'm going to the chicken dance. I've always wanted to...well, in the last five years or so anyway. I didn't think you could catch them dancing but I've found a place that will not only find the dance hall, but they will take you to it and provide you with a front row seat. I expect to be a changed person after the dance. Before you start thinking that I've lost a few bricks from my load, I'm not talking about any old chicken, I'm talking about the lesser prairie chicken.

For people who are wildlife enthusiasts this would be a pretty big deal because you can find these unique birds only in a very small part of the United States. This area includes southeastern Colorado, the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma and southwestern Kansas. These birds were once plentiful all over the southwest but farming, grazing and pesticides have taken their toll. While this bird is not on the endangered species list there are only about 500 breeding birds in Colorado and I am excited to be able to see some in the wild.

In the springtime the lesser prairie chickens gather at "communal" sites to mate. These areas are called leks. The males puff themselves up and jump up and down, trying to impress the local females.....not unlike humans...and that's what I'm going to see.

To be able to see this incredible display you don't just drive around southeast Colorado and happen upon them. To see them you have to know where a lek is and you can't let the birds see you or feel threatened. The best way to see them is to have a guide take you to a lek and to use a blind so that the birds cannot see you. Since the birds are active at sunrise you have to be in the blind well before sunrise.

Guitar and I found a rancher who conducts tours on private land in April and early May so we decided we're going to the dance. Our ladies have agreed to accompany us but they're a little skeptical at getting up at 4 am to go see some birds. Maybe if we get them a corsage to go to the dance that will help?

The plan is to take our RVs to this ranch on a Saturday in mid April. We will go to the dance on Sunday morning. Probably on Sunday afternoon we'll head for either Bent's Old Fort or Vogel Canyon and spend Sunday night. We'll return home on Monday. Stay tuned for more.

Thanks for visiting.

Cameras

As I reported in a previous post, I broke my digital Panasonic Luminix camera while I was in Tucson. There was no way I was going to continue the trip without a camera so before leaving the Tucson area I went to Best Buy and bought a Nikon D60. This was a step up, for sure, from the Panasonic but I had had a Nikon N60 film camera a number of years ago so I was looking forward to pushing my photography envelope.

One of the things that I really wanted to explore with the new camera was HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and most SLR digital cameras sold today support this with auto exposure bracketing (AEB).

Notice I said "most". To my horror I discovered, after plunking down a chunk of cash, that the Nikon D60 does not have AEB....and by this time I was a couple of days down the road and I had disposed of all the boxes etc. This was a big time quandary and I felt stupid for not realizing this before I bought the camera. The options were not good. The Nikon D90 does have AEB but the body alone costs about $1200. To make matters even worse I discovered that the Canon Rebel line of cameras that are priced equivalent to the Nikon D60 do have AEB and a couple of other nice features. Without the original boxes and after having used the camera for almost two weeks I thought I was...was...well you know.

In desperation I took the Nikon in to the Best Buy here in the Denver area and explained my situation. I was totally shocked, and elated when they said "no problem". As long as I had the receipt and all the pieces they would accept an exchange! Elation is not the word. I hadn't felt this good since I received a "D" in college physics....it was a required course and I was WAY over my head!

So now I'm the proud owner of a Canon Rebel XSi. To make things even sweeter I discovered that the lenses for my Canon EOS film camera that I bought about 10 years ago, will work just fine with my digital Canon.

This weekend I took a number of photos and turned them into HDR images using the software Photomatix. I'm hooked and I guess I have yet another hobby/interest that I will have to allot precious time to. The pictures in this post are the "artsy" side of HDR and right now that's what I'm learning. There's a lot more that can be done with HDR but I'll save that for another post.

I'm scheduled for jury duty this week and will know tonight if I have to serve....

Thanks for visiting.

Mountain Man In Training

This post is all about Guitar and his long road to becoming a Mountain Man. Last October, Guitar and I and our ladies went to the Spanish Market and Mountain Man Rendezvous at The Fort Restaurant here in the Denver area. At the Rendezvous part we watched a bunch of re-enactors demonstrate pioneer skills.

Guitar was particularly mesmerized with the fire starting exhibit. No matches here. No electronic gadgets. No gasoline. Fire was started using flint and steel, some charred cotton cloth, lots of tinder and a lot of lung power. I'm not sure why Guitar is so infatuated with fire, most guys kinda grow our of that after a while....I did, after I set the school on fire in my younger years. #1 could tell stories about that, but I digress.

So, Guitar really thought it would be cool to start a fire with a rock and a tire iron. Being the observant friend that I am, I tucked this bit of information away and for Christmas I got him a fire starting kit....complete with instructions, because novice mountain men need a little direction.

Guitar told me that he had tinkered with the kit a bit in his back yard a few times but had never had the chance to try it out for real. Our trip to Tucson and back gave him the perfect opportunity. On our last night out, while camping in Navajo Lake State Park, he decided to take the Mountain Man Part One test.

I helped him scrounge bits and pieces of wood and tinder from around the empty campground. We got enough for just a little fire....if he was successful. I watched him for about 20 minutes and periodically would offer him a little gasoline, which to his credit, he declined. He's a determined guy.

After 20 minutes I got cold and went inside the RV to the "sure thing modern fire". Every couple of minutes I would go back outside and give him words of encouragement like "Putz!", "The Indians would have what's left of your scalp by now!", and go back inside the RV.

I was inside the RV getting ready to do my Mountain Man lasagna in the microwave when I heard him shout and bang on the side of the RV.

Sure enough he had a fire going. Now I wasn't there to see the actual ignition point...and the gasoline can for the generator was sitting outside next to the RV. I guess I'll have to take his word for it that he didn't use the gasoline because the silly grin on his face couldn't have come from using gasoline.

I'm pretty sure that if any readers, wherever you might live, need to have a fire started in your back yard to burn leaves or whatever, Guitar would be happy to travel there to start a "Mountain Man fire".


By the way, Pic-E, Too Tall, K and The Bride...what do you think of Guitar's hair do in the third picture down from the top?
Thanks for visiting.

The Shady Dell & Dot's Diner

In a previous post I told you about our trip to the old mining town of Bisbee, AZ and shopping at their great antique and jewelry stores. This was a must for the ladies...and for the guys as well but for a completely different reason. The fact that the ladies got to "shop a lot" meant that us guys had built up enough "credit" to impose on them to visit a very famous bit of kitsch located in the same town.

The Shady Dell trailer park is Arizona's oldest continuously operated trailer park. Opened in 1927 it has been serving travelers for over 80 years. It didn't start it's life as the Shady Dell though. It had had numerous names over the years and before it became the Shady Dell it was called Snowbird Heaven. In 2004 two entrepreneurs bought the property and turned it into a haven for classic trailers. Even better, they restored these trailers and turned the place into a trailer motel.

Continuing on the theme, the owners purchased a 1957 Valentine diner in California and added it to the property. It's called Dot's Diner and seats a whopping 10 people inside and another 8 outside, so if you want to eat either breakfast or lunch there you'd better come early. Unfortunately, we arrived in late afternoon and the diner was closed.

Ownership changed hands a year or so ago and a young energetic couple now owns and is expanding the place with more classic trailers, a Tiki bus and a 1947 Chris Craft yatch. The Shady Dell is one cool place.

We spent some time talking with the new owners and it was refreshing to see a young couple so involved and excited about their business. The reported that at this time of year, the high season in AZ, they are pretty well booked up for most of the weekends. They extend this kitsch to their private lives as well and have a gorgeous classic Shasta trailer that they use on family outings.

The Shady Dell was one of the must do things I had on my list for the trip and I was not disappointed. Some day I would love to stay overnight in one of their classic trailers! Here's a few more pictures.





























Thanks for visiting.

Adrift In The SouthWest Again - Conclusion

On this trip we saved the best for last. Of all the things we saw during our two week sojourn, Chaco Canyon was probably the most incredible and mysterious place of all. Readers will remember that I was first in this place a few months ago and at that time I knew I had to return not only for more for me but I really wanted Guitar to see it as well.

Chaco Canyon was the center of the Puebloan world from about 850 AD until around 1200 AD. Within this 10 mile long canyon and the surrounding mesas are over 120 archeological sites. This was to the Puebloan people what The Vatican, Mecca or Jerusalem is to modern religions today. Much of what was built over 1000 years ago remains there today. Much of it is still unexcavated but even those sites are grand and mysterious. Somewhere before 1200 AD the people and their culture moved away. The evidence is that some went north to Aztec, NM and Mesa Verde and after another 200 years they "disappeared" completely....at least to us.

Their society remains one of the great mysteries of the "New World". They were master builders and constructed buildings that were among the largest and most sophisticated in the entire world at the time of their construction. To build these buildings they transported millions of logs to the canyon from the mountains over 50 miles away....without the use of the wheel! They were star watchers and astronomy played a big part in their world. Their huge pueblo complexes are aligned on a true north/south direction usually with another wall that is aligned on a true east/west direction.

Chaco Canyon was also a meeting place of different cultures. Archaeologists can tell from the artifacts recovered that people from many different places and cultures came to Chaco. Copper bells and macaw skeletons from South America have been discovered in the ruins as has jewelry made of shells found only in the Pacific Ocean. Turquoise was found just about everywhere in the form of jewelry, fetishes and other implements.

In short this is a fascinating place....and it's not well known to the general public. It's also very remote, so except in the middle of the summer it's almost empty of tourists. My kind of place.

Guitar and I arrived around 1 pm on Thursday afternoon. After checking in at the visitor center and paying for a campsite we took the ranger guided tour of Pueblo Bonito, the largest structure in the canyon. After the tour we walked around several other ruins and looked at petroglyphs on the canyon walls.

Night came too soon....but it brought it's own opportunity. Because Chaco is so remote there is absolutely no light pollution in the night sky. It is a great place to stargaze which we did. This past Christmas I gave both Guitar and Too Tall - Two Timing a star wheel that helps identify constellations in the night sky. It was the perfect tool to use as we stood under the crystal clear night sky of Chaco Canyon.

Friday morning we started on a 5 mile loop hike that started at one of the ruins and continued up to the rim of the canyon and to two other large ruins. The weather started out clear but cold and both Guitar and I had several layers of clothes. By mid morning we had shed most layers and were quite comfortable. The picture above and to the left shows Guitar leaving an "offering" in one of the pecked basins we saw on the trail. These basins were "pecked" out by the ancient people and when many of them were discovered in the early 1900's they were filled with turquoise offerings. Guitar didn't have any turquoise to spare so he left a couple of copper pennies.

We packed a lunch and at noon, sitting on the rim of the canyon looking down on the remnants of a 1000 year old building we ate PB&J sandwiches and cheese crackers....It was a memorable experience.

All along the trail we found pottery shards. It is speculated that because so many pieces of pottery are found in this area and other ancient pueblo ruins, that they represent some type of offering where pottery is broken to honor the ancestors. This ritual is still done by modern Navajo and Hopi people.

It's an eerie feeling to hold a piece of pottery in your hand, out in the middle of nowhere, that you know another human held 800-1000 years ago. It's likely that you were the first to touch this piece of pottery since that individual put it there all those years ago. We didn't finish the hike until mid afternoon and then spent some time at the visitor center museum and made plans for the next day.

Friday night we did more stargazing and I did something I had been wanting to do since my last visit to this place. Readers might remember that after my last visit here I decided to learn to play the Native American Flute. In the intervening couple of months I have gotten a flute and can play it a little.

I brought the flute along with me on this trip so standing in the darkness with only the stars overhead I gave it a go. The campground was close to the walls of the canyon so the sound of the flute reverberated off the walls. The playing wasn't expert, but I imagine the ancient ones weren't always expert either....At any rate it was an experience. For me, a pleasant experience...I'm not sure about Guitar.

Saturday morning we decided to take one more short hike and then to head out of the canyon back towards the Denver area. This hike was listed at a little over 3 miles but by the time we got back to the RV my GPS said we had walked closer to 4.5 miles.

It was another great hike that led to a ruin on the mesa top and then through some spectacular scenery and ended up at a huge excavated kiva, Casa Rincondata.

We finished the hike right at noon and had a lunch of canned sardines and crackers before heading out of the canyon. The lunch was memorable too. It's probably been twenty years since I've had canned sardines. I used to have them regularly on my boat when fishing in Savannah and this lunch not only was satisfying in taste but it brough back pleasant memories of fishing on my boat.

The road out of Chaco had not improved in the two days we were there. It still took an hour to go the first 12 miles. We made it as far as Navajo State Park that afternoon and spent one last night on the road.

Sunday morning we started early and drove through Chama, NM into Alamosa, CO and then on in to the Denver area. We were gone two weeks and logged about 2300 miles on the RV. It was another trip of a lifetime....many sights, new friends and a new appreciation for the magnificence of this country we call ours.

After only a few days home I'm already scheming and planning for the next trip. Don't know when or where but it will happen..and soon. I have a few more stories to tell about this trip but I'll leave them for another post.

Thanks for visiting.

Adrift In The SouthWest Again - Part VII

As I mentioned in the last post we spent Wednesday night in Gallup. We arrived in late afternoon and before heading to the RV park we cruised down part of old Route 66. There were a lot of old motel signs to keep us entertained.

Probably the most fascinating old hotel/motel we encountered was the El Rancho. As you can see from the picture at the top of the post, they bill themselves as the "Home of the Movie Stars". Apparently this was the "in" place to stay when travelling through the area or when movies were being shot in the area. The lobby is a fantastic piece of western lodge style architecture and on the mezzanine they had autographed pictures of about every major star of the 30's through the 60's.

They also had a pretty nice jewelry story that featured Native American jewelry, all of which was made by local artists and picked by the owner of El Rancho, Armand Ortega. The sales lady in the jewelry shop said that Mr. Ortega is 83 years old and still takes a very active role in the management of the hotel.

After checking into the RV park we decided to have dinner on the town and stopped at a local family style Mexican restaurant. It was outstanding and just what we needed after a couple of hard days travel.

Thursday morning we headed off I-40, north on NM 491 towards Shiprock and Farmington. This road goes straight through the heart of the Navajo reservation and is quite scenic. At Farmington we stopped for a few supplies before heading to Chaco Canyon which is VERY remote. While in Farmington we stumbled on a Muffler Man....a very appropriate stumble before we immersed ourselves in a couple of days of ancient culture.

Getting into Chaco Canyon wasn't any easier that when I was there last fall. The last 12 miles of road into the canyon is severely rutted and it took one hour to drive this stretch. It is, as I said last fall, worth every bit of effort. I was really looking forward to seeing Guitar's reaction to this place.

I'll tell you this part of the story in the next post....

Thanks for visiting.

Adrift In The SouthWest Again - Part VI

Wednesday morning after visiting Winslow, AZ it was time to head east towards our next major destination, Chaco Canyon. We didn't expect to make it all the way there that day but we were going to try to make as many miles as we could and still see some of the sights.

The first stop was Holbrook, AZ. We needed some more kitsch balance. Standin' on the Corner started to tip us back towards the center between culture and kitsch but we needed a little more and Holbrook was the place to do it.

Driving into Holbrook we came upon the Wigwam Motel, a famous old Route 66 attraction. I guess I was remiss in my planning of this segment of the trip because I completely overlooked the fact that we would pass by the Wigwam so this was a great surprise for me. Both Guitar and I were like kids in a candy shop looking at the old cars and the motel rooms. I took lots of pictures of the old cars, their grills and hood ornaments. The motel is still in operation and you can stay in one of the wigwams for a reasonable cost.

Just down the road we ran into yet another piece of kitsch, a rock shop with 8-10 statues of dinosaurs. The Bride commented that she remembered this site when she visited the Petrified Forest in the mid 1950's. Needless to say Guitar and I took a few more pictures.

OK, now it was time to tilt the scale back the other way a bit so we headed for the Petrified Forest National Park. It was mid day by this time and while the weather was great, the wind really began to blow and I really had to hold on to the steering wheel of the RV to keep on the narrow road.

We entered the park from the south and stopped at the visitor center to look around and take a short hike through the biggest concentration of long petrified trees. Because it was so windy and we had far to travel we didn't do more hiking. The road through the park is about 28 miles and goes through not only the Petrified Forest but also parts of the Painted Desert. We exited the park back on I-40 and headed for Gallup, NM. Along the way we stopped at a couple of Indian trading posts so that Guitar could continue his search for the "perfect" piece of jewelry.

By the time we got to Gallup it was late afternoon and we decided to call it a day. We found an RV park with hookups and a shower and settled in for the night after some sightseeing...but I'll save that for the next post.

Thanks for visiting.

Adrift in the SouthWest Again - Part V

By Monday the 23rd Guitar and I had been at the Cactus Country RV for six days. We were getting antsy to move on. Antsy-ness certainly had nothing to do with the hospitality of our hosts or the RV park. We simply had a long list of "wannas" and needed to work on that list. You can see some of the antsy-ness on my face in the picture above....Note the new "soft" western hat.

Our first "plan" was to go north from Tucson, through Globe and spend the night somewhere around Payson. We were on the road by 8 am and were in Globe around noon. We spent a little time looking in antique stores and taking pictures of old signs. After a quick lunch we headed out for the Tonto National Monument.

I mentioned in my last post that up until this trip I had never seen Saguaro cactus before. Saguaro National Park around Tucson was filled with them but once you got outside the park the habitat changed. The road we took on Tuesday morning Arizona Highway 77 passed through miles and miles of Saguaro terrain. It really gave us that deep SouthWest flavor.

Tonto National Monument, north of Globe and south of Payson, contains a number of ancient cliff dwellings. The only one we had time to inspect was a 1/2 mile hike from the visitor's center. 1/2 mile doesn't sound like much but this hike is almost straight up! The picture above was taken pretty close to the visitors center so you can see what the climb was like. It was very worthwhile however as the scenery was spectacular on this gorgeous spring day. Temps were in the 80's.

We took our time looking at what we could because we had planned on stopping relatively early in the Payson area. As we were driving towards Payson we decided that if we went a little further we could camp on the Mogollon Rim. The Mogollon Rim is an escarpment that runs for hundreds of miles in a NW to SE direction through the central part of Arizona. The idea of camping at the edge of the rim, looking down on the Saguaro forests was too much to resist.

Little did we expect while driving through the cactus forests with temps in the 80's that weather would put a dent in our plans. When we reached the rim which is about 7000 feet in elevation, we found snow....and lots of it. In some places there was at least 4 feet of snow on the side of the road. All the campgrounds were closed of course so we resorted to a backup plan.

The hastily concocted backup plan was to drive through to Winslow, AZ and camp at the Homolovi Ruins State Park. We had two things on our "to do" list for this area but it was getting late so it was all we could do to get to the campground by dark.

As I mentioned the campground was in the Homolovi Ruins State Park. This is a very interesting State Park that was created in 1990. The park protects several ancient pueblos that are sacred to the local Navajo tribes. Neither of the publeos has been excavated so you have to use your imagination to visualize what the pueblos looked like 800 years ago. You did not have to use your imagination to get an idea of the pottery that these ancient people used. The ground was covered with shards. In many areas pieces had been gathered and placed on a stone as a kind of offering to the spirits. We assumed this had been done in ceremonies by the local Navajo people.

While we were at the park we heard that it possibly would close after this year due to budget problems. We felt lucky that we were able to visit this special place while it was still possible to do so.

After touring the park on Wednesday morning we headed for "downtown" Winslow. If you are of my age and are in the Winslow area a must do is to "Stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona"....a classic lyric from the classic song Take it Easy by The Eagles. Even if I didn't want to do this there is no way Guitar would have let me pass this by.

It was pretty clear to both of us that this was one of the few things keeping this small town alive. The only other thing going for Winslow was La Posada Hotel, the last of the great Fred Harvey hotels and a true architectural masterpiece. Guitar and I spent about an hour looking through the gift/jewelry shop and looking around the stunning public rooms in the hotel.

Winslow was the spot where we would turn east and head into New Mexico but I'll leave that part of the story for later...Stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

Adrift In The SouthWest Again - Part IV

I don't know how I'm going to tell you all that has transpired since my last post. Since there was so much activity I think I'll just summarize and not give you all the details.

In my last post I indicated that Guitar and I picked up our wives at the Tucson airport on Wednesday the 25th. With Jamie and Betsy as our tour guides, we six visited Tubac and Patagonia for some shopping and sightseeing. Tubac was quite the upscale, funky town with a lot of interesting shops that kept the ladies busy. I managed to find a soft western hat that I couldn't live without so it is now part of my hat collection.

On Friday we all drove to Tombstone and Bisbee. We passed by the touristy downtown Tombstone area but visited the historic Courthouse which was very interesting. Bisbee is an old mining town that now caters to tourists and has plenty of jewelry and antique stores. I think we looked at every single one. Guitar almost bought an antique bolo tie but decided to wait and see what he could find on the rest of the trip. As it turns out he liked that bolo tie more than anything we saw on the rest of the trip. He has the shop's phone number and I'm betting that he'll call them and buy that bolo.

On Saturday we visited the Arizona-SonoraDesert Museum and Saguaro National Park. In all my travels over the years I've never seen a saguaro cactus up close and personal. By Saturday evening I had added that experience to my list. It was beautiful and entertaining. Saturday evening, Jamie and Betsy's daughter and son in law were our hosts for a dinner of home made tamales. The word "outstanding" would be a good descriptor for the quality of the food and company.

Sunday morning Guitar and I took the ladies to the airport and they flew back to Denver. They loved the Tucson area and have already said that they want to go back. By this time Guitar and I had been on the road for a week so a load of wash was in order but before we did that there was one more chore to accomplish.

Somehow, someway, on Friday I broke my Panasonic Luminix camera. I had downloaded some pictures and the door that covers the battery and memory card slot broke off. It was unrepairable because the door hinge is a moulded part of the camera body. I was crushed. I have had that camera for a number of years and it always provided good images. I was also in a bit of a bind as I didn't want to go through the rest of the trip without a camera. After a conference with The Bride it was decided that I should get a new camera before I left Tucson. So, Sunday morning as soon as Best Buy opened up I went in and got a Nikon D60. It was a step up as far as digital cameras are concerned but I did have a Nikon N60 film camera before I switched to digital.

Camera acquired and laundry done, Guitar, Jamie, Betsy and myself headed out to the Empire Ranch for a couple of hours. This is an historic ranch and many of the buildings are open for the public to get a glimpse of what ranch life was like a hundred years ago.

Monday we drove southeast of the Tucson are to Ft. Bowie National Historic Site. I'm always interested in military history and because this was an old cavalry fort it really piqued my interest. To get to the fort requires a 3 mile round trip hike. The hike in however gave the experience a little more realism. The weather was perfect even if it was a bit windy. Before we got to the fort itself we passed by the post cemetery. Cochise's son Little Robe was buried there. All of the military people who were buried there were moved to another cemetery when the fort was deactivated but there are still a number of civilian graves there, most with the notation "Killed by Apaches". A dinner Monday night at more of the Kimbrough clan Tucson branch and we called it a night.

Guitar and I were to leave the Tucson area and head back to the Denver area on Tuesday morning and that's a good place to stop the report for now. Stay tuned for "The Rest of the Story".

Thanks for visiting.