Caverns and Bisbee

Houghton Road Corridor Improvements have been in the works, beginning in 2012.  A Corridor expanding from I-1o to Tanque Verd Road.

The Voyager RV Resort is in the southeast corner of Tucson

Houghton Road Corridor

Six-lane roadway, improved access with landscape medians, bike lanes on either side, sideways on both sides, bus pullouts, landscaping and wildlife-sensitive design.

A massive project and only once have I been stalled with construction (paving) while traveling this road to Lincoln Park.  

 There is no way around as the road surrounds the Airforce "Bone Yard" and massive desert landscape.

Everyday I pass by the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the aircraft boneyard.  Under the AAC (Air Combat Command), Davis-Monthan is best known as the sole aircraft boneyard for all excess military and government aircrafts; the location allows for preservation of the aircraft.   The facility has grown to include more than 4,200 aircrafts and 13 aerospace vehicles.

The Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center is a joint service facility managed by the US Air Force.  Many of the stored aircraft can be returned to an operational status and there is a continual process of anti-corrosion and re-preservation work to keep them in stable condition.   Many of the aircraft are re-sealed to protect the components from dust and heat of the Sonoran Desert.

A final Voyager burger before we leave Tucson.   The restaurant is just across the street from us and they do make delicious burgers.

But, on they particular night it was a bit of a disappointment ---- food took about two hours, there was an extreme shortage of staff and the meals were not the standard.  

Each month The Voyager brings in vendors for the Market Daze and Farmers Market

Metal Flowers

Night time pickleball

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show

Since 1955 every February approximately 4,500 vendors come to Tucson the world's largest display of rocks, fossils, gems, minerals, jewelry, beads, dinosaurs and meteorites.  

Bags of coconut geodes.

An estimated 50,000 visitors come to Tucson during the two week period.  The shows consist of about 45 separate events running in hotels, parking lots, and tents from the end of January to mid-February.   Most are open to the public, though a few are wholesale only.

George Winters (Director) from the Utah Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences

Ammonites:  were squid like creatures that lived inside coil-shaped shells.  They had sharp, beaklike jaws inside a ring of tentacles extending from their shells to snare prey such as fish and crustaceans.  They became extinct with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

This tent was not my favorite - especially seeing dead animals and birds, not to mentioned a bin full of tortoise shells.







Some interesting herbs and trinkets, including porcupine quills and of coarse, feathers and horse hair died all colors.

Selenite Rose

Azurite from Holbrook Mine, Bisbee, Arizona

Security is a huge issue at the Gem Shows.   Thieves follow the shows and it has become a career for some.   Same with street beggars - they too are known to follow the shows from place to place and there were two that I saw every day on Kolb Road when driving around . . . they seem to no longer be in the area.   Thieves have purchased cheap artificial diamond rings from Walmart and then craftily slip them off and replace them with real diamonds at the gem show.  A vendor who sells authentic and expensive Persian carpets hired some help to unload them.   He found the help was taking several into the tent but placing some neatly in a pile by a shed to be picked up later.

Old Bisbee Roasters

Took a day trip to the cool mining town of Bisbee.   Our favorite, all time coffee roaster is housed there.  

Mmmmmmmm, mmm, mmmm - the smell of freshly roasting beans.   The smell fills the air for several blocks in Bisbee.

Seth at work
(photo courtesy of Old Bisbee Roasters)

Seth Appell has been roasting coffee since 1998.  He regularly purchases beans (so - fresh is the key) and the bulk of his coffee is sold via the Internet.   He will ship anywhere in the US (free delivery on orders of 2 lbs or more).   He does not have a coffee shop but you can enjoy a free sample anytime you stop by his kiosk in downtown Bisbee and purchase freshly roasted beans.

October the 24th annual Bisbee 1000 stair climb takes place.   The entire town is built on cliffs and the main mode of transportation in this very steep and winding town is shoes or motorbikes.

And a relaxed and social atmosphere.   

Love this ... "usually closed Tuesdays"

Some unusual gates

Some unusual vehicles

Despite floods, fires, labor troubles and min shutdowns & reopenings, Bisbee has endured, with a peak population of 35,0000.

JUST wide enough for one vehicle from the top to the bottom 

A dangerous place in its early days (founded in 1880 as a copper, gold and silver mining town), Apache raids often occurred.  As a result, school children had "Indian drills."   When they heard the whistle blow two shorts, a long, and a short, they were to scurry to the safety of mine shafts.

The Mule Mountains were once forested but in the late 1800s they were stripped clean for firewood and the polluting fumes of smelters choked the canyons and gulches where the town developed.   Eventually, smelters were opened in outlying areas and the air once again became clean.   Bisbee became a more pleasant place to live and people settled here.

These two boys were getting into trouble.   We were walking the dogs on the next street level up and these two were throwing direct and rocks below, onto the outdoor cafe's tables and chairs.    The owner came out and set them straight, making them clean up their mess.

Just minutes from leaving to go to the Kartchner Caverns Marc notices some water dripping below one of the bays of the motorhome.   Hmm.  . no rain.   So, off I went by myself while he tried to figure out the problem.

After an all day affair pulling panels off and checking everywhere, the next day he found the culprit.

The Fridge . . .
The RV repair place he would go to couldn't fit us in for a month.

Marc did this by himself - had to get help to get it back into place.   



The hose at the back of the fridge had a pinhole leak because it was pinching on a clamp on the wall that holds the wires.

There's probably no hose or wire left that he hasn't seen or fixed now.

KARTCHNER CAVERNS

(Benson)

Discovered in 1974 by two young cagers exploring the limestone hills at the base of the Whetstone Mountains.  In the bottom of a sinkhole they found a narrow crack leading into the hillside and felt warm, moist air flowing out, signaling the existence of a cave.

They kept it a secret for four years but deeply concerned about vandalism, they approached the property owners (Kartchners) and following years of meetings and politics, the caves became an Arizona State Park (1988) and opened to the public.

Soda straws

The tour starts with a tram ride up to the base of the caves entrance.   It took two full years to carefully clear out an entrance tunnel in which there is an airlock metal door into the tunnel.   Several hundred feet and you enter another airlock door to the cave entrance (The Throne Room).   You then enter a misting room.



Painstaking efforts have been taken to ensure the safety and preservation of these caves (The Throne Room and The Big Room).   You are misted so that loose lint, skin (that we constantly shed) and oils adhere to our bodies as much as possible and avoid entering the cave.

Each and every night the pathways in the caves are washed down.   The pathways are thick walled cement walks so the water and debris can flow freely.   The danger of oils or debris from tourists is the bacteria which would allow for algae and fungi to grow in the moist, warm condition.

Humidity is around 98% and temperature currently is in the 70s.





Drop by drop over 200,000 years, water seeping through cracks and crevices have formed amazingly stunning formations.  

Water enters from the surface the dissolving minerals on its way.  The trapped carbon dioxide escapes from the water.   No longer able to hold the dissolved calcite, the drop deposits its tiny mineral load.

Tufts and Tenen (the last names of the two who discovered these caves) didn't want to touch more than necessary and in order to find their way in and out, using the same pathway, they used popsicle sticks for markers.

The end of the tour you enter The Throne Room.  A breathtaking view of a vaulted ceiling with an impressive collection of stalagmites, stalactites, butterscotch-colored mineral formations called drapery and a light show illuminating different sections at different times.

Kubla Khan
(the tower name)

This towering column is the centerpiece of the cave, rising up to a 58 foot totem pole.  You can see a geologist in the bottom of the picture.

I'm sad to say, I did not take any of the inside photos of the cave as you are not allowed to take anything with you; no cell phones, water, cameras - nothing.  500 visitors per day is the maximum allowed and with tours going every 30 minutes, imagine they do not want any delays with people taking pictures.

The tour takes almost an hour and a half and photos do not do it justice.  Absolutely breathtaking!

So, this is pretty much our time spent in Tucson.   Leaving here Wednesday to  El Centro for a couple of nights, then to Hemet, California.