Caves, Good Food, and Dynamite!

It is funny, but true…when you are packing up to leave, it seems like everyone around you comes and talks. We have read other people say this and it is true for us as well. The guy next to us, Kevin had briefly chatted with the other day. He has a motorhome here. He is a commercial pilot for Southwest Airlines. He is based out of Oakland and this place is easier to “get to work” than from Texas. Then when Kevin walked back from the trash a bunch of old guys were sitting outside and started talking with him. So fun.

Travel Day: to Benson, AZ. Right outside of Tucson, on I-10, the landscape changed. Still mountains around but instead of flat land for the valley it was huge gullies. We also started climbing and got to just over 4000 ft elevation.

This is Kartchner Caverns State Park Campground. The ranger at the front gate gave us the map where the campground was, just past the visitor center. This place is wow! The campground: asphalt roads and pads, mesquite trees all around (I am glad they are only in buds so I can see through them), metal picnic table and a fire ring. The day was so gorgeous; we sat outside for a short time and then decided to go to the visitor center. It is a short ways here, as the campground is up the hill from it. The mountain we are on is so pretty with rocky cliffs, and green bushes. At the visitor center we watched the video with captions. This place gets an A! I really like the interviews with the two guys who first found the caves. The video mentioned and showed that this is the first cave system where wheelchairs can go in. That gave me great hope to be able to do the tour. I was worried about rough terrain and my dizziness/vertigo. There are even hand rails along the way. Yes!

I decided to go through my sewing machine manual. I wanted to play around with the letters you can make. I wondered about numbers and when I actually pressed the “wrong” sequence of numbers for input…I saw I made a number. So I went from 27 through 80 finding all sorts of characters! What a find. Not sure why they aren’t shown in the manual. Lucky find for me. Then I decided to get a large piece of white fabric and do a couple inches of most of the fancy stitches so I can better see it than the small markings. This is fun! I finished up my “sewing machine stitch sampler” oh, that is a good name!  It really helps to see the stitches about an inch or two long instead of just the small printed one on the machine. This will be great reference.

Kevin suggested we try a place our RV friend, Bridget, recommended to us: Mi Casa Restaurant. This article is from 2014. OH my gosh – what a treasure! Now, if it wasn’t for Bridget’s recommendation, it is a place we would never have stopped. It is in what looks to be a very small old, one story house. I have tried to find the history of it online but I don’t see anything. The yard is fenced in, a large brick pathway leads to the patio. Along the way there are big containers of plants with colorful decorations. One the side, the wooden fence is painted in large murals depicting the desert with bright colors. There are two tables and chairs and there is a large permanent canopy, like you see in a backyard. Near the front door is a sign that says to wait outside and to sign in. Sign in is a table with a paper, clipboard and pen. We waited just a few minutes and then someone opened the door and seated us. The inside looks like a front room and a dining room for the house. That article says it seats 24 people. The menu has all sorts of offerings. Kevin picked shrimp chimichanga and I had the special – 3 enchiladas with corn tortilla, chicken, roasted corn, beans, and other stuff served with beans and rice. The meals came on the largest ceramic plates. The food, let me tell you, I can tell it wasn’t made in a factory in timbucktoo! No, the ingredients were fresh and unique and totally outstanding. Kevin says he wants to come here for every lunch and dinner. Me too! I was only able to eat 1/2 my meal so we will take it for leftovers. As we left the restaurant there were quite a few people outside waiting.

Kartchner Caverns Big Room tour. It is a short walk from our campground. I am so thankful…today is a perfect weather day – no wind, sunny, and a high of 72. Phones, purses, bags, etc, not allowed. We went to the desk and got our plastic ticket and then asked for the script. I had read on their website they have a script (they call it subtitle) and a flashlight on a lanyard for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. This is a very good script: large cards the size of 1/2 a sheet of paper, laminated, with details of each place along the tour and a few pictures. We sat on some couches and I read through it first. That helps to get an overview plus I can look around more. This tour, wow! Highly worth the $30.00 each ticket. I found the helictites amazing – growing sideways, and people don’t know why. Our tour was the Big Room and lasted 75 minutes, 1/2 mile walking.

Our next exploring day we headed to Sierra Vista to Fort Huachuca. Now, let me say, we thought this was just a historic old fort like we see so often. Not the case at all! This is a very active and busy Army base! We drove up to the guard gate where Kevin’s license was checked and then we were told to turn around and go to the side, park, and walk to the building “visitor control center.” We walked inside and it reminded me of the payment/check in area at a hospital. We had to wait a short time. No photography can be taken in here. Soon it was our turn. The security guy took Kevin’s license and ran the background checks. Then he had to type in his social security number on a keypad. Next was look into a camera. After that, sign here. When he passed the check, he was given a print out on thick paper with picture, name, info, security base number, barcode and more. Then it was my turn. Kevin had told the security I am deaf and it worked out just fine, as Kevin knew what I needed to do when asked. This pass is good for a year. Back in line at the front guard gate, our new security passes were scanned and then we got in. Kevin asked where the museum is and the guy pointed and said, “follow the signs.” HA This is a very active base/town and so fun to see the stores, shops, tons of buildings, houses, etc. Kevin and I didn’t realize that military drones have been used since the 1950s! They were tested and people trained on them here.  Later it was Electronic Proving Ground, Signal Group, Strategic Communications Command, Safeguard Communications (provided secure communication system for anti-ballistic missile sites), Home of Military Intelligence, Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, and All Source Analysis System. The US Army Information Systems Engineering Command made the first e-mail system from here so soldiers could communicate with friends and family. In these very well done museums the films are not captioned and no script.

I have FAILED! I have FAILED totally, completely and miserably! How have a failed (this time)? The weather! It snowed today! Well, it stuck to the ground on the mountains just above us and we did see snow flakes but thankfully the snow melted when it hit the ground. Now you know, our goal is “chasing 70 degrees” and I have usually done a good job with the planning. But wow, missed this one! HAHA The reason I missed this is that I thought all of the south would be warm but we found out that isn’t the case. The elevation is making the difference and we are sitting at 4800 ft elevation so, yes, it is colder here in the mountains on average. (This is all in fun and we laughed a lot about it.)

The temps this week are schizophrenic from 70 to 40s as HIGHS. Normal now is around 65. That being said, it is a very great campground and park and beautiful surroundings.

One afternoon we went to Benson to visit Benson Historical Museum. Turns out it is also called San Pedro Valley Arts & Historical Society. We saw a doctor’s cabinet and tools along with pictures. I noticed the doctor was pictured sitting in a wheelchair. Out we go to the front desk and asked the docent. She said that the doctor had been in a terrible car accident and had broken his back. He went back to doctoring even while in a wheelchair. 

The “booth” about the post office brought a delight to Kevin…he saw the hook that held the large mail bags. Grinning, he told me that he remembers twirling the hook around and around where in dad was postmaster. What a sweet memory.

Apache Powder Company: Charles Mills had been an executive for Phelps Dodge Co (we will learn about this in Bisbee tomorrow). The materials for blasting in the mines was made east of the Mississippi River where it was used for the many coal mines out there. Charles Mills saw a need to have dynamite made closer to the mines around the southwest. After talking with several mines about building a dynamite factory here, in 1922 the business was going and made nitroglycerin based dynamite. It made so many sticks that if the sticks were put end to end, they would go from New York City to San Francisco and back to NYC – each year! The plant shut down in 1983 but for most of the time it was going, it was the US’s largest producer of dynamite. Besides the mines, the plant made 3,000,000 pounds for the Hoover Dam to be made and 9,000,000 for the aqueduct that went from Parker Dam to the southern California area. We asked the guys at the front desk more about the Apache Powder Plant. We just love learning about history in the places we explore!