Travels in Our Airstream: 2006-01-22

Friday – January 27 – Today we went to the Mission St. Xavier del Bac which is over 200 years old and has twin towers. Unfortunately, they are doing restoration on one of the towers so it was all tarped over and only one tower is capped with a dome of the Moorish-influenced style. The façade surrounding the entrance is ornately carved sandstone and this mission church is the finest example of Spanish colonial architecture in the U.S. The exterior of the whitewashed church, surrounded by Sonoran Desert vegetation, inspired its nickname “White Dove of the Desert”. The inside of the church is amazing, the brilliant blues and greens employed in the ornate decoration seems to pop off the walls. There are niches filled with statues of saints and the painted dome and ceiling are amazing. It was definitely a trip worth doing.

We stopped at a stall in the churchyard for lunch and had an Indian Taco which neither of us really liked. The taco was good but one of the filling ingredients was red pinto beans refried and mashed, quite awful, very bland and a god awful consistency. Won’t be ordering another one of those!!!

We again took the Sahurita (pronounced Swarita) road when going to the mission and enjoyed the drive as much as the other day when we took it. What a wonderful variety of cacti and so many saguaros, they have so many varied shapes and sizes, depending on their age, and I find them totally fascinating. We drove through a new subdivision in the middle of nowhere and there were absolutely gorgeous homes, I shudder to think what the price of one would be. It was interesting that all the servicing was underground and each house had a large solar panel, we think probably for hot water heating.

We stopped at a pecan plantation store which we had noticed the other day but found their prices quite high and some of the items quite weird – like jalapeno flavoured pecans, so didn’t buy anything. It was interesting to see a pecan plantation in the middle of the desert.

They Still Landscape in the Desert

Nice Houses

St. Xavier Mission

Inside St. Xavier Mission

Cacti in Front of Mission

Thursday – January 26 – We went to Douglas today and what a disappointment, it is a most depressing town. There is a large spiked wall between Douglas and Agua Prieta in Mexico and then there is an eight foot ditch – most charming! The Border Patrol is everywhere, but especially prominent in Douglas. We have come through a few checkpoints by them and you see their cars all over – driving, parked at the side of the road, etc. We wonder how successful they are in picking up the illegal Mexican immigrants!

We went into the lobby of the Gadsden Hotel and it is quite nice but has seen better days. White marble and a Tiffany stained glass mural dominate the lobby of the five storey hotel and Pancho Villa reportedly rode his horse up the main steps of the lobby. It was also the site of the movie Judge Roy Bean.

We left there and went back to the Bisbee Grill for lunch. It is quite interesting that around Bisbee everything is green – lots of green trees and it doesn’t look like the desert, but this is only for a short distance then back into the desert.

One other thing we have seen a lot of down here that you don’t see at home is police cars escorting trucks with “Wide Loads”. You see a police car coming at you with lights flashing, etc and you pull over and then it is just an escort for the wide load truck. I can’t imagine it is a really good and efficient use of the local police force but, oh well, what do I know.

Bisbee

Monday – January 23 – Today was a gorgeous day so we went off to see the Colossal Cave Mountain Park. The cave is a dry cave, the only one in North America, and was very interesting, the only other place with dry caves is Afganistan. The cave was not as open and as spacious feeling as Luray Caves in Virginia or the cave in Kentucky but it had some real interesting formations. There were 363 steps so we got our exercise! We also toured the park there – the ranch and museum.

When we left there we took the scenic route back to the park and it was a pretty drive. We saw mountains from the other side as to what we have already seen and for the most part the landscape was a little more lush, which means there was grass although it is not the grass we know!

Tuesday – January 24 – Well, were we surprised last night, we were able to watch the election results with Peter Mansbridge hosting. I guess there are enough Canadians down here that they felt it was worth having it available. Can’t say I was thrilled with the results but it will be interesting to see how the conservatives do, just relieved that it is a minority government.

Today we decided it was time to do more grocery shopping so headed into the Wal Mart Super Centre in Tucson. There appeared to be a road on the map that headed in that direction so we tried it and what a lovely drive, not a lot of traffic and lots of nice scenery. I am fascinated with all the signage that says “Do Not Enter When Flooded”. I guess when they get the rain in the spring the roads must also flood – don’t know where you would go as these signs are all over the place on the secondary roads. It is hard to believe that the roads could flood when all we can see now is bone dry river beds! I think it would be a totally different look here in the spring.

The other signs that are abundant are signs with a cow stating “Open Range”. In a lot of cases these signs are right near new housing developments so I wonder if they can expect cattle to be roaming through their back yards!! Something we are curious about is where the wildlife gets drinking water as it is so dry, guess there must be water around somewhere for them.

John tried to set up the satellite dish today but the site is fine gravel so nothing to anchor it to and with the wind it just blew over so he quickly gave up on that project. Maybe the next spot won’t be so windy! Guess it is a good thing that we are not big TV watchers, although with the cable here we get a lot of channels, just miss the Canadian content.

Wednesday – January 25 – Well, there was rain during the night and early this morning. It is sorely needed but there wasn’t enough to do much good. At one point this morning the sun was shining and it was raining when we looked out one side of the trailer and when we looked out the other side the sky was black and there was a gorgeous rainbow.

They were calling for rain off and on all day so we decided to go to Sierra Vista and pick up a couple of things. As it turned out it would have been a nice day for touring as it ended up being sunny and quite warm. Oh well, tomorrow we will head for Douglas.