Tuesday May 13, '14

I'm still in catch-up mode.  A week ago yesterday (Monday May 5) I woke up for the first time at Quail Ridge RV Park in Cochise County, near Fort Huachuca (wa-CHU-ka) and Huachuca City.  I started out early, driving through Huachuca to Sierra Vista, which is a larger town.  I wanted to get Myrtle's oil changed but had no luck cruising the "truckish" part of town (don't ask me what that is--truck diesel stations. . . ).  So I stopped at an O'Reilly's Auto Parts shop and asked if they knew of a place that could do an oil change for a rig 11 feet high and 24 feet long.  They called places they thought would be able to take Myrtle and finally got a "Yes" from a Big O Tire place.

I drove through town to Big O, and the team there v-e-r-r-r-y carefully eased Myrtle into their garage--one guy driving, one guy up a ladder watching Myrtle's air conditioner on her roof AND the entryway to the garage, and one guy on the ground watching the mirrors.  Myrtle has now had her first oil change!  Brand new synthetic oil seems to keep her happy, so I'm happy too.

I took a round-about road to Bisbee, so that I could see some of Cochise county on the way to the town I've been wanting to see for years--home of Sheriff Joanna Bradley.  My first big stop was to see the Lavender Pit.  I always thought the pit got its name from the color of the rock.  It is actually named for the copper mining company executive who came up with and executed the idea behind this mine.

As you can see, it would be a stretch to call any of this lavender.

It is hard to envision the size of the pit.  Here you can see some very large commercial buildings about 1/3 of the way around the rim from where I am standing.

I could not get the entire pit in one frame, so you are seeing part of the pit that was not in the first picture.

Even the roadway around the pit was originally part of the mine, I think.  I turned around 180 degrees in the viewing area between the pit and the road, and the view across the road looked like a continuation of the same pit.

The roadside is terraced back so that building a road would not explain the amount of material removed.

I didn't get pictures of any of the mountains of slag all around the borders of Bisbee.  I could not find space to get off the road, but I was dumbfounded at the massive amounts of material.  Something I saw or heard suggested that they are starting to spread soil on some of it so that the land can be reclaimed.  Lessons learned from coal mines in the south, maybe.

I decided to spend my time in the Old Town part of Bisbee (modern Bisbee is made up of several very small old mining towns).   I parked in a big dusty gravel lot for RVs at the base of all of the roads that go up different canyons.

This picture looks across Main Street below the beginning of the crazy canyons.

The picture below is from about the same place, looking a bit to the left of the first picture.  The town looks like a picturesque western town, doesn't it?

You can't see it, but there is an important street behind the newer brick building.

The Copper Queen is the best place to stay in Bisbee in J. A. Jance's books.  And I did fall a bit in love--it is so beautifully maintained.  The hotel sits up behind that newer brick building on it's own little "road."

Can't you imagine having a drink or a meal sitting on one of those verandas?

This is the road to the front of the Copper Queen.  Maybe 13 feet wide.

The road just didn't look nearly as nice as I imagined!  But the far side of the hotel might actually let you climb down into Brewery Gulch, as happened in one mystery.  And no, darn it, I didn't think to get pictures of Brewery Gulch.

I walked around talking to people wherever I could.  I asked a couple of motorcycle riders if they were from the area, and if they could recommend someplace to eat lunch.  They debated, then sent me a ways up Main Street (which has its own canyon).  This is the place they sent me to, and I had a great lunch!  And there were more bikers--fancy Harley's are very popular all over Arizona.

The Savory Spot made outstanding potato salad!

I have to show you the Savory Spot's "up hill" neighbors.  These homes with hundreds of steps up to the front yard play a part in a lot of Jance's Bisbee stories.

Groceries, kids, furniture, appliances . . . Not my choice of houses.  And look how the hill is held up!

Stepping to the other side of Main Street, I got a picture that would give a better over-all idea of what one of the canyons looks like.

This is still the Savory Spot and its neighbors.

As I headed back down Main Street I wanted to give you an idea of what that one canyon's street looks like.

Bisbee's tourism season is over for now.

Bisbee is a big draw for tourists based on the town's history, the fact that it has a large artist's community, and of course us crazy Sheriff Joanna Bradley fans.  I met people who had grown up in town and stayed, people who'd grown up, left, and come back, and people who'd come and stayed.  Now the weather is what they call "dry summer"  and the tourists are mostly gone.  This season is followed by "summer monsoon" and then the usual fall, winter, and spring.

I got back to Myrtle in her big dusty parking area and made a very nasty mistake.  I had put the awning (yes, the "new" new awning) out just a couple of feet to give the fridge side of the rig some shade.  I hopped in the driver's door thinking about more pictures and where to go next.  I did not walk around Myrtle before getting in to do that "preflight check."  The awning didn't show in the mirrors or the back up camera as I left the parking area.  I was going around the traffic circle to take hiway 80 north and something banged on Myrtle's passenger side.  I was trying to think of what I might have left loose when it hit me--the awning!

I was beginning to panic because I was coming up on a tunnel 500 yards or so ahead when I finally found a big enough space to get safely 5 feet or so off the side of the road.  I called my manufacturer's roadside assistance and they found someone to come to take this new awning off.  The told me I would have help in about 45 minutes.  About an hour later Angel, the super-capable technician from the towing service called to say he was on his way.

Angel arrived with a van full of equipment and a very clear knowledge of how to take Myrtle's awning off, piece by piece, in the right order so that nothing fell or did any more damage.  Angel's wife, on an afternoon off from managing four boys ages six years to not quite two months, kept me sane and gave a hand to Angel when needed.  Angel told me that he thought that the awning was repairable, so we loaded the pieces into Myrtle.  The awning roll itself was the most fun--it came in through the passenger side window with the passenger seat tipped all of the way back--and it now occupies a good share of the walk space in Myrtle.  I eventually moved the parts of the arms that raise and lower the awning up onto the bunk above the cab so that there is a bit of space to walk.

And in the midst of all of this I stepped down out of Myrtle, wearing sandals, and managed to turn my ankle on a big loose rock.  I pretty much ignored it, but by the time I was driving back to the Quail Ridge RV Park it was swollen and I was hurting.

So now you know how I came to spend 10 days in Cochise County instead of five.  And why I didn't see most of the things I planned to see.  Tomorrow I'll upload some pictures of Quail Run and tell you what I've been doing the last couple of days.  And I'll talk about what it is like to be a tourist in the middle of a war zone, because that is what is happening in southern Arizona.