Tombstone and Boot Hill

As our parting shot from St David we took a trip to old Tombstone and Boot Hill.  Tombstone is the town where the shootout at the OK Corral occurred in 1881 when the Clantons and the Earps were competing for control of the town.

The Clanton gang always wore red.  These two are
obviously Clanton cohorts.

The main street is blocked off from traffic but you can still drive and park along the side streets.  The town is totally commercialized with several place offering exhibitions of the gun fights that occurred all too often in old Tombstone.  There are more museums than you can count and they charge from $3-$10 per person.  The OK Corral where the gun fight that made the town famous occurred charges $10 but it includes access to the OK Corral, the museum next door and a copy of the Tombstone newspaper that recorded the events of that day.

The Butterfield Stage runs in town if you want to take a ride in a stage coach.  Buy your ticket at the Butterfield Stage ticket  office...

 ...and hop aboard for a short ride around town.

There are lots of little shops selling souvenirs for you to take home.

The Good Enough Mine offers mine tours,

and the Historic Cochise County Courthouse is also a museum.

My favorite activity, however, was the visit to the Boot Hill Cemetery on the edge of town.  More than any of the re-enactments in old Tombstone, a visit to Boot Hill is a lesson in the character and difficulties of living in the old west.  Among the citizens buried here are judges and marshals, outlaws, Indians, and Chinese.  The victims of crime and the criminals are buried near one another.  Suicides, murders and illnesses removed Tombstones residents from the town and place them there in Boot Hill.  A sampling of the residents gives testimony to the nature of life here in the 1880s.

The victims of the OK Corral shootout are all buried together.

John Heath, a man who planned a robbery in the nearby town of Bisbee, was hauled out of the jail and hanged from a telegraph pole just west of the courthouse.  His gang was hanged together 17 days later on a single gallows after having been convicted of killing several people during the robbery.  Justice was swift in Tombstone. 

For a complete picture of the Boot Hill cemetery go to the Boot Hill Graveyard website.  There you will find a list of the residents of Boot HIll and how they died.  People like Geo. Johnson, hanged by mistake after he innocently bought a stolen horse and suffered the consequences.

"Here lies George Johnson, 

Hanged by mistake, 1882.

He was right, 

we was wrong, 

but we strung him up 

and now he's gone."

Or Lester Moore

Lester Moore

"Here lies Lester Moore,

Four slugs from a .44,

No Les, no more."

Moore was a Wells Fargo agent at Naco and had a dispute with a man over a package.

Both died. 

or Johnnie Wilson

"Johnnie Wilson Shot by King"

Two gunmen's discussion of the fastest way to draw, ended here.

One of the surprises in the cemetery is a the Jewish Graveyard and Memorial.  There are no marked graves here but a very nice memorial has been erected "Dedicated to the Jewish Pioneers and Their Indian Friends".

The Jewish Memorial

A most interesting place to visit is Boot Hill Cemetery.  You can almost feel the tension of the "town too tough to die."

         -Kent

Scouting Tombstone and Shooting

We decided to take a short trip to Tombstone and scout for our trip there next week.  We drove 12 of the 13ish miles from St David and I turned onto Arizona Highway 82 on a tip from a fellow traveler.  Very shortly down the road we came to the Tombstone Livery and pulled in.  Tombstone Livery is a campground and a shooting range.  I stopped and talked to one of the fellows there and found out it is for "cowboy shooters" only.  Now while it might sound like you are using your range hands for target practice, cowboy shooting is really a style of shooting and in many instances cowboy shooters adopt an entire wild west persona with a western name and outfit and of course six guns and rifles only, with maybe a derringer or two thrown in for excitement.

Nationwide the cowboy shooting craze has grown greatly and there are cowboy shooting clubs almost anywhere you go.  Typically they have meetings and shooting contest and competitions with other clubs. It is a subculture all it own and very exciting and interesting to those hooked on old west history and culture. Interested in finding more info?  Try http://www.cascity.com/ or google cowboy action shooting or ask a gun club or store near you.

There are hours in addition to the weekend hours shown.
Go to the website for a full schedule.

Well, since I am not a "cowboy shooter" I was politely asked to mosey on, which we did after the kind cowboy told where I could find a regular shooting range.  We drove another 13 miles south of Tombstone to Arizona Highway 90, turned west and found the Sierra Vista Shooting Range.  After driving the 1.25 miles of hard trail (seriously washboarded dirt road), we came to the range.  Two volunteers were there to run the range and were very helpful.  They even opened the range 15 minutes early for me.  I spent nearly two hours happily sending bullets downrange and even met a guy who let me shoot his .50cal black powder rifle.  Not as much kick as I thought but what a hoot!

We headed back and stopped to take a picture of the entrance to Boot Hill Cemetery.  What else is in there with the cemetery?  Well I'm not sure, but I really can't wait to go there next week and find out.








On the way back we passed through a Border Patrol check point.  Does anyone else wonder what use these are since the people who are trying to avoid being caught are well aware of where these checkpoints are.  Seems to me there should be a better way.
          -Kent

Quartzsite Round-up

Desert flora

What a fantastic time!  Friday, January 20^th we spent the afternoon with the Thomas family (and had Michelle’s tasty jalapeno poppers.)  Wednesday afternoon, January 24^th, the McCloskey family arrived and we started our caravan circle.  The Travaglino’s pulled in, followed shortly by the Garrison’s and the Engledrum’s.  Thursday the Baker’s joined the circle, then Friday the Montgomery’s arrived.  The Mulac’s and friends came out to visit, the Seeley’s and parents joined the group, and the Gardner’s came for a day.  I hope I didn’t miss anyone!

Missy Baker crossing the circle while the techies work on the Travaglino's solar panels.

Re-installing the Travaglino's batteries so we could have "solar" coffee

Communication is the key to friendship, and keeping track of kids.  We love to watch kids meet and grow together.  You know how close we all have gotten when it is time to leave.  Reminds me a lot of camp.



I woke up at 6 and couldn't get back to sleep so I got to see this sunrise.
  It was amazing ....

....for those who got up early enough to see it!



Sunset when the hills start to turn red...

...the clouds catch the glow...

...and the sky ignites.

There were big campfires at night, lots of stories exchanged and some concerns amongst the first time boondockers about life without water, but everyone survived and even had fun!  Several attended the Thomas’ tent revival on Friday night.  It was great to watch all the kids play together so well and make many new friends and special memories.  Despite all the dry skin and dust-coated … everything…., we loved it all.  Hope to meet up with each and every one again.  And who’s up for Alaska this summer??          - Dana
Next stop:  St. David, AZ until February 13, then a week roaming, and then Sedona area.

Quartzsite, part 2

Back in Quartzsite, back at Scadden Wash.  Laundry’s done, groceries bought, water tank filled, waste tanks dumped, propane and fuel are full.  This time we’re parked in close by a main road, so we can watch all the different rigs that come through.  The RV Show starts this weekend, and we’ll be making some decisions on solar power, batteries, a catalytic heater, and no doubt see many things we’ll wonder just how we’ve ever survived without them.

Walked the vendor booths this afternoon and chatted a bit with our favorite vendors – Don and Mary from SD.  They sell jerky, pemmican and cheeses.  It was good to see them again.  We found the RV mat we wanted and carried it home with both of us on the scooter.  That was interesting.   And our neighbors, Ron and Claudia brought over homemade apple pie with French vanilla ice cream.  Perfect ending to fried chicken and mashed potatoes (add that just for you, disinherited daughter! J )   

Looking forward to meeting some FtF families next week.      – Dana

Joshua Tree

January 3rd we decided to go on to Joshua Tree NP.  Thanks to the Peel's, we knew to dump the tanks and fill up with water first, because the only southern campground was closed (so no water and dump station available), due to flooding in September (3 inches of rain in 3 hours; moved large cement tables around, damaged most of the campground there and Kent's favorite hiking trail, along with 1/2 mile of road.)  FYI: All camping inside JT is paid dry camping.  And only three of the campgrounds have water fill and a dump station.  For more info on JT, see our Favorite Places link.

We ended up at one of our favorite BLM sites just out JT's southern entrance.  A little less than a mile off the interstate, it's scenic and quiet, but still has a phone signal - an important issue to a worrying mom (plus Kent's dad was in the hospital, so it was needed.)  It's a nice, free place to park, but since most of the hiking is in the northern part of the park, we decided to check out a bit of BLM land between Twenty-nine Palms and Joshua Tree entrances up north.  We stayed one night but wouldn't go back - felt safe, but it wasn't too close to the park, and very rough to get into. 

Our campsite at Jumbo Rocks in Joshua Tree

Moon rise between the rocks

So we ended up staying in JT - and it was great.  In 2010, with the 5th wheel, we were "too big" for any available sites, so we just drove back and forth through the park to the southern BLM land.  This time, we had room to park (Jumbo Rocks campground) with our short RV, and it was easy to take the scooter around to wherever we wanted to hike.  (Kent did ride out each day to check for messages.)  We visited Keys Ranch (a paid tour), Barker Dam, Lost Horse Mine, Desert Queen Mine, Keys View, Hidden Valley, Skull Rock, Wall Street Mill, Ryan Ranch and some other sites and trails not in their literature.  The first weekend a high school classmate of Kent's came with his wife for a daytrip, and we got to introduce them to one of their California masterpieces.  It was good to meet you, Bob and Karen!

Buffalo Rock inside Hidden Valley - Joshua Tree

The main house at Keys Ranch - Joshua Tree

Stamping Mill at Lost Horse Mine - Joshua Tree

Keys View - Joshua Tree
The dark horizontal line is the San Andreas Fault

We knew our batteries needed replaced, but had hoped to get a couple more weeks out of them until we got back to Quartzsite.  But that was not to be ... so we've moved back out to southern BLM land, where we could run our generator as needed (limited hours in JT.)  It cut our hiking short, but we're getting the bathroom painted!  Plus we're back to phone and internet, and that's a good thing. 

A beautiful blue desert bird.  The were about two
dozen flitting from bush to bush.

Skull Rock - Joshua Tree
I wonder why they call it that

As before, our time at Joshua Tree was too short, too many trails left to explore or revisit, so we will just have to come back again!          - Dana

On our way and Quartzsite Part I

Happy New Year!  We spent (as usual) a quiet New Year's Eve.  We arrived in Quartzsite, AZ, December 31, and set up in Scadden Wash, way back in the desert away from other RVs, just taking a couple of down days.  Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We certainly did - Christmas Eve services at church, then our traditional dinner, and Christmas day with the family.  We were with the kids/grandkids in Moline, IL - just love watching the little ones at Christmas.  (We gave both of the one-year-old grandsons toy workbenches, since they love to help Goomba with projects, and they ran around with the power drills running all day. Should have given their parents batteries!)

On December 23, the doorbell rings - a daily occurence this time of year.  I open it, expecting UPS (I'm sure we are personally responsible for creating seasonal jobs at both Amazon and UPS).  But no - IT'S MY PARENTS!  They have contrived with the kids to come and surprise us for Christmas.  Just the night before I had been talking to Mom, telling her we'd arrive at their house the 26th.  So we had a 4 generation Christmas (Kent's dad was there, too) and followed my folks back to Missouri, where we spent a couple of days.
December 30 we toured Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.  Kent finally got his Senior Pass for national parks, and it's already paid for itself just in entrance fees that day.  We took the two self guided routes, which were amazing, and were thankful for an elevator for the return trip (754 feet) to the outside world!  We also discovered that this is another place where no matter how many pictures you take, they never do justice to what you saw.

Carlsbad Main Entrance

The lighting highlights the beauty of the cave

Stopped our stagecoach here for a bit

After lunch in the parking lot, we stopped briefly at Guadalupe Mts Natl Park
(Salt Flat, TX) and stopped at a former Butterfield Stagecoach Station. The
rest of the drive was pretty standard - including the part in Phoenix where I
say "There's Ikea" and Kent says "Yup" and keeps on driving.  (In his defense,
he usually stops when I say something like that.)

NewYear's afternoon we decided to explore the desert a bit on Kent's new toy - a Honda Elite 110 scooter.  What a blast!  We rode lots of trails south of Dome Rock, learning to avoid soft dirt (this is definitely not a dirt bike, but was often a dirty bike with all the dust!)  While riding, Kent got a call from Greg Mulac, so we took off to meet the Mulac's and Peel's.  We found Peel's campsite and spent a couple of hours getting to know some fellow travelers on a beautiful afternoon.  What a wonderful life!          -Dana