Fitty Cent

I know I have said it a million times, but I can't believe how cheap food is down here. And a guy from Tennessee ( with the BEST Tunnsea accent) said prices have gone up noticeably for groceries in the past year. Wild!

Case in point: At a local little grocery store in Roswell, not one , but TWO different brands of BBQ sauce, 2 for a buck! That is 50 cents each, for those of you who can't do the math. Sick!

We left Roswell and drove through Las Cruces, NM, over to Benson, AZ, on Wednesday.  We had to delay our trip by two days due to high winds and snow in New Mexico.  Sheesh!

Anyway, back in the land of the giants in Benson, where it seems most people are around 6 feet tall or better.  We drove to Tombstone yesterday and poked around there for a bit.  Lots more people than last winter, I guess since it's Easter weekend.  Then we drove south 20 miles to Douglas, which has a crossing over to Mexico.  We saw the big wall stretching parallel to the highway for the 20 miles, but didn't have any urge to go into Mexico.

Above:  Yes, 50 cents each.

Above/Below:  Pistachio Nut Farm in Tularosa, New Mexico, on the way to Las Cruces.  They have a huge store that sells all different flavours.  We got the lemon/lime, garlic chili, and a couple bags of delectible pistachio brittle!

Above: Billions of buttercups blooming in the desert between Lordsburg, NM, and Benson, AZ

Above: Douglas, Arizona, a bordertown to Agua Prieta, Mexico

Dog Day Afternoon in Tombstone

We went on a road trip with the big Russian the other day. He was quite the hit with the teamsters and actors in Tombstone (and the handful of tourists who were wandering around).

Here are some pix of him out and about:

Above/Below:  This was his favourite thing, a statue of Wyatt Earp. 

He was fascinated by it!

Above:  He thought the wooden Indian also had possibilities ...

Above, Doc Holliday in a big hurry

Above:  In front of the Oriental Saloon

Above:  Back to gazing fondly at Wyatt

Above: In front of the Bird Cage, the most original building left in Tombstone

Above:  Meanwhile, back at the wooden Indian ...

Tea Tidbits

It starts in Arizona. When you order an iced tea, it comes with lemon and a great big spoon in it, meant for stirring all the sugar you feel necessary to dump into it, cuz it is steeped hot tea that is chilled and served on ice. In Texas they also make a sweet tea, where the sugar is put into the hot steeped tea and then chilled. Arizona does not have this option.

Arizona Bound

Taking Highway 10 from Indio to Benson, Arizona today. Just hitting the state line at 11:45 a,m. The desert has been cultivated here into orange groves, and they are cutting alfalfa hay at the end of November.

Benson, Arizona

We high-tailed it out of Gallup, delaying our trip south an extra day due to 6 inches of snow in Flagstaff.  We travelled down on Wednesday, taking about 7 hours to comoplete the journey.  The weather was sunny and got warm once we got into lower altitudes (Gallup is around 6,400 feet, and Flagstaff is higher yet).

We are happy to be back here in Benson, where the weather is nice and sunny and warm, and the pool and spa are great.  Who knows, maybe we'll even see the Dark Rider again!

Dark Rider

 Above:  A view of the wash looking south

On our last morning in Benson we took the two big dogs for their usual run up through the wash in the desert to the north of where we were staying.  This is an area that is dry right now but becomes a raging river during flash floods.  It twists and turns and has banks anywhere from 6 to 15 or so feet high, and varies from about 40 to 75 feet or so in width.  It is full of stunted trees and underbrush.

 Above:  A view of the wash looking north

On our way back down we were approaching a corner.  Our 165-pound Ovcharka dog was leading the way when a shadow appeared on the ground just ahead of him, indicating someone was coming around the bend.  He stopped in his tracks and was intently watching to see what was coming.  We yelled to the dog to stay so we could leash him, and grabbed the German Shepherd and put on her leash. 

When I looked up, there was a tall handsome man on a tall Mammoth Jack mule (these things are almost as big as a draft horse).  The man was wearing a blood-red shirt, a black cowboy hat, black jeans, black boots, and black gloves.  He was holding a large black pit bull on a chain, who was barking and jumping around beside him.  The mule was dancing around, the dogs were all barking, and the rider was trying to keep his dog untangled from the mule.

As he maneuvered past us in the wash, he commented with a laugh, "I think everyone here is new to this."

When he got about 20 feet past us, he turned back and yelled something that I couldn't hear because my faithful companion began barking at him again.  He then repeated it, saying, "Y'all didn't see a black knife up this way, did you?"  To which I replied, "No, sir, we didn't see any knives."

Then I remembered the iPhone in my hand and yelled, "Can I take a picture of you?"

He laughed and said sure, and turned his mule to the side and I snapped the photo.  When I looked at it later, it gave me a start because his face was all distorted, like some kind of a horrible mask.  Yet I was talking to him before I snapped the photo, and he had put nothing on his face.  Then the words from the song Red Right Hand came into my mind and I was totally freaked out.  Take a look at the photos below, but before you do, click on the play button on the video below to hear Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performing Red Right Hand while viewing photos to get the full effect:

Click above play button to start the video and listen to the song while checking out photos below:

Above:  "On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with

a red right hand ..."

Above:  Enlarged to see face
That's either a gun or a knife on his belt (Arizona has open-carry firearms laws)

Holy Javelina!

Javelina, pronounced "havalina"

Exercising the dogs up in the wash across from the RV park today.  The wash is a dried up large creek bed that becomes a raging river when the rains hit.  The banks are over 6 feet high in some places and are pretty much straight up.  That's where a small pig suddenly ran across the wash in front of us and clambered expertly up the bank and into the brush. As we passed by the spot, we could see it standing in the brush looking at us rather surprisedly.  It had huge bristles all over it, especially on the top of its head.  It was a little smaller than my potbelly pigs were.  They are remotely related to the domestic pig of today, and have migrated from South America through Mexico and are now living wild in Arizona.

 Above:  in the wash

So now the dogs have three things they like to watch out for when we go out for walks:  desert cottontail rabbits, Gamble's quail, and now the javelinas! 

 We're probably going to head out Wednesday morning, over to Las Cruces, New Mexico, then up to Roswell.  Some people from Albuquerque parked their bus beside us last night, very friendly folk, who gave us lots of info on stuff around their state that would be nice to see, places to probably stay away from right now due to extreme weather conditions, and the name of a casino that has the best buffet in the state.

Tucson, Arizona

We drove from Benson to Tucson for the day on Thursday, to get the U-joints replaced on the truck.  We spent the day poking around the area where Arizona's Number 1 Dodge dealership is located, apparently on the not-so-classy side of town.

We stopped in for breakfast at Denny's, which, like everything else down here, tasted much better and was much cheaper than back home.  Our waitress was a Louisiana native, and was bubbling over with excitement because she had taken her kids to see President Obama when he visited the Tucson shooting site the day before.  This was at the Safeway where the Congresswoman to the area we are currently staying in was shot in the head, and about 17 others were also shot, several of them dying.  It's about 30 minutes from where we are staying in Benson.

We dropped into a local pawn shop that had a sign on the door, "No loaded firearms allowed," and had a nice display case full of AK-47s, different types of handguns from Glocks to Ruegers, interspersed with a smattering of used jewelry and knives (see my Random Observations page for more tidbits on gun control, or lack of it, in this state).

The smog is very noticeable as you move towards Tucson.  In fact, when we were coming east from Buckeye, there was a thick layer of smog about 50 miles west of Phoenix, which continued on down into Tucson and cleared up just before Benson, so about 3 hours of smog-filled driving.

I bought some oranges off a vendador stationed in front of Mercad Y Carniceria El Herradero.  He was an older gentleman,  and we spoke in Spanish.  It was nice to see that I can still hold a conversation and haven't forgotten how to count in that language!  As we walked up the sidewalk, a man trundled by with a small hand-cart in tow with some kind of pail on it.  I didn't realize until we'd passed him that he had uttered "tamales" in a low voice as he went by.  This reminded me of the first time I tasted a tamale, when I purchased one from an old woman with a similar pail on a street corner in Puerto Vallarta many years ago.  I almost turned back to buy one from him, then remembered I had spent all my cash on some vanilla, and churros and pan dulce at Guerrero's (pastries, of course!)

Right  near the Dodge dealership was yet another U.S. Airforce base, so we were entertained with big Hercules aircraft landing throughout the day, as well as some F-35 fighter jets in an afternoon soirtee.  The military presence down here is extremely noticeable, especially in the air.

Bisbee, Arizona

Another old mining town in southern Arizona, but the buildings were made of brick instead of boards, and so a large area of the town is the original buildings, most in really good shape.  The historic part of Bisbee is quite large and has lots of different interesting old buildings, not to mention the people.  There seems to be a really weird type of dress code in Bisbee, i.e., anything goes, from circa-1800s outfits to modern-day bikers. There are galleries selling fantastically expensive Navajo rugs and native art to European tourists, street vendors tucked away in alleys selling the usual cheap Mexican silver jewelry and trinkets, and middle-of-the road shops selling a lot of "native" jewelry, baskets, bags, etc., a lot of which sport "Made in India" (or Pakistan) labels in inconspicuous locations.

Above:  Surreal skateboarder coasts down the main drag of Bisbee

Tombstone, Arizona

We went to Tombstone yesterday, which is about 40 miles north of the Mexican border in Cochise County.  There was a US Border Patrol checkpoint at a crossroads on Highway 80, about 5 miles north of Tombstone.  It is a kiosk in the middle of the road, with pylons on each side of the highway narrowing the road down to the point where you stop before you pass by the kiosk.  On the side of the road there is a parking lot on top of a coulee in the dirt, and it had about two dozen SUVs, pickups, and other vehicles parked there, all white with the green border patrol logo and lettering on them.  Right beside where we stopped at the kiosk, there was an Hispanic guard standing by his SUV, fully armed, and I could catch a glimpse of the German Shepherd in the back seat.  The vehicle had a plastic grill for a side window in the back seat for the dog, and it had a big convection fan mounted in it, so the dog could have some air.  It’s only about 14 degrees here right now in the daytime, so I guess it saves on air conditioning. 

The young flak-jacketed guard at the kiosk asked if we were Canadian citizens, then asked if we had our passports with us.  Upon the affirmative answer, he asked if he could see them.  I got them out, but as soon as he saw them in my hand, he said that was fine, and he was glad to see we were carrying them with us.  He then waved us through.  I found out later that this small checkpoint has 500 personnel stationed there.  

I talked to some people from Chilliwack who pulled in beside us tonight, and they actually drove their big bus down past Tombstone today and into Agua Prieta, Mexico.  They advised me not to go because all the stores are closed and the streets deserted because no one is going across due to the narcotraficante violence that is affecting the entire US-Mexico border areas.  I feel for the average Mexican citizen, as this is hurting them financially and emotionally, and is going to have even worse impact as time goes on.

 

Tombstone itself is a city where people live and work, so there are modern-day vehicles parked and driving all around Tombstone, except for a few blocks in the main historic part.  All the buildings have been rebuilt and restored, most with inappropriate alterations and not to original specifications of the period.  The old town actually burnt down at least twice in the late 1800s, so it’s understandable but a little disappointing as it felt a little Hollywood.  

  Above:  Huge original painting of Fatima, one of the dancers who performed here at the Bird Cage.  There are at least two bullet holes and a knife slash in it, courtesy of patrons of that era.

There are only a couple of original buildings left there, one of which is the Bird Cage Theatre.  You can go into the front area, and then pay to see the rest, which we did.  We thought it was the best of the buildings in Tombstone, with many original artifacts there, including the original horse-drawn hearse that took the famous OK Corral victims to Boot Hill.  The building is in its original state and has held up very well over the years.

We also paid to watch a reenactment of the shootout at the OK Corral, which was in the form of an outdoor play and gave a background of the events leading up to the shootings, culminating in the actual shooting.  Some of the actors bore striking resemblances to the actual people, as we later saw from old photos in the Bird Cage. 

 

Above:  Bullet holes, large calibre, in the stage at the Bird Cage

There are also signs at the doorways of most buildings requiring that firearms be checked at the front before going in.  This may sound like part of the historic feature of Tombstone, but is actually for real-day patrons as it is legal to carry firearms in this state.  Apparently there are no permits required to buy anything other than a handgun, and there are no registrations required for anything except concealed weapons.  Carrying a firearm in a holster that is partly visible is not considered concealed, nor is it concealed to have them in luggage, vehicle, or house.

Above:  Some of the private boxes to the left of the stage at The Bird Cage Theatre

This state was pretty wild in the late 1800s, to the point where the federal government considered sending in the army and enacting martial law to settle it down.  In1882, the New York Times reported that "the Bird Cage Theatre is the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast."  Tombstone then had a law that people entering town had to turn in their firearms and pick them up when they left, which was part of the reason for the confrontation at the OK Corral.