Cartour Spring 2017 number 17

Friday March 31st

Where we are now at home with the Cunniffs - Catherine and M. Mercury at their airbnb in Las Cruces NM - a fine day in out of the wind and dust

camp at Gila Lower Box yesterday afternoon - tent to the left, S in the middle and car out of frame to the right

tricky spot to dip but refreshing

      Woke to cool and what appeared to be overcast but we were down in the bottom of a canyon (Gila Lower Box Wilderness Study Area - which means there is nothing there that hasn’t been there for the last few thousand years i.e. no picnic tables, or toilets or nice ranger ladies) so it wasn’t all that certain what was happening above. Anyway we got out of there which as mentioned was a concern. Turns out the overcast was not overcast but dust raised by the predicted wind storm which was fine with us since as mentioned we were really only concerned with escape and keeping the car. Which we did. Lordsberg for breakfast at Kranberry’s Chatterbox where I had the Gold Pan - chunks of chicken fried steak with pan potatoes and gravy with two poached (the healthy choice) eggs on the side; I don’t really know what S had since I didn’t look up from my Gold Pan until later.

Heading for Las Cruces to stay with some Cunniffs, Catherine and M. Mercury, who are in town from the East for a wedding.
They are at a super little adobe with a walled and walled again li courtyard for my cot. See photo of the dining nook above.
C. and M. are off to the traditional pre-nuptial nuptial and rehearsal dinner up on Rattlesnake Mountain and so we won't see them for quite a while.
Met a sweet little dog, tiny but not at all creepy or angry, that may have belonged to the bride or the groom, or his mom, whose name was Vernon. I held him for a bit and it was a very grounding thing for us both, I believe. Him because of his wedding anxiety and me because my dog is not here.

Up out of the Box next morning (today) and into the wind and dust

Cartour Spring 2017 number 16

Thursday March 30th

Cushy cabin in Alpine AZ - elk everywhere

Route from Alpine to Gila Lower Box Wilderness Study Area somewhere between Virden and Redrock New Mexico. Highly recommended for those who want to take their Subaru Outback SUV with extended rear bike rack to the edge of appropriateness

      Left Alpine after breakfast in cabin and brisk frisbee in parking lot of Esdudilla Mountain Cabins we rolled down to hwy 191 and headed south over forested but badly and randomly burned over mountains, high savannah, canyons and finally an immense copper and gold mine in Morenci - the hwy is called the Coronado Trail Francisco C. passed this way with what must have been unimaginable difficulty in the 1500’s. We did a brief resupply in Duncan where supplies where sparse all around and took a left a miles out of down on to some thing called the Fuller Road in attempt to get to a BLM site called Gila Box National Recreation Area in the cottonwoods on the banks of the Gila. We made it down into the cottonwoods eventually and only by pushing the subaru pretty far into the fringe of its comfort zone. So here we are all alone and comfortable enough in mind and body. I do have some concerns with getting out.

S surveys mine

Cartour Spring 2017 number 15

Wednesday March 29th


     Okay, getting ahead on the record here in the room of the Best Western Copper Hills Inn in downtown Globe, Arizona, Home apparently of Big Copper judging by the decapitated mountains. After the gorp fest down in the free breakfast room (I should have stuck with the fresh mint and orange slice enhanced ice water in the big jar in the lobby instead of the egg, sausage, fried potatoes, biscuit and gravy, waffle with syrup and butter and peach yoghurt) we repaired to the room to compute our brains out. Still no mention of any plan or vision of what next although a bike ride around Globe (which will be difficult to say the least due to the topography of the town and the insane amount of traffic) has been proposed and seconded.

Mine tailings white on the horizon

Old downtown Globe

Good old Noftsger Hill Inn in the distance

Another distant view of the mysterious Noftsger Hill Inn

Headquarters for the Waggin' Vineyard across from our Best Western Copper Hill Inn lodging

St. Peter's Lutheran

S made me take this

Globe High School from the parking lot

May be inhabited on the ground floor and maybe this building is part of the Globe High School campus cause there was a sign on the side of the building indicating that this was a no smoking campus

Nice motorcycle people leaving Best Western - note vineyard in background strangely located here in downtown Globe

More of the nice motorcycle people leaving this morning - where are they going - will we ever see them again? Can't really see much of this long meandering city from the Best Western balcony thus the rather pointless pics of the moto group who may or may not be as nice as the one guy we spoke with yesterday who shared with S and I a goofy video on his phone and what is even nice about that anyway?

note - the above bikers not to be confused with the below bikers who were kind enough to us in the bar but I wouldn't push it.

And we finally leave Globe and go northeast on highway 60 to Show Low and Pine Top where we turned easterly  onto 260 to Eager and finally south southeast on 180 out of Eager to Alpine. Show Low was totally over-the-top late 20th century prosperity sprawl - Loews across 5 lanes of road from Home Depot, Walmart, wellness centers, huge hospital, mile after mile of gated recent made communities, malls all over; utterly unexpected and frankly weird on a high plateau in the middle of nowhere northeastern Arizona - boom town on steroids. Traffic?!! It was going to be cold at night so we lit out for tiny Alpine 20 miles south of Eager which was itself a return to normal old west stagnation and found it highly better in the Escudillo Mountain Cabins in Alpine than we had even thought likely. Propriatrice told us to go to a certain dirt road and drive up until a closed gate appeared and take a walk or a bike. We walked a long ways up this beautiful little track and ran into 7 elk cows a'munching in an open forest of mature evergreens.  Beat but not beaten we adjourned to the Alpine Grill and Still which looked closed but on closer view held a back bar with 7 or 9 ageable men and one woman playing their hearts out to a good house. No seats left but were offered accommodation with 3 ageable bikers riding from Fresno to no place in particular. And so back to the cabin and good night. It snowed here yesterday; not particularly odd at 8000 feet. 

Cartour Spring 2017 number 14

Tuesday, March 28th

 

S is getting material for a new set of potholders - this may have something to do with her Catholic childhood - to be clear, this is one of many roadside death shrines I have had to u-turn to during my driving day so S can endanger herself and everyone else on the road in order to snap photos to be used in potholder making mania - maybe we too will have a shrine soon!

Noftsger Hill Inn - closed

you get a whole classroom -
but closed

     Four mile walk early from camp to the west over hill and up washes. Many tracks in the sand of the dry creeks.
Noftsger Hill Inn in Globe is not where we are tucked in tonight, not that we didn't give it a shot; we did but it was locked so we are at home in the Best Western Copper Hills Inn suckin' up the sheets and pillows, etc. It rained while we had some more Mexican food. 

Kind of had a difficult journey to Globe in some ways: almost went to Phoenix and then there was the time spent in Casa Grande which was kind of an odd mix of admiration and foreboding. Great library though. And the Casa Grande Ruins National Monument was stunning - the Hohokam people didn't have a cliff for dwelling so they made these mud mountain big houses and lots of mud this' and that's plus for whatever reason the US federal government choose to make this astonishing tribute site.

Other than the rebuke I received for lack of navigation skills it was a reasonable and fair travel day. Tomorrow has not come up for discussion as yet.

Hohokam abduction

ruins of the big house at Casa Grande - repeat to remember

campers at Oak Flats campground we visited briefly on road to Globe

beautiful and ridiculous 

S goes ahead looking for animals

got some rain in the outdoor room at the El Rey Cafe Reynosa

Cartour Spring 2017 number 13

Monday March 27th

the 37 mile 4x4 lite road - officially the Puerto Blanco Road

       Feeling a little left-out due to the star party in the rv septic dump next door to our very lovely site number 199. Could go over but I can hear the ranger and one of the telescopes is not working so the ranger is kind of killing time and there is apparently a long line for the other scope pointed at the nebula in Orion. S went. I forgot to mention last night some voice in the dark said in a loud conversational tone that the light I had been watching was the international space station. After watching it earlier on my own I had concluded it was a plane. The crowd in the dark is also waiting for the ISS; it should be coming any minute.

Earlier today we biked up a cool swoop gravel with some paved road into the mountain/hills. Then we drove the 37 mile novice 4-wheeler cool road into the hills and along the border with Mexico which was busy as usual. Also we moved to a new site with more southern exposure protection which was proved a smart move as the noonday sun arrived. S wants to drive northeast tomorrow on historic U S Route 60 - not 66 but apparently 60 was a path in prehistoric times according to the Travel and Leisure article I stumbled on looking up info on Globe Arizona where we may stay in a motel tomorrow night. The ranger is still improvising.

Mexico over the fence

Cartour Spring 2017 number 12

Sunday March 26th

Less we forget - the Picacho Road and Picacho his self looming over

      Up with the sun. Still a few mosies but manageable. Classic fried bread and egg breakfast bracketed by a ride out the lonely road to the overlook attempted the night before which failed and a swim in the river which was cold but, you know, stimulating. Fish jumping. Chat with host about this and that including his observation that the culture of the Seattle are was “different”. I did not point out that climate is culture; it wasn’t that kind of conversation.

Pack and drive, drive, drive. Tacos Mi Rancho in Yuma for lunch, good and cheap - a well oiled food machine in Spanish. Couple of border patrol inspection stations not at all interested in us or other southbounders. Hit the Ace hardware in charming Ajo - S got some lounge pants and I, well I got some bike oil, a brush and rags for bike dry cleaning and some ice. Forgot peanut butter but did get limes but that was actually at the fabulous Del Sol market in Yuma which continues to refuse to carry pico de gallo or any fresh salsa (S said everyone in those parts makes their own which i doubt). Shot on down 78 off I-8 and rolled into Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Campground around 5:30ish. No spots left with ramadas but that won’t matter until maybe 11 am tomorrow by which time we may be able to sidle into something - at least a rebozo. Really cleaned the Picacho moon dust off the bikes and lubed the drive train. No happy ranger greetings at the gate like last time and S speculates it is the Trump effect; I hope she is wrong.

Cartour Spring 2017 number 11

Saturday March 25th

At the mirror house subdivision

in the mirror

outside the mirror

     In the morning we got going early to the the mirror house which was a diversion; up high on the tallus slopes of San Jacinto. Back to Mikes for lunch and pack up the car. Say goodbye and head for mall to get charger for the Kindle plus new cooler cooler.

      Finally blasting east on the big interstate number 10 toward a turn at Blythe and down 78 to Ripley, Paleo Verdae arriving finally to Winterhaven next to Yuma and up the Picacho Road to Picacho State Recreation Area along the blue, full and flowing Colorado. 20 miles of gravel road from Winterhaven to Picacho. Bizarre mountains in one direction and strange ones in the other; almost no vegetation in the hills. Haunting bike ride in the dark and then the headlight broke. A few mosquitoes but manageable.

S on next morning ride on the haunted road of the night before

Colorado and the end of the ride

S goes downriver

Cartour Spring 2017 number 10

Friday March 24th (actual)

Frederico's for lunch across from the Grogan Condominium community

      Left Meiners Oaks around 9 to meet Skip for breadfast at the  Farmer and the Cook. S found no breakfast items on the menu that drew her so she said to SD let us go to the other place you mentioned, Brenda Lu’s. We drove to SD’s place on Lion St. and walked to Brenda Lu’s from there. SD was suspicious of Brenda Lu’s emphasis on carbohydrates and sugar but he had pancakes with strawberries and double syrup. S and I had the traditional eggs and meat she with the fruit and me with the country potatoes. Waves and a quick look in the diy van conversion of Sylvie and Cliff and we were off east on the 150 to Santa Paula and the big interstate back of the Los Angeles basin through San Berdo and Riverside and so to Palm Springs and Mike’s new condo rental in a tasteful development of white Moorish 8 plexuses with mature palms and other fine trees, James was there but it was time for him to go to his hotel so we took over M’s living room with the blowup bed and couch. A swim and dinner at home after a fine lunch across the street a Frederico’s. 

Cartour Spring 2017 number 9

Thursday March 23rd

Hills around the Plain

Bit of the Plain

Yard of the room

Bathroom of the room

dining area at our room

the room

     And so we did go to the Carrizo Plain and it was good. Flowers like ocean spray all over the mountain side. We walked for an hour to see if the lake in the distance was really flowers and it was. Only enough people around to make the place look even more vast. Barefooted mostly on that trek.
Back to the hacienda in the meadow at Meiners Oaks and briefly out on the bicycles for dinner at Papa Lennon's pizza and pasta place around the corner. Really a 4 1/2 starer of a day. 

Cartour Spring 2017 number 8

Wednesday March 22nd (actual)

It was a lovely day in Carpinteria

start and end of Ortega Hill segment between Santa Barbara and Summerland

Primitive construction in front of sophisticated home of great complexity and expense (not shown)

Rotting rebar in ancient concrete seawall

Ancient seawall

More of the same

     Slight travel day: Santa Barbara to Ojai. 
G does something in the main house kitchen at something like 4 am and goes to work in the dark. K, S and I get up at a normal hour and G soon returns. We all walk a pretty long way south on what is called Miramar Beach - almost to Summerland. M chases tennis balls launched from an atlatl by me, some in the ocean some in the rocks. Expensive homes. G has lunch and goes back to Oprah Bob's.
          
            K says something that makes me think I should bike to Ojai. Sharon hangs around Cota street and I bike to Ojai - 42 miles takes me 4 1/2 hours. Some of that time is for a very nice cappuccino at Jack's Bistro and "Famous Bagels" in Carpinteria long ago frequented by large numbers of Langley Middle School 8th graders on Mr. Bergquist infamous field expeditions, some of it is for the double malt malt at Fosters down the street and some of it is out of Carp to the south a few miles where I found myself befuddled by the apparent need to bike on U.S. Highway 101 which I much felt to be wrong and had a hard time finding to be right. 
          
             BTAIM I was beating my way up the last few miles of the Ventura River Bike Way only to see S biking the other way. She had meant to go to our friend SD's house in downtown Ojai but had become turned around; luckily she ran into me who knew a few things about geography around there. Had dinner at SD's with Sylvie and Cliff, and interestingly enough Sylvie had been an 8th grade participant in another epic and to some degree infamous field expedition to San Francisco in the golden era of such things. We discussed some perspectives on that experience which she had been unaware of. 
          
            We all five of us agreed we would meet at the Coffee Connection in the adjacent village of Meiners Oaks the next morning at 9 am and proceed by car to the Choriza Plane 90 odd miles northeast where a bounty of wild flowers grew on the San Andreas Fault. This seems a jolly and fruitful excursion from which S and I will likely rest overnight in our current digs and blast out to Palm Springs for a late luncheon with MG at La Perlita "The Little Pearl".

La Perlita