Tumbling Tumbleweeds

So, since my last posting, we have left Little Rock and crossed the rest of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma and on into Texas, stopping for the night in Amarillo. I had suggested to Betty that we stop off in Oklahoma City as we passed through town and renew our passports just in case we wanted to visit Mexico when we reach El Paso or maybe the Bahamas when we get to Florida. A "no go". If you recall, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by terrorist Timothy McVeigh. She just didn't want to go there. I can sympathize with that. We'll renew them someplace else later.

I-40 through the later half of Arkansas, all of Oklahoma, and all of northern Texas was deserted of traffic for 100's of miles. Even more desolate than driving I-95 between Old Town and Medway. Amazing. Once we entered New Mexico the traffic density didn't change, but, the scenery sure did. All through New Mexico and on into Arizona the mountains rose thousands of feet on either side for hundreds of miles as we made our way south on I-25 to the town of "Truth or Consequences", New Mexico. Not far north of TandC, we had passed the site of the worlds first atomic bomb explosion which occurred on July 16th, 1945 in the northern portion of the White Sands Missile Range. We left the Interstate system not far south of TandC and heeded easterly toward Arizona and Linda's. We had to cross a mountain range, the Black Range and chose "Emory Pass" at an elevation of 8,228 ft which would put us into "Silver City, AZ" for the night. Our plan for the next day was to visit the "Gila Cliff Dwellings", a national historic site located in the Mogollon Mountains about 45 miles north of Silver City.

The next morning broke with the forecast of snow (over the local TV stations) for the Albuquerque area and northerly. We were over 200 miles south of the snow threat area, and, I thought, in the clear to visit the cliff dwellings. But, Betty was too anxious about driving up into higher elevations with the threat of snow in the state so we opted to head on to Linda's instead. We arrived at Linda's in Morenci, Az about noon'ish on Thursday, Decenber 16th.

After only one day of R&R, we headed off to Tucson. Linda wanted to do a little Christmas shopping there.
We spent the night in a motel, ate well, and had a very nice evening together.

I picked up a "Floozie" at "Big Nose Kate's" saloon

On our way back the next day, we detoured a bit to visit the town "To tough to die", Tombstone, AZ. We spent a few hours there walking the streets once walked by Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Doc Holliday, the Clanton's and the McLaury's, and "Big Nose Kate" (she was the saloon manager and lover of Doc Holliday). We witnessed a live reenactment of "The Gunfight at the OK Corral", had a beer in Big Nose Kate's Saloon, intended to visit "Boot Hill" but missed the stage couch ride and didn't have time to wait for the next one, and bought a copy of the local newspaper of the time recounting the events of the day, the "Tombstone Epitaph", October, 1881.

On the way back from Tucson to Morenci we passed through an area called "Texas Canyon". Photos will be forthcoming but it sure looked as though Dundee has been here. Some of you will know to what I refer (the monoliths he built of stones at nearly every campsite we stayed at on our canoe trip down the Allagash River).

Linda and Jim's home is beautifully decorated inside and out for this Christmas season and they make us feel so welcome. We look forward to spending some time here with them, certainly through New Years.

I have pictures ready to upload into my blog, but not tonight. It's Southern Comfort time. Stay tuned, I will try to add some photos in the next day or 3.   :-)

Oh yeah, the reason for the title of this blog posting, "Tumbling Tumble Weeds". When entering New Mexico, we stopped at a visitor center to pick up a state map of New Mexico and while Betty was doing so, I stayed near the car to have a cigar. Tumble Weeds were rolling and bouncing across the desert tundra in front of me and I really wanted to have one as a souvenir. So now picture this, the Loon is out running across the desert with a cigar in his mouth chasing a tumbling tumbleweed. Watching me would have brought a chuckle to you're face, I'm sure. In a 20mph wind, boy are they fast! Couldn't catch up with one. Maybe next time (when the breeze is less than 5 knots).

That's it from here for now -