SouthWestSlide: _{Spring 2004}

Phase Two_(b)
Deeper Into Jollye Olde Arizonie

This is the midpoint of a travel phase. I don't why why exactly, it just is. Unlike the Guatemala trip, the phases here are totally arbitrary. So?

(Maureen whacks me on the head)

Ok, Ok, the phases are important, they divide the trip into discrete sections with entirely different feels. Phase I: in and outa California, we don't feel like we're really GONE until we reach Prescott. Phase II: central Arizona, wandering around. Phase III: southern Arizona, the Bisbee trip. I'll work things out beyond there when they happen.

Day 21: Thru Phoenix to Da Rim
(Monday 19 April 2004)

Desert: Agua Fria National Monument. Up early, cloud cover, nice sunrise over this juniper and opuntia desert. That big stretch of land we covered yesterday between Camp Verde and Cordes Junction is the Yavapai-Apache Nation. They have a big casino down there around Camp Verde, I wonder what other economic mainstays the nation has? We went to their official arts'n'crafts shop, didn't see much local craftworks from them. We could have bought a nice inexpensive ceramic Corn Maiden, but she was inexpensive because she'd been dropped and glued back together. And nice inexpensive baskets that we suspect were from Pakistan.

Heading south, at the 3000 foot level we started seeing sahuaros. As we passed Black Canyon City, LOTS of sahuaros. The country side is very green, the mesquites et cetera in full leaf, and ocotillos in full leaf and bloom. And brittle-bush in bloom, pencil chollas, larrea tridentata, very lush Sonoran Desert landscape. And some Coyote'n'Roadrunner-type mesas appearing off to the west. Ah, the platyopuntia are spitting fruit and buds, there's Englemann's Golden Cholla visible.

Phoenix: And as we approach the northern edge of Phoenix we see balloons, I see seven balloons off the ground right now - no, eight. And this is a workday! Happy Monday morning, from the air. And then we pass one of the state shooting ranges, Yes, California has state parks for ORVs, here ya have state parks for gunmen.

And we can tell we're in metro Phoenix because the freeway traffic is stop'n'go, and Maureen's eyes are burning, and I'm too inept to get over to the diamond lane and speed us thru this shit... No, I'm not THAT inept - I made it. Wheee!

Well, the bad news is, nobody in Arizona can fix the camera. And the worse news is, fixing it's gonna cost a whole bunch and take a long time. I'm ultra-bummed. Ultra.

Heard Museum: So we just did the fabulous Heard Museum. I think there's actually more artifacts on display in the gift shop than in the museum, at least as it is today. A few of the galleries are closed, a few had [some or] all of their objects removed. The Learning Center with its introductions to all the tribes in Arizona was wonderful, the Every Picture Tells A Story exhibition was wonderful, the new art by a painter portraying Ojibway Indians at the Louvre Museum a hundred-odd years ago was wonderful. And one room was actually y'know full of kachinas and jewelry - but we were expecting something really overwhelming, and we did not get that. So the Heard is OK for getting an introduction to Native American art, but otherwise save your money.

Escape: It did not take long to have more than enough of Phoenix. So we catch the highway past Ft McDowell on up towards Payson. And as we get higher the air clears and we find ourselves going thru a veritable Sahuaro Forest. Truly amazing country for any non-Arizonan.

Ocotillos in bloom, encelias again, a valley of bloomin' yuccas. Maureen saw opuntia with yellow blooms, there've been lots of pencil cholla, and big white natilja poppies. So we have hillsides of gray and yellow surmounted by dark greens - a prototypical Sorona Desert wash winds along beside the highway.. This landscape just looks like a desert fantasyland.

A bit further, we're on a mountainous roller-coaster. We passed that wonderland and are back in a mesquite-juniper woodland with the ever-present platyopuntia clumps. At points we're a mile high.

Payson: And as we finally pull up to the outskirts of Payson, ahead of us, like a wall, is the Mogollon Rim. And there's signs up about Zane Grey Country. And we are at 5000 feet. And the Rim is a very awesome-looking escarpment there in front of us. Intimidating.

And we pull into Houston Mesa Horse Camp, tired as dogs. Woof woof.

Day 22: Tonto Basin, Kemosabe?
(Tuesday 20 April 2004)

Earth is shrinking... (read it all here)

Otherwise we lay around all day. Details follow.

(Wednesday 21 April 2004)

Morning: Tonto Basin, AZ: Yesterday morning we arose early and cold and stealthily left the horse camp, wandered out eastward to a surprising modular suburb, brunched in Payson on breakfast burritos at Del Taco (OK, it doesn't suck) and headed south. Took a side road towards Gisela, didn't find the Indian ruins but had a wondrous desert-ridge foray, then aimed towards Roosevelt Lake. Wandered some dirt roads off to its east, found a quiet remote spot and plopped. Ah, the temperature here is just right - not too hot, not too cold, not too windy. Relaxing. And the coyotes sang to us in the night.

But we've had all the peace'n'quiet we can take for now, so we're off again. Details follow.

Midday: Tonto Basin AZ between Punkin Center and Roosevelt Lake on the east side of whatever-the-hell creek it is. We left our pleasant little camp at the edge of the golden cholla forest. 'Cause we can only take so much goddam peace'n'quiet. We forded the creek again, it's a bit deeper this time, but with my stalwart perseverance we just plowed right thru. Meanwhile the Jimson Weed is thickening. Coincidence, or... ???

(Maureen laughs)

Tonto Creek, that's where we are. Now let's go get Global or Globular or something. Details follow.

Day 24: The Globular Experience etc
(Thursday 22 April 2004)

Morning: Rolling outside Globe AZ. Yesterday morning we pulled out of our breezy site in the Tonto Basin up near the cholla forest, drove thru a little more rough country, then hit the asphalt, went up to see Roosevelt Dam. Oh, they repoured it in concrete, I'm sure it'd have been much more spectacular as the ancient MASONRY dam it once was, largest in the world. Made from stone cut from the mountains nearby. It's still pretty spectacular.

None of the camping locales along Roosevelt lake really looked too tempting, so we continued south along the Apache Trail, the paved portion, thru an area where the highway is being improved, and where it wasn't being improved it was VERY quaint. Not to say, gnarly, but y'know, the usual cactus and rocks and twisty roads and all that stuff.

Globular: We wound down into Globe, scoped out the old downtown which is quaint, grabbed a cheap pizza and an apple pie to quench our dinnertime appetites, and took ourselves up to another breezy site. Now the Icehouse CCC Trailhead, the Forest Service guide said CAMPING but the sign there said NO CAMPING. So we pulled down the road a little bit, found a likely-looking sheltered spot and ensconsed ourselves. And in the evening a fellow walks down, he's the Recreation Site Host, and he says in a nice Irish accent, "Ah you'll be staying here then, well then I won't be locking the gate."

So we watched TOMB RAIDER and devoured our cheap pizza and apple pie and the wind blew and we turned off the computer and crawled into bed and the wind blew and the wind blew all night in this cozy little spot up at 4000 feet. So in the morning we drove away.

Besh-Ba-Gowah: We drove uphill a bit looking for another site but everything was thin and windy; the dusty view extended for mile after mile. We went down to Globe again, to tour the Besh-Ba-Gowah Archaeological Park, wonderful Salado pueblo ruins and museum. We'd been there 8 or 10 years ago, and it's still there. Highly recommended for seeing - accessible ancient.Salado ruins. ("I know they lived here, but why did the people build all these ruins?" the woman asked the ranger, who found it difficult to reply.)

At Besh-Ba-Gowah I bought a few carved figures which the clerk assured me were from Zuni. We also saw some interesting rattles carved with SouthWestern petroglyph symbols. In the small print it sez that they're handmade in the highlands of Guatemala. So we have Mayas replicating Hohokam and Mimbres symbology.

Then back to Globe and it blew and it blew. Stopped at the library to go online and delete megaturds of spam, didn't have time to handle honest email. Now we're out on the Rez, taking the Apache Loop. And once you get away from the earth-moving equipment it's, even though it's still blowing, the airborne earth is not quite as visible. By "the Rez" I mean the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Our goal this early afternoon is the Cultural Center in San Carlos.

Remembrance: I remember many years ago, probably I dunno, late 60s or early 70s, hitchhiking thru Globe and Miami. They were gritty little mining towns then and they're still gritty mining towns. I remember from driving thru back in '97 that Miami is positively ugly, what will all the, mostly because of the evidence, the tailings and such, the evidence of the mining activity dumped right beside the road. Globe itself is in a little hilly area, with some fine old public and private buildings, and some not so fine. One sign promoting the Historic Bar, a source of great pride for local drunks. Everyone needs a history, now don't they?

There are a few woo-woo merchants in town, with crystals and answers to eternal questions and explorations of consciousness and organic tea. But until the mines shut down the woo-wooers will only have a little toehold. Once the mining goes away and the grit goes down, the dust quits blowing in, this could become another Prescott. They'll have to do something about recycling all those mine tailings though.

Oops, Tonto NM: I forgot to mention: yesterday we went up to the Salado ruins in Tonto National Monument just south of Roosevelt Dam. Wonderful ruins, cliffside dwellings in a sharp arroyo amidst dozens of other residential clusters and overlooking the now-flooded Tonto Basin in the near distance. It is rather a steep climb for people as out of training as ourselves, and on a warm day one definitely wants to haul along a bottle of water, and yes it is definitely worth the climb. You can see where the original entrance was, a little v-shaped notch with a ladder descending. And spyholes in the walls. And if whoever is on lookout doesn't like whoever is approaching they just pull up the ladder.

Literature on the Tonto Basin says that the name TONTO was applied back in the 1880s, so it hopefully predates the Lone Ranger.

Apache: Meanwhile, cruising around on the San Carlos Apache Reservation, newer stuff on the Rez looks good; older stuff, housing, looks not so good. But much of what we see here, at least the road we're on is being rebuild. Don't know how much of the rest of the Rez is being reconstructed. Some of the building are covered with a fair amount of rather nicely done graffiti. Rural areas look springtime-lush. At a low angle this looks like a green land surmounted by brown and red hills, with mountains fading away to blues and greys in the distance. We passed an elementary school in the town of San Carlos, capital of this nation, and a lot of the girls were wearing traditional dress.

Meanwhile the tribal government has an unfortunate acronym: SCAT - San Carlos Apache Tribe.

MAUREEN: At the Apache Cultural Center the elderly man behind the counter was saying to the churchgroup of tourists that the Apaches never say HELLO and GOODBYE to each other because they believe that everyone has been here before and that we all know each other. And so there's no reason for HELLO and GOODBYE. I also heard him say that when you come in to this life, into this physical life, whoever you are you've agreed in advance to be. Whether you're, y'know whatever station in life you have. And this is the first I've heard and haven't even read about Apache spiritual life, so I need to check the books at home.

Coolidge: Thru careless navigation we found ourselves down by Coolidge Dam. We pulled in at an overlook on the north side and there's a couple Apached guys parked their light blue pickup there. They're sitting on the edge, looking out over the lake talking and drinking beer. I walked over to just look around, I was taking some pictures, they told me that there're a couple of big carved eagles on the other side of the dam that'd make a good picture. One of'em was gesticulating, had his arms out like a swooping predatory bird.

I thanked them, we drove on out to bridge, er to the dam, an amazing looking structure. There are (I'll have to look this up) three globular vaults as the support mechanism. We drove to over to the other end of the dam to get some more photos.

The wind did blow. VERY HARD. It was difficult walk against it as it was channeled down thru the steep river gorge downstream. A little ways across the dam I heard a yell, thought it might be auditory hallucinations. I turned around and here's Maureen running up behind me. She sez the RV's shaking back and forth and she's afraid to stay in it. Would I please come back and move it? So I did.

We came back to the less-windblown end of the dam, walked out again and SAW the eagles. Yup there are some pretty good eagles there, wouldn't want to mess with THEM.

Awesome: Some pretty spectacular country out here in ApacheLand.

We stopped at the Coolidge Dam store above Lake San Carlos to ask directions back to Globe. Well it's a dirt road but it's good dirt. One of these dirt roads here, not sure which one. The same two cheerful guys were in the store buying some beer, having a good chat with the pretty clerk.

I should mention that the Coolidge Dam is dressed with some ornate carvings and embellishments, some which have not quite stood the test of time. There are ornate lamp standards at each end with lantern cases, all the of which has blown out of course. And the great domes at the bottom bore some graffiti, like some maniacs went out there to write on a windy day. Were they blown off in the process? ¿Quien focking sabe?

Now it's back to Globe, then southwards and gone.

Evening. Dripping Springs Road camp, somewhere south of Globe. So we crawled up the torturous El Capitán pass, high above the impassible Gila River canyon. And we wound down across another upper Sonoran Desert landscape - sahuaros, more different chollas, etc. Westward on Dripping Springs Road to a nice ridge. Graphic evidence of javelina hunting here - a pigskin and head hang from an adjacent tree. It's quiet, the sky is dark; a crescent moon hangs below, hmm, whatever the evening star is. Not Venus, it's too high. And an owl hoots in the night.

Day 25: The BioSphere Experience etc
(Friday 23 April 2004)

Morning: Crawled from our camp above Dripping Springs Wash after a sumptuous breakfast. Now we're rolling along the mighty Gila River, looks like a cáfe látte - we'll take that decaf with non-fat creamer please - yeah, decaf and nonfat látte, just like the preference of the geek in TOMB RAIDER. The gorge cut by the Gila here, north of Winklerville, looks like limestone, all these white layers. Or should I say: extensive sedimentation looking like limestone with a bit of sandstone, a layer or two of that here'n'there. And we must be approaching the next mining town, Winklerville, 'cause there's a huge pile of smelter tailings beside the road. A mountain of black sludge. Or debris or excreta. Whatever.

Meanwhile we cross the Gila River and head south towards the Catalina Mountains and Biosphere II and Took-sone, threading our way thru a forest of sahuaros and telephone poles. (Maureen laughs.) Why not just wire the cacti?

To Oracle: We rolled down the San Pedro to Mammoth, it's a little bit lower and drier than its California namesake. We took what we thought was the old highway but it ended up at the Tiger Mine so we had to roll back, swung around the mountain and found ourselves in Oracle AZ, which has a most monolithic butterfly garden, set with tiles, many tiled sculptures. I guess this comes from being fairly close to Biosphere II.

Oracle has a few imposing and sturdy and new buildings, not what you'd expect in a little desert breezeway off in the middle of nowhere. A small population center for those who want to get away, but not too far away. Then there's the sign announcing, all in one place, the Community Center, the Senior Center, and the Cemetary. How convenient.

Memorials: We pass more roadside memorials. Some are just wooden crosses stuck in rocks, lined with plastic or silk flowers. Others are more substantial - iron or steel bars or pipes welded with little decorative filigrees, names embossed and sculpted in metal - and I'm wondering, is there anybody who specializes in this, who makes their living building way-markers on the highway of the dead?

And in many cases a memorial will just be something tied to a highway sign, maybe a teddy bear with the plastic flowers. Or another stuffed animal. And many of the Adopt-A-Highway signs in Arizona are IN LOVING MEMORY OF someone-or-other. Is that someone who got creamed here or just some beloved relative? ¿Quien focking sabe?

And that question gets answered, at least at one of these memorials, where there's the ADOPT-A-HIGHWAY sign AND the [welded] roadside cross and flowers and such, names written out in stones and pebbles. The conclusion we draw is that Arizona highways are dangerous, we see so many of these around. Hmmm, I betcha that ARIZONA HIGHWAYS magazine has NOT done a feature issue [or story] on this. (Maureen laughs.)

MidDay, Tucson - the air is pretty good and driving thru the suburbs here in the northern foothills is pretty exciting and picturesque, scads of Old Mex style houses hidden away in rolling desert brush, all expensively secluded. We have lunch at PAPAGAYO at Sunrise and Swan; the rellenos are good, the chips are good, everything else was tolerable. Wait, how was your drink? MAUREEN: "Almost no booze in it." Almost no booze in the margarita, so the thumb is waggling downwards. No, it's a definite down-thumb.

And we cruised by Catalina State Park and it just didn't ring my bell, even though the air is good. So we'll go on down to Mission San Xavier del Bac and then maybe over to Kartchner Caverns State Park and then we'll see.

San Xavier del Bac mission: Wonderful inside but Maureen says there's apparent damage since we were here last, 8 or 9 years ago. I spend an hour with camera and tripod, carefully grabbing images of everything I can, all this ornate colorful baroque folk art.

The outside is sheathed in the usual scaffolding, undergoing the usual ongoing restoration. The church interior is splendid and populated, the courtyards are cool and calm and quiet; but in the square opposite, business is slow.

MAUREEN: There's a lot of water damage on the ceiling, lot of water damage all over on the frescos. Some of the angels, the wooden ones. are missing their wings. So there's, it looks like there's constant restoration here.

I sat in the left transept while Ric was taking pictures, and noticed that the people who are Catholic came in and crossed themselves, came over to the effigy of St Francis, lifted his head, crossed themselves, moved over to his feet, grabbed his feet, and crossed themselves again. And there were a couple who had obvious infirmities and they patted those parts of the saint's body, of the effigy's body, and crossed themselves. And on the blanket or cover over the effigy were those little pieces of silver to show the parts of the body and pain, and there were prayers pinned on to the coverlet too.

RIC: and you were saying, there was one old guy who was limping...

MAUREEN: Oh and he went in and he lifted up the head and then, you could tell the way he was bent over, maybe he had some abdominal problems, and he patted the effigy's abdominal area too, and crossed himself. And there was one family with small children who held them up and showed them how to lift up the head. So, very educational! Whatever it means.

MUSEUM NOTE: "This carved, wooden statue of San Francisco Xavier represents the patron saint of the Mission. Daily, the statue is rubbed, touched, and kissed as it recieves petitions, vows and gratitude from the faithful. Out of respect for San Xavier, Catholics genuflect (kneel), make the sign of the cross, pray and lift his head. Many believe that only the good of heart have the power to raise the saint's head."

Day 26: Huachuca to Bisbee (1)
(Saturday 24 April 2004)

Camped between Kartchner Caverns and Sierra Vista AZ. We escaped from the Tucson area just before a heat wave was due to strike, and came out to our intended goal of Kartchner Caverns, and there were signs up: CAMP SITES AVAILABLE and TOURS FULLY BOOKED and the gates were closed. And as we got there a gate opened and a car drove out and people waved us away and then the gate closed. So we rolled up gnarly, barely-driveable French Fred Road into the edge of a howling wilderness and spent a grueling night. Grueling. Lotsa gruel. Lotsa UFOs. UFO gruel is tasteless. And vile. Avoid it.

On the way up French Fred Road we saw a mountain bike just sitting, standing in the middle of the road. And there was a young couple in shorts with mountain bikes and rifles. Probably from Fort Huachuca, which is nearby. Probably our adventuring and shooting things and having a great deal of lustful animal fun in the merry molten twilight. She ran out to retrieve her bike before we could crush it.

We are reminded that we are in cattle country because as we drive out this morning there's cattles right there, staring at us. Their sharp venemous eyes pointing directly into ours. Their sharp venemous horns dipping ominously in our direction. Long pointy horns. Well-honed for dealing death and destruction. RUN! RUN!

Fort Huachuca: We enter Fort Huachuca. It looks like a fort. And the museum is closed. So we leave.

The area off-post, Huachaca City and Sierra Vista et al, comprises big clean and modern off-post towns. Extended suburbs sweeping across the high desert. Some houses and modulars in Santa Fe Style, most not. The usual gnarly-looking hills and peaks rising above us. A battered pickup goes by bearing the sticker, "Golf Naked!" I glance at the driver and shudder.

Entering Fort Huachuca entailed entering our first roadside checkpoint of this journey. We have passed various agricultural inspections and Border Patrol roadblocks and the like, in the opposite direction, but have not been stopped at any of such until now. And this was at our volition, so it doesn't count. So we're still cherry, waiting for our first unavoidable checkpoint of the trip.

Ascending: A little further, we saw the turnoff for Coronado National Memorial and we thought, why not? We crawled up to a nice little visitor's center nestled in oak woodland where we learned that the National Memorial commemorates Coronado's overland expedition looking for the Seven Cities of Gold which of course he didn't find because they weren't there. We peer to the east at] the San Pedro Valley and... and I'll have to dig up the names of those mountains.

And then we hauled ourselves up a steep road up to Montezuma Pass where we have a VAST overlook - in one direction, to Nogales and maybe even to the Gulf of California - and the other way, uh, past Bisbee and Douglas and on to El Paso. And it's just so stupendous and hot'n'dusty and the nearest campgrounds are a ways on and downwards. And we crawl back down the hill and go across the south end of the San Pedro Valley (Maureen sneezes), no not actually the end (Maureen sneezes) it goes a bit further down into Mexico. (Maureen laughs).

Now it's on to Bisbee.

My Sweetheart

My sweetheart's the mule in the mine
Down below, where the sun never shine
And all day I just sit
And I chew and I spit
All over my sweetheart's behind