An Unexpected Arizona Adventure, and a Promise of More!

Friday started out like so man days: get up, Suzy sets up the day’s pills while I check e-mails and blogs; then we have breakfast, get ready for the day’s duty, this time a trip to Sierra Vista to pick up my new hearing aid. My hearing continues to deteriorate, and fortunately Miracle Ear continues to improve their aids.

One different thing about breakfast: we bought a microwave bacon cooker. Doing bacon on paper towels on a plate in the microwave was OK, but it left the bacon sitting in grease. Our new cooker, a Presto Power Crisp, is designed to let the bacon cook while suspended on racks, so the melting fat drips into a catch-pan, out of the way. One nice thing: it collapses into an easily stored size. Here’s the cooker before and after quick assembly,

Holding the raw bacon. With bacon cooked and ready to serve. If you think this is a good idea, Google “Presto Power Crisp.”

Our unexpected adventure began after getting my hearing aid and then having lunch at the New China Buffet in Sierra Vista (gigantic selection of a great variety of excellent food!). It occurred to us that our blogging friends Al and Kelly, the Bayfield Bunch, (click to see their blog) are leaving the area this weekend, so we decided to head over to the ranch where they are “ranch-sitting” for a visit. We turned south out of Tombstone, then east on Davis Road for 22 miles, and pulled into the ranch while Al was out getting stuff ready to travel.

We had a nice short visit, said our “See Ya Down the Road” mantra, and started for home. We didn’t even take pictures while we were there! Coming out of the ranch, we turned east instead of west to take a look at some of the country Al’s been showing us in his blog. So, up to the tiny town of Elfrida where we stopped for a potty break and some coffee for the road. Just north of Elfrida, we took Gleeson Road toward the ghost town of, how surprising, Gleeson. That’s where we found the old Gleeson Jail, part of an apparent reconstruction project. It was getting late, so we took a couple of pictures and moved on, heading toward Tombstone.

Along the “primitive” road we came across a sign that directed travelers to “Rattlesnake Crafts.” This is a spot that Al and Kelly wrote about some time back, and a definite item on our must-do list, but not this late on a storm-threatening afternoon! We were trotting right along and didn’t stop to visit or take pictures.

From there home, we only stopped about twenty-five times to get pictures of the snowy peaks of the Huachuca Mountains further west, the stormy clouds, and the setting sun.

As we edged into Benson, the full moon was rising above the Dragoon Mountains and we had to stop again for a series of shots.

Back into the park, we again “shot the moon” before realizing that this was the evening that Mars would be closest to the earth and fully visible near the moon (that’s relatively near, a few light years to be exact.). Unfortunately, our best efforts failed to capture Mars, but we feel we have been adequately “mooned” for a while!

So, this trip home took two hours after leaving Al and Kelly, instead of the expected 45 minutes, and it left us promising each other that we would spend days visiting Elfrida, Gleeson, and especially Rattlesnake Crafts in the near future of … Our Life on Wheels!

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