There's no way to really characterize Southeastern Arizona. Most of it was a very pretty desert, and mostly we were uncomfortably hot. But we ascended mountains and found 'cool' places, too. We did everything from emergency dental care to celebrating our son Michael's 40th birthday to camping under an orange tree and to watching a community theater play called Shriek, a Shrek Spoof.
The dental care wasn't really much of an emergency -- just a crown that needed to be re-adhered. I've written about how tricky medical care can be for VanLifers and it turns out that dental care is even trickier. A crown had come off my tooth while we were in Austin and despite my best efforts, I was unable to find a dentist that didn't run me through the drill of telling me I wasn't their patient and maybe they could fit me in their schedule in about a week from forever. Fortunately, when you find yourself close to the Mexican border there's an easy and excellent solution: A walk across the border led straight to the door of a clean, competent, and efficient Sonoran dentist in Naco, Sonora, Mexico. He saw me right away, re-adhered the cap, and I was quickly on my way. I didn't wait, the tooth was fixed properly and we walked back into the US, where the border agent who checked our passports asked if we'd been there for tacos or dental work. Bill and I would recommend both the dental care and the tacos.
And then Arizona adventures:
Tombstone, Arizona. Fun-ish tourist town. Otherwise not much there. The re-enactment of the gun fight at the OK Corral was pretty good -- actors had a great improv sense of humor. The clouds in the sky portended a monsoon season storm, from which we took refuge in Big Nose Kate's saloon. Big Nose Kate was Doc Holliday's lady friend. Judging by the saloon, they had a lot of fun together.
From the silly to the awesome: Arizona has a LOT of nifty geology and we started our geology homage when Baby Beluga met the length cut-off by the skin of her bumpers for vehicles allowed on the windy road up the mountain that is the Chiricahua National Monument. That mountain surely lives up to its tag line, A Wonderland of Rocks. It has been sculpted by the erosion around compacted ancient lava flow. Besides a geology lesson, we learned some history of the Chiricahua Apaches, Cochise, and Geronimo. Nothing that made us proud of the white settlement of the American West.
We had heard about the scenic drive up Mt. Lemmon that overlooks Tucson so we headed northwest toward Tucson. On the way, we took in the Amerind Museum, a private museum illustrating the culture of local indigenous peoples. Quite a nice afternoon stop set in Texas Canyon, AZ, named for the home of its first settlers. No pictures were allowed inside.
And then Mt. Lemmon -- we had to do a lot of Internet searching and guesswork to find the start of the route, thus we were expecting a typical narrow, perhaps gravel scenic route. Instead we found a wide-ish, well paved, and very scenic highway that ends at an (unfortunately closed) observatory belonging to the University of Arizona atop the highest peak in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Tucson is about 2400 feet above sea level and decorated with all sorts of cacti, especially the majestic Saguaros. Here's one overlooking Tucson:
But at about 4,000 feet, things change. Oak trees start to appear and the Saguaros disappear. By the time we reached the top of Mount Lemmon (9159 feet), we'd gone through five different climate zones in a few hours. I could definitely geek out on how literally cool this is, but I'll spare you.
We settled in a campsite at the highest Forest Service Campground, just below the only town on the mountain, Summerhaven. The town treated us to a great vegan lunch and not the usual microwave hamburgers of isolated towns, and the campground treated us to a full moon and a beautiful city lights view of Tucson.
And one more word about Mount Lemmon: Yes, it is correctly spelled with two 'M's. It is one of the very few mountains in the world named for a woman, Sara Plummer Lemmon. A botanist, she married John Lemmon and together they collected and illustrated a lot of plant specimens. But when their work was published, only John got the credit. Good thing this mountain carries only her name! It'll probably last longer than 'his' journal articles. Good for her!
Then we drove south to Ft. Huachuca to attend the celebration of Michael's 40th birthday. Michael and his twin brother Mark never minded sharing a birthday party (as long as they each got their own cake) but Mark lives overseas and was on a work assignment in Istanbul, so he's celebrating later. Here's Michael holding a birthday gift from William! Lindsay threw him a fun party, for sure.
A bit of a detour on our way to Northeastern Arizona grabbed more time than we had dedicated to it, but so worth it. We drove about 20 miles south of Tucson to the fantastic mission church of San Xavier del Bac on the lands of the Tohono O'odhan Nation. The church, established in 1682, was one of many in the southwest established by geographer, explorer and cartographer Padre Eusebino Kino. Padre Kino, who we thought was Spanish, was a Jesuit from Italy on a mission for New Spain. He didn't live to see the church completed which didn't happen until the end of the 1700s. It's no wonder it took that long; it is just so much more than what we expected. The amazing architecture and artwork is everywhere. That is astounding considering that it was built only from local resources that existed in the desert at the time. Despite being a continually operating Catholic parish, it eventually fell into some disrepair. The Diocese of Tucson gained the church from the much older but much farther away Diocese of Santa Fe, and is renovating it. It is well worth the detour and the visit, and don't go to Tucson without seeing it.
This is a photo of the facade just over the main doors. See if you can find a mouse hiding in the curled-around detail on each side. Just to the center of of the mice, there are cats -- hard to see because the head of each cat is partially obscured by a gargoyle over its head. Why am I bothering with this? Because legend has it that when the cat finally catches its mouse, the world will end. We wouldn't want you to miss the signs.
As we all know, there was no air conditioning in the 1700s. I don't know how they figured it out, but there was a nice breeze blowing through that church. The desert in which it sits was, however, just baking. We had promised ourselves that we would do a Volksmarch in Phoenix, but it was sporting temps around 100 and we decided to forgo that for this trip... so we did two things.
One: We took the advice of our nephew Bill Clark, a Tucson native, to stop at a fast-food place called Eegees. They make an eponymous drink that's similar to, but better than, a 7-11 Slurpee. Bill's Pina Colada Eegee and my Lemon Eegee were sweet and cool and hit the spot on a hot Arizona afternoon. So here's to you, Bill Clark! Thanks for sharing your memory with us.
Two: We decided to head to Northern Arizona via back roads through the White Mountains the next day. I found a Harvest Host site to spend the night in Tucson so we could rest up for the mountain drive -- Ha! It turned into a late night because it was perhaps the most fun and goofiest camping stop we've seen in a LONG time..... We recommend Little Anthony's 50s diner, complete with trivia contests, Elvis impersonators, a car show, and a full length musical spoof of the show Shrek, entitled Shriek. And that was followed by a Las Vegas review.
Retirement Lesson Learned: Take your time, be flexible, and stay outa' the heat!
WOYAYA
You've gone to some of my favorite places in VA. Great trip all around. Hope your grandson is up and around by now. Hugs to you all, Robin
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