IT JUST FELT LIKE A SIERRA VISTA KIND OF DAY

HICKIWAN TRAILS LOOKING TOWARDS THE POZO REDONDO MOUNTAINS

I do think the blog publishing problem I had Wednesday night definitely had something to do with our new Mifi set-up.  Had noticed earlier in the day some sites were taking awhile to open & we hadn’t had that problem until we switched over from our Cradlepoint system.  After repeated attempts to publish the blog I finally published a version without the pics & that told me it had to be a Mifi connection & signal strength glitch.  Later in the night I turned the computer on again & tried publishing the photo version.  Seemed to be working but slowly.  Left the computer on publishing the blog & went back to bed.  By morning the photo version of the blog had published. 

SIERRA VISTA AS SEEN THROUGH MY TELEPHOTO LENS IN JANUARY 2009…..TAKEN FROM OUR BOONDOCKING SITE A FEW MILES WEST OF TOMBSTONE ARIZONA

Woke up to another cloudy cool morning so figured it would be a good day for a run over to SIERRA VISTA.  Threw ourselves into the Jeep about 10:30 & headed west into the Tombstone Hills.   Forty five minutes later we were dodging gunfighter bullets as we rode through the town of Tombstone itself & about 20 minutes after that we were in the city of Sierra Vista.

Sierra Vista is probably the largest city south of Tucson & yet it doesn’t feel like a city to me.  It is very spread out, no high rises & has all the usual big box stores, malls & restaurants you can imagine.  It is located in the San Pedro Valley snuggled right up against the east side of the beautiful Huachuca Mountains.   It is not an old historical city like so many others here in Arizona but that’s OK, I like it anyway & if I had to live in a larger center in southeastern Arizona area I would pick SV for it’s close proximity & easy access to the surrounding mountains & valleys.  No freeways & bypasses here & because it’s not an old city the main thoroughfares were designed wide right from the start.

What is historic about Sierra Vista though is FORT HUACHUCA.  America’s oldest active Army Base.  It was from this fort that troops were dispatched during the Apache Wars to hunt down Cochise & Geronimo.  You can read about our day at Fort Huachuca by clicking here…OUR VISIT TO FORT HUACHUCA.

CROSSING THE SAN PEDRO RIVER IN SEARCH OF THE OLD GHOST TOWN…….CHARLESTON, ARIZONA

Kelly likes browsing around in the Marshal Stores so I sat contentedly in the parking lot with my book this morning.  I did go into the store last year & was able to combine two visits in one.  My first & my last!!!!  She was in the store for about half an hour & came out bag-less.  Always figure that’s kind of good sign.  Another 20 minute browse in second store in the same mall netted her a skirt & we were on our way out of there in search of some grub.

Kelly had a hankering for a hamburger & I had a hankering for a piece of lettuce on a wafer.  Of course Kelly won out & we ended up in a popular place we had never been before.  Sonic!!  Well, we didn’t really know it was a waiters on roller skates kind of place & we felt like the Clampetts as we fumbled around trying to figure out how the Sonic system worked.  Didn’t understand the menu board, call buttons or kids flying by on roller skates.  Kelly had to get out of the Jeep & go nose to nose with the small colored hamburger pictures just to see them.  I was busy trying to keep a low profile under my big white cowboy hat.  All of a sudden the menu board talked to us & Kelly managed to talk back to the menu board & minutes later a smiling young kid in a blue & red uniform wheeled up to our drivers window & dumped a paper bag of burgs on us.  Eight dollars & twenty nine cents later he rollered off into the Sonic sunset.  Burgs were OK & definitely better than anything I could ever cook up.  I did miss my lettuce on a wafer though:))

UP CLOSE & PERSONAL WITH THE MENU

   

KIDS ON ROLLER SKATES

We were back at the rig by 3 & the weather had improved to nearly clear skies & temps up to the 62F mark.  Looks like our weather is on the mend:))

Am going to include a few less pics today & see how I make out with publishing the blog.  Kelly did phone (Skype) the 3G store with some questions & proper instructions on how to route the Mifi through the Cradlepoint for improved reception.  We’ll see how it goes.  Our Mifi has a one year warranty & we have 30 days to return it if not happy.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper last night!!!!!!!

BETWEEN THE DRAGOON & MULE MOUNTAINS HEADING BACK TO THE RIG TODAY…YA YA I KNOW I’M ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD…..BUT IT’S ARIZONA, DRIVE WHERE YA WANNA:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  A driver of a huge trailer lost control and plowed into an empty tollbooth , smashing it to pieces.

He climbed down from the wreckage and within a matter of minutes, a truck pulled up and discharged a crew of workers.

The men picked up each broken piece of the former tollbooth and spread some kind of creamy substance on it. Then they began fitting the pieces together. In less than a half hour, they had the entire tollbooth reconstructed and looking good as new.

"Astonishing!" the truck driver said to the crew chief. "What was the white stuff you used to get all the pieces together?"

The crew chief said, "Oh, that was tollgate booth paste."

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...... AL.