Just a Thought Series ~ July 29, 1971

Having answers makes you wiser

Having questions makes you human
~

Perhaps it's time to do some thinking

But there are no thoughts 
It seems this free and open space 
Has allowed me to unplug

Spiritual Energy

http://www.etsy.com/shop/karencaseysmith

When this was written I was midway through a week long stay at a friend's farm near Cave Junction, OR. On this summer afternoon I sat naked and cross legged in an ocean of wildflowers with a journal and pen in hand. 

As we get caught up in life we tend to forget about the simple acts that help us to find the elusive compass point of center. Life is short, it's important take more time outs and unplug from it all. Some destinations may be in your own back yard or just up the road. 

 Richardson's Grove, CA

Marin Headlands

Beverly Beach Park, OR

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time cools, time clarifies; no mood can be maintained quite unaltered through the course of hours. 

Mark Twain

This is the no excuses tour, time wasted is time lost forever. 

Shelley Macdonald

One Thin Dime ~ Jan 19, 2013

For years two delightful dogs shared our home and travels. We lost them both in 1989. Their names were Diamond Jim and Jessica P Out of the Mud Grows the Lotus. He was a Heinz 57 variety tricolor hound with a white diamond on his neck and she was a black Lab-Golden Retriever mix who couldn't resist a tennis ball or any body of water.

We used to purchase their canned food by the case. One day I picked up one of the cans and it felt unusually light. When I opened it up there was a promotional coupon and a little round plastic case with a $5 gold coin the size of a dime, sitting in blue velvet. We tucked the coin in the safe and never thought about again.

With Spring on the horizon this time of year becomes nesting season for me and I start cleaning out drawers and cupboards. Another impetus is that we're trying to lighten our material load. Like a lot of folks our age, we have simply accumulated too much stuff.

Last week I was looking for something in safe and we decided it might be interesting to find out the value of some of the contents: an old pocket watch, the gold coin, gold teeth, old rings and various coins. We took everything but the coins into Olde Towne Jewelers in Santa Rosa. None of it had sentimental value so we figured what the heck. Well, we came home with a check for $1,600. Rod took the coins into a coin shop the next day and came home with $575 in cash. The value on all of it was the melt weight not the items.

What about the $5 gold piece from the dog food can? It sold for $168. Who knew?

I guess the lesson here is to start looking through all the old coins, broken jewelry, and stuff you have tucked away. Our little bonanza is seed money for one of the items on our bucket list: perhaps a narrow gauge rail trip across the Southwest, some time in Maritime Provinces of Canada, or a month in New Zealand. Two things are for sure: life is short and the possibilities are endless.

Tombstone Road Trip ~ Tombstone to Home ~ Nov 11-13, 2012

Nov 11th ~ Breakfast with our same mates at the Bordello and then we're off on the journey home. We continue to make it up as we go: northwest on I10 then west on I8 towards Quartzite. When it's time for fuel (for the Honda and us) we picked a random off ramp and arrive in Tonapah, AZ (population 60). There was a little Mexican restaurant at the gas station so we decided to take a chance. Seems like the hole in the wall places have the best food. 

We're sitting across from two women, Sandy and Phyllis, who are on their way from the El Dorado to southern AZ for the winter. Sandy asked where we were from. When I said Sebastopol she got this big smile on her face and said "I grew up in Santa Rosa, my family owns Teevax Appliances". "Oh" I said "That's where we purchased our washer, dryer and dishwasher". She laughed and said "That was probably my brother who installed them". I no longer question these chance connections, they are a part of the fabric of my life and always entertaining.

Off again towards Quartzite and then north on Hwy 95 along the Colorado River and back to Laughlin for the night. We arrived in the afternoon and took a walk along the river. We had wanted to see Las Vegas, but we're going to save it for another trip so we can explore the area. Tomorrow we head for the California coast, one trip through the Central Valley is enough.

Nov 12th ~ The numbers game today ~ Hwy 95 to 40 to 58 to 101. The traffic is light and the weather clear. It's a long drive but not a boring one, We pick up Hwy 58 near Barstow, once past Bakersfield we find the proverbial long and winding road with a little bit of everything: oil, cotton, long horns, solar farms, rivers, large ranches and small towns: desert to golden oak covered hills.

Late afternoon just east of Paso Robles on Hwy 58

We're toast by the time we reach Paso Robles so we opt for an overnight at the Best Western and dinner at Bad Bubba's BBQ next door. A good call on all accounts.

Nov 13th ~ After breakfast we head west on Hwy 46 to Cambria and north on Hwy 1. The weather is clear and it's warm on the coast. Though I love exploring the desert and mountains it's a delight to again see the Pacific.

Elephant Seals ~ Another Roadside Attraction

A Constant Roadside Attraction

 Lunch View in Monterey and 70 degrees

Once we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge it was only an hour to home. We left everything in car, had a bowl of cereal for dinner and relished the thought of being in our own beds.

This was a great adventure. We travelled blue highways to new places and back in time. Tombstone's Archivist, Nancy Sosa, got me totally hooked on what she calls the "love of the chase". My next adventure is looking further into family history. It seems "characters were indeed welcome" in my family tree.

Tombstone Road Trip ~ Tombstone Day Two ~ Nov 10, 2012

We're off to explore today. We headed up Hwy 80 to catch Hwy 82 West but missed the turn off. An oops of good fortune, as we got to chase some morning rainbows and discovered A Gallery of Dreams in St. David, just south of Benson (http://www.agalleryofdreams.com). 

There was a small art show out front and we met two gentlemen educating visitors about the Buffalo Soldiers. The gallery is home base to Tim Trask, an incredible sculptor, who is working on a clay model of what will be two life size bronze statues to commemorate the history and service of Buffalo Soldiers. We donated $20 to the project and were able to add two chunks of clay onto the forms he would use to cast the sculptures.

Next stop was the Fort Huachuca Museum to find out more about the Buffalo Soldiers (http://huachucamuseum.com/). It's a great little museum, very informative, but totally off the beaten track. It was hard to find tucked in the back corner of an active military base. Looking into their storied history was an amazing journey.

Mr. Trask's sculptures will reside in Tombstone instead of Fort Huachuca where the soldiers were stationed. Three blocks of Tombstone's Allen Street are permanently blocked off to traffic and over a million people visit there each year. Having the statues in Tombstone will provide an incredible teaching and learning opportunity. From the Civil War through modern times the Buffalo Soldiers served with honor on many fronts.

Next stop is Kartchner Caverns just southwest of Benson. The caverns were unknown until 1974, when cavers Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts found a narrow crack in the bottom of a sinkhole. They followed a source of warm, moist air toward what ended up being more than 2.5 miles of pristine cave passages. Hoping to protect the cave they kept the location a secret for fourteen years.

Working with the Kartchner family they decided that the best way to achieve the goal of protection was through development as a tour cave and they approached Arizona State Parks. In 1985, then-Governor Bruce Babbitt secretly left the state capitol with two bodyguards and spent three hours crawling through the cave's tight passages to reach the cave's showcase chambers.  The discovery of the cave was finally made public in 1988 when the landowners sold the area to the state for development as a park. The state spent $28 million on a high-tech system of air-lock doors, misting machines and other gadgetry designed to preserve the cave. Put this stop on your bucket list. For more information go to http://www.explorethecaverns.com

We emerged from the caves in late afternoon for the short return trip to Tombstone. Time for a walk about before sunset and a light dinner before heading back to the Bordello.

Dinner View

The Heart of the Matter ~ to be continued

Tombstone Road Trip ~ Tombstone Day One ~ Nov 9, 2012

  

Guests gather in the dining room about 7:30 for coffee, conversation and a delicious homemade breakfast. Each morning we meet a different group of travellers: from a bike tour groups to travelers like us exploring the region.

First thing we decided to check out was Boot Hill, a graveyard rich with the town's storied characters. Most of the graves are from the early 1880's. It's a great place to wander about with a camera and look into history. We found out later in the day, however, that all who are purported to be buried there are not. It seems that history sometimes takes a back seat to a good story. Boot Hill Cemetery was closed in 1884 when the new City Cemetery was opened on Allen Street to provide a last resting place for the "proper" residents of town. 



FYI: Lester Moore was a Wells Fargo agent from Naco, AZ. In the movie Tombstone, when the Earps arrive in Tombstone 1881, they ride past Boot Hill Cemetery. Plainly visible is this tombstone, one most famous epitaphs ever written. The problem is that Lester Moore wasn't killed until 1884 ~ Think they call that a continuity error.

George Johnson made the mistake of purchasing a stolen horse and was hanged by mistake: an "oops" moment if I ever heard of one.

 One thing for sure though, the view of the Dragoon Mountains from Boot Hill is spectacular.

We came back up to town in the late morning to find town archivist Nancy Sosa and do research on my great grandfather Stanley Chipman Bagg. She and her assistant Jessica spent three hours with us going through old books and ledgers, city council minutes and photographs, making copies for us along the way. We knew he had started the Tombstone Prospector and bought out the Tombstone Epitaph, but had no idea he had owned a retail business, Bagg and Barrow, or that he had been so deeply involved in town politics.  She did some further microfiche sleuthing after we left and sent us more information including the masthead from the Prospector with his name on it. More on his colorful story later.

Nancy is the one who told us not believe everything you read. She is this field for the love of the chase and finding the truth. She does a lot of research for writers and historians, but there are two subjects she won't touch: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Too many people have their own versions of history on these two and once in the bully pulpit they won't back down. She said she'd been to research conferences and wondered if presenters should be checked for side arms at the door. We had so much fun we took Nancy to lunch.

Off to Bisbee, another historic mining town, about 25 miles south on Hwy 80, to meet up with Auntie Betty. We did a little exploring, some window shopping and stopped for ice cream before parting ways. 

The drive back from Bisbee was gorgeous: storm clouds, sun, wind, red dirt, and mesquite. We had dinner with my aunt and uncle at the Crystal Palace and then dropped them off for the evening. They head home tomorrow and had to be up at o'dark thirty. We're here another night and have a map of places to explore tomorrow.

Tombstone Road Trip ~ Jerome to Tombstone ~ Nov 7-8, 2012

Nov 7th ~ After breakfast in Jerome we head down the mountain to Cottonwood and pick up Hwy 260 east through Camp Verde to Payson where we stopped for lunch. From there it's southeast on Hwy 188 to Jakes Corner and Lake Roosevelt. We're just picking the roads as we go. There is little traffic, most of the world is in too much of a damn hurry to explore these old highways. A boon for those of us who prefer roads less traveled. It's about 80 degrees, perfect for driving with the windows down. 

 Hwy 188

Roosevelt Lake Bridge

Down near Globe, we turn south onto Hwy 77 and head for the Oro Valley just north of Tucson to spend the night. We got in about sunset and found a Quality Inn with a kitchenette. Rather than cook we headed to Whole Foods for provisions: vegetable samosas, stuffed baked potato, fresh salad (with some of our sun gold tomatoes added in) and green beans for dinner and croissants, yogurt, and juice for breakfast. I can say two things about the Oro Valley. They have beautiful sunsets and the most poorly designed thoroughfares ever. We decided not to leave until the morning commute was well over.

Nov 8th ~ Destination Tombstone today. We pick up Interstate 10 in Tucson and head east to Hwy 80 south. First stop is the Singing Winds Bookstore, about 4 miles north of Benson. Our friend Heather said it's a must.

The bookstore is on a 600 acre ranch, down a dirt road past an encampment of old trailers and broken cars. Owner Winn Bundy opened the shop in 1974 to fulfill a long time dream. It was still a working cattle ranch at the time. She told us she spent $600, that was supposed to pay a vet bill, on her first books and never looked back. She is in her 90's but is as vibrant a woman as I've ever met. Word of mouth has kept this wondrous outpost in business for over 30 years. Folks come from all over the country and return often. There no road signs but for the one on the driveway.

The shop is a floor to ceiling maze of new books with the haphazard character of a used bookshop. Half the fun is the (absolutely essential) tour of the eccentric bibliographic arrangement. Winn or her assistant reel off a litany of subjects pointing to the unlabeled shelves with collections on ghost towns, guidebooks, mining, geology, westerns, Indians of the Southwest, Indians outside the Southwest, Indian rock art, sculpture and archaeology to name only a few. They don't accept credit cards so bring cash. Her tiny desk is topped with a calculator and carbon paper for hand written receipts. Change is kept in small containers in a drawer. Rod found a book called "Indian Herbalogy of North America" to add to our collection.

It was hard to leave, but it was time to have lunch and head for Tombstone. We found the Horseshoe Cafe on the way through Benson. We liked the mural on the side of the building and the parking lot was full, reason enough for us to stop and we weren't disappointed.

We got into Tombstone around 4pm under crystal clear skies and gathering clouds. Our home away from home the next four days is the Tombstone Bordello. Considering we were married at the Gold Hill Hotel, the oldest "working" hotel in Nevada (near Virginia City), it's reasonable for us to be drawn to a former bordello. This is the sunset view from our upstairs window.

We unpacked and decided on a walk into downtown.  We wandered down to the end of a side street that had mine tours and a little outside bar at the back of an old industrial building. We chatted with Cary Grainger, who runs the mine tours. When his family moved from Vermont to Utah he fell in love with rocks. His parents retired here in an RV and he soon followed. We told him we were here to find out about my great grandfather and he told us we had to talk to Nancy Sosa at the Tombstone Archives at 6th and Fremont. Best advice ever!

The other reason we're in Tombstone is to meet up with my 93 year old aunt Betty. She and her husband Bob are on a Historical Wild West bus tour. She is my link to my grandfather John Sherman Bagg and my great grandfather Stanley Chipman Bagg. We weren't expecting them until evening, but when we drove uptown for dinner we saw the bus at their hotel. We helped them get settled in and had dinner together at the Longhorn. Long day for all of us so early to bed. Tomorrow we explore Tombstone and visit the town archivist.

Tombstone Road Trip ~ Laughlin to Jerome ~ Nov 6, 2012

Election Day ~ We voted by absentee ballot before we left home so all we can do is wait and see. We didn't need to be in Tombstone until the 8th and had no desire to drive through the Phoenix area so we continue to scout blue highways and head east on Hwy 40 towards Kingman and Flagstaff before heading south.

When it was time for lunch we took a random turn onto old Hwy 66. The first thing we see in Seligman is the Road Kill Cafe. No way we can pass this up so we pulled in. The interior decor and signage is a feast for the eyes and the food delicious. Check out the menu at http://www.road-kill-cafe.com/roadkill.html

Imagine our surprise to see one of our Sonoma County wines on the sideboard.

We turned south just west of Flagstaff onto Hwy 89 through Oak Creek Canyon to Sedona. It's an incredibly beautiful drive.

We pulled into Slide Rock Park just north of Sedona for short break. The sandstone has been etched by eons of water passing down the canyon, which made for easy walking and inviting pools.

Mom and Dad lived in Sedona in the early 70's when it was still an undiscovered artists colony. We thought about spending the night until we got there. It was like was like a mile long, high class strip mall with gridlock. I took one look at Rod and said "keep going, we'll head for Jerome".

Jerome is a little copper mining town that resides on a steep hillside at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The roads are all like Lombard Street in San Francisco. It went from boom town, to ghost town, to biker haven, to hippie heaven to a thriving arts community. A delightful place to explore.

On a whim we decided to stay at the historic Connor Hotel. No elevator and two flights of stairs. No way we're going to haul our suitcases in so our solution is pack one grocery bag of clothes, and one with the ditty, camera, and a few other necessities. Delightful room with a king bed and period decor.

The owner suggested dinner at the 15 Quince Grill and Cantina. We shared plates of chicken tacos and salsas/chips. Five stars in our book. We ended the day with an evening of acoustic music at the Spirit Bar next door to the hotel.

After packing up we walked down to Bobby D's BBQ Pit at the English Kitchen for a most excellent breakfast, outdoors on the deck. Their potato hash is worth a drive to Jerome! After breakfast we stretched our legs a bit with a walk about town and then headed out, making up our game plan as we went. 

Laughlin, NV ~ Nov 04-05, 2012

The adventure continues with the drive from Bakersfield to Laughlin. This is your quintessential wide open spaces drive with a spider web of blue highways and roads less travelled. We took Hwy 58 east to Hwy 40 east to Hwy 95 north.

We went from hill county covered in valley oaks to an autumn desert that was more colorful than expected: green, tan and gold with soils of black, red, gray, and ochre. It was sunny and warm with very little traffic.

Arrived in Laughlin in the late afternoon, tossed our stuff in the room at the Aquarius Hotel and took a walk on the Promenade along the Colorado River. We had a light dinner, spent a little time in the casino and called it an early night.

Monday morning after breakfast we took off to find the Katherine Mine. It was discovered by my grandfather John Sherman Bagg. He worked as a teamster hauling ore from the Sheepstrails Mine to their mill down along the Colorado River. The road took him past a solitary granite knob protruding from a flat gravel plain. One day he decided to pan some samples and in September 1900 he staked his claim and named it the Catherine Mine (original spelling) after his sister.

John Sherman Bagg

He mined about 2,000 tons of ore from the Katherine between 1900-1903. The mine was leased out in 1903 and an unknown amount of ore was removed before the it was closed in 1904 and sold to the Arizona Pyramid Mining Company. He sold the mine so that he could pursue a degree in mine engineering. He attended Claremont College and then UC Berkeley where he met my grandmother Hazel Hobson (more on them later).

The young ranger at Lake Mojave Park didn't have a clue about the location of the mine, but after a little exploring we found an obscure sign at one of the landings.

A large area of tailings from the mine is closed off by chain link fence for safety reasons (Our guess maybe 1/5 mile wide and 4/5 mile long). In the early days cyanide and other hazardous chemicals were used for gold extraction. We could see the remains of at least four coffer dams. Satellite imagery from Google Earth is quite impressive. We parked and followed the fence line up the hill and found the ruins of the mine. Pretty amazing to touch a piece of your history.

Then and now

I didn't realize until I saw both photos side by side, but if you look at the mountains in the distance, you can see the line of sight is almost the same. You can see a portion of the tailings out past the remaining foundations of mine buildings. In the distance you can see Lake Mojave, which was at the time, the Colorado River before Davis Dam was built.

One of the mine entrances, long since filled in for safety reasons.

More research will be needed for these large pipes, they were either for pumping water and slurry out of the mines or for the tanks holding the processing chemicals.

On a whim I called the Colorado River Museum in Bullhead City, AZ. We had stopped by but they are closed Sundays and Mondays. I talked with Vicki and told her who I was and what I was researching. She also gave me her phone and told me to call next time we were in the area and she'd open up for us. They have articles and photos including one of author, Louis L'Amour, sitting on the steps of the bunkhouse at the mine. The historic documents are not yet digitized but the project is in the works.

In correspondence with L'Amour's grandson, Beau, I found out that Louis never wrote specifically of the Katherine Mine, but it is mentioned in his book, The Education of a Wandering Man. Guess I'm going to have to find a copy of that one!

Each door I open provides more trails to follow and kindred spirits along the way. I'm beginning to understand the love of the chase. Stay tuned.

Happy Birthday Girl ~ Dec 15, 2012

Friendship ~ Adventures ~ Laughter

Partners in Crime

Reno 2009

We had so much more trouble to get into!

Miss you every day



Oh Well Part III ~ Dec 10, 2012

It's Always Something 101 ~ We needed a higher guage wire for the new well, a submersible pump draws more energy than a jet pump and we want to keep both wells active. The current wiring from the house was not in a conduit, so we couldn't simply pull new wire. We really didn't want to trench across the existing waterlines, french drain, septic tight line or PG&E gas lines. Looking for an alternative Simon, our eletrical guru, suggested we to drop a line from the PG&E pole on the east end of our property (closer to the well than the house) to a new pole nearby and then run conduit underground to the wells.

Seemed like a great idea until we met with the PG&E representative. It was going to cost $5,000 ($2,000 due immediately) for all their departments to get involved assessing and surveying scenarios. Oh and by the way the process would take at least 8-12 weeks. Say what? Totally unreasonable. It's not good to let a newly drilled well sit for a long period of time without pumping water and we all felt the cost was excessive. So it was back to square one. Simon gave us a great bid for trenching, conduit, wiring and (as long as we're in there) new waterlines from house to the wells.

Some wise soul once said timing is everything and Well Week was no exception. In between "heavy rains, high wind, and deluge" days, the work got done. A few hitches along the way: water lines where we didn't expect them, the septic tight line a little to the left of the site drawings, but  breaches expertly repaired.

Cliff from Weeks tied up the project last week. The old well is dedicated to our large vegetable and flower garden, the new one gives us options for house and/or gardens. Rod went out to fill up the bird baths in back of my studio this morning and came back in with a big grin on his face. One turn of the faucet and the stream reached our blue spruce which is about 25 feet from the patio. Ah, simple pleasures!

Going to blow this picture up, print it and mark a road map of what goes where on it before we wrap the pipes and/or forget what he told us.

New well, electrics and water lines $18K ~ Customer Service Priceless!

Wednesday Wonders ~ Dec 5, 2012

Stormy weather has kept skies grey, but our Liquid Amber tree continues to defy the monochromatic heaviness. PS: Stayed tuned for more on the great Arizona adventure. Our craft fair season is over this weekend and I'll have more time to research and write. Every time I uncover one piece of information it leads to another.