April 6, 2003 (1/29-2/1/03 - Organ Pipe National Monument, Kartchner Caverns & Ramsey Canyon, all in AZ)
When I started to write the following, I really thought it would be a simple process to finish putting the hard drive back together and download the website from the server, and then begin to do updates again. Only it wasn't, and I somehow messed things up royally, and now we're missing a whole bunch of pictures that I somehow managed to delete. Sorry 'bout that.
So, to take you back a bit............
February 20, 2003 Medina Lake - 1
Well, been a while, eh? All kinds of reasons for the relative quiet here. Mostly it's because I lost another hard drive. Yup, that's what, the fourth one in three years? Two different computers (Dell & Panasonic) and three different brands of HDDs. What a nuisance. Here's the story, so you don't have to scramble around to find the old "Computer Woes" page.
I hadn't backed up on Friday, as I usually do. Then on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I took the pictures from Quartzsite, Yuma Proving Grounds, Los Algodonas, and the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, sorted them into 110 worth saving, and wrote all about everything we'd been doing for the last, what, month? And as I was closing down, I got the error message (again) that told me to do a surface scan. Isn't Win98 just wonderful that way? GRRRRR. Started the scan, and noticed right away that it was going to take some time, so went to bed. Now, you should know too that the pictures I culled from to get the 110 worth publishing were not saved except on the hard drive (I usually will transfer them to a CD, but neglected to in this case) and the 110 were there as well. I was going to have Barb proofread and add her part to the page before saving to CD and posting on Thursday. Well, when I got up in the morning I noticed that the scan process had frozen and locked up the keyboard as well. Isn't Win98 just wonderful that way? So I did a "manual" shutdown, and then of course, could not reboot the computer. Got the error message telling me there was no FAT 32 file. Goody. I should mention here as well, that there were quite a few e-mail messages waiting to be responded to, and among them was a reader who had been kind enough to send me pictures of their workstation with some picture of this site on their monitor. I really feel badly about loosing the e-mails and my complete address book (never did learn how to save that) and not responding to any of you who may have written. So, please, if you've written and not had a response, please do so again? And particularly that person who said such nice things about enjoying the site and including the pictures? Thanks for understanding.
I messed around trying different things for several days, we traveled a bit as well, ending up in Huachuca City, AZ, so Barb could take me to visit Ramsey Canyon with the hummingbirds, and we could visit Karchner Caverns. A town to the south of us had a computer business, and they convinced me that they'd probably be able to pull data from the crashed disk. Their fee was $100 per hour, and I flinched at that, but figured that the three days worth of writing and all those pictures were worth a shot. Two days later, I paid them their $150 price and got nothing. After moving from Huachuca City to Benson, AZ, as I looked over the map the park has, I discovered one of the advertisers was a computer business. I called them to see if they carried software. I wanted to convert to XP and pick up a copy of NTI Backup Now. XP is reported to be more stable and robust than Win98 (almost anything would be!) and the NTI program will let me backup the entire drive, telling me when to change CDs as well as letting me back up only the new or changed files, making the whole saving process a lot easier and less time consuming. Well, they didn't sell software, but did claim to be able to pull data from damaged hard drives. And they wouldn't charge me anything if they didn't pull any data. After another few days, they gave me 3 CDs with my jumbled files. And they didn't charge me anything!
Panasonic sent me a new drive and I'm using the old original drive while waiting for friend Bill to send me the box with XP. And that's the "crash" story for now. After I get the XP up and running I'll share what I think of it with you.
AHA! Here we are at home in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and these are the only pictures I got of the place. Henk and Thea joined us, and as we toured Henk was taking pictures as well. He's promised to send us a CD with his pictures after they get home to Maple Ridge, BC, Canada. Then we'll be able to show you what a Organ Pipe Cactus looks like. sigh.
See those bright colors on Barb's T-shirt? Well, inside (out of the sunshine) the colors fade to black & white. We're at the Kartchner Caverns State Park. The story of the caves is essentially this. Some recreational spelunkers found the cave in 1974 while poking around a known sink hole. It was so pristine and unusual that the two decided to keep it a secret. They'd previously discovered another untouched cave and made the mistake of informing a local university; very quickly after sharing the information, they returned to the site and discovered destruction and graffiti, a heartbreaking experience. They kept the secret of the new discovery for four years, then approached the family that owned the land the caves were on, and told them the secret. Ten years later (1988), after much negotiating and secrecy, the state of Arizona agreed to buy the land so access to the caves could be controlled; it is now Kartchner Caverns State Park. The entrance has been fixed with two air locks to keep the humidity in the cave set to where it was originally. The construction is ongoing, as more chambers are discovered and opened. One section is closed to humans while the resident bats are raising their young, and a lot of thought has obviously gone into both protection and presentation. On the right is the visitor center, and it seemed to me to fit the environment quite nicely. The only bad thing about our visit is that I chickened out and couldn't go through the second air lock because of the claustrophobia I'm plagued with. The rangers were quite understanding, and told me (whether it's true or not) that lots of people can't make it, and once in a while they actually have to bring in emergency personnel to carry somebody out. And then they even gave me the form to fill out so I could get my $12 back. I'd rather have seen the beauty that Barb talks about.
They don't allow cameras, so we bought some postcards which I can't comment on because I didn't see any of it, so I'll let Barb do it. From Barb: The tour was about 45 minutes long; temperature in the cave averages 68 degrees with 99% humidity year round. Arizona State did a fantastic job of protecting everything inside by building concrete walkways surrounded by handrails. The tour guides were well trained and kept a eye out to make sure no one was touching anything they weren't supposed to. It was surreal--like another planet, and must be experienced to be appreciated. To think that the formations (called "speleothems") shown on these postcards were formed by droplets of water over hundreds of thousands of years is mindboggling. The Kubla Kahn formation above is 58' high and massive. The icicle-type formations are known as "soda straws" for obvious reasons (less than the size of the old-fashioned skinny straws we used to use for pop--tonic to our New England readers). Though Kartchner Caverns has the second or third longest soda straw in the world, it was not made available for public viewing because, at 21' 2", it is incredibly delicate, and even sounds could cause damage. At one point in the tour, where an especially amazing grouping of formations occurred, we sat in a mini amphitheater-type arrangement, and observed in quiet as music and lights played over the sights. It was awesome. There is a section of the cave called the "Big Room" which was not yet opened to the public when I toured; will have to go back and catch it next time around. End of Barb comments.
We did some poking around, and Barb was very solicitous of my disappointment in not being able to see what was under what we were walking on, i.e., the caverns. Or at least near what we were walking on. Barb is sitting on the boulders in a "wash". The comparisons between the rest of the land and the wash is obvious. This is the trail we're walking that leads up a small hill.
I got to puffing pretty good even if we were under 5,000 feet, and did a fair share of checking out the various seating arrangements available. The country around Huachuca City is really unusual, flat valley for the most part, with mountains on both sides.
We made it to the top! And Barb was indicating that this barrel cactus really was big and round. There are lots of different cactus around here, but I don't need to tell you that.
And then it was off to Ramsey Canyon (southeastern AZ, a "National Natural Landmark") to see the hummingbirds. We'd heard this canyon was a favorite hangout for them, and 14 varieties could be seen there. Only there weren't any--we didn't see one! Yah, wrong stinking time of year--they say April-May is the time to see them; it was only February. Dang! Guess we didn't do our homework well enough on this one; for two years we'd been looking forward to seeing them. Despite the disappointment, we wandered around with one of the docents. Seems the Nature Conservancy owns the land (now about 380 acres), and is preserving the past in this small place as best they can. Apparently in the earlier years, the wealthy would build cabins here to avoid the heat during the summer. The road we were walking on was built for the miners, and even though the mine turned out to be a bust, the guy who built the road set up a toll gate, and did just fine. He was industrious, planted an orchard and everything. His original home/cabin near this pond (as well as other homes) is still there along the creek as well as his later-built larger home (after he made all that toll money), much further away from the creek (flooding turned out to be a problem apparently).
One reason the Conservancy bought the land was because there was a frog living in this pond that didn't live anywhere else in the world. Shortly after they bought the property, they transported some of the frogs to similar environments to preserve the gene pool. And then a few years ago the frogs began to disappear, and now there aren't any. At least none here. They don't know why, but are studying to find out. They're really happy and fortunate that they had moved some around to different streams, and look forward to eventually reintroducing them to this pond. The settlers had altered the stream bed to control the flooding a bit, and then introduced some pretty flowers that served as ground cover....that have begun to take over everything! Volunteers are pulling the pretty flowering periwinkle "weeds" out, and making some headway, and the stream is being reverted back to its original pathway as best it can be.
This is one tough cabin! It's been flooded nearly every year since it was built! Later, as we headed down the road toward Bisbee, we spotted a sign leading us to this beautiful chapel and huge cross and statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is called Our Lady of the Sierras Shrine and is located in Hereford, AZ, in the Huachuca Mountains. The Celtic cross is 75' high and weighs30 tons; the statue is 31' high and weighs 25 tons.
The view from this shrine (5,300' altitude) is magnificent. This smaller shrine has a unique construction; the roof is archetypical of the original peoples building style. It's made up of dead ocotillo stems. There were other small shrines on the property as well as the 14 Stations of the Cross depicting Jesus' journey through Jerusalem on His way to Calvary.
The advantage of the roof in this shrine is that the shade provided is not blocking any chance of a breeze coming through. Of course in the rain, it'll probably leak a bit. The stone structure in the picture on the right is the chapel; in the foreground is the base of the Celtic Cross.
The road is the one we were on when we were on our way to Bisbee, and Barb is standing (sort of) in front of the statue of Mary, so you can get a perspective of its enormity.
The inside of the stone chapel was gorgeous. The early Catholic influence is everywhere this part of the country, and seeing small shrines or chapels as we drive through isn't unusual. But we've never seen any so ornate or impressive. The painting of the risen Christ is an original done by a local artist, Donna Ramaeker. I liked the almost primitive carving of the red and green angels sitting alongside the "Blessed Sacrament" in an old original brass tabernacle, a donation from St. Patrick's Catholic Church in St. Charles, Illinois. The color contrast is pleasing, not unlike the stark contrasts we see in the land around us here. The shrine was completed in 1998, so it's relatively new, the result of a local couple's visit to a similar shrine in Medugorje, Yugoslavia. The couple, Gerald and Pat Chouinard, live directly west of the shrine.