Desert Southwest Trip, Tombstone; Chiricahua National Monument; Fort Bowie

 The next morning we got up and had our complimentary breakfast at the nearby restaurant.  Our waitress was very friendly and we struck up a conversation with her, and oddly enough, it turns out she was from Wasilla!  She grew up here and still has a lot of family here, and she even knows someone that we know!  So weird.

Anyhoo, after we ate, we took another walk in the neighboring streets cuz it was such a beautiful morning and the temps were perfect.  We decided we would take a walk to the famous "Boot Hill Cemetery".  Of course I was VERY interested in going there, but Chuck wasn't too keen on it because he found out you had to pay to get in there, and I think he thought it would be too touristy.  But we headed in that direction anyway and came upon a big cemetery that was not Boot Hill.  We walked around in there for awhile, and Chuck was on his phone trying to find out where Boot Hill was.  By the time he figured it out, a whole hour had passed and then he didn't want to go there anymore (he didn't really want to go there anyway so I don't think he was really trying very hard to find the right directions.) I am still bummed about that.

Instead of going to Boot Hill we went to check out the historical courthouse.  That was very interesting.   You can walk into the actual courtroom where a lot of interesting trials happened.

They had a lot of displays in there about various trials.  One famous one was about a young man who robbed a store and killed a few people in Bisbee (another town not too far from Tombstone).  His gang was sentenced to hang, but he himself was not because he wasn't actually involved in the robbery.  But they put him in jail anyway, and since he was so notorious, a lot of the townspeople wanted him hung, so the townspeople hung him from a pole which is just outside this courthouse.

Of course it was illegal to do this, so the coroner, as you can see, sympathized with the townspeople and fudged the death report and said he died of probable strangulation.

The whole courthouse was turned into a museum so there were a lot of interesting things there, including stuff about Wyatt Earp and some his personal belongings.

After spending time there, we left Tombstone and went to Chiricahua National Monument.

Of course we took tons of pictures, but I have to constrain myself here and just give you some ideas as to what it was like there.  It was really amazing.  I am still awestruck as to the formation of these rocks - how did they end up like that?  My mind keeps defaulting to the Flood of Noah's day, but how did these rocks get formed like this?  Some rocks are on top of each other and you can't help wondering why they don't fall off.

It was another hot day there, but it was "nice" hot.  Without the humidity, the heat there isn't that bad, so we were able to keep hiking without getting heatstroke or too exhausted.  The trail was very long and kept going down down down before it started going back up again.  There weren't very many people on the trail, but we were surprised that most of the people on the trail were older than us.  If they can hike this trail, surely we can!  We even saw an old guy wearing an Alaska shirt, so of course we stopped and chatted with him for a few minutes while his wife tried to catch up with him.

So after we were done with that trail, it was getting late in the afternoon, so we got in the car and headed towards our next destination towards Carlsbad.  But on the way, we happened upon a sign that pointed to "Fort Bowie".  We never heard of that place before, but being a brown sign (historical marker), Chuck turned down that road to check it out.  I was really surprised that he did that (without even asking me if I wanted to go there), cuz usually when he's on his way somewhere, he just wants to keep driving and get there.  Anyway, I'm really glad we went to Fort Bowie cuz I think that is one of my favorite parts of our whole trip.

We had to drive a few miles to get there, and when we got to the parking lot, we discovered it was going to be a mile and a half hike into the mountains.  Do we really want to do this after that long hike in Chiricahua?  Yes, let's do it!

Along the trail there are spots where they have historical markers for you to read:  stuff about trails where the U.S. Army led their wagons of supplies and whatnot.  There was also a spot where there are remnants of a little place where an old man used to live out there in the mountainous wilderness.  Anyway, about a half mile into the hike we came upon this cemetery. You have to go through a gate to go in there, but it's fully open to the public.  The tombstones themselves are not the original wooden ones which were rotting away, so they were replaced by these white ones so they are easier to read.  Interestingly, a lot of them give a name (or it would say "unknown") followed by "killed by Indians".  I would've gotten some closeups of these, but my camera battery died, so I had to rely on Chuck to take the pictures.

And this one here was an interesting unexpected surprise.

I wish Chuck had gotten a closer picture of it.  In case you can't read it, it says "In Memory of Little Robe, Son of Geronimo, Apache Chief, Died Sept 10, 1885, Age 2 Years".  They also buried the US Army soldiers here that died, but they later got moved to a national military cemetery in California and only left the civilians here.

Going to Fort Bowie was worth it just for this alone.  But I did not know that Fort Bowie was the place where Geronimo was kept prisoner and he also surrendered there.

Interesting how you can see that the mountains in the background match the mountains in the photo, so you know this is genuine. Wow, Geronimo was in this very spot! Anyhoo so it turns out that Fort Bowie was an Army Base that was stationed there because of the Indian Wars, especially with the Apaches.  The whole place is in ruins now and only the foundations of the buildings are still there, but there are markers at every one telling you what the buildings were.

There were lot and lots of remains to walk around and see, but that would be too many pictures, so this just gives you an idea.  A person could spend hours there.  It's hard to believe that place was once hustling and bustling with soldiers and Indian prisoners.  It was so interesting - I wouldn't mind going back there again.  And now I feel the need to go to the library and check out some books about Geronimo so I can learn more about it.

Close by, there are some more trails that lead you to the original Fort Bowie before this one was built.  It was a lot smaller.  You can see the ruins of it, but they don't have all the markers there so you know what they are - they pretty much leave you guessing.  That was interesting too.  Anyhoo, we got there late in the afternoon, spent another few hours in this place, and we still had to hike a mile and a half back to the car, so we figured we better start walking because we could see that the sun was getting closer to the mountain tops and would soon be behind them.  And I did NOT want to be roaming those desert hills in the dark!  (how would I be able to scan for spiders?)  The sun kept getting lower and lower and I have to say I have never in my life seen my shadow get that ridiculously long before!  We made it to the car just in time.

Chuck likes taking pictures of interesting flowers that he sees on the trails.

We also saw this beetle.  We don't ever see bugs like this in Alaska.

So that was Day 2.  Hopefully, to be continued soon.

One Year Later - Desert Southwest Trip, Tombstone

 Wow, has it really been a whole year already?  

All it means really, is that my life is hum-drum.

Nothing to look at here!  Please go home.

Okay, I do have something that I want to post, not only to share with anyone who might interested (anybody?), but also to record my memories (for myself) while they are still fresh in my mind.  We came home from our trip three weeks ago and already some things are getting fuzzy.

Every year up until now we always went to WI to visit my mom.  But since she passed away last October, we feel that we are free now to go anywhere we want.  There is still so much of the United States that we haven't seen yet!  So this year we decided to go to the "Desert Southwest"  (Arizona and New Mexico).  There are so many interesting sights to see there with stunning scenery that, in my opinion, even rivals Alaska scenery in some places.  But also, there are numerous historical places to visit too, which is what I am always interested in.

I was debating if I wanted to post the whole trip in one post, or divide it up.  If I condense it all into one post, a lot will be skipped, even though it would end up being very long, and chances are I will lose my one-body audience.  If I divide it up, like I did with our Hawaii trip, it is much more easier to manage, but I tend to get too chatty (and boring) and will still probably lose my one-body audience.  So I will just please myself I guess, and play it by ear, and if you get bored, no offense taken if you don't stick with me.

This is already getting too chatty, isn't it?

Here we go!

We decided to fly to Phoenix, make a big loop, and fly back out of Phoenix, which worked really well.  So we took the red-eye flight, got to Phoenix on Monday morning (Apr 22nd), and immediately drove south towards our first destination:  Tombstone.

We arrived there in the afternoon so we had plenty of time to walk around in the historic downtown.  You know what happened there!

This is the actual street where it all happened.  Ignore that banner.  It's just a reminder that they do a reenactment of the gunfight every day, which we missed cuz we got there too late.

They have this historical district closed off to traffic, but it is all open for pedestrians to walk around.  It was weird that hardly no one else was there, which was kinda nice (one of the advantages of going there early in the season). All of these old buildings are now tourist shops (of course!).  There was a fire after the famous gunfight, so these buildings are not the actual buildings when the gunfight took place; however they are still very old, built in the 1880's just a few years after the fight.  If I remember right, the fight took place in 1881, and the fire happened in 1882.  I could be wrong on that. The only original building that survived the fire was this theater/saloon.  So, chances are good that Wyatt Earp was in this very building.

On the inside, it's a museum now.    But if you look towards the top of the picture you can see the balcony where acts were performed (see the curtain on the side?)

Here is a skinny staircase that leads up to the balcony.

The lady that worked there told us that there were actually 16 gunfights that took place there, and this is a picture of the original bar.  She pointed out some bullet holes that are still in it.  Nowadays it serves as a checkout place for buying touristy souvenirs.

This original picture also has a bullet hole in it.

Anyhoo, it was really interesting to go in there.  I wasn't interested in the touristy stuff they were trying to sell; I was more trying to soak up the building itself, and imagining what it must've been like in there back in its heyday.

The whole street is lined with historical plaques that you can read that are very interesting.  I knew that the buildings, even though very old, came after the event of the famous gunfight, but it was still interesting to be walking around where it all happened, and just knowing that those famous people once walked that same street.

You get the idea.  You can spend a lot of time just reading all the plaques.

It was getting really hot out that day and we were getting thirsty and hungry so we found a place to buy a big salad and ate it in a small park.  Then we found an ice cream shop that had some non-dairy sherbert.  Then we went to our B&B.

It was just a little cabin that was next a trailer park.  It was pretty cozy and nice and clean inside.  When we first got there, I felt that Chuck parked too close to that tree for my comfort.  But that's because when  I first got there I was so paranoid of spiders.  I knew that we were in "spider country" (especially tarantulas), and I thought I would see one behind every corner.  I made Chuck enter everything first before me (especially bathrooms), so he could check for them.  It took me several days to relax, thanks to the fact that I never saw one, but my eyes were still always scanning for them.

After we got settled in our cabin, we went went for another walk in the area, this time in the neighborhood, and looked at some old houses that dated back to the original Tombstone days of the 1880's.  And we took the time to admire some big cactuses that grew everywhere and the flowers that grew on them.  The foliage landscape there sure is different than what I'm used to!

So that was our first day, and since it is so time consuming to get pictures loaded on here, I will stop here and continue next time with Day 2.

Okay, New Post!

 Here I am again!  So soon?..., you may be asking?  Well, I am really super busy this month, but I actually had some interesting things happen.

For the past several weeks there was a moose hanging around in our neighborhood, just making his rounds and munching on whatever he could find.  Well, a couple weeks ago, it was really nice out so I went outside to do some raking.  I went around to the back yard and found the rake, but as soon as I picked it up  I noticed that moose was in the edge of our yard munching on the trees.  He didn't seem to care that I was there, only about 15-20 feet away from him, but I got nervous and booked it back into the house, just cuz that's the sensible thing to do - you just never know what those things are gonna do.

Anyhoo, I kept watching him out the window and he eventually made his way toward my living room window where I was watching him from.

He wasn't full grown, and I noticed that he seemed to be moving really slow, and he seemed shaky and weak, like he had no energy.

Then he came right up to my window and peeked in!

Then he laid down and stayed for about 3 hours.

This was on Monday.

Then on Wednesday morning, I got up and looked out toward my neighbor's house, and this is what I saw.

At first I thought he was just taking a nap because from my distance, I couldn't get a good look at him.  But I kept watching out my window, waiting for him to get up.  Finally, I went out to the end of my driveway to take my garbage can out, and he still wasn't moving.  I was too scared to get too close to him, even though I concluded in my head that he was dead.  I called Wildlife Conservation to report it, and to see if they would come get it, but they said if a moose dies on someone's property it's their responsibility to take care of it. And he also told me that this time of year the moose have a hard time finding enough to eat so they get deficient in nutrition, and some of them just don't make it.  Poor thing. So that's probably why he looked so pathetic when he was at my house.

Another exciting thing I did last weekend was attend a Quilters' Retreat.  If you don't care about quilting, this won't excite you, but it was really fun for me.  I have never gone to one before, so it was something new for me.  It was held at Pioneer Ridge Lodge here in Wasilla, not far from our other house that we used to live in, so it felt kinda weird driving down that road again.  Anyway, it was a really nice place with a great view, kinda out in a country setting next to a farm.

This is the kitchen.   Everyone had to take a turn at cooking for everyone else. Me and my friend LeiLoni were in charge of breakfast.  So we made breakfast casseroles and also served fruit and other things on the side.  Everyone made really good meals there.

This is the bedroom that I slept in.  It was really cute.  They had stuffed huskies sitting on all the beds.  Every room had Alaska decor in it.

This curly staircase led up to a sunroom with a really nice view.  You don't want to be up there in the afternoon though.  So hot!  I went up there in the morning when the temperature was just right, and the view was fantastic!

This is the room that was set up for sewing.  On Thursday we had about a dozen ladies there, and a couple more showed up on Friday.

It was really fun to see all the projects that the other ladies were working on, and also I got to meet new people.  Everyone there was really nice.  See that bear skin on the left wall towards the back?  I was sewing right next to that bear's head.

I only worked on Justin's quilt there, just trying to get it all quilted.  I got most of it done there, but had to finish it up at home.  So here it is - all done!  I flipped over the corner so you can see the back, even though it might be hard to see.

The retreat was supposed to go from Thursday to Sunday but I only stayed one night because on Saturday we were taking our first 4-wheeler trip to Knik Glacier for this year.

Which leads me to the last part of this post:

It was windy and dusty, but the sun was out so that made it worth going.  It was just nice to get out and do something like that again.

The lake was still frozen and full of ice bergs, which was really pretty to look at,

but the wind was a lot colder here.  

So this weekend we are heading to Fairbanks to visit Stephanie, which means I have many things to do before we go.  After we get home, I need to harden off my plants so I can get them planted outside in the garden beds.  We have company coming on June 4 so that is another week of adventure.  So the next 2 or 3 weeks are busy, busy, busy.  If anything exciting happens, you can read all about it here.

Right here.

On this blog.

See ya next time!

Spring!

 Hi all!

Happy Spring!

I hope your blessings bring a spring in your step!

Did that sound corny?  I don't wanna be corny...

I know it's been awhile since I've posted.  I just don't ever have anything exciting to write about.  So, as usual, I am just checking in again to update you on more boredom.  I will not be offended if you totally skip me.  Believe me, I understand - you have WAY better things to do.

Anyhoo, my last post was about my quilting WIPs.  I got my Halloween crow quilt top all done, but I don't have it sandwiched yet because I didn't order enough fabric for the back.  I ordered 3  yards, but need 4, so when I tried to order more (from Missouri Star Quilt Co), they were all out.  Go figure.  I contacted them and they said they won't get more of that particular fabric until mid-July.  Since I already got 3 yards, I don't want to order 4 more of a different one, so I told them to let me know when they get it in.  So that one is put on the back burner for now.

My hexie flower quilt.  All done, except I need to finish hand sewing the binding.  However, there was much "weeping and gnashing of teeth" trying to get that one quilted.  I wanted to use rulers to help me keep my lines straight, so I bought a ruler foot for my Kenmore machine and gave it a go.  My Kenmore is a low-shank machine, so I ordered a low-shank ruler foot.  But the ruler foot sat too low on my fabric - too tight for me to move my fabric around - well, that's not gonna work!  The only way I could sort of make it work was to keep my presser foot in the raised position, and then adjust the ruler foot to the right height.  But sewing with the presser foot raised is not normal, and I kept getting skipped stitches.

I was getting mad because I was ruining my quilt with these horrible stitches.

And it didn't help either that Weeners was sitting on it, hindering my free motion movements.

She is the reason why I now keep a roll of tape in my quilting room (to unfuzz my fabric).

So, as you can sorta see, my plan was to use rulers and outline my flowers, but I couldn't keep my lines straight for several reasons.  1) I am new at ruler quilting and need more practice; 2) Weeners was sitting on my quilt; 3) the ruler foot kept getting caught on my basting stitches (I learned a lesson with that one!; 4) my machine simply did not like the ruler foot and wouldn't cooperate; 5) my Kenmore does not have the "needle down" feature, which causes a lot of mayhem in free motion quilting.

So guess what??!?  I ordered myself a brand new machine!  I did a lot of research and settled on a Brother PQ 1500SL.

Sounds fancy, doesn't it?

I ordered it from Amazon and only had to pay $10 in shipping, and to my surprise it came a whole week earlier than they said it would.  So I was pretty excited to get this box!

It was a bit pricey, but it's really not that fancy, especially compared to the ones most of the YouTubers use.  Most of the quilting videos I watch have those very expensive computerized ones.  And I have to admit, it would be tempting to buy one of those if you can afford it, but even though this one is kinda pricey, I deliberately chose not to go with a computerized machine for several reasons.  The main reason is because you can't service them yourself, and when you take it in to get it serviced, it can take weeks to get  your machine back, and it's expensive to get them serviced.  And if anything goes wrong with the computer, same thing- very expensive to fix and you have to give up your machine until they fix it.  So I purposely chose a mechanical machine, just like my Kenmore.  I can oil it myself, and there's no computer parts to go haywire except for the "needle down" feature - that is the only part that's not mechanical.  I can live with that because having the "needle down" feature is SO worth it!  Not having it is one thing I always hated about my Kenmore.

It also has other features to it that my Kenmore doesn't have, like it will cut your thread for you, which can come in handy I suppose, but I generally don't use that because it cuts the threads too short.  Also, it has a needle threader.  It took me a few tries to figure out how it works, but that is another feature that I'm not really using very often because it's shredding my thread, but I suppose if I used a different sized needle, maybe it won't do that.  I will just have to experiment with it, but it is handy at times.

So, for the first week or two, I had to get used to it.  Through trial and error, I learned what it likes and doesn't like, and so far I am very very very happy with it!  I almost feel bad for my Kenmore cuz that one has been my work horse for almost 35 years, but I will still keep it around because my Brother only does straight stitches (that's what makes it better for quilting).  So if I ever need a zig-zag stitch or any other kind of stitching, I will use my Kenmore.

So, now the question is:  will it do ruler quilting?  After all, that is what I really want to do, and that is what compelled me to even consider buying a new machine.  This machine does free motion quilting really well!  But, just like the Kenmore, as soon as I put the ruler foot on, it's unhappy and skips stitches.  So more "weeping and gnashing of teeth", but I'm hoping that I will figure it out after I get myself more familiarized with this machine.  Even if I can't do ruler work with it, it will at least do really well with free motion.

On another note, Spring is here and it finally feels like it!  Our temps are regularly staying in the high 40s now, and when the sun is out, it feels so nice to be outside!  Even Peeka started her hunting season and made her first kill.

I just don't know why she insists on bringing it to our door.

Anyhoo, I wanted to end this post with something else that has been on my mind.  As you know, I'm going through the New Testament in the Greek, which forces me to really examine what I'm reading.  Right now I'm in Mark 10, and I was studying about the Rich Young Ruler.  I've heard this story many times, and usually when I hear this story, we just sorta feel sad for the guy because he seems to make the wrong choice (although the Bible never really tells us if he changed his mind later).  Anyway, I was looking at this, and what really struck me about it is that the rich young ruler was actually pretty brave.  Maybe "brave" isn't really the right word I'm looking for, but here was a guy who was virtuous, followed all the commandments - he was a good guy!  Yet, he still asks Jesus, "what do I lack"?  I thought about myself in his situation.  I try to be a good person, I love God and try to obey His Word, I consider myself a good person, just like this guy.  But I would almost hesitate to go up to Jesus and ask Him what I lack.  What if I don't like his answer, just like this rich ruler?  What would he tell me to give up?    Or maybe He would tell me what I'm doing or not doing? I think I'm good in God's eyes and salvation is sure, so should I even ask this question?  What would Jesus say to me?  Do I have anything in my possession that I would have a hard time letting go of? If I ask the question, would I not like His answer?????  In every confrontation with someone, Jesus always told people what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear. Even though this guy didn't like Jesus' answer, he still deserves a lot of credit for even asking the question.  I admire him for that, and I think maybe it would be a good idea to ask ourselves the same question, especially if we think we're okay in God's eyes.  What do I need to hear from Jesus? Just like in some of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, they were told what they were good at, BUT......!  We may not be as okay as we think we are.  It's very humbling if you think about it long enough.

Next time I post, I hope I will be telling you that I'm ruler quilting!!