KEEPING TRACK OF ERWIN & GAIL

They say “everything is big in Texas”. From our point of view, here in Van Horn Texas,(our first stop in Texas), I must say we agree. There are a number of big hills and they are big, as far as hills go. There are a few big trees, (palm type) along the way, some as tall as 15ft. We won’t tell the Texans about other places where trees grow somewhat taller, we wouldn’t want to destroy their culture of grandeur. They do, however, have many, many, really big miles of absolute emptiness between their big hills and their big trees. They also have very big winds. We had to bring the slide-out on our camper in to prevent the tarp cover from leaving Texas prematurely and after a night of rock and rolling around in our camper we decided that, because of the really big Texan winds, we would just stay put here rather than head further East today. So, sitting here in the camper, not rock and rolling too badly at present I decided this was a good time to blog and blog I will.

In our last blog from Arizona, I told you that we had gone to Tombstone, so now let me tell you more about that and other day trips we took while we were there. Yes, Tombstone, is a unique place to see, but it’s only really claim to fame is a gun fight at the O.K. corral that lasted about 30 seconds and left three men dead and a couple injured in 1880 something. The three dead men are buried on Boot Hill, along with many other people who also died in the area, mostly during the first 5 years of the 1880’s. I had my picture taken with Wyatt and Vergil Earp and a wooden stature of Cochise. From Tombstone we drove further south and as has become our custom returned to base from a different direction, stopping at different places along the way. We stopped at a nature reserve by the San Pedro River, then an ecological dig where there was at one time, apparently some evidence of a mass mammoth kill, then, finally to a historic town site called Fairbank. The next day we went to a place called Cochise Stronghold. This is a place where the great Apache chief, Cochise, and over a thousand members of his tribe escaped to, and from which he led many successful campaigns against the US Army and many civilians during more than a decade in the 1880’s. They spent more than ten years living in those mountains and valleys and there is, aside from some really old graffiti on the rocks, almost no remaining evidence of their time there. I think that if a thousand white men spent even 10 days in some location there would be evidence of it for centuries to come. We returned from that trip along a different route and stopped at place called Gammons Gulch, a movie set and museum. It is a replica of an old western town set up in the middle of Nowhere Arizona, and believe me there is a lot of middles of nowhere in Arizona. The place was set up and is being run by a man named Jay Gammon, who, as a boy played movie roles alongside his actor father, with some of the Greats like The Duke (John Wayne), Jimmy Stewart, Dean Marten and so on. He gives a tour of the place, plays a few old tunes on an old honkey-tonk piano, and then says if you have enjoyed what you have seen and heard the cost of admission is $7.00 each. On the next day-trip, we went to a place called Fort Bowie, a fort erected in the mountain range across the valley from the Cochise stronghold in the last part of the 1860’s, mainly to protect the water source and to accompany stage coaches and wagon trains through the Apache country. It was our intent to walk in to tour the ruins but we were able to find a back dirt road that took us right in, it was rough but not impassable. There is not much there as when the fort was abandoned by the Army in the late 1800’s, the neighboring ranchers used it as a good source for building materials. There is no lumber left, just rock foundation and remains of some of the adobe brick walls used for the buildings. The fort, in its day, was quite an elaborate place, it had a steam engine that pumped water from the creek to cisterns above the fort and provided running water. There was also an ice making machine deemed an important expense for the good moral of the fort. On all of these trips we did a lot of walking and the following day we rested, Kelsey was so tired she slept all day.

We left Benson, Arizona on the 9th and drove right through New Mexico and on into Van Horn, Texas. Tuesday, we made a short drive to nowhere in particular, as here in Texas there is a lot of nowhere in particular to drive to. The following day we took a drive into the mountains to a place called Fort Davis. There is still a town there but the fort was established in the same time period as Ft Bowie, mainly to protect the transport of people and freight from San Antonio through to El Paso. It was only one of a number of forts along that 600 mile stretch through Texas. It is the best remaining example of the forts in the west. It also, as many did, had a steam engine to pump water and an ice machine for moral. There are some buildings remaining, complete with the furnishings. I have already told you about sitting through the Texas storm last night but we do plan to get underway again tomorrow.

Today, as I sit writing, it has been drawn to my attention that this is the 68^th anniversary of a very important day in my life. I don’t remember much about that day but I know that both my mother and my father would have been just elated at the prospect of raising such an awesome person.

I’ll post some pics then get this published as I would like to think that some of you are interested.

God Bless. With love

Erwin & Gail