We're Off to Tucson

We have finished our volunteer assignment at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and this morning we drove out the gates, headed for Tucson. We drove no more than 55-60 miles to Justin's Diamond J RV Park, just south of the city. We had read good reviews of the park in blogs we follow and at RV Park Reviews, a web site that we find very helpful when choosing where to stay. Our site is large, but we will wait to see how we feel about this spot.

We enjoyed our time at the monument, especially the opportunity to lead tours. We both became very interested in the story of the Hohokam culture that developed there between 300 and 1450 AD. It was fun to share that with visitors.

We also enjoyed worshiping at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Coolidge. We have developed a friendship with Fr. Bob Kley, the priest in charge there, and so John was able to participate in the service, con-celebrating each week, preaching, and serving as chief celebrant twice. That was a real blessing for him, and for me. Probably the only thing I have missed in retirement was his leading our worship in church each week.

Yesterday, was John's last time to celebrate this year.



Afterward, we had lunch at Mt. Athos Restaurant in Florence with Bob. Our waitress took our photo in front of the photo of Mount Athos in Greece.



During our drive to Justin's today, Cairn (the name we have given our GPS), directed us to turn on Ajo Road, pronounced Aah-Jo (as in Josephine). After saying that several times, she finally got it right, Aah-ho. How did the computerized voice realize it was wrong? Often, she says Bull-ee-vard for the word Boulevard. We need to translate at times.

Spring Babies

Every morning we listen to doves waking up around us. As the sun sets, numerous--maybe nearly 100--doves come to spend the night in the mesquite tree next to our RV. If we happen to go to that side of the trailer after dark, the noise of all of those birds flying away is amazing. This is the tree where they spend the night.



And now the doves are trying to multiply--maybe they are like rabbits? In a nearby tree this mother dove is sitting on a nest.



Two years ago I took pictures of a mother dove with babies in a tree near the Visitor Center.





But not all doves are smart enough to build their nests on a stationary object like a tree. Earlier this week one kept sitting on the front of our truck and John wondered if she was laying an egg. I said, "Surely not. She doesn't have a nest there." Well, I was wrong. The next morning, this is what we saw. Not much of a nest, but, without a doubt an egg.



And the next morning, a little more nest and two eggs!



We can't leave the truck parked till the eggs hatch. What to do? Today, John moved the nest and eggs into a small plastic tray and placed that in a creosote bush. He used tongs so his scent wouldn't be on the eggs.







Will Mama find her eggs in the bush and care for them till they hatch? We don't know, but this location is certainly better than them flying off somewhere as we drive down the road.



On a related note, there is a pair of Great Horned Owls that live in the roof over Casa Grande Ruins. They have been sitting on eggs in the nest for several weeks and within the last week or so, one or more baby owls have been born. We just wish we could see them from the ground, but they are too high up.

Archeology Finds

I've never been very interested in archeology, per se. From what I have seen and read over the years, being an archeologist means digging in dirt on hot, sunny days or looking carefully at things in a laboratory. Both sound b-o-r-i-n-g.

However, finding really old things is exciting and that has happened to John and me twice this year here at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. In January, we were walking in a part of the Monument that is not open to the public when John almost stepped on this.



It is a three-quarter ax head that is more than 650 years old. You can see how large it is from the set of keys next to it. We immediately took a picture of it, made careful note of where it was, and went to talk to the chief ranger. She called the chief archeologist and he sent one of his staff to return to the site with John. She told John it had probably been dug out of the ground from a hole by a coyote or badger. We found it near a trash mound, where it had probably been buried for 100s or years.

Everyone was really impressed with the find, but there are so many of this type of object in museums, no one wants them anymore. Therefore, after measurements and more photographs, it was buried again. (All artifacts on National Park land are protected and may not be collected and taken home.)

Finding something that large is very unusual, but to see broken pieces of pottery here at the Monument is not unusual. This area was the first ever historical area protected in the United States, by order of the US Congress in 1889 and President Benjamin Harrison in 1892. That has means that pot hunters and artifact collectors have been very restricted for over 100 years. When you look at a small hill here, you can see pieces of pottery reflecting light easily.



Up close, this is part of what I saw very near the area in the last photo.



In past years, when areas of the Monument were cleaned or digging was done for buildings or other construction, pottery shards were gathered up and put in this pile with rocks that were also picked up.



All of these scenes are from areas where the public does not visit. A small area of the National Monument is open to the public and thousands of people walk through the compound surrounding the four-story building we call Casa Grande Ruins.



The area around the building has been back-filled with clean soil to make sure water drains away from the buildings after rain storms. All of this traffic and fill dirt made the discovery last week of a pottery shard really unusual.

Friday, after one of my tours, a young woman walked up to me and asked me to come see something she and her friend had found right in the public area. I was amazed when I looked at it.



This is a piece of black on white Salado polychrome pottery, probably from the 1300s or 1400s. It must have worked its way up through the fill dirt over the past years, to be seen by those visitors. Again, one of the archeologists came to look at it. And again, they left it where is was found. Hopefully, no one will decide to pick it up and put it in their pocket. Instead, we hope it will remain for others to see and appreciate.

You can be sure I praised the two people who found it and left it where it was. That is exactly what we want our visitors to do.

A Busy Weekend

We had a very busy weekend, working at the Third Annual American Indian Music Fest here at Casa Grande Ruins NM. The event brings Native American artists from throughout the U.S. and Canada for two days of performances. The stage is set next to the 650+ year-old four-story building once used by Ancestral Sonoran Desert people.

In addition to the musical performances, there are numerous exhibitors and vendors. Many were demonstrating how they manufacture their artistic works. We also had several desert organizations, including the Desert Archaeology Center and a raptor rescue group. Isn't this bird beautiful?



John Bear is one of the flute players who took part in the Music Fest. I chose this picture of him on stage because, if you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the audience and in the background the RV compound where we live with five other volunteer couples.



One of the most popular performances was by Estun-Bah, a group that includes two dancers. This is Tony Duncan, who a week ago won first place in an international hoop dancing competition. Here you see him jumping through the hoop, almost like he was jumping rope.



Another member of the group, Jeremy Dancing Bull, also dances. Isn't his traditional dress impressive?



Two friends from Colorado, who now live in Tucson, stopped by to attend the Music Fest on Saturday. It was good to see Dick and Nina, though we didn't have much free time to spend with them.



On Friday afternoon, John and I had helped the Monument superintendent unload the truckload of rental chairs and tables. Sunday afternoon we helped fold them up again and stack them. In between, John's work included assembling canopies for vendors, keeping an eye on foot and vehicle traffic in the vendor area, and staffing one of the two visitor desks in the Visitor Center. I spent most of the time collecting fees from visitors in a temporary booth set up outside.



All volunteers work both days of the Music Fest. Since we work Thursday, Friday and Saturday, that means we had an extra day of work this weekend. That, plus putting in 10- and 11-hour days, meant we were pooped. Monday we slept in a little later than usual (meaning till 6 and 6:30 in the morning) and tried to take it easy.

Volunteer Duties

We've now spent two weeks volunteering at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. We work three eight-hour days each week and our basic assignment is to lead tours of the monument. But this year, we are helping with various administrative tasks. I am working on publicity for the Third Annual American Indian Fest that will be held here February 12 and 13. With my degree and background in journalism, that is right up my alley. John has been using the internet to update email mailing lists and helped prepare the weekly bank deposit, as well as "other duties as assigned."

Two of the days we work, three other volunteers are also leading tours, so these additional duties are a good alternative to roving and the boredom of waiting in the break room for our tour time. Roving means walking around the public areas, making ourselves available to answer questions and explain the ruins, as well as watching for visitor actions that might damage the ruins. We both enjoy doing that, but the public area of the monument isn't all that large and doesn't really lend itself to five or six hours of roving. The new duties challenge us to learn a new computer system and I am enjoying updating my journalism skills.

The opportunity to talk with the visitors is one of the delights of volunteering in the parks. On one of John's tours yesterday, he had a group of 17 inner-city college students from Philadelphia. He learned they were on a tent-camping trip through the Southwest and none of them had camped before. Later he met a couple from Scotland who were making their first trip to the U.S. They shared the impressions of our country (very positive) and asked lots of questions.

This weekend, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., all national parks are offering free admission to visitors. That may have been the reason we had so many visitors yesterday. That is a good thing. But, when two staff members are out sick, it may be a not-so-good thing. We certainly were busy! Except for a short break for lunch and one hour to give a tour, I spent the full day staffing the front desk for the bookstore. Because of the extra visitors and the 15% discount offered on all sales, I think it was a record day. At the very least, it was busiest day have spent there.

When the park closed at 5, we were certainly ready to come back to our RV, pour a cocktail and put up our feet.

Fall Has Arrived

It is December 7 and fall has finally arrived in this part of Arizona. For anyone who thinks fall means leaves changing colors, you must look really hard to find it here. But yesterday we hiked up the Peralta Canyon in the Superstition Mountains and we found a little bit of fall.





That was exciting!

We were hiking the steep trail up to the Fremont Saddle for a view of Weaver's Needle.



Fremont Saddle is probably names after Gen. John C. Fremont who led a military campaign in the mid-1800s for American control of California. Weaver's Needle was named for Pauline Weaver in 1853. "P Weaver" is one of the graffiti names scratched into the walls of the Casa Grande in Coolidge, where we are volunteers January through March. I knew the name was a man's, but didn't know much about him. In reading Hiker's Guide to the Superstition Wilderness by Jack Carlson and Elizabeth Stewart, I learned that "Pauline Weaver was born in Tennessee in 1797. His parents...named him Powell Weaver. He called himself Paulin and Paulino in Spanish but became known as Pauline to the Anglos. He first ventured into Arizona in 1831 and became well known as a scout, trapper, mountain man and miner." And here we have twice hiked to see Weaver's Needle. You can read about our hike last year here

Hiking back down from the saddle, we had a great view of the countryside to the southeast.



This is a very popular hiking trail, though it is steep. We passed 28 other hikers in the nearly three hours we were on the trail. Unfortunately, some hikers don't pick up their own litter. Ever since we volunteered at Bryce Canyon National Park in 2005, we have tried to pick up litter as we hike. As a matter of fact, we received a small stuff sack as a gift when we finished our time at Lathrop State Park in September.



I now carry that in my pack to use for collecting trash. We brought back three plastic water bottles in addition to some paper we picked up. We are glad it is easy to recycle at Valle del Oro.

Congratulations, John!

Friday we drove to Flagstaff for the Graduation Banquet of Park Ranger Training Program XX, run by Northern Arizona University. Why? you ask. Because John Dodson, a fee collection ranger we worked with for the past two years at Casa Grande Ruins, was graduating from this park service law enforcement training program. John is a fine young man we enjoy working with and we are sure he will do well in his career with the park service. He works hard and takes his position seriously, but he also is a lot of fun.



They served us a very good lunch and we had a chance to meet John's parents and his sister and her boy friend. Diane Chung, superintendent of the Flagstaff National Monuments, gave the keynote address.

As we left the graduation, I took this picture of John, flanked by his parents, and his sister Kayla and her friend Paul.



It was a long day. Flagstaff is 175 miles northwest of Mesa. On the way back south we were grateful for the HOV lanes on the 101 Loop from I-17 to US 60 and on 60. We drove at 50 to 65 mph all the way-that is until the last 4 miles of the 101, as we had to move to the right to exit on 60. The traffic was at a crawl because of an accident and car fire just before the entrance ramp. We arrived back at the RV about 5:45. I can't imagine how late we would have been without the HOV lanes.