Vulture City Ghost Town

We spent most of Saturday in one of the best preserved ghost towns in the state. Not only do they have several buildings but they also have several items in the buildings. Such as furniture, stoves, pots and pans, tools, machinery and so on. It is a mining town that was discovered by a man named Henry Wickenburg in 1863. It has been unoccupied since WWII. You have to sign a release before walking around as they let you go anywhere you want and touch anything you want and most of the buildings could collapse the rest of the way any second of any day.

Not only did we go into this building (Assay Office and Shotgun shack built in 1884) but we even went upstairs. They say that there is around $600,000 worth of gold in the walls as they built it with rock from the mine.

This is where the guys with shotguns hung out.

Make my feet hurt just looking at them. But then again they are a hundred years old.

This was the machine shop. I'm standing on a gigantic diesel engine that was built in Germany, sent here and assembled where it sits in 1904.

Time for a quick stop on the potty. Sitting on 100+ year old poo.

Apartment house for the miners and yes we walked through this one to.

Evan found a car he likes.

Folgers in a glass jar.

Kitchen where the miners ate.

Superstition Mountains, The Lost Dutchman Mine, Tortilla Flats and a few Geocaches...

We had a busy day today. I picked up this week's veggie and fruit order from a local food coop (a great way to get quality, organic produce for about half the cost of buying it at the store!) and then we packed up the kids with lunch and headed to the Superstition Mountains.

Danny and I made this same trip when we were here visiting Tracy 4 years ago. Oddly enough it was Sept 22nd of 2004! Just a few days earlier than this time...and of course two kids lighter!

Here is a picture of us then...Sept 22, 2004 

And of Superstition...the same morning

And now...

You'll notice we're not actually in the picture this time! That's what happens when you have kids - it's all or none - either one of us, with child(ren), or just some scenery as we are chasing one of them down!

Our first stop was actually the Goldfield Mine Ghost Town. When were here in 2004 this place was literally a Ghost Town. Today there were quite a few people around.

The Ghost Town is a replica on the site of a mining town that went bust several times in the late 1800's and early 1900's. (Read more)

We explored a bit and took a train ride, which Evan LOVED!

 

The photo above is actually from the train on the back side of the ghost town.

Next we headed to Canyon Lake and Tortilla Flats

Again, here are the photos from 2004

Canyon Lake (above)

Tortilla Flats Restaurant. I'm incriminating myself here but - along with 50k+ other people so...

When you visit the restaurant at Tortilla Flats you have to add a dollar bill to the wall. You can deface it any way you choose and they post them up at the end of each day. We tried to find ours today but it's impossible! We should have taken a photo of the inside.

Today's visit to Canyon Lake

 

Then we headed to find some geocaches (with not much luck). Evan had our only actual find of the day despite a lot of effort!

Danny went out for several but only ended up with cactus needles in his arm and leg! He discovered the legendary "jumping cactus" and now knows why they call it that!

Here I am trying to find one...we discovered later that it's actually in a crack in the rock - you have to crawl down inside the crack and I guess we weren't feeling that adventurous!

While I was climbing around on these rocks a Merchant Marine stopped to ask for a jump for his Harley...we got to be good Samaritans and he was VERY happy to not be leaving his bike on the side of the road.

There were lots of beautiful views along the way. Here just a few...

Danny and the kids at Tortilla Flats in front of the Lost Dutchman Mine (it's not really the mine!)

Danny and Caitlin eating at the restaurant

These are Ocotillos...we live just off Ocotillo Rd. This whole mountain was covered with them

  

We had a great time!

On the way home poor Caitlin was sick to her stomach...I think it was all the windy roads - a little bit carsick!

So, we spent the evening cleaning up the carseats!

Arizona Time

Sorry it's been such a long time since I last posted! Life is returning to a state of normal we haven't had in at least a month, maybe two! We are getting ourselves unpacked and it's starting to feel like home!

Our trip here was full of unexpected "fun"! It all started with the load up at the house. We realized all of our things would not fit in the rental truck (the biggest one we could rent - do we have too much junk???) and spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out what to do. Finally we decided to get a U-Haul trailer and have the van set up with a tow assembly, etc - $1000 later we were back on track but a day behind!

Even with the trailer and the cars packed as tight as was possible we were just barely making it! Of course the day delay meant all my work getting hotel reservations (that included the dogs) was out the window. We made several calls and modified our route to get rooms at the last minute! On Sunday (almost evening) at 430pm we finally took off and drove to Salina, KS.

Here's where things really started getting interesting :) It was getting dark and it was here that we realized we had no tail lights on the Penske truck! We stopped in the middle of nowhere and called the emergency number for Penske. After an hour of waiting we finally heard that it would be at least 2 hours to get the lights repaired. This was around 930pm...we were already looking at a 5am arrival in Colorado Springs, with the delay it would be more like 8am - what's the point!?? Danny decided to try turning on the lights to the Honda (which was on a carrier behind the truck) to see if that was enough lighting to drive and be seen. It worked great and we kept driving for another hour or two.

We decided it was a good idea to stop and sleep if we could find a place, the hotel in CO Springs was basically a loss at this point and we saw a sign for a room in Quinter, KS. They were very nice, clean and PET FRIENDLY (for only $69)!

The next morning, we headed out again but decided to take KS 40 to Santa Fe. This was a beautiful drive through old farming communities and a lot of farmland...not a lot of gas stations though. Now, for the record...I have only run out of gas one time in 14 years of driving (a few months ago in the dead of winter!)...of course with the trailer on the van my gas mileage was almost nothing! I misjudged how far I could go on a 1/4 tank and ran out of gas 1 mile from the next station. Oh, but they are OUT OF GAS CANS! Thankfully Danny, the smart guy that he is, packed the gas can in the trunk of the Honda just in case! After a brief delay we were off again!

The drive from KS to Santa Fe was pretty easy, except for the push through the mountains in Trinidad (I don't recall if it's CO or NM). The van was not made for trailer hauling in the mountains. It was a beautiful drive but a little unnerving ... there were several times I didn't think I would make it up the hill (especially only going 25mph). Once again, it was nearing nightfall and we switched on our lights to find....the trailer lights were shorting out! Since Danny was behind me most of the way and we weren't encountering a lot of traffic, we just kept driving...all the way to Santa Fe.

We stayed in our intended room for the night and headed out again as early as is possible with two kids and two dogs! I think the last day was smooth, no troubles and faster than the other days. We made a few extra stops for geocaching and dove through Payson, AZ (it was beautiful and not like anything you'd expect to see in AZ, it was 64 degrees and lots of trees). We arrived at 930pm Tuesday evening and it was 100 degrees!

Here are some pictures of the house - we are still unpacking some rooms and organizing things...and have yet to put up any pictures but it's starting to feel more like home everyday!