Ok, have to tell this first.... we have embarrassed ourselves a couple of times with the locals here because of one of the streets here called La Canada. Now if you are like us, you might see this street sign and pronounce it just like it looks, like our neighbor country to the north. But, if you live here in southern Arizona, 60 miles from the Mexican border, you pronounce it "La Canyada". Oh how we long for names like Tillamook, Scappoose and Clatskanie.
We are taking the opportunity while we are here to see as much as we can. We took a long day trip to Kartchner Caverns and Bisbee. Kartchner Caverns is incredible. Never will I look at another plain brown hill without wondering if there is a sink hole on it and a large cavern with stalagmites and stalactites under it. While on the tour we were not allowed to take pictures and had strict instructions not to touch anything. The cavern was discovered back in the 1960's and kept secret for over 14 years until the Kartchner family finally sold the property to the state of Arizona for a State park. We purchased some post cards and scanned them in so you can see some of what we saw. Unlike the Oregon Caves that are quite cold inside, the Kartchner Caverns are very warm, about 77 degrees and humid. http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=681204108407%3A1835611152&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee
After our tour of the caverns, we headed down to Bisbee Arizona. Bisbee is famous for its copper, gold and sliver mines from the mid 1800's and are now closed. From the heydays of mining in Bisbee, there is still a great number of Victorian style homes still standing as well as what I might refer to as a liberal hippy influence (in this very republican state). As you walk around the town, you see both influences. The tour we took of the Queen mine was very enlightening about the industry that made this part of the country so famous. We also discovered the Old Bisbee Brewery, a small brewery where the brew master has created some very unique and great tasting beers. Sad we cannot find them outside of Bisbee or restaurants. http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=502204108407%3A1349353904&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee
One of the more unique things we have seen here is Biosphere2, just north of Tucson. Some of you may remember back in the 1990's where 8 people lived for 2 years in this completely self contained environment. Biosphere2 was designed to run large scale experiments about the earths environment. The tour takes you from a rain forest to a savannah, to a mangrove from the everglades, to a coastal desert, all the while the climate changed with each section. The environmental part of Biosphere2 is as large as 4 football fields and the living areas of Biosphere2 have been maintained so you can see where the inhabitants from the first project lived and worked for those 2 years. When you look at these pictures, note the snow on the ground. Biosphere2 sits in the middle of the desert at 4000 ft. The night before we went, the area had rain and cold temperatures down from the NW and left snow in all of the mountains. The day after, the temperatures were back into the 70's and all of the snow in the mountains melted.
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After we left Biosphere2, we realized we had visited two distinct sides of the ecology of this area, from an open pit copper mine that although necessary, appears as less than beautiful., to Biosphere2 whose purpose is to discover ways to save our planet.
On our tour of the Arsarco Copper Mines we learned that to extract copper from the land, they must take the top 300 ft of soil and rock off before they can get to the rock with copper and other minerals in it. The digging for ore bearing soil can go a quarter of a mile deep, done in 40ft benches. This mine is two miles from north to south and three quarters of a mile east to west. The soil they remove to extract the copper from becomes what they call tailing's. These tailing's are then deposited in high mounds that parallel the highway for 16 miles from Tucson south to Green Valley. They spray the tailing's with a green colored covering so when the winds blow, the dust from them does not travel over everyone living in the valley. This particular mine will be mined out in approximately 13 years and they figure it will take another 7 years or more to repair the land to be ready for another use. As unattractive as these mines are, copper is used in so many products from our alarm clocks, to the electricity we use everyday to the computer I am using to write this blog. Without it, life would not be as comfortable as we know it to be.
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Our Nightmare and tip to others: As you know we purchased a new RV here in Arizona back in November. It is now almost March and we are still trying to get it licensed via mail in Oregon. If any of you think you would like to purchase any type of vehicle needing registration in Oregon, first and foremost don't buy until you are close to the date when you will be heading home. When we bought, we still had 5 months before we were planning on being home. The temporary license you get is for 90 days. Oregon DMV requires the original title in order to process the registration, and that can only come from BofA. Between trying to get BofA to get their act together, being required to get a VIN inspection (twice), and dealing with DMV in Oregon, we are at a point where we will drive home with expired temporary plates and complete the transaction then. We found out there are no penalties to register with expired temporary plates, only the possibility of a ticket if we get caught. But to keep both of our blood pressures down, we may just take the chance.
It's hard to believe that our days here are numbered... we still have so much to see.