Into the West Jeep Tour

Day two of our wild west getaway with Gram and Pa was spent riding around the desert in jeeps! Two jeeps, each with a guide, picked us up at the hotel on Friday morning. Gram, Pa, Wesley, Eli, and Justus rode in one jeep.

Jerry, Hayden, JD, Annabeth, and I rode in the other. I have to say it was a little nerve wracking at first because we weren't wearing seat belts. I don't think any of our kids have ever ridden in vehicle without them on. I kept one hand on Annabeth the whole ride!

We rode from Tombstone out into the Dragoon Mountains. As we drove the guides told us about what we were seeing - the landscape and the history. The ride up the mountain was pretty rough. We leaned left and right as we climbed the rocky sides. Annabeth loved it! I'm sure there were a few times Grandma was hanging on for dear life in the other jeep!

We made a few stops along the way to check out abandoned mines and old buildings.

The scenery up in the mountains was beautiful! It was actually a little chilly, especially in the open air jeeps as we were speeding along.

We came out one mountain range and headed towards another. Just as we were approaching the second range, our jeep was lucky enough to see a herd of deer. We pulled over and watched them for a minute. That's a sight we don't see by our house! Unfortunately, the rest of the gang in the jeep ahead missed seeing them.

The big stop of the tour was Johnny Ringo's grave. He was a bad guy (or "pizza guy" as Annabeth likes to call them)  in Wyatt Earp's day who was found dead by a tree. His death was ruled a suicide, but I think the general consensus is that he was murdered.

The grave is actually on private land, but they allow visitors. The same family owns the land now that did back in 1882! We ate a quick picnic lunch by the grave. It was a little windy and the ants found us right away so we didn't linger long with the food.

Here you can see the view of the mountains out the back of the Jeep. Notice you can't see Hayden and JD sitting back there. They were laying down on the seat and the floor to try to stay out of the wind because they were freezing.

One of the old buildings we saw was this general store in Pearce. It closed up shop in the 1950's and they left everything inside just as it was the day it closed. Last fall, the new owner opened it up and sold some of the items inside. I sure wish I could have been there for that! I guess there is still a bunch of stuff in there and they plan to have another sale. We weren't able to go inside, unfortunately.

We were able to go inside the Gleeson Jail. The first Gleeson jail was a big tree in a wash. If you committed a crime they cuffed you to the tree and you stayed out there rain or shine. They eventually built a building, but supposedly it wasn't very secure and some prisoners were able to escape. The jail there now, built in 1910 was more secure and obviously well built since it still standing in pretty good shape.

The inside of the building is full of photos and artifacts collected by the current owners. The guide locked us in the cell for the full jail experience!

The rest of the ride was mostly highway heading back to Tombstone. We were dropped off at the hotel and then we had to get back in the van for the ride home. I will say the van was a lot more comfortable than the jeeps! No one was freezing and it was much less windy and noisy.

The Grande Hotel

Last year, during our wild west getaway, we stayed at the Grande Hotel in Tombstone. Pa liked it so much he reserved us a room there again this year. In fact, we stayed in the exact same rooms!

We got settled and went to the pool for a swim. We haven't "opened" the pool at home yet so this was the first swim of 2015. The water was warm but the air was a little chilly.

The boys got in the pool. Annabeth and I were less adventurous and hung out in the hot tub for a bit.

After our swim we ordered pizza from a local bar. Jerry and I went to pick it up and brought it back to the hotel. Since there were 10 of us, we ate in the breakfast area where there were plenty of tables and chairs. Some fellow hotel guests saw us and thought it was provided by the hotel! We didn't share with them, but we did share a slice with the gal who worked the front desk. She was very nice and took good care of us.

Each evening the hotel puts a movie on and pops some popcorn. Since we had a bunch of kids, they let us choose. The boys wanted to watch Jurassic Park 2 (Jerry just let them watch the original a few months ago), but the DVD was missing from the case. So, we chose Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory instead. The kids seemed to enjoy it. We watched, munched on popcorn, and even drank some juice from the continental breakfast area (the front desk said it was okay).

When the movie was done, Jerry and I left Wesley in charge of our two rooms (Gram and Pa were across the hall) and headed down for a soak in the hot tub. Most of the kids ended up watching a second movie (E.T.) on television. It made for a late night, but they had fun. Unfortunately, despite the late night, they didn't really sleep in the next morning.

We took our time getting up and dressed before we went down to eat breakfast. Our kids love continental breakfasts. I swear most of the boys want to try one of every single thing offered! They stuffed themselves and then we went back to the rooms to pack up and check out so were ready to meet the jeeps for our jeep tour by 10am.

Queen Mine Tour

First stop on this year's wild west vacation with Pa and Gram was the Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee. Apparently, there is a neat museum in town, but we missed it. We walked around the little visitor center for a bit instead.

There were some old mining carts to look at and sit on outside too.

This is the entrance to the mine. When you go on the tour you straddle those yellow seats. The mine was first claimed in 1877. It closed in 1975 and shortly after that they opened it up for tours. All the tour guides are retired miners.

Before you go in for the tour you are outfitted with hard hats, a jacket, and a light. The mine is a cool 47º year round. (We should all have underground houses here!) The mine goes straight into the mountain, you don't go up or down on the tour at all.

The boys, Jerry, Pa, and I went on the tour. Gram and Annabeth shopped in the gift shop while we were gone.

Our tour guide was pretty funny. If I have one complaint about the tour, it's that it was very hard to hear what the guide was saying. We stopped several times and got off the little trolley, but even then it was hard to hear.

Did you know miners actually appreciate cockroaches in their work area? I guess they can feel the vibrations of rock about to fall long before humans can. So when the miners saw the cockroaches running, they ran too!

While inside we got to see some of the tools they use to break into the rock. This mine, like most around here, produce copper.

Below are some (fake) fuses to dynamite sticks. They would put about 24 sticks in and then connect the fuses before lighting them. Our guide joked that they left the un-expoded sticks for the next shift to deal with.

I'm not really afraid of confined spaces, but I'm not sure I could ever work as a miner! It was dangerous work!

Super Farm Tour

Here are a few photos from our tour of Superstition Farm this weekend. It was supposed to be a group tour with our Keeper's Club at church, but for various reasons most of the other families couldn't make it. It was just us and one other family; we still had a great time.

Even though we have our own goats now, it was still fun to feed them at the farm. I amazed at how low their fence is (and how many goats they keep in such a small area).

This sweet donkey was rescued from an abusive situation. He loved every piece of carrot we gave him.

The hayride was fun, but made several of us itchy.

Superstition Farm is a real working dairy. I think it's pretty neat they started tours and markets on the side. If you haven't been there, they have tours every Saturday.

Field Trip: Arizona State Capitol

We were invited to join a few other homeschool family's for a tour at the Arizona State Capitol Museum today. I was a bit nervous to drive to downtown Phoenix by myself (since it's not my normal stomping grounds), so I suggested we carpool. I still drove, but it wasn't too bad with a navigator who knew where she was going!

We met the other families at Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza and had a quick picnic lunch before our tour. The weather couldn't have been more beautiful! There were a lot of memorials honoring Arizona's history. We didn't really spend too much time looking at them. Although, I did notice a big granite 10 commandments memorial. I was glad to see some kind of petition hasn't yet forced it's removal.

We started with a guided tour. We all thought it was pretty interesting. In a state where everything seems to have been built yesterday, it was nice to be in a building with some solid wood and real history. The original capitol was built in 1900, before Arizona was even a state.

We got to sit at the desks in the historic House Chamber.

Here are those same desks as viewed from the gallery one story up. Or as I like to call it the "peanut gallery".

After the Civil War battle at Picacho Pass here in Arizona, the Confederate States of America divided the territory. New Mexico (who sided with the North) was the northern part and Arizona (who sided with the south) was the southern part. I have to say I'm really glad they didn't leave it this way!

This is the actual flag that went into battle with the Rough Riders in Cuba. It was hand-sewn the night before battle.

The kids got a kick out of the "governor" sitting in his office. 

It was spelled wrong, but we found Justus' chamber!

Here is our whole group in front of an Arizona state flag made out of Legos!

Hayden and Wesley did a little campaigning while we were there. Hey, I'd vote for them over some of the other people who are currently running our government. 

We didn't go into the current capitol building. Maybe next time, I think it would be fun to see them in session.

When we first arrived there were all kinds of people in the courtyard area in front of the old capitol building. There were some protesters and some had name tags and seemed to be mingling and chatting. I'm not sure why, but there were even a few news crews there. It was all cleared out when we left so we were able to take one last picture in front of the building.