Meeting with Friends Karen and Herb
November 10, 2006
We had a slow morning even though Will was up about 5am it was not until after seven when we started our day. We drove south past the pueblo style housing plans to the ore traditional suburban styles and then to the scatter homes in the rolling hills. We are still in the Sonoran desert with prickly pear cactus, ground cover and sage bush dominating the vegetation. In the higher elevations we saw more grassland and mesquite trees. In the hills the grass was rich and full. Cattle grazed along with the pronghorn antelope. Century plants and stool yucca dot the hills. Although it is fall, even here in the hills, some yucca burst into bloom as all around them the dried seedpods are sending out dried seed to find their own spot to send forth a new plant. The ghost town, Fairbanks, is being restored by the BLM. The school is almost finished and the mercantile building which housed the post office until 1970 has a new roof and side wall. The town was in its heyday during the silver milling, that used the river and when the railroad stopped here it was a culture center and trading post. We walked down to the San Padre River for our morning walk. The air was cool and the sun hot. A large javelina crossed our path going 
quickly on its own mission.
We arrived at Tombstone, a registered historic national landmark, home to the OK Corral – site of the legendary shootout between the Earps and the Clantons. Today it is a tourist stop with shootout reenactments, shops, saloons and a big wide street with stage coach rides. The Cochise County Courthouse was constructed in 1882 and stands today as a museum.
Whitewater Draw is a marshy birding area populated by thousands of migrating sandhill cranes in the winter months. They are just starting to arrive. The birds roost here at night, flying in long strings and vee-shaped patterns they come and land at the shore. They call to each other making quite a noise.
Karen and Herb had been here a few days. We pulled in and got settled in the dry camp area where parking is free for three days. We sat and caught up on each others travels and adventures then went our separate ways to eat. Later we got back together and we introduced them to Boggle, our new favorite word game. Herb brought over their carosine lantern and we played till we just couldn’t see well enough. With darkness closed in around us we each went into our rigs. We watched a movie, charging the house battery with the generator at the same time, before bed.
We had a slow morning even though Will was up about 5am it was not until after seven when we started our day. We drove south past the pueblo style housing plans to the ore traditional suburban styles and then to the scatter homes in the rolling hills. We are still in the Sonoran desert with prickly pear cactus, ground cover and sage bush dominating the vegetation. In the higher elevations we saw more grassland and mesquite trees. In the hills the grass was rich and full. Cattle grazed along with the pronghorn antelope. Century plants and stool yucca dot the hills. Although it is fall, even here in the hills, some yucca burst into bloom as all around them the dried seedpods are sending out dried seed to find their own spot to send forth a new plant. The ghost town, Fairbanks, is being restored by the BLM. The school is almost finished and the mercantile building which housed the post office until 1970 has a new roof and side wall. The town was in its heyday during the silver milling, that used the river and when the railroad stopped here it was a culture center and trading post. We walked down to the San Padre River for our morning walk. The air was cool and the sun hot. A large javelina crossed our path going 
quickly on its own mission.We arrived at Tombstone, a registered historic national landmark, home to the OK Corral – site of the legendary shootout between the Earps and the Clantons. Today it is a tourist stop with shootout reenactments, shops, saloons and a big wide street with stage coach rides. The Cochise County Courthouse was constructed in 1882 and stands today as a museum.
Whitewater Draw is a marshy birding area populated by thousands of migrating sandhill cranes in the winter months. They are just starting to arrive. The birds roost here at night, flying in long strings and vee-shaped patterns they come and land at the shore. They call to each other making quite a noise.Karen and Herb had been here a few days. We pulled in and got settled in the dry camp area where parking is free for three days. We sat and caught up on each others travels and adventures then went our separate ways to eat. Later we got back together and we introduced them to Boggle, our new favorite word game. Herb brought over their carosine lantern and we played till we just couldn’t see well enough. With darkness closed in around us we each went into our rigs. We watched a movie, charging the house battery with the generator at the same time, before bed.
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