Casa Grande Ruin, Coolidge, AZ

December 19, 2016

We have been at this wonderful resort now for a little over a week and have been busy participating in activities.  This is a very active resort with something for everyone.  There is exercise classes (walking, water aerobics, lap swimming, bicycling, dancing), golf, games (dominos, bingo, etc.) radio controlled car track, pickleball, bocci ball, dance classes, cards, and for me the greatest thing is the quilt room where I can sew to my hearts content and get advice from other ladies.  Ron is enjoying the golfing group and will attend his first golf event on Thursday of this week.  There is also a photography club which looks promising.   The resort has ticketed meals (breakfasts on Saturdays, one day a week lunch, and dinners) as well as  dances with live entertainment and trips out of town.  What a great place we found and will return to next year for three months.

Yesterday Ron and I drove to Coolidge (about 20 miles to the east) to see the Casa Grande National Monument which is an Indian ruins dating back to the 1400’s.  While we have gone to many ruins over the years, the village here is not enclosed as we have seen at places like Mesa Verde and other southwest Anasazi villages.

Here the structures were covered with roofing materials but much more open.

What the roofing of homes was like

This may be because this area is warmer than some of the other areas we have viewed.  The Hohokam people lived in this area prior to 1350 A.D and lived here for many centuries prior to the construction of the Casa Grande four story building but left within a century after its construction for unknown reasons. 

The Great House was made from caliche mud (a concrete like mix of sand, clay and calcium carbonate limestone) layered to form four foot thick walls at the base with hundreds of trees either carried or floated 60 miles down the Gila River to the village.  These timbers formed ceiling or floor supports.

Front view

Back Vuew

Side View

Inside Wall

Other Ruins near the Great House

Another partial structure

The walls of the ruin face the four cardinal points of the compass.  One opening aligns with the setting sun in summer and others align with the sun and moon at specific times.  The people would gather at these sites to study the position of the celestial objects in relation to times for planting, harvesting and celebration.   The Hohokam too were responsible for digging with sticks and stones the many miles of canals leading from the Gila River to their planting sites.  Amazing.

In 1694 the ruins were viewed by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, a missionary, when led to it by the Pima Indians. 

The Monument today consists of the large Casa Grande ruin, and two other partial structures as well as a ball court and outlines of what were probably living areas and a museum featuring information about the site.  Much of the ruin suffered from souvenir hunters damaging the site to the point that in 1892, this site became America’s first archeological reserve. 

An interesting afternoon visit on a cool day in the desert of Arizona. 

A View to the Mountains in the distance

Some Saguaro Cactus at the Monument

Kerrville to Casa Grande

December 1 – 10, 2016

We left Kerrville, TX for New Mexico and Arizona stopping in Las Cruces for 5 days, seeing good friends from our Good Sam Staff days one night and spending two other of those 5 days in Albuquerque so I could see my breast surgeon for a follow up visit.   Everything was good and I am so thankful.  Took care of some errands on Monday afternoon and had dinner with friends and spent the night in their “guest house to the West”.  Tuesday morning we had breakfast with Ron’s son Kent and fiancée, Dede before my doctor visit and then returned to Las Cruces.  Whew!  What a world wind visit.  Ron was tired of driving since he drove for two days to NM, then a day up ti ABQ and the next back to Las Cruces then leaving the next day for Benson, AZ.  Decided to stay two nights in Benson at the Escapees Park to catch our breath and rest before moving on to Casa Grande, AZ where we will spend the next month. 

Ron and I spent a week here in Casa Grande in December 2014 after picking up our current RV and thought we might like to return for a longer stay during the winter.  Interestingly, my roommate Julie at the University of Arizona came from this small (then) farming community where her family had moved to while she was in high school.  I remember making several trips to her family home on the two lane highway for a home cooked meal that her mother prepared for us.  We came with two other friends one of whom owned a Volkswagon Karmengia.  Julie got to sit in the front since she was 5’11 but I was in the back seat with my long legs for those 65+ miles.  Getting out was quite a feat.  I was young then (the early 1960’s) so could manage those contortionist twists and turns to get out.  Julie would not recognize Casa Grande now as it has become quite a snowbird location with lots of big name stores, RV Parks and 55+ communities.  Today the population is 51,000 year round with an extra 15,000 during the winter months.

Casa Grande, AZ began as a settlement in May 1879 when the Southern Pacific Railroad had a temporary work stoppage and set up a temporary camp.  The camp was called Terminus (meaning end of the line).   Construction on the railroad began again in January 1890 with the town of Terminus having three buildings and five residents.  One of the buildings was a railroad station.  In September 1880 the Railway executives renamed the community, Casa Grande after the prehistoric ruins located 20 miles to the east.  The first post office was established in 1881.  By the second decade of the new century, the railroad still dominated the headlines in Casa Grande.  Four trains a day stopped each day leaving from 20-25 persons arriving and staying with each train.  The boom was on for Casa Grande. 

We arrived at this very nice RV Resort (about 710 spaces) and were assigned to a spacious spot with gravel and other RV’s nearby. This Park like others has a large number of park models including some across the street from our location, but they are nicely spaced and all very well kept.  So far we have no one on one side of us and a couple from South Dakota on the other.  Behind us are other RV’s.  This Park is on the west side of town and a bit north from the downtown area making it quiet (well not quite since it is close to the railroad tracks with trains still rolling through town on a very frequent basis all day and night.  However, the trains are not constantly blowing their horns for crossings as we have found in so many other places including Gallup, NM  If you can sleep in Gallup, you can sleep anywhere.)  There are lots of activities each day and friendly people to enjoy.  We have met several of the neighbors and I have met some ladies in the quilting room who are eager for me to join them. 

Entrance to the Resort

Our Site

We hope to do a bit of sightseeing while here and to see some friends who are in Sun City north of Phoenix.  Not sure when the next blog will be, but stay tuned.  

Welfare

Wednesday, November 30, 3026

Did I grab your attention with the title?  I hope so.

Actually Welfare is the name of a small community between Kerrville and Boerne in the Hill Country of Texas.  

Today it is a ghost town but in 1848 Carl Joseph and Augusta Beseler along with their sons emigrated to Texas from their homeland to settle on Carl’s land  grant and open a general store.  The town grew up around the general store.   The community was first named Bon Ton or Boyton but changed to Welfare when the post office was opened in 1880 with Carl Beseler as the first Postmaster. 

We spotted the sign below and thought we would stop for lunch, but alas we somehow failed to see the Café so continued on our way coming across these farm buildings.

 Further along the road is the town of Waring which was founded in 1887 by R.P.M. Waring and named for the founders hometown of Waringford in Ireland.  The name was not changed to Waring until 1901.  From its founding until service was ceased in 1970, the town was a station on the Kerrvile branch of the San Atnonio and Aransas Pass Railway.  In Waring we found this old General Store and gas station, a church and this old school. 

You never know what you will find when you drive the back roads through old towns and we always enjoy being surprised by what we find.    

Our RV neighbors here in the Park went with us this evening for the Wednesday night  hamburgers at the local Elks Lodge.  It is a very active Lodge and officers make a point of greeting all visitors each time they attend and tonight was no exception.  Nice to be remembered by name and welcomed.  All of us bought 50-50 tickets tonight and to our surprise, Ron won $102 enough to pay for our meal tonight, our stay at the RV Park tomorrow night with quite a bit left over. 

Coming back to the Park after dark, we are able to enjoy the many, many lights which this Park puts up for the Christmas season.  Don’t think I have ever heard about another Park that does this much.  It really is beautiful.  Below are a few pictures Ron took.  Some he took just do not show the sight as it really does look in person.

Rental cabins at the Park

Signing off as we make our way to Las Cruces and then Arizona.

A Visit to Boerne

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Today we drove south to the town of Boerne which is located just off I-10 and about 40 miles south of Kerrville.  Boerne is the county seat of   Kendall County and was named in honor of a Jewish-German author and publicist, Karl Ludwig Börne, with the Anglicized spelling of Boerne. In March 1887, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway came to town creating an economic boom but the town was not incorporated until 1909.   It is now a fast growing community due to its proximity to San Antonio.  The main street through town is a heavily traveled four lane road and it is hard to enter the road from a side street if you are not on a street with a light. 

Our visit included going to the following places: 

Dienger Trading Co. (a restaurant, bakery and unique shop of clothes and jewelry for men, women and infants as well as some interesting home décor items).  The building was constructed in 1884 and served as a fancy grocery store on the street level with the family’s living quarters on the second floor. In 1900, Mr. Dienger added on to the original structure to allow for a new dry goods store.

Next we stopped by Ye Kendall Inn which was an old stage coach stop and is now a lovely Inn with a lovely gazebo across the street.  The Inn was built around 1859 by Erastus and Sarah Reed who came from Georgia.  At that time travelers were at the mercy of homeowners in the area who were willing to let them spend the night in a spare room.  The Reeds built the center portion of the hotel and were the first to offer four rooms for travelers in the Hill Country. 

Gazzebo across the street

The Old Courthouse (the limestone courthouse is the second oldest in Texas and was designed by architects Philip Zoeller and J. F. Stendebac).    Kendall County was created in 1862 and Boerne became the county seat with the courthouse being built in 1870.  A new front was added in 1909.  

Next door is the Old Jail (circa 1909).

The old St. Peter on the Hill Catholic Church is a wood frame building on Main Street.  In the 1860’s Emil Fleury, a young deacon studying to be a priest, was sent by the Bishop of Galveston to build the first Catholic Church in Boerne.  Fleury found a spot high on a hill south of Cibolo Creek and began to build the original St. Peter’s Catholic Church.  

This church served the people in Boerne until 1923 when a newer church was built next door.  This new church was modeled after San Antonio’s Mission Conception.

Across the street from the church is a city park with a lovely memorial to the fallen soldiers of many wars in the center. 

  Our drive around town also took us past a few old homes 

and the creek (Cibolo Creek) flowing through town even though it looks more like a river to me.  In addition, we took in a number of antique stores before returning to Kerrville.  

On the way home, we stopped at the local Mexican Restaurant (Mamacita's) where we each had a chimichanga covered in what they call ranchero sauce with virtually no flavor.  The plate also included rice and either refried or whole beans along with sour cream and guacamole.  The meal was plentiful but lacked flavor.  We really are spoiled after living in New Mexico so long.  

Thanksgiving at Matagorda Nature Center

Wednesday - Saturday, November 23 -26, 2016

We are off today to Matagorda Nature Center and Campground located on the Matagorda Pensinsula between a waterway and the Gulf of Mexico about 275 miles east and south of our location here in Kerrville.  Though we chose to leave the day before Thanksgiving, our travel down I-10 was fairly quick and the side roads south from I-10 mostly empty of traffic. My daughter Laurie and family, her in laws (Robert and Wanda), and friends of Laurie and Kyle (Tanner and Brandi and their children Lane, Chase and Tandi) along with us will all be together from today until Saturday morning to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday together. 

The Campground is located at the end of the Peninsula after driving over the tall bridge

The High Rent District 

and proceeding about 6 miles passed many summer homes built on stilts due to the rising of the tides from high tides and hurricanes.

The waterway side of the Peninsula

The campground also has a nature center and many covered tables and benches for picnics.  Since some of the beach area is quite compact, people take their trucks and cars to the beach for picnics and fishing.  No real swimming this time of year though day time temperatures are in the mid 70’s  to low 80’s day time and 60 to 70 at night.  Very comfortable for being outdoors especially at this time of year.

Lots of fishing here day and night.  I am surprised at the night time fishing but what would I know about fishing.  Even though I was raised on both the east and west coasts and spent much of my childhood at the beach and on boats, my family was not much into fishing.  We were clam diggers.

The campsites here are concrete pads with concrete patio and concrete table and bench next to each site and lots of space between sites.  A feature we really enjoy.  Our four campsites were two side by side on one road backed up to two side by side on the other road.  Our dinner meals were together with all of us at one site and the meat prepared by Kyle (my son in law) and friend, Tanner.  The rest of us brought the side dishes and did the clean up. 

The men and kids are off fishing for most of the days and evenings.  They catch a bunch of fish some of which is prepared for dinner on Friday night along with the turkey, etc. leftovers from Thanksgiving.  We also have a lunch meal of barbequed burgers with NM green chili which we provided.  Nothing like an afternoon on the beach with sand in your burger. 

Kyle and Tanner checking the burgers

Laurie with buns, Tanner, Kyle and Kaylee

Kyle watching the fishing lines from the truck

The water is warm enough for me to roll up my jeans and put my feet in but apparently warm enough for the kids to all get in the water to fish and play despite the small waves coming in and the wind.

Me getting my tootsies wet

The group sitting on the beach

Lane and Tandi in the waer

We return Saturday morning to Kerrville with traffic moving smoothly all the way.  It was wonderful to see the kids and grandkids whom we won’t see again until next October.

Garrett and Kaylee having fun