Summer Highlights........

Recently, I have received gentle reminders that my blog is pathetically outdated ~ sad to say, it's true. I will do my best to provide a recap of our summer activities.

In southern Arizona, south of Tucson, there is this recently discovered limestone cave called Karchner Caverns. Candy & I (along with our faithful traveling Cocker Spaniel Molly) pulled our 5th wheel RV to Benson Arizona for an early Saturday morning Cave Tour. Still considered to be a "live" cave, extraordinary efforts have been made to protect the caves ecosystem, including 3 air locks to keep outside air and CO2 out, misters to wash the oils, lint, and dust off your body, etc. Our visit to the cave was a wonderful experience. (no cameras allowed = no pictures)

We left Benson around Saturday at noon and headed for Bisbee Arizona and stayed at the Shady Dell RV Park, http://www.theshadydell.com/ where a sleek lineup of vintage aluminum travel trailers is available for overnight or weekly rental. This collection includes a 1949 Airstream, 1950 Spartanette, 1950 Spartan Manor, 1954 Crown, and 1951 Royal Mansion among others. Sadly, this piece of Americana is for sale and will probably disappear within the next decade.

Prior to departure on Sunday morning, Candy & I were first-in-line to enjoy an authentic retro-style breakfast at Dot's Diner. Dot's Diner is an authentic diner built by the Valentine Manufacturing Co. in Wichita, Kansas. Valentine had been manufacturing diners since the 1930's without much change in design, which explains the deco style.

The town of Bisbee is located approximately 5 miles from the Arizona/Mexico border and is on the map because it literally sits on top of one of the richest copper deposits in the world. During its glory days, the mine produced $1,000,000 / day of revenue for the town of Bisbee. When copper prices hit rock-bottom, the town reinvented itself as an antique and arts paradise. Recently, due to the increase in copper price ~ the copper mine owner's have indicated that they will re-open the mines.

On the final leg of our Southern Arizona excursion, we stopped at Tombstone. I didn't expect much here, thinking it was probably just another cheap old cowboy town tourist attraction, but was pleasantly surprised to see that the town was authentic. Here we were at Tombstone on an early Sunday morning, and the locals were walking the streets, shops were open, and the town folks ~ including the children, were living the western town lifestyle. Horses were being ridden around town, and the folks were wearing western style clothing.

Next up? Our trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.....