Caving and visiting

September 19 – Road trip!  We had a small breakfast since we were meeting our friend Newell down in Sonoita, AZ for lunch today.  First though, we had tickets for the 10:00 tour of Colossal Cave which is 14 miles outside of Tucson in Vail.  Bill went before we were married but didn’t really remember it.  I’m sure things have changed from the outside in the last 30 years.

Cave entrance

The visitor center and gift shop area was all built by the CCC back in the 1930’s.  They also did all the work inside the cave installing lights (a lot of which are still in use), stairs, hand rails and enlarged some of the walkways.  Everything they did is still in use today, with exception on some of the lighting.  We had a great a guide who was a fountain of information about the cave’s interesting history

Very pretty formation

as well as the animal life in and out of the cave.  Of course since it was privately owned in the beginning, there has been extensive damage to the formations.  So many broken off stalactites and stalagmites, very sad!  There are many unusual formations and the normal soda straws, columns, cave bacon and cave popcorn.  At the end of the cave tour there are some exhibits of tools and equipment used by the CCC and a couple of historical items left behind by the native Americans who first used the cave.

After a stop for gas we headed to Empire Ranch outside of Sonoita where our friend Newell has been the caretaker for the summer.  He finishes his tour the end of the month so our timing to see him was good.  We couldn’t tour the ranch house as they closed it a month or so ago for repairs and renovations.  It’s certainly way out there!  After visiting for a while we went into “downtown” Sonoita for lunch at The Café.  It’s a very nice place in the middle of nowhere

Newell and Kelly

and appeared to have a nice wine selection but I’m not much of a lunch winer!  We all had one of the lunch specials from the daily board and I was stuffed and Bill was too.  Unfortunately, all good things must end, so we said our good-byes to Newell and followed him to the turn off for the ranch.  Newell was a great host and bought us lunch and I’m sending out at big “Thank you” to him.  We had a great visit and we hope to continue keeping up with him.  We met during our summer in Colorado I think in 2013.  We had some good laughs then and a good visit today.

On the way back in to Tucson we stopped at Camping World and returned one of the parts we got the other day that won’t work in our sink and then went to ACE Hardware who had a better selection of what we needed.  They had so many to pick from that we didn’t know which was the right size so Bill dropped me off at home and he went back there on his way to Wal-mart for his script. 

He stopped at Carole’s on the way home to visit a bit while I was paying bills, balancing the checkbook, and getting some things ready for our departure tomorrow.  He brought home the chop saw that Carole was giving me.  I am excited as mine is wearing out.  I had to clear out a spot under the RV to put it and managed to move a few things to the back of the car and fit it in nicely.  I didn’t get all of the things done I had hope but packaged up the slides ends to send back that are the wrong ones and have all the info ready to call and order the right ones tomorrow.

We had leftover bison roast and veggies and I did a load of laundry.  We tested the wand sprayed down the toilet and the fittings all fit and we’d like to think it cleaned the tank a bit.  Now to get it down the shower!

I posted some blogs tonight and now it’s time to pack up Dell and read for a while!