Back in the USA!

I had always heard good things about Bisbee; so, because we were in this territory, we decided to spend the night here.  We viewed the copper mines, roamed around the town a bit and ended up at a dog-friendly saloon, The Grand Hotel, where we enjoyed a margarita to celebrate crossing the border without a hassle.  The bartender and his girlfriend were particularly nice to us and regaled us with stories of Bisbee.  Everyone we met today seemed very, very happy to live here.

Bisbee is a very artsy town carved into the mountainside.
It reminded us alot of Colorado silver mining towns.

After Bisbee, we drove through the Sonoita wine country in southern Arizona to meet up with an old friend of Jim's from the Cellar Door Days.  The desert in this area is blooming like crazy.  We did buy one local wine to save for a special occasion, but no time today for wine tasting.

We stopped to see San Xavier Mission del Bac on the way up to Tucson.  It was built in the late 1700s and is filled with original mural paintings and statues.

One of the many altars inside

The native population here is known as
Tohono O'odham (Desert People).

Traditional home of the Tohono O'odham

Good reminder

John Meek was about 15 years older than Jim when he frequented the Cellar Door, where Jim worked as a waiter.  At the time he was Communications Director for the Democratic National Committee and later went on to found an international public relations firm.  He is a long time friend of The Mitchell Trio, Starland Vocal Band and John Denver.  He is an ex-Marine, author and serious mountain climber.

John lives in Green Valley, south of Tucson, in a beautiful southwest community.  Jim and he had a grand time sharing stories.  John has had a rough year, combatting the effects of an auto immune disease which caused a mild stroke.  He hasn't lost his sense of humor or his ability to wow the crowd.  I so enjoyed meeting him!

We checked into the dog-friendly La Quinta Hotel in Tucson and it was so nice and relaxing, we decided to stay two nights and just unwind before hitting the road again.

Boo was not allowed in the swimming pool
area so we tied him up right outside.  However,
he was not happy with this and wanted to be
with us.

Sooooo-I sat with him right outside the gate to the pool, of course!

On the way north, we stopped at Casa Grande National Monument.  Here, we viewed the ruins of a community of 13th century Hohokum natives.  Casa Grande refers to the largest structure, below-big house.

Since we have traveled the Tucson-Albuquerque-Denver route many, many times, we decided to take one of our favorite highways, 191, up through Arizona and Utah through the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona.

The new Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock

A traditional hogan

The entrance to the museum, where there is an impressive
art collection, a photographic documentary exhibit and a
display about the Navajo Code Talkers.  The complexity of
the Navajo language enabled a small group of native men
to create codes to outfox the Japanese during World War II
and helped to win the war.  It was only during the Reagan
administration that this operation was declassified.

A display about the Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of
native americans during the 1830s brought tears to our
eyes.  Many died of starvation or disease.  The Navajo were
forced to march from Arizona to Bosque Redondo in eastern
New Mexico at gunpoint.  This is an embarrassing part
of our history and is truly an American holocaust.

Sisters

Brothers

Chief Manuelito

One of the famous code talkers

It rained like crazy for the next two days, but the rain did not diminish the beauty of this land.

Bluff, Utah Trading Post

After 7 days of traveling, it was a relief to reach Jason's house in Longmont and meet his wonderful new companion, Jack.  So far, he and Boo seem to be sharing the space well and enjoying each other's company.

Last Days in San Carlos and Leaving Mexico

Our last week was full of fond farewells with friends, our favorite establishments, the beaches and alot of cleaning,  packing, donating, storing...... We all got haircuts, including Boo.

It was tough telling Boo that we were leaving
and that there would be no more roaming
the beaches until December.  He was not
happy with the news.

Saying goodbye to our wonderful ocean view.  Boy,
will we ever miss this.

We spent alot of time at the pool, getting in
a little exercise and relaxation along with
all the socializing.

 Packing the car for the trip up and down from Mexico is a lesson in organization and patience.  Despite storing a few things here like canned goods and beach equipment, we still have the car packed to the hilt.

Finally got a good car wash and we are ready to pack it up.

Goodbye to our neighbor, Selena, and Charlie

Dude says goodbye to us.

We took off on the 30th and headed northeast from Hermosillo to Banamichi.  Thank goodness for our new free map app called maps.me which downloads the maps offline.  We would not have been able to negotiate our way through Hermosillo without it.  Thank you, Sam!

The ride to Banamichi parallels the Rio Sonora,
dry in many spots like this.....

 We traveled through many small farming communities.  Interesting that there is desert everywhere but the area right around the river is bright green.

A beautiful town square in Baviacora

The mission church there

We finally made it to Banamichi, which seemed to take forever.

This is the entrance to our hotel, Posada del
Rio Sonora.  Is that a terra cotta warrior from
Sichuan?  What's he doing here?

That's our room at the end of the hallway

A beautiful, festive dining room.  Because
we were guests, they would cook for us
whenever we wanted.  So we had comida
when we arrived and then snacks later on the
terrace.

The Lady of Guadalupe altar in the dining room

This is the terrace where we later enjoyed sunset and a sip
of the local mescal, Bacanora.  Mescal is any liquor
distilled from 100% agave.  Tequila is mescal from the
town of Tequila.

The front of the hotel

 We were inspired to come to Banamichi by an article in the New York Times about Linda Ronstadt returning to her roots in Banamichi in 2013.  We listen to one of our favorite albums of hers, Canciones de mi Padre, all the time-particularly when we are in Mexico.

This is a picture of Linda from the article
on the terrace at our hotel.

We went on a very interesting drive to find the local hot springs.  We had a hard time negotiating the roads and some of the signs along the way.  There were river crossings and cows and pot holes and lots of signs pointing to places in the woods which looked a little dubious.

This makes it look like the springs were alot more
presentable than they were.  Picture Ojo Caliente back in
the 70s!  Pretty funky!  Boo did not like this at all!

When I took this picture of the moon rising, there were
five vultures in this tree-now only one.  Hope they weren't
waiting for us!

We had to drive through this!  Survived!

A ranchito out in the country

A typical street in town

A little more upscale

View of the valley from one of our walks

Very upscale-wonder who lives here?

Rio Sonora where there is some water

Beautiful cacti, flowers and green trees are everywhere!

In Aconchi, there is a fabulous old mission church from the late 1600s.

We stopped at the cemetery in town.

This was a favorite.  Notice the cowboy
boot filled with flowers and the cross
made of horseshoes.  A very importante
caballero!

Leaving for the border

We headed north to Cananea.  The roads were pretty unpredictable-lots of potholes in places.  It took forever to get there.  The road from Cananea to the border crossing at Naco was wonderful-what a delight to be able to go 65 miles an hour again.  The crossing was easy-liquor? (two bottles).  Fruits, Vegetables, Meat? (no).  Welcome to the good ole USA!  Next stop-Bisbee!