the big 'ouse...

Big Bend and Terlingua provided a wonderful four day visit...great adventure days bookcased by memorable sunrises and sunsets...

And we survived!!!

We did Big Bend - with no Drug Runners or illegal alien encounters and only one casualty...may the Leading Lady RIP.






At this point, between New Mexico and Texas, we have been living with rocks, sand and desert browns for nearly two lifetimes...and the Wild Woman was ready for some green!

So I pulled out my magic compass entrusted to me by Cap'n Jack Sparrow his own self...

Hmmm.... Looks like our next great adventure awaits in Arizona!






Who would have thought Arizona was green???  But compared to South Texas, it was surprisingly so.

Green Creosote bushes, along with Palo Verde trees (meaning "green stick" in Spanish and the AZ state tree) are nearly everywhere.

Add in the stately and iconic Seguaro, huggable Teddy Bear Cholla, tall Ocotillo, Prickly Pear cactus plus a fair amount of farming, and AZ was looking pretty verdant! 





Clyde got us safely to Casa Grande, AZ (how's your Spanish?) before he sat down and would move no further.  Wondering if there may be some mule in his family tree, but don't tell him I said that. 

Located between Tucson and Phoenix, it was close enough to make day trips to each quite easy.

And since it had been weeks and weeks since the Wild Woman had a proper shopping trip, we headed to a large mall in Phoenix to medicate the withdrawal symptoms.  I may be an enabler!



Feeling refreshed, it was off to the Casa Grande National Monument for which the present day town is named.

"Casa Grande" is of course Spanish and means "Big House", so named by a Spanish Priest who first saw the above ruins in the 1500's.

Built sometime between 1100 and 1300 AD, it might be the equivalent of the present day Vanderbilt estate, and there are no other ruins similar to this which still remain. 



It is a multi-story building, part of a large desert compound, built by an advanced, highly integrated Indian tribe that was heavy into farming, extensive irrigation and advanced water management, intricate jewelery making and trading with tribes as far away as South America based on artifacts found.

Though now an extinct tribe, there are more than 8 present day tribes which claim this early Indian group as their ancestors, making this site highly sacred to a large number of American Indians.





For us, maybe most interesting was the thought that this dwelling, built by hand, with the foundation set to align with compass North, and built from Caliche (natural concrete like material native to Arizona) still exists with the finger and hand prints from workers who created and shaped the building over 800 years ago.

Sure, Europe has its old Roman ruins, although in America there's not much else other than maybe petroglyphs and cliff dwellings which still exist from this long ago.




And it makes me wonder...and realize...that none of the things considered to be "important" which I've done in my lifetime will exist 800 years from now.

And this building, likely considered at the time to be the lowest of menial effort, maybe even forced labor, done in the midst of the desert heat, still yet remains.




Maybe it's us...with our modern day priorities and with what we think is important, who are actually backwards and uncivilized...



Let the adventure continue...