Arizona Fun

The last couple weeks have been marvelous! Record low temperatures before we got here, then record highs after we arrived. Finally, around the 12th, our temperatures actually dropped into the high 80s, then leveled off to the high 70s. Our evenings are cool (mid 40s), but sooooo very nice. We did have one day and night of some rain (if you can call it that). The rain we got was just enough to get the coach and car dirty (spotty). Sadly, none of the storms hitting the Pacific Northwest have brought the badly needed water that Arizona needs. So the drought continues with no end in sight.

Shortly after we arrived, we had an off road geocaching function, so took the Wrangler out for some fun and a little caching. During that outing, Ken noticed some wires (one continually hot) hanging loose under the dash. Also, the compressor, lockers, and air shocks weren’t working. Last year, we knew there was a problem with one of our rear lights and blinkers, so after Ken decided he couldn’t fix it, he took the Jeep to the shop. It took four days and lots of bucks, but they got it fixed and now it’s supposedly right. Seems they had to rewire the whole thing because the diodes were literally crumbling and very close to an electrical fire. The wiring was done completely wrong when all the extras were added ages ago and things were getting very hot. The guys at the shop were amazed we didn’t have a fire, but we never had the Wrangler out long enough to overheat the wires. Ken now has the wiring diagram in case something should ever go wrong again (hope that never happens).

Tuesday, Nov 17, Ken & I picked our friend Connie up in Gold Canyon and drove two hours west to Buckeye for some intensive geocaching. There is a road there called “Sun Valley Parkway” which is loaded with many caches. We call it a “Power Trail” because a cache is located every half mile. We hit the trail at 7:30 am and finished at 4 pm and had a total find of 111 caches. In all that time, we only had three no finds. We even took time for lunch. It was an incredible time, but we all were very tired and sore. After the long drive back to Apache Junction, we stopped and had some marvelous ice cream. Connie figured we were in and out of the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) 115 times. Wow, no wonder we all were sore.

I guess we hadn’t been punished enough physically because on Thursday the 19th, Ken & I took the Wrangler off road and found another 23 geocaches. Also, found some new roads we didn’t know existed. Fun day!!

Another opportunity we had to play with the Wrangler was on the 20th when we went out with “The Axle Twisters” to see the Coke Ovens.

I found this blurb regarding the ovens on the Internet:
     "The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are each about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town) and the smelters."

There are several ways to the ovens and all are difficult, but do-able. The easiest (or so we thought) was by crossing the Gila River near the extinct town of Cochran. Since AZ is having a drought, the Gila River is running very low and we figured that was our best chance of getting there. We took off around 9 am and got to the ovens after 2.  Of course, we stopped for lunch on a gravel bar in the middle of the Gila River (LOL).  You can see the road we crossed from on the right side of this picture.

We had a few obstacles along the way, but mostly the drive was easy and lots of fun!
Our first obstacle was having to cross some rail road tracks. The high clearance Jeeps had no problems, but a small Tracker needed a bit of help.  This is some of the guys adding extra rail road ties to the tracks.

A big obstacle was on way back out having to crawl back up and through a washed out area.  The first is where Norm took went too high and had two tires just spinning.  The guys pushed him back out and he took a lower path and easily made it through.

This is Ken coming through!

Here are two others coming through.

After we all got back to town safe and sound, we stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant for some great food. A fun time was had by all.

I must say the Wrangler performed great and we never had any trouble at all. We are so looking forward to our next trip out with this group Friday after Thanksgiving.

Here's wishing you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!