Texas Gypsies

Monday, April 3, 2017

Sibley Castle and Copper Creek Canyon near Mammouth, AZ

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Today we are going on another Jeep trip. This time we headed just outside Mammouth, AZ to Sibley Castle via Copper Creek Canyon.

Sibley Castle or the Sibley Mansion was constructed in the early 1900's by mine manager R. Roy Sibley to impress investors interested in backing the mining operations located further down the canyon.

It had a second-story balcony, fireplaces, plastered and papered interior walls and a patio with fruit trees. It was built in the Spanish style of quarried granite walls, adobe cross-walls, and had a central patio with rooms all around. It had two fire places and two porch columns. The windows had genuine glass in them. The living room was 60 feet long. The home contained 20 rooms and polished oak floors, which were later scavenged for a building down toward Winkelman, AZ.

These are some of the exterior walls.

Today, there are a few concrete foundations and the walls of a couple of stone buildings that remain. In the 1970's a leaching operation was conducted at one of the old mines. The settling ponds remain from those days.

We stopped for lunch here at the castle. There was a creek close by. One of the Jeeps accidentally rolled backwards down into the creek. Here is a video showing him driving up and out of the creek. He made it look so easy!

Above is a large flat area close to where we all parked. Following the trail between the trees leads to the creek seen below. Notice the huge log/limb up in the tree's limbs. Wondered about that.

Beautiful views as we left the castle area.

Off and on we did run into a little snow. See the dark clouds. For the most part it was a beautifully sunny day.

We saw these pretty white flowers at one of our stops. They were down a sharp drop off and facing the opposite direction. This was the best picture.

Look at all the roads. We are glad someone that knew their way was leading us.

Look at those awesome clouds!

Many more roads. Crazy!

These are the settling ponds talked about earlier.

Towards the end of the ride we saw the blooms just starting on a saguaro. This is the only saguaro we saw blooming this day. We had a wonderfully blessed drive today!

Desert Gardens, March 20 & 22, 2017

March 20, 2017

We decided to walk the outer trail of our RV park (which goes in the desert) to get sunset pictures. It looked like it was going to be a good sunset.

As we headed out past our neighbors, I turned my head to say "Hi". Tic stopped and I ran right into him. He was taking a picture of our neighbors and got the picture just before I ran into him. He caught them laughing at me running into him. It is a great picture of them.

Our sunset was really gorgeous tonight.

Cannot help myself. I had to include all these sunset pictures. It is interesting that as the sun gets down past the horizon it is almost lighter in the sky.

March 22, 2017
We had been told about a hawk nest in a saguaro a little ways out from the cell tower on our walking path. Tic and I decided to go look for it in the morning when the sun would be shining on it.

I spotted the nest way off in the distance. We did not have the tripod so it is blurry.

We saw this hawk on the local cell tower. Isn't it beautiful?

On our way home, we saw this blooming hedgehog cactus above. Below we saw these little orange flowers.

Sunday, April 2, 2017

Jeep Ride 03-09-17

Wednesday, March 8, 2017
We have a drainage issue between our lot and the lot behind us. So we all decided to have some gravel laid and share the cost.

The landscaper made this beautiful dry riverbed between our lots. Isn't it beautiful! We were amazed at the finished product.

Thursday, March 9, 2017
After days of Tic working on our shed, we decided it was time to do something fun. So off on a Jeep ride with the Jeeping group we go.

Here is the start of our journey this day!

The plants growing out of the rock wall indicates water runs down this wall.

We are headed into a canyon via a creek-bed.

In places it is narrow. Also the reason the Jeep is tilted is because of the big rocks we just drove over. Every once in a while there would be a pile of rock in the creek-bed.

More through the canyon. If I remember correctly this is Box Canyon.

Emerging out of the creek-bed. We are blessed with a beautiful day!

Now we are headed to a copper mine.

This is the entrance to the copper mine. It looks more like an elaborate entrance to a building to me.

On the way out, we can see the creek below. Some of the grasses are blooming. God blessed us with gorgeous views and beautiful weather this day!!

Coolidge, AZ Fly-in

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Today the Lions Club put on an all you can eat breakfast for just $8 at the Coolidge, AZ Fly-in. We decided to go and enjoy seeing the various planes at the same time.

I did not take a picture of breakfast and I should have. They served scrambled eggs, bacon (crispy & just right), pancakes. Syrup and salsa for the eggs were available. It was delicious.

The military was training on parachuting. This is actually a tandem jump.

In the far distance we could see a hot air balloon. It did not come anywhere near the airport.

This ultralight is usually at this fly-in. We also see him flying around and over the RV park. Looks like fun!!!

The model airplane club also had a small gathering of their planes. Next weekend they are having a "fly-in" of war planes.

This old fire truck was on display. It can hold 1000 gallons of water and is still used.

This is a large version of a "Box" cargo plane. They are made in Ireland.

Kitfox

This smaller "box" plane was being used by the military for the parachute training happening this morning. This little plane could hold up to 20 jumpers.

We thought this gyro-copter looked like fun. It is a 2 passenger even!

This is a better close-up of one of the tandem jumpers. I was told the first timers jumped tandem.

Navion

This Swift was originally built in 1948.

Beginners training for the youngest pilots.

This is the smaller "Box" plane loading up with military jumpers. I spoke with the pilot and asked if it would be possible to ride up and watch them jump? He smiled and said no, sorry. Never know if you don't ask.