Arizona at last!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

BENSON, AZ — We made it! We’re finally in Arizona, on our 17th day of travel, with a wealth of stories from the trip here, and the promise of many more as we explore this interesting part of the world. Our literature bag is bulging with pamphlets, maps and brochures about things to see and do, and we can hardly wait to start.

We got off to a good start this morning (for some reason I woke up at five o’clock!) after a more peaceful night than we had expected with the heavy winds last evening. Nevertheless, wind was our constant companion today as well, sweeping across the vast, flat plains of southern New Mexico. We followed Interstate 25, heading for Las Cruces, but before getting there, we headed west at Hatch on a state highway, cutting a corner to connect with Interstate 10 west.

Hatch, a tiny little burg, boasts that it is the chile capital of the world. Roadside stands were in abundance, strung with ristras of dried red chiles and trinkets painted with pictures of the long, elongated peppers in red and green. They even have a 12-foot tall Uncle Sam at one corner, with star-spangled top hat and striped pants, holding a big green chile in his hand!

While the scenery today resembled what we had passed before, there were some changes and differences. The ground was still dusty and gravelly, and low shrubs dotted the landscape, but today we passed several places where bright yellow grass rippled in the wind, dense enough to hide the soil beneath it. Spiky plants, from one to three feet high, were everywhere for a mile or two, then nowhere to be seen, and then present again and even bigger in size. These plants send up a tall, thin stem that branches out with dried seed pods at the top — very odd-looking! They look like skinny periscopes, sticking up toward the sky!

The sky was huge again today, swept with a few clouds. At the horizon on either side were mountains in rusty brown and grey. Not long after we crossed the state line, we saw some large farms with trees in orderly rows; we guessed they might be pecan trees, or pistachio trees (although we don’t know what either of these actually look like; we just know they grow around here!). There were also some vineyards, as the terrain here resembles regions of France where wine is produced.

Cochise County is at the southeast corner of Arizona, where we now are, and the most interesting stretch of highway today was at Dragoon, where suddenly the landscape changed to huge rocky formations on either side of the highway. I told Val I almost expected to see cowboys darting among the rocks, chasing Indians to the sounds of ricocheting bullets! Some of the formations were huge round boulders, as big as a car, balanced on top of others. It was spectacular!

We arrived at the Benson KOA at about 1:30, and got quickly settled. It’s always easy when you get a nice, flat site without any trees in the way. From our dining area windows, we can see a wonderful desert landscape with mountains in the distance.

Since today is Shrove Tuesday, I was determined to find a place where we could have our traditional pancake supper. I scanned a couple of local papers we had picked up to see if there was anything happening in town, and there was one Mardi Gras event at a local golf club, but they were advertising New Orleans cuisine, and expecting folks to arrive in costume. I had left my sequined mask and beads at home, so we opted instead to check out the menu at Denny’s, just down the street from the campground. I was not disappointed: breakfast served all day! So I had two enormous pancakes with extra syrup and butter, bacon, and hash browns. And, to assuage my guilt, a side order of fresh fruit! Yum!