Fort Bayard National Historic Landmark – New Mexico (GA69)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 22nd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California. I expect to leave here May 8th. While here, I’ll be doing routine maintenance, repairs and general cleaning.

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

 

 

In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

 

 

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

 

 

 

This entry was posted April 3, 2012…

 

 

 

A few days ago while my Ford Bronco II was in the shop for a transmission rebuild, I drove the motorhome the about seven miles east from Silver City, New Mexico to Fort Bayard.

 

 

The fort site was chosen in 1863 for its springs and outstanding view of the Apache war trails. The fort was established in 1866. In 1899, the Army deactivated Fort Bayard and established it as a tuberculosis hospital and research center. In 1922, the hospital was transferred to the Veterans Bureau, which became part the new Veterans Administration in 1930. The last patient was transferred to another hospital in November, 2010.

 

 

The first known internment in the cemetery was Sergeant David H.Boyd of the 3rd U.S. Calvary, buried in 1866. The cemetery was designated a National Cemetery in 1973.

 

 

To read the complete history of Fort Bayard…click this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bayard_Historic_District

 

 

To read the history of the Fort Bayard National Cemetery…click this Wikipedia link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bayard_National_Cemetery

 

 

Here are some photos I took at Fort Bayard…

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the other 26 photos that I took…click this link…
https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273/FortBayardNewMexico

 

 

Visiting old military installations is another of my enjoyments as a full-time RVer!

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW…!!!

https://otrwjam.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/taxes-and-damn-taxes/

 

 

 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

 Yesterday was sunny and 73 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny  and 80 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2017

Murals Of Indio, California

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 4,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 21st year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

---

The motorhome is parked at Thousand Trails RV Resort…about 20 miles east of Palm Springs, California. I’ll depart here Wednesday.

 

 

Nearby Indio, California has some nice murals reflecting area history. I missed a few when I was in Indio a couple of days ago, but here are the ones I did get…

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was mostly sunny and 64 degrees. Forecast for today is mostly sunny and 67 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2016

Browning, Montana

The motorhome is now parked at Thousand Trails Thunderbird RV Resort along the bank of the Skykomish River in Monroe, Washington. I’ve been here a number of times over the past years and always enjoy it here. My scheduled departure date is September 23rd.

I’m just hanging out taking maximum advantage of my Thousand Trails membership and very agreeable weather.

Mary’s personal to-do list plate, which can only be handled by herself, continues to over-flow. I’ll next likely see her when I arrive at her home in mid-October. A friend recently expressed a concern about the status of our relationship. Not to worry…it continues to function per our original agreement when we met in October, 2008. That is…I remain on the road and she will join me when her other life allows. We talk every day on the phone…sometimes more than once. It’s just the way life is!

A more relaxed mode…After our 682 day on-the-go 2011-2013 circumnavigation of the United States, I have decided to slip into a more relaxed mode. In the next few months I will be traveling through areas previously explored. Unless I do something unusual, this Blog will feature a photo album from the circumnavigation and will change daily.

Today’s Subject…Browning, Montana…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see the other 21 photos in this album…

CLICK ON THE BELOW PHOTO. ONCE YOU ARRIVE AT THE PHOTO ALBUM, SIMPLY CLICK “SLIDESHOW” AND ENJOY!

 

Browning, Montana

 

To read about today’s photo album location, click this link…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browning,_Montana

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

Yesterday was a cloudy/sunny and 70 degrees. Forecast for today is cloudy/sunny and 80 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Washington. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2015

Parker, Arizona

Yesterday I drove the motorhome the 125 miles from Yuma to Parker, Arizona. Mary continues to be overwhelmed with personal business. I am now not expecting to see her again until I arrive at her home in Murphys, California about the third week in April. It’s just the way things are and we just have to deal with it.

Except for one small town between Yuma and Parker…there’s a lot of open country in western Arizona…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Upon arrival in Parker, I went to The Colorado River Indian Tribes Museum which illustrates the history of the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo Tribes from this area…

Unfortunately they have a no photography policy, so the only photo I was allowed was of their seal…

Here’s a link about the museum…http://www.visitarizona.com/things-to-do/colorado-river-indian-tribal-museum-parker-az

I parked for the night at VFW Post #7061…

Here’s the usual dinette window photo…

You can read about Parker, Arizona by clicking this link…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker,_Arizona

I’ll continue my travels north towards Las Vegas, Nevada later this morning.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE PHOTOS.

Yesterday was a sunny/cloudy around at 73 degrees.  Forecast for today is cloudy and 72 degrees.

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 500 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/110455945462646142273?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrvzqm8-IKGdA

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2015

THE CASCADES, WENATCHEE, CASHMERE

The dry plains of Eastern Washington give way to the Cascades. Therein lies the cause of this dry area. The rains hit the mountains and drop most of the rain on the west side of the peaks leaving little for the East.

There is beauty here. We will eventually climb up over 4,000 feet.

Midway, sits the small town of Douglas.

We take a rest stop here and I see my first ever bright, purple rood. I like it!

This old ad has been repainted on an old barn. I like it, too.

Once over the summit, it is down,down,down on curves and hairpin switchbacks.

Of course Jim does the driving so I get to enjoy the scenery and it is a beautiful drive, this Highway 2.

Below us is Wenatchee. The apple capital of the world. Their Washington Apple Commission Visitor Center was closed on Saturdays. The area is the biggest city in the county, the county seat, and part of the power buckle, referring to dams above and below Wenatchee. It is named after the Sahatpin Indian tribe. Wenatchee means – at the source of the river-. They grow and ship pears, cherries, and apples. We saw signs for Pickers Wanted, Por Favor.

Jim made an appointment to have the vehicles serviced at Anglers Auto Service.. Across from Anglers is Dustys Used Cars. His sign is hard to miss.

We ate lunch, and read while the work was done. I have a friend, Pam Rousey,  who was raised here, if memory serves me. I remember a lovely little circus we saw while camped at a Thousand Trails that was from Wenatchee.  Pretty country, great river and we had cool weather with a constant breeze.

We moved on to nearby Cashmere. The old part of town is preserved and attracts tourists who enjoy the shops and atmosphere.

Cashmere’s  large complex of a museum and pioneer village was open. The mastodons roamed this part of the country. The Indian artifacts part of the museum was off-limits to cameras. Part of the collection was donated by a local collector. The rest came from the Department of the Interior. Well worth a visit. The Indian History is well done with pictures of the various personalities that imprinted this land.

An item I’ve never seen is this Indian throwing stick. Kind of tricky to figure out how it worked from in front of the glass case.

I’m ever picking up pretty rocks and boy do they have them. About four cases of them one with beautiful petrified wood.

Some great western paintings by Walter Graham.

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A room full of stuffed birds. What was engaging about the exhibit is the explanations and drawings of how the feathers work to accomplish, flight, gliding as in the raptors diorama, the upward movement as opposed to the downward movements,etc. Interesting.

In the community exhibits, another item I’d never seen before. A bank’s timed lock and alarm.

The Pioneer Village was made up entirely of log buildings. All are furnished though you can only see the insides through wired barriers. About 30 buildings, all were moved to the site. Nicely done, except for the wire barriers. But,then the buildings were smaller than other villages like this we’ve seen.

It was interesting to me to see the various modes of log construction. This building was a two-story hotel.

The upstairs held three beds, but only two were open to a photo through the wire. All in all, an enjoyable visit.

We camped at an American Legion  next to an apple packing plant. The enormous boxes of apples being trucked to…?  Maybe a train car?  The Legion  wasn’t open.

KOOTENAI FALLS AND BONNERS FERRY

Nine miles west of Libby is the Kootenai Falls and Swinging Bridge.  I appreciated this sign because we have a place in our county referred to as Candy Rock that is popular with young people and there have been tragic drownings. The Corp of engineers dynamited one of the dangerous whirlpools but it still isn’t a safe place to play. A sign like this might be helpful. In fact, this is where the movie River Wild was filmed and where Meryl Streep got washed off the raft and nearly drowned.

Before you get to the river bank, you have to cross this very safe railroad bridge which was one and a half flights of stairs up on this side.

A train was coming while we were on the bridge, so like kids we had to watch it. Hey, a new experience for me. I hope you are chuckling.

We didn’t watch it until it disappeared. (Jim moans that I’ll use up all of our picture bytes before I fly home.)

The down hill path was clean and easy looking, but that soon changed.

At the back of my mind, I’m thinking I’ve got to climb back up. This is my first  big challenge, a mile hike over rough terrain and…steps. Plus, this is a non-pain pill day. I’m on pain pills every other day right now and I know I’m getting stronger.

And there she is. I was expecting one of those bridges with net sides where every step makes you question your judgment. This one is well braced from below and much more stable but still gives a significant bounce.  A sign tells you no more than five people at a time on the bridge. This is a new bridge that replaced the old one lost in a flood. Built by the U.S. Forest service for fire access.

It still bounces a good bit with two people on it. Maybe I’m glad it isn’t the net variety. The chain link sides are pretty comforting.

Over the edges of the bridge I looked for stromatolite formations. Signs about the geology talk about the formations formed in shallow water, but we are so high up you can’t really see them well. This is also a river of “folds” formations that cause great ripples. And, they talk about the various colors of sandstone in the area.

We got off the bridge and walked back to the right fork to the falls. I found one rock with the described formation-a stomatolite.

I did find some pretty colored rocks, like this baby blue and some lavender.

Yellow and pink. I couldn’t help but think how much prettier these rocks would look under water or after a rain instead of on this dusty path. It was a cold morning and I didn’t brink a water bottle.

I spit on a kleenex and swiped the rocks here and there. And it does show how pretty they are but I only had one kleenex in my pocket and Jim thinks I’m nuts anyway.

I don’t have a clue what type of tree this is. I think it may be a peeled one of the tree next to it. I wish it was labeled. What a beauty.

And finally the falls. It looks like we are level with it, but it is down a very steep, rocky cliff from where we are standing.

It falls about 300 feet in a very short distance.

We hiked back to the railroad bridge and on the river side, there are 3 and a half sets of these long flights of stairs to get up. I was committed when I came, so I had to climb them without taking baby steps. A small epiphany for me, I slept well. This morning I feel no pain and I feel stronger. Good portent for the future.

We met some fisher people on the path. They go for kokanee salmon. “Heard they were running.”   I expect that means spawning.

The Kootenai Falls is in Montana and we crossed into Idaho and stopped at Bonners Ferry.

This is a days catch of sturgeon from the Kootenai River. I don’t know if they still exist. One picture showed a record size sturgeon of 315 pounds.

Bonners Ferry was started by E.L. Bonner in 1863. Gold was discovered and a frantic rush of people headed for British Columbia had to cross the river. Bonner was one of them. He noticed the hold-up getting across the river, got the crossing rights, and built a ferry here. After the gold rush, the economy was based on timber. Here a mammoth log drive of 80,000,000 board feet.

The size of the logs, the power of the horses and strength of the men is impressive especially compared with today where there is nothing left of these giant forests but “twigs”. I see trucks all the time with trees of 9-11 inches in diameter coming out of the woods, here and in California where I live,  also a logging area.

Not only the size of the logs, but the danger of riding with such massive logs aimed at your head as on this truck.  Even modern log truck drivers check their chains before going down hill with logs behind their heads. I’ve ridden out of the woods with one of them.

Now, that’s a load. The area thrived not only on its timber, but the Pacific Railroad came through here as well.

This was a wonderful museum.  William Wright’s saw buck pack-saddle, made of wood, from 1896. Wright ran a string of pack horses through “buffalo hump” country and up the Wild Horse Trail. He renamed Mosquito Flats by tearing down the sign and replacing it with one that said Paradise Flats.

This couple is showing off their new car. But, look at the pride in that woman’s face. Isn’t that a hoot?  SHE’s doing the driving.

I recently discovered a gas burning iron. And now a charcoal burning iron.

My mother owned a Ouija board, but, we and she thought it was pretty boring. She tossed it.

Most old clocks have a similar kind of look. This one was different and still chimed.

This museum had a lot of nice things, and good personal people stories. They had a beautiful portrait gallery of the movers and shakers of Bonners Ferry. The huge portraits, at least 100 of them, were accompanied by a biography below it like this:

This way you knew who they were and what they did. C.W. King was the youngest senator to serve in the Idaho Senate.

A woman who rescued her husband from an Indian Tribe bent on execution. You will enjoy this museum, and this community. Bonners Ferry is progressive. They have a farmers market and a brewpub. What more do you need?