Monday, November 6, 2017

We needed a slower day today to rest up after our hike yesterday and our anticipated hike tomorrow.  We had a few geo-caches to find around here, so we did that, and was hoping to find an apple orchard open yet.  It seems like we missed it by a week.  The apples were early this year, and they usually run through November.  The Briggs and Eggers Orchard told us that they supply the Sprouts Stores, plus the local stores, and they said they met their demands.  The other orchard was done on Oct. 31st, but they still make pies for Apple Annies, an outlet here in Willcox.  One can go get a fresh home made piece of pie there plus a lot of other stuff! We didn't go there!

Jim had the camera today!  If you want to look small, sit in a big chair.  Confucius didn't say that! I did!  We were disappointed that we couldn't get any apples, but we got a good laugh out of it.

We were north of Willcox looking for a geo-cache, and this street sign was on our way.  Are we in the Old West?  This truly, is still the Old West.  We met this 'young lady' in the visitor center and she gave us some information about her grandfather, when he was 6 years old and his sister was 10.  Their parents homesteaded near here, and they were doing a menial job in the root cellar for their mom, when they heard the raid on their place.  Everyone was killed, but those two young children, as the killers didn't know they were there.  They witnessed people dressed in Indian clothing, but wearing cowboy boots, and Indian blankets thrown over saddles.  No one believed them, until years later it was founded to be true.  They were to be sent to an orphanage out east, but they didn't want to go, so they ran away with the Apaches and lived with them for 10 years in the Superstition Mountains, near where the Lost Dutchmen's gold is supposedly hidden.  We hike in the Superstition Mountains, when we get to Apache Junction, so we found this an interesting story. We thought this storyteller was well into her 80's and in the printed story that she gave us, it states that she was born in 1941.  One year after me!  OMG!  We just continue to find things out about this area, and we so enjoy it!

 We drove south of Willcox to the outskirts of town, and to the viewing area, where we see many ducks, and we spotted about 50 Sandhill Cranes, that have come back here for the Winter.  More will be arriving, as the cold weather has set in back home.  In February, they hold 'Wings Over Willcox' to celebrate the cranes coming to this area.