Our Kartchner Caverns Stay from October 2019 to July 2020

We’re back!  Yes, we’re back to our blog and now back on the road.  Did you miss us? 

We spent the last nine months at Kartchner Caverns State Park in Southeastern Arizona.  From the moment we arrived, we were busy!  We did our usual jobs – Gatehouse, Portal, Trailing, and Tram – 20 plus hours per week.  We took on new tasks – the Interpretive Desk for me where I told guests about rocks and formations; pelts and skulls and plenty of information about bats.  Doug worked on some computer projects for the Park – a scheduling program, a button training video, and data organization and storage for the Cave Unit.  We continued to close the Big Room one or two nights each week – our favorite job.  I took the Lead Guide course at the end of January and started an intensive period of mentoring.  I was about to be signed off to Lead by myself when things shut down.

My brother Danny and wife Lisa camped in their Roadtrek at our site for 10 days.  We were able to take them into the dark cave and give them a special tour.  We showed them around Benson and the surrounding areas.  We had a great day of wine tasting in Sonoita and Mexican food in Patagonia.  Mostly we just hung out together which was special for us.  Our daughter Amy came for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we loved the time we spent with her and her little dog Selena.  We also got to spend some time with her friend Brodie whom we took on a tour of the Big Room.  Later we went with them to explore the ghost town of Fairbank and a quick trip to Tombstone for ice cream.  I went to the Gem Show, once with my friend Crystal and once with my granddaughter Sarah.  We met up with other friends from Tucson and friends we connected with on the road, enjoying our time catching up.

We helped with Special Events like Halloween and Cave Fest.  We attended every Potluck and party – Jim’s Retirement, Curtis’ Good-Bye, quiche on Pie Day and many more.  Doug came in first place in the Cookie Contest on Christmas Eve. 

With my new friend Jayne, we helped re-organized the attic.  We spent holidays with family and our volunteer friends.  We entertained with lunches and dinners in our RV. We socialized with new and old friends on walks, at movies, in restaurants and at local attractions – finally getting to see the museums at Fort Huachuacha.  We enjoyed many nights of sharing food and conversation at Pink Flamingos.  We went on Dr. Sarah’s Science-y Tour and our minds expanded with new knowledge.  We met with the local Democratic folks.  We went to parties hosted by staff and volunteers who lived in the local area.  We fit in all our doctor, dentist and eyeglass appointments.  Yes, busy!

And then on St. Patrick’s Day, the Cave Tours closed down and we were suddenly sheltering in place with no work to do.  I learned how to sew a mask and made 130 of them – giving them to Rangers, Volunteers, mailing them to family and handing them out to anyone we met without one.

We took the stay at home order very seriously and only ventured out about every ten days to get groceries.  We purchased a small manual washing machine and a tripod clothes dryer.  I began to do all our laundry by hand, avoiding the public laundromat.  To offset the increase in water usage this caused, we started buying gallons of bottled water to drink and cook with.  Within about a week, I was discovering ways to successfully limit the water I used.  I truly enjoyed feeling like a pioneer woman on the prairie as I hung up our laundry in the bright Arizona sun.  I experimented with new recipes and started making loaves of white bread and banana bread in our small crockpot.  I found that I could tip out the finished loaf without touching it, so I made lots of loaves and gave them to our friends and family.  But I completely failed with my sourdough starter.

Doug and I learned to relax.  We started taking afternoon naps. Doug ordered toilet paper, tissues, cleaning wipes and yeast.  We settled in and isolated.

Then Cave Tours resumed on June 1^st.  We learned to be Railers – disinfecting the stainless steel rails in the cave between tours.  We took on the job of Opening the Cave a few days a week too.  We chose not to be in the Cave with strangers, but we felt safe just the two of us in the dark with our headlamps (plus double masks and double gloves).  The Park limited the number of tours and guests, bringing daily totals to no more than 30 people – down from about 250 this time of year.  With the reduced numbers, I continued to take shifts at the Gatehouse and Portal and Doug still drove Tram.  We were always masked and gloved, always distanced, always cautious.

Meanwhile, we had planned to spend this summer at the D.C. Booth Historic Fish Hatchery in Spearfish, South Dakota, doing a volunteer job of interpretation of the historic buildings there.  With a stay at home order and AZ having (at that time) a very low number of COVID-19 cases, we worried about spending our time mingling with the 500,000 bikers expected to be at the 80^th Anniversary of the Sturgis Rally.  We spoke to the Volunteer Coordinator and explained our concerns.  Although we were looking forward to spending the summer in the beautiful Black Hills, we decided to postpone this job.  We stayed in our safe place with the friends and Rangers we love.

Then Arizona’s numbers skyrocketed and the state became a hot bed of virus outbreaks.  We took all possible precautions and continued our careful existence.  On the only two occasions we met with our children and grandchild after the virus hit, we avoided any touches and all wore masks while we spent a few minutes outside together.  It is so hard not to touch our loved ones!  We also learned that the weather in the Black Hills during the early part of the summer was scary – they were plagued with severe thunderstorms, huge hail storms and sometimes tornado warnings.

Given all this information, it was easy to change direction – especially since our daughter Julie told us she was expecting again.  In spite of enjoying our friends at Pizza Nights at the Flamingo get-togethers – where there is plenty of room to sit apart, with each couple having their own box of pizza and keeping our masks on – we made plans to head to the Portland area to be there for the birth of our seventh grandchild.  Doug’s sister and family and his dad are also in that area so we can be with them too – carefully.

We were concerned about traveling.  COVID-19 numbers were spiking all over but we had learned how to be careful.  We planned twelve days on the road, staying one to two nights at each campground.  Then we get to McMinnville, a short drive from Julie, where we spend the first day shopping for groceries and stuff and then complete a 14 day quarantine.  After that, if we are all symptom free, we will feel safe enough to integrate with Julie and her family.  We look forward to days of playing with our darling toddlers and helping all of them to get ready for Baby Beckham in September.

Before we left, we had a few family Zoom meetings.  Doug and I produced a short video for the Park’s website.  We volunteered for some new projects we can work on from a distance:  a staff and volunteer newsletter and the Adopt-A-Bat program.  I organized a small but much needed (for me) protest on the Fourth of July.  Meanwhile, the temperature at the Park was getting hotter and hotter.  After living in Arizona for 18 years, we knew what to expect at this time of year – oven-like heat, a little humidity – often coming with lightning strikes and flash floods, and bugs flying through the air, snakes (lots of rattler sightings) and then just before we left, three tarantula visits – luckily some distance from me but still enough to freak me out.  And then, for sure, it was time to pack up and get on the road.

We are very grateful to Kartchner Caverns for allowing us to stay in place.  We had the full resources of the Park, a caring staff, and lots of friends while we all tried to figure out where life was going to take us.  For over two months, we stayed in our beautiful sites with full hooks up and no fees while we did no work for the Park.  We felt loved and protected and can’t wait to return next October to see how everyone fared and catch up on new processes in the Cave we love.