MAY 4TH, 2022

It’s May the Fourth be with You Day – our day to get on the road and we are hoping for good energy forces to travel with us. “Life Is A Highway” and although we won’t be riding it all night long, we are excited to be in the travelling mode again.

Today we left Kartchner Caverns heading towards our next volunteer job in Hells Gate State Park, Lewiston, Idaho. We will travel at our favorite speed – slow.

Our season at Kartchner was especially busy this year. I jumped right in doing both tours while Doug trailed and drove tram. Then Doug took the Lead Guide course and was signed off on the Rotunda/Throne Room Tour. This was a bit of a surprise since he has always said he didn’t want to lead tours. As it turns out, Doug is an excellent guide and enjoys his tours.

I took a two week break from Kartchner in January to fly to Julie in Colfax, WA where she had broken a rib shoveling snow. I loved my special time with this energetic and loving family, even though the weather was cold and snowy.

I feel like I did more cooking than ever. I made baskets of biscotti at Christmas and experimented with many new recipes for appetizers. My little propane oven got a little harder to light the pilot but otherwise kept up with hours and hours of baking. I conquered the uneven bake with a ceramic tile, and I no longer burn my creations. I still count on my small crock pot for recipes like chicken cacciatore, meatballs and Thai chicken. I’d like to get back to bread baking – the only problem with that is we eat every crumb of every loaf (often smeared with lots of butter). I don’t cook much while we travel so this is a much-needed break.

Speaking of Christmas, we received a special gift from Amy and Julie which was a labor of love. For Christmas of 2020 we had received an assignment from them – for the next 45 weeks we would be writing the story of our life. Each week we received a writing prompt about some aspect of our life. We were then to write a brief story about it – perhaps what high school was like or what was our favorite vacation. Of course, we did this separately and we did not share our stories with each other. Once we finished (in November), Julie and Amy went to work editing, assembling, and illustrating what turned into a book. We thoroughly reading each other’s stories!

This year Ranger Nancy instituted Movie Nights. We all hung out together watching classics like Pirates of the Caribbean, Ghost Busters, Rocky Horror and Jurassic Park. Rangers and Volunteers shared a meal and a movie giving us even more time to socialize.

Doug and I had some great outings with family and friends. Lunches and dinners with Amy and Brodie (and we loved meeting his mother, Cindy), Josh, Liz and Sawyer, Sarah and Ann, Crystal and Sally, Kim and Steve, Jean and Bob, Rocky and Chris, and Terri and Bill. We said farewell to our friend Jase (Crystal’s husband) at his peaceful and loving memorial service.

The Gem Show with Sarah was a lot of fun this year after not being able to go the last two years. We are already planning our visit next year. We never buy much but we touch all the pretty rocks and talk and talk the whole day. We have to find something better to eat next year than the greasy curly fries!

Picking up Bob from his medical treatments in Sierra Vista on Mondays gave us time to share stories and enjoy his company during the drive.

There is always some project or event at Kartchner and this year we participated in two days of crafts at Cave Fest and a busy day doing outreach at Tucson Festival of Books. I won first place in the Pi Day Contest with a Key Lime Cheesecake Pie (by the way, thanks, Carol Mueller, for this yummy recipe!).

We enjoyed a community theater play called “Rumors” with Ranger Jake in a starring role. We went to two weddings! Our Ranger friends are falling in love and getting married, and we were thrilled and honored to have been witness to both of these loving ceremonies.

The furthest we ventured was to Biosphere 2; we had a picnic in Patagonia and tried for the first time and loved a Mexican restaurant in Benson – Mi Casa.

We took a road trip with Amy and Josh to nearby Texas Canyon and also explored the Amerind Foundation museum in Dragoon.

We socialized at many Flamingos – gathering at night, together, sharing stories of our tours and adventures, getting to know some new Rangers and Volunteers. This is what makes this lifestyle so rich and rewarding. This year, in spite of a long cold winter and way too much wind, we met and flamingled almost every week. With high winds, we rarely enjoyed a campfire, but hats, gloves, warm jackets and blankets made sitting outside together tolerable. We love each and every one of these remarkable people we call our friends.

We added something new to our list of volunteer experiences. Doug and I initiated a Nature at Night program on weekend nights in the Amphitheater in March and April. The Bat Talk drew in more folks, but the Campfire Safety with Smokey Bear had decent attendance also. With lots of help, this program is now entrenched and will continue over the summer. We’ll pick it up next fall when we return. We shared safe campfire practices and dispelled myths about bats to over 230 campers.

After almost a year of facilitating the Adopt A Bat Program, it is now in the hands of very competent Ranger. I will miss my daily checks to see the new subscriptions and make sure they all got their Welcome Email, Adoption Certificate and monthly email. The program by any measure is a success – over 840 subscriptions, from 43 States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia, South America and America Samoa. I am most proud of the many classrooms that are adopting bats and learning about them.

I spent time revising and improving my tours. I love meeting my groups on the patio and getting them excited about seeing our beautiful caves. Once in the cave, their oohs, aahs, and wows make my day. I love the underground beauty Mother Nature has created and hidden inside the Earth and I never get tired of admiring Her artwork.

In December, Doug started mentoring in the Rotunda/Throne Room and was signed off as a Lead Guide in January. Since then, he has led many tours and enjoys taking people through the cave. Because he is now a guide, he does not get scheduled to drive the tram much anymore. He make take the class to lead tours on the other side of the cave when we come back later in the year.

We were excited to go on a staff and volunteer’s photo tour in the Big Room cave. We took lots of pictures and had a great time with all of our friends. Thanks to Ranger Nancy for organizing it!

We expect to return here in October. We are hoping for better weather next season. This year was so cold, rainy and windy that we never just sat outside. We miss the warm sunny days we usually experience in Southwest Arizona in the winter months.

This year our schedule was great. We worked full days on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. We worked hard – usually three tours a day plus our extra duties of opening the cave on Tuesdays and closing the cave on Thursdays. We came home exhausted but grateful that we can still do this.

Our tours are either 1 hour and 20 minutes or 1 hour and 40 minutes. I estimate I did over 200 tours this season. This year due to staffing issues, we usually were alone on the tours without the benefit of a trailer. We are responsible for up to 20 people on each tour. Often being responsible means dealing with emergencies. Doug had a young girl faint and we both had to escort guests out of the cave for other issues. Each tour is only a ½ mile walk but includes inclines, and we are talking for almost all of the tour. So, we are proud our brains remember the information and we can still think on our feet and field dozens of questions each day. And while we are tired after a day of Cave Tours, we love that we can still do something we enjoy that is so physical.

As I write this driving down I-10 towards our first stop at Gila Bend, I take a long wistful look at the mountains we pass. I know the vision of the bare rock of these limestone and granite hills and the dry yellow grass spotted with bursage, acacia and mesquite will change in a few days.

We look forward to new adventures on our journey this summer but coming back to this high desert scenery always feels like we are “Homeward Bound”.