SKP’s For A Week, Kartchner Caverns…and Guano – Benson, AZ
We’ve finally made it south of Tucson and I have to admit I like it. Something about getting out of the “big city” (I know, my definition of city sizes has shrunk pathetically since my bustling Hong Kong days) and back into the boonies just seems to give me a sense of peace. Not only that but we’ve managed to squeeze our way as guests into the Escapee’s Co-Op here in Benson, AZ. That means we get to rent a lot like one of the locals and play at being SKP’s. The privilege includes a rather cute welcome packet and a special name -> we’re called Cactus Wren’s….at least for a week.
The stay also comes with a bit of socializing, as you would expect. We’ve already had happy hour with several of our friends, Suzy&Jerry -> bloggers we’ve followed on the road, Tom&Jil -> long-term RVers we met in Utah in 2010, and Grant&Kathy -> the lighthouse hosts we met in Oregon last year. We’ve also hosted a full Cuban dinner (Paul cooked up a storm of black beans, rice, ropa vieja and flan, topped off by Mojito’s) and we’ve even forayed out for a night “on the town”. Now Benson isn’t exactly a rockin’ place being a smallish spot of only ~5000 folks (and a fair few retirees), but it does sport a decent Mexican restaurant (Mi Casa) and a very local bar (The Arena). The latter is a hole-in-the-wall kind of place where all 8 regulars turn to gawk at you as you come in and the first words out of the young blond bartender are “you’re not from round here, are you?”. But at $3.50 for the biggest G&T you’ll ever see, how can you not love it?
And really, there’s quite a bit to see and do around here. In fact we completed our very first outing today with a short visit to nearby Kartchner Caverns. Discovered in 1974 these limestone caverns are incredibly well-preserved and contain some rather nice and unique formations including a huge 58-foot tall column, zany Helictites (think crazy brain in calcium), seductive Cave Bacon (self-explanatory), tasty-looking “Turnip” shields that look like…well…turnips, and the fossil remains of an 80,000 year old Shasta Ground Sloth. And they get bats, lots of bats, at least in summer. The bats eat, procreate and shit leaving huge mounds of Bat Guano that in turn support literally dozens of smaller organisms. Fascinating, eh?
Sadly I have no photos of this adventure since cameras are forbidden in the cave (it’s a travesty I know), but Paul and I did manage to collapse & giggle all our way home by thinking up creative ways to use the word “guano”. “Holy Guano, did I really see that?”, “That guy has Guano for brains”, “No Guano, Sherlock!”, “I’m up Guano creek without a bat”, “By jove, pray excuse me as I nip out for a quick Guano”…can you see the genuis? This is a WHOLE marketing angle that Kartchner Caverns has obviously missed out on. I mean think of the T-shirts, magnets…a guano-load of fabulous items.
Oh well, not all can share our demented sense of humor. So in the meantime I leave you with shots of the lovely desert around the SKP park. Perhaps my guano-brain will get back to normal by tomorrow.
NOTE/ For those interested in staying closer to “the action”, Kartchner Caverns State Park has a very nice paw-friendly on-site RV campground with pleasant views of the surrounding mountains plus hiking trails. We would certainly stay there.
“This place is a guano hole.”
“She’s built like a brick guano house.”
I applaud thee…well thunk (and spoke). If anyone could get the humor, I know you gals could 🙂
Nina
I think you may have hit on something with the guano t-shirts!!! I do believe you should pitch your idea to the Cavern. Who knows…maybe the next self made millionaires!!!
Glad you are enjoying your time as SKP’s!!
I know…this may be the next undiscovered gold mine LOL
Nina
Holy guano, my sides hurt from laughing!
I know what you mean…hehe
Nina
Glad to see you all finally made it to our old stomping grounds. Be sure to go have a cold one at BNK (Big Nose Kates) in Tombstone and then a coffee at Bisbee Coffee Roasters … 2 other great little spots in SE AZ.
And the Cochise Museum in Sierra Vista often has displays worth checking out. Its near the library.
Sorry we arent there to down a Mojito with ya but am sure the other SKPs are doing a fine job… give Suzie and Jerry a SKP hug from us.
Cheers for the tips! Both towns are on our list to visit. In fact we’ve even planned to stay in the RV park in Bisbee for a few days just to fully get a feel of the place. We’ll be taking our time in this area!
Nina
We enjoyed the guano…err the caverns ! Paul is now in shorts, it must be getting warmer there. Here is still pretty darn cold.
Yup it’s been lovely and warm these past few days. Hitting upper 70’s and clear sun. Pretty nice!
Nina
Guano happens! I hope you didn’t get as guano faced on your mojitos as you did on my margaritas….. All kidding aside, we look forward to trying them. See you at the cranes! Sue and Dave
LOL good one! No we didn’t get quite as guano faced. Thankfully we only had one. But we do need to work on the recipe. First try was ok, but not perfect. Sadly this will require much personal experimentation and sacrifice over the next week 🙂
Nina
OK< what's an SKP? Or I'm guano wsh you right outta my hair…
It’s Escapees, the RV membership Club. They do a lot of RV related stuff and offer campgrounds, mail forwarding, rallies, groups with common interests etc. they’re a good organization:
http://www.escapees.com/
A lot of Escapees members shorten the name to SKP.
Nina
Okay… what the heck is “ropa vieja”….. if you had fun with guano sayings, I’ve had a lot of fun thinking of eating old clothes!
Haha…it’s a traditional Cuban dish made from flank steak. The flank pulls apart as it cooks and looks ropey…I guess giving the name old clothes. It’s tasty stuff! Here’s a recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cuban-ropa-vieja/
Nina
You are hanging out in one of our favorite areas of Arizona. We owned 40 acres in the Dragoon Mountain Ranch there outside Benson. If you get down around the Tombstone area, Tombstone Territories is a good RV park, very quiet, extra large sites. There are also some boondocking spots and I bet you’ve all ready scoped those out!
Oh how lovely! We’re hoping to boondock out by the Dragoons later this week. And Tombstone is definitely on our plans. In fact we’re going there on a day trip tomorrow.
Nina
Great way to test out being an skp. But it sounds like you already knew everybody. Looks like a neat place to run. I’d like to try out being a ridge runner. I know you’re guano love your stay there!
No guano. We’re really enjoying it here. Actually this area is far more scenic and has more going on than I originally imagined.
Nina
Did you enjoy the caves as well as those at Carlsbad? We will be taking a tour there next week. Glad to see the desert coming alive with wildflowers. Spring is on the way!
I’ll be honest I liked Carlsbad better for the fact that you could do a self-guided tour (we loved that) and they allowed cameras. Also Carlsbad is just so enormous. That said our tour here was very good and we saw a few formations that I hadn’t seen other places. I think you’ll enjoy it. The RV camping is also pretty nice in the park.
Nina
Thanks for the low-down on abbreviations~I’m guano look them up! Keep having fun!!
We haven’t made it to Kartchner Caverns yet, but we did find a wonderful cavern in Sonora Texas. Caverns of Sonora, just 12-15 miles south of I-10 it has a beautiful campground too. The thing about Sonoran Caverns is the way you feel like you are walking through a geode! Very intimate and personal because it is so small. These caverns and campground are privately owned and operated. Because every feature is within touch of your hand, they only offer small group tours. We will be visiting Kartchner Caverns soon and that’s no guano!
Nice. We did Jewel Cave up in SD several years ago, and although it’s a huge cave the tour route has many smaller/narrower passages that get you close to all the formations and give an intimate feel to the whole thing. Kartchner Caverns definitely has a more open/wide feel to it. You won’t be as close to everything here, but you’ll get nice expansive views.
Nina
“No guano Sherlock!!!” “You’re in deep guano, Molly!!!” I love it, thank you!! Needed that after a long day!
Glad I could give ya a smile 🙂
Nina
Black beans and rice, ropa vieja, and flan- good stuff! Although I like tres leches more than Ilike flan. Of course, here in S Fl we have no shortage of good Cuban food. Funny thing, we bought an rv lot in N Ga mountains and there is a Cuban restaurant in the small town nearby that is run by a family from S Fl. Their restaurant is busy all the time. Additionally, there’s a second Cuban restaurant in town run by a family from Ybor City that puts a slightly different spin on the food. Lucky us!
Wow…TWO cuban restaurants in N.GA…who would’ve thunk? I love good Cuban food. Great comfort eating, and I’m lucky to have a man who makes it for me 🙂
Nina
Jerry and I LOVED the Escapees park in Benson! Had we known how great the trail running and hiking was, we would have stayed there longer. Since we are Arizonans, I always used to pull my nose up at Benson, but not anymore :)! Glad you guys liked it too!
We’re liking the park waaay more than we thought we would too. Especially thanks to the surrounding trails & hiking.
Nina
It is Guano be sad when you pull up stakes here…but we will have to guano and bare it….It has been fun….
You’ll have to bear with us a little longer, I’m afraid, given the big storm coming in this week-end. But we sure are enjoying it.
Nina
Do you remember that old Beatles song “I Guano Hold Your Hand”?
Oh yeah…EXACTLY like the Old Beatles songs…who knew they were Chiropterists on the side? 🙂
Nina