Pining for the Fjords

Don't forget to read Part 1 ! When last we blogged, we'd arrived at Kartchner Caverns State Park for a weekend camping with buddies, gotten in some exercise, witnessed an astronomical event, and watched a few football games; now, it was time to head into the bowels of the Earth! Let's tour a cavern! Several members of our group had visited Kartchner Caverns in previous years, but this was my first time, and I was totally impressed.  Sure, the natural features inside the cave were incredible, but I was really taken by all of the thought and effort that went into making the Caverns the awesome state park it is today.  The cavern wasn't even found until the mid-1970s, and because its discoverers, Gary Tenen and Randy Tufts (here's the link for the full history ), had so much prior caving experience, they already knew a lot of the do's and don't's of preserving this amazing piece of the state's geology.  For example, instead of stomping all over the pla

Well, hello there, blog buddies!   After all those posts about the summer work from the road trip, it was time to take a break from the web for a little bit (it neatly aligned with the fact that we mainly stayed at home, lounging in the air conditioning, for most of September and October, so there's wasn't much to report).  However, with the turn of the season toward autumn, the temps have lowered slightly (it was still over 100 today, in mid October), and we've started to get out and about again. You know what that means - more content for the blog! Our first fall adventure was a weekend camping getaway to Kartchner Caverns State Park , about three hours from home, near the town of Benson in southeastern Arizona.  After our friends camping trip back in May (up in Prescott) was so successful, we wanted to find another opportunity to get together, and mid-October seemed to work out well; while Amadeo and Christina weren't able to join us on this excursion (they were in