Cochise Stronghold

Brian goes to Willcox's Chase almost every Thursday to service his clients there. Since the girls had spring break and none of us had ever been to Willcox (other then passing through) we thought we would spend the day and see whats there. So the girls and I dropped Brian off at the branch and went off to have our fun.

Well there is nothing there the girls liked. First we went to the Rex Allen museum. Rex Allen was way before my girls time and they didn't care much to look at a gillion photos of some guy. They did think his sparkly cowboy clothes were crazy though, like Elvis.

We then walked the old downtown main street. That lasted 5 minutes. What to do now?

I drove around town which is not an easy thing to do because none of the streets go straight. I don't understand that because the ground is flat, we didn't need to go around a hill or over a wash. I found the old apartment buildings Brian's grandfather almost sold to us years ago. Very glad he didn't. It was nice to remember him, being that he died 8 years ago tomorrow.

It was getting lunch time so we picked Brian up and went to eat in the train car restaurant. The train car was narrow and so there wasn't a table wide enough to fit the whole family. Brian and I sat on one table and the girls on another. I thought this would be trouble but, the girls sat there politely waiting for their food and then they ate lunch without us having to tell them to stop playing.

The girls and I dropped Brian back off at the branch and we headed to Cochise Stronghold. Now, I am very familiar with Cochise Stronghold on the west side because it is close to where I grew up. I have been to the east side too but don't remember how we got there or which roads to take, I was young. So I found a VAGUE map on the internet and said what the heck, we will figure it out. I did get us there but not the fastest way. I turned down a dirt road to get there and came back on a paved road. Actually, I didn't remember being to Cochise Stronghold on this side until I was driving down the dirt road and I remember things I thought I had seen before. Then I saw more things I recalled. So I'm just figuring I have been there before.

Because I was in the little car the girls and I couldn't go down any of the side dirt roads. That was fine with us. We went a few miles back on the dirt road and ran across a small stream.

The girls had fun playing in the water. They enjoyed taking off their shoes and cooling off.

Look where we are, the middle of nowhere.

We were having a good time playing in the stream until this guy shows up.

What's the deal with him? As soon as he parked there and turned off the car I was done. I got the kids in the car pronto. I took this picture of the guy with the camera sitting in my arms while I gathered up the kids shoes. (that's why it's crooked) What a creep! You have miles and miles of back road and other streams, but you have to park where there is a mother and her kids playing in the middle of nowhere? I wonder what he wanted or was thinking?

Next time I go off-roading I want to take a gun with me. If a weirdo shows up I will still leave asap but it would be nice to have that extra protection.