Granite Mountain Hotshots

October 23, 2024 – Day 13

Point of Rocks Campground, Prescott AZ

In the morning we called CoachNet, the RV “AAA” to find us a mobile RV tech in the Phoenix area. They called back in about half an hour, but since Verizon changed Paul’s number temporarily last night, Paul’s phone didn’t have the correct number, and that created all kinds of confusion. But it all worked out and we have a mechanic coming out on the 29th.

Then back to the Verizon store and 50 minutes later his phone was working properly. The Verizon agent recommended a Hawaiian BBQ for lunch. It was good, but not great.

(susan here: I’m downvoting it because the shrimps didn’t look like shrimp. And I ate part of one. Let’s just say shrimp and I are not friends. I felt lucky to get off with just a numb tongue. But when I walked up to the counter and asked “What’s this?” and they replied “Shrimp” and I said “I can’t have that” they got concerned real fast. And got a paper towel to get it out of my hand. I’m also downvoting it because it wasn’t even good in my book. Perhaps our cell phone rep set expectations too high. Or not.)

Next up was walking the downtown, historic, district of Prescott. They had the usual cool old buildings.

And a town green surrounding the courthouse.

This statue, in front of the courthouse, memorialized the Granite Mountain Hotshots.

The Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshots (“GMHS”) was a Prescott-based Type I Interagency Hotshot Crew, an elite group of wildland firefighters dedicated to protecting communities, critical infrastructure, and natural resources.

When not fighting wildfires, they treated hundreds of acres of land throughout the greater Prescott area to reduce fire-prone vegetation and helped create “defensible space” to protect areas in and around Prescott.

On June 30, 2013, 19 members of the GMHS crew lost their lives when the Yarnell Hill Fire they were battling overran them. It is the deadliest wildland fire in the history of Arizona. Less than two weeks earlier, the GMHS crew was an integral part of protecting the Williamson Valley area north of Prescott from the “Doce Fire” and, in the process, saved one of Arizona’s largest landmark trees, an alligator juniper estimated to be over 1,000 years old located near Granite Mountain.

Their proud motto was “Esse Quam Videri”; translation – “To be, rather than to seem”

Next up was some day drinking at the bar in The Palace Restaurant and Saloon. The Palace had its staff all wearing period costumes and of course wearing 6-shooters. We had a drink each to just to say we’d done it.

The Palace Restaurant and Saloon is both the oldest business and oldest bar operating in the state of Arizona, United States. Located on historic Whiskey Row in Prescott, the saloon was opened in 1877, and rebuilt in 1901 after a disastrous fire swept the district in 1900. It is considered one of the most historic bars in the state.

All of Whiskey Row was pretty touristy, but we’re used to that, having lived in Provincetown. We did go into a gallery of sorts where various kinds of artworks from jewelry to oil paintings to fiber arts were on display and for sale. Susan bought a few things that included a necklace and earrings to compliment her outfit for Anastasia’s & John’s wedding. So after one lap of downtown we called it done and headed out in the Jeep to explore Prescott National Forest.

Paul found a mountain top lookout. We both thought that that would be a good destination. Except we couldn’t get all the way to the top.

We think this is a single leaf piñon.

We wondered what these folks’ view was like.

Not too shabby!

We then drove south on Route 89, which was one possible route to Phoenix except Susan had read that it was not recommended for RVs. We could have made it, the length limit was 40′, but it would have been spooky in spots. (susan here: After riding a good stretch of that road in the jeep, we realized that our decision to take I-17 was probably one of our better decisions of the trip.)

We’ve been tired the last view days, too tired to even defrost and heat up the lovely dinners Paul had made back in Keene. We’ll chalk that up to time zone changes, elevation changes and dehydration (the air is so dry here that we’re constantly taking in water but it’s never quite enough). We broke into the emergency rations, some frozen pizza that would actually fit in the small oven. Let’s just say it wasn’t the worst pizza we’ve had. (See Gas Station Pizza.)

We’ve been trying to see comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) ever since it passed perihelion on September 27, but has been cloudy, or we’ve been too lazy (tired), or both. We figured this was our last chance. Once in Phoenix we knew the mountains to the west of us would probably block it from view. It was dimming day by day was no longer visible to the naked eye. But it was easily seen with binoculars. And of course the iPhone took amazing photos.

Its just incredible that a phone can take these pictures.