School In The Back Country

One thing you can't get away from is school.  Even as a kid in the mining town of Ruby, there was no respite.  It probably kept kids out from under foot for most of the day.  This corner was the original school, built some time around 1916.

Behold ..... the donkey bus.  Many kids were "driven" to school on these donkeys.  I would have loved THAT bus!!  By 1935 with the growth of the mine, came more and more kids, so an addition was attached to this original building.  It's the wooden structure on the right above.

With still more kids coming in to town, one last structure was attached to the original building at the back, providing more space for grades one through eight.

While this room was being built, a huge tent with wooden floor and galvanized roof was put up to accommodate the 150 kids now attending.  

This is inside the original schoolhouse.  Can't you just imagine sitting here wishing you were outside playing in the cistern?

Weirdly, there were still some lockers left next to what looked like three shower rooms.  Do you think they had P.E. way back then?

Here's the best part of the whole affair.  They had the nicest outhouse at the school.  Interestingly enough, I didn't see any evidence of doors.  Yes I looked for a leftover roll of toilet paper just in case I ran short, but none was to be found.

Around the side was this very long slide.  It certainly would not have accommodated an adult, and I think it was fifteen feet tall!!  Now THAT would have been fun!!

There were a couple of weird looking cactus by the school.  I've no idea what this is as I've never seen it before.  Does it not look like a crown of thorns?

And so we were off again, heading up and out of the little valley as the road got narrower and narrower, steeper and steeper.  It's a good thing we didn't run in to traffic because there was no room to pass.

By this time we began to run in to Border Patrol right and left.  I think there were six or seven trucks that went speeding by.  We passed another mobile tower, so I suspect someone was spotted crossing the mountains.  

I think when we started out from Ruby, the sign said 20 miles to the lake.  It felt like 50.

Eventually we spotted several campers way down in the valley.  Social distancing, I'm sure.  We were in the Coronado National Forest and saw evidence of fire rings and places to park.

Just at that second, two young deer scampered across the road.  I almost missed them.  Deer butts!!

At long last, Pena Blanca Lake!!  Yahoo!!!  We survived the gravel road and didn't get robbed or hijacked.  We stopped in for a little lunch, as did several other folks, but all coming from the other direction where the road was paved.

I'll fill you in on that later.  If you're ever in the area, it's a beautiful place to spend some time.  In the meantime, tomorrow I'll show images of the inside of San Xavier Del Bac Mission so Doug can see what he missed when we found the doors were locked.  I hope when he returns next year, he will check it out.