TUCSON

 

TUCSON.....

Our home for the month of February was the Valley of the Sun RV Park in Marana, AZ. This is just north of Tucson, actually a suburb. The entrance was narrow and we wondered if we could get in.  We questioned the whole area when we noticed all of the park models (smaller mobile homes) at the front of the park but soon saw the signs which stated that the "larger RV lots were in the back" and to "proceed to the office". Our parking space was large and faced an open field area, away from traffic or other distractions. We soon realized that we had a perfect view of the beautiful evening sunsets.

 

Our first excursion took us to Saguaro National Park (pronounced "suh-wah'-ro") to see the cactus by the same name. This is the iconic cactus you see in all the old western movies with its arms spread upward. Saguaro are slow growing but can grow as tall as 50 feet. They are close to 100 years old before their first arm appears and can live for 200 years. We stopped at the visitor's center, hiked the trails around the center and drove one of the routes through the park hiking up Signal Hill to check out the petroglyphs. We also returned one evening to see the sunset from the park.

Living Way Baptist Church was our church home for the month. It was a very small, mostly older congregation. They sang from the hymn book, all verses of every song.  We loved it. Their welcome time (meet and greet) was at least 5 minutes with everyone coming by to speak to us, and many remembering our names. The pastor spoke with enthusiasm and you knew that he believed what he preached. Although this wasn't the style service we usually attend, we really enjoyed this church and its people and were sad to leave.

We took a drive up Mt Lemmon on the Skyline scenic byway. We passed through five different landscapes:  desert with cacti, rocky no vegetation, grasses, pines (not like we have in East Texas) and snow (8200' elevation). It was 78 degrees at the bottom (2000') but 53 degrees at the ski resort on top. Since the weather continued to stay warm, we weren't surprised to hear that the snow had melted a few days later.

 

Next we went to a RV show. There are many large dealers in the area and some dealer was  having one every weekend. We went into most of the motorhomes and some other units only to decide that ours was the best and especially for the money. There was one top-of-the-line Winnebago that we all liked but........

Tubac Art Festival was calling our name the next weekend, so we headed south. This was truly an art festival as the name said. David and Larry bought new Buffalo leather billfolds made by a man from Minnesota and I bought a wooden barreled stylus made by Sawdust Man from Hemet, CA to use with my iPad. We also went home with soup and dip mixes and kettle corn, of course.



Pima Air and Space Museum, adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, houses the largest private collection of historical aircraft in the US. There is a large outdoor display and five (almost 6) hangers full of aircraft and memorabilia. We opted to take the tram tour of the outside display and were glad we did. The driver was very informative and it saved us a lot of walking. We toured the hangers until we couldn't walk anymore, then called it a day.

The last things we did before leaving Tucson were to attend the La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros or Tucson Rodeo and the parade that preceded it. 

 

 

The parade is said to be the "longest non- motorized" parade in the world.  This is such a big deal in Tucson that schools were out for two days and many businesses were also closed.

The rodeo, in its 91st year, was very exciting and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We left Tucson and headed to Phoenix for March. We'll tell you about that soon.

Arizona ...... Finally!

ARIZONA........FINALLY

After leaving Las Cruces, we crossed over into Arizona. Two observations: 1) there are a lot of Border Patrol check points and 2) all Arizona rest areas are closed.  We have been through many BP check points in car and motorhome.  So far, they have just motioned us on after a quick look at us. Hmmmm. Don't know what that's saying about us. Next, it might not be true that ALL rest areas are closed, but that has been our observation so far. This caused us to have to stop at a truck stop where the pavement was white, hard packed dirt.  Unfortunately, it camouflaged deep holes in said non-pavement. We ran in to one of these holes causing the motorhome to violently sway back and forth, dumping the contents of some of the upper cabinets onto the floor.  Although this scared Larry and Beverly, who were behind us, and left us with accelerated heart rates , no real harm was done. 

Our first stop in Arizona was at Butterfield RV Resort and Observatory in Benson. We were intrigued by the observatory, so we signed up right away for one of the nightly showings. Our volunteer host was very informed. He professed not to be an expert in the field but he seemed to know a lot about the subject and answered all questions that were asked. Each person there was able to look through the telescope at every star, cluster or galaxy that was spotted. It was very interesting. Can't believe this was at an RV Park. 

Another interesting thing at this park was the Ham Radio Shack.  There were several radios and antennas set up to be used by anyone licensed. Since David is a Ham Operator, he spent some time checking out the equipment and listening for traffic on the various bands. 





We weren't far from Tombstone, so we decided to check out the OK Corral.

There were lots of artifacts and photographs from that time period that told the story of Tombstone and the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  We had to check out the reenactment so we made our way to the Corral. The actors were very good and even added some humor to the show. Think there is still a question about who were the good guys and who were the bad. 

Of course we had to check out the food in the area. A worker at the Park told us about the Horse Shoe Cafe. Although we had gone early, we had to wait (outside) for quite awhile to be seated. It was definitely worth it. The food was wonderful country/homestyle fare and large portions. We left stuffed. On another evening we went to Galleano's which was another great restaurant serving large portions of wonderful food. 

It was time to head to Tucson but we will definitely return to Butterfield RV Resort and Benson, Arizona in the future.