7/2/13 - Bisbee, AZ

It came a good rain last night.  We got up and had free waffles and coffee at the RV park.  They were really good.  Before leaving we went back into Willcox and looked at some of the historic buildings.  There was a saloon where Warren Earp was shot to death July 6, 1900.  There was a statue of Rex Allen and the grave of his horse KoKo.  Also, there was a museum for Rex Allen, but it didn’t open until 10 am.

We hooked up and went to Tombstone, Arizona.  We have been to Tombstone before but we stopped again.  We walked along Allen Street and went into lots of the old buildings.  We went into the Bird Cage Theatre and had a beer at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon.  Then we decided to take in the show about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.  Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp along with Doc Holiday had a shoot out with Ike Clanton, Bill Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury.  It was a lot of fun.  We also visited the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper that began in 1880.  After leaving downtown Tombstone we went to Boot Hill.  Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury are buried here.  Some of the grave markers are pretty funny. 

After leaving Boot Hill we drove to Naco, Arizona via Bisbee.  Just outside Bisbee in an open pit copper mine. We stopped at the overlook. We got an RV site in Naco at Turquoise Valley Golf and RV.  This park is about ¼ mile from the Mexican border.  We went down to see the fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico.  We have never seen a border fence before -- we are used to seeing the Rio Grande. 

Jim noticed that Bisbee had a brewery and we drove there.  They were brewing and we went into the brewery to watch.  Paul, the head brewer, knew our friend Leroy from the Foam Rangers and he had been to Houston for one of the Dixie Cup competitions.  After talking to Vic and Paul, we went in and had four of their beers.  Then we went across the street to the St. Elmo bar that has been in operation since 1902.  They have on tap another beer made in Bisbee from Electric Brewing.  We only had one of theirs.  We drove back to Naco and I cooked dinner at the Casita and we sat outside and watched the sunset and the lightning from the East.  Maybe it will rain again tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

7/3/13 - Tucson, AZ

We got almost ½ inch of rain last night.  The nursing home called us at 5:30 this morning and woke us up.  Mom has a UTI and they are starting her on a antibiotic.  We went ahead and got up and made coffee.  We sat outside and looked at our maps.  We decided to leave Naco and go to a couple of  more national sites. 

We drove to Coronado National Memorial. This area is where the Coronado expedition came through on their search for the seven cities of gold in the 1500s. We drove up to Montezuma Pass at 6575’.  We had to drop the Casita at the visitor center.  The drive up to Montezuma Pass is on a narrow, windy, steep road.  Then we walked up a trail to Coronado Peak that was at an elevation of 6864’.  The weather wasn’t too hot so it was a nice hike.  We could see for miles around.  It was right near the Mexico border.   I talked to a couple of border police when we got back to the truck.  They said they were always finding ladders at the border fence.

Then we left and drove to Tumacacori National Monument north of Nogales, Arizona.  This is a Spanish mission which dates back to the 1700s.  We then drove to Tucson and got a site at an RV park we stayed at 7 years ago.  When we checked in they gave us a bag of fresh peaches.  It was 108 degrees while we were unhitching.  After turning on the air conditioner in the Casita we decided to leave and go to Dragoon Brewing, about a mile away.  I took a picture of the head brewer, Eric Green, and the assistant brewer Sean. 

We went to Pizza Hut and ordered a large pizza, and when it was ready they had made a medium.  So they remade it and gave us both of them plus a free order of breadsticks. All for $10.00!  After returning back to the RV park, we moved a picnic table to try to block a light outside the Casita.  I heard a rattlesnake and hollered at Jim to go get a flashlight because I was afraid to move.  It was about 1 ½ feet from where I was standing.  Two men at sites near us heard me and came running.  They took care of the snake.  One couple said they had been here in the park for 9 months and had never seen a rattlesnake.  I will probably dream about snakes tonight.  I still get the chills. 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

7/4/13 - Tucson, AZ

Happy 4^th of July!

I fixed breakfast pizza for us this morning.  I heated up slices of the supreme pizza in the microwave and put on top of them some scrambled eggs.  Jim put some chopped green chilis on top of his that we got in New Mexico.  At 11:30 we went to Nimbus Brewing and tried three of their beers and then went to Walmart.  Jim forgot his swimsuit and he wanted to buy another one.  Walmart had watermelons today for 98 cents each.  Jim wanted one so we got it but I don’t know how we will get it into the fridge after we cut it.  It’s almost as big as the inside of the fridge.   

Around 5:30 we went to the pool.  It was refreshing because it is so hot here.  While we were still wet, we went back to the Casita and cut the watermelon, and we sat outside and ate ¼ of it.  At 7 pm the temperature is still 102 degrees.  I picked up a beer from Stone before we left Houston and we drank it today.  The bottle says "we brew this beer specifically not to last."  It was made to be drunk in a certain time window and it has the specific date on the bottle.  Which happened to be today. 

 

 
 

7/5/13 - Tucson, AZ

We got up really early this morning and went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  It is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden.  It opened at 7:30 and we took the bird walk with a guide.  He walked around with us for an hour and a half and then we walked around on our own.  We stayed for 5 hours.  They have an aviary, hummingbird enclosure, reptile house, aquarium, wolves, tortoises, coatis, javelinas, mountain lions, bobcats, brown bears, and then the desert.  There were lots of beautiful cacti.  The art house had an exhibit by Wil Lala who creates art from aluminum cans.  This is a fantastic museum with most of it outdoors.  They had a cave with exhibits of minerals.  Jim had just come out of the exhibit and I heard them on the walkie talkies shutting down the cave.  There was a rattlesnake inside that Jim had just walked by.  I went inside and watched them wrangle it with a grabber stick and put it in a box to be taken away.  This is the second Western Diamondback Rattlesnake that we have been very near in two days.  We need to get out of this place!

After leaving the museum we drove into the west side of the Saguaro National Park.  In April 2007 we came through Tucson and drove through the east side.  It was really nice early this morning and then the sun came out and it reached 100 degrees around noon.  As we were driving through the National Park, it clouded up and we saw lots of lightning and the temperature dropped to 80 degrees.  This is the coolest it has been in a few days.  We drove back to the Casita to put up the chairs and the outdoor thermometer.  We paid for another day at the RV park and had some lunch.  Jim wanted to visit a few more breweries so we drove to Borderlands Brewing, Thunder Canyon Brewing and Barrio Brewing.  We are going to leave Tucson tomorrow so we went to Fry’s (owned by Kroger) and used our gas points.  Gas was $3.18 and we got 50 cents per gallon off of that.  I bought a few groceries and then we went back to the Casita and had leftover pizza and more watermelon for dinner.

7/6/13 - Why, AZ

We left Tucson this morning and drove to Why, Arizona.  This little town is near Ajo and is near the road that you need to take to go to Pipe Organ Cactus National Monument.  We got an RV site at Hickiwan Trails RV park and unhooked.  There are wild donkeys around the RV park.  When you check in the hosts give you the knob to turn on the water.  They have taken all of the knobs off the water connections because the donkeys have learned to turn them on with their mouths.  We are in the Tohono O’Odham Reservation and next to us is a small casino attached to a gas station.  The park has nice restroom/showers and a laundry.  They have a meeting room where they have get togethers on Thanksgiving, Easter, Mardi Gras, Christmas and New Years Eve.  They do the same kind of thing that the Hillapalooza RV park does on Thanksgiving.  The turkey and dressing is supplied by the park and the campers supply the sides and desserts. 

We left and drove about 30 miles to the national monument then took a 21 mile gravel loop road through the desert.  It was beautiful but hot.  Our thermometer in the Silverado showed 107 degrees.  Then we drove back to the Casita and went inside to get out of the heat and watched CNN about the plane crash.  We had tuna fish sandwiches tonight so we wouldn’t heat the inside of the Casita by cooking.

7/7/13 - Yuma, AZ

When we got up this morning we took our coffee and went down to the watering pool to watch the wild burros.  We talked to the host of the RV park and then got ready to leave.  We headed out for Yuma, Arizona.  On the way we stopped at Dateland where there are lots of date palm trees.  Fred and Mary told us to stop and get a date shake.  It was really good.

After getting an RV site in Yuma we went to the Arizona Territorial Prison.  This prison was opened in 1867 and closed in 1909.   It has a solitary confinement cell that was horrid.  It was called the Dark Cell and was completely dark except for a small hole in the ceiling.  No toilet, no beds and only bread and water to eat.  It was 112 degrees as we were walking around.  At least the museum and the movie were air-conditioned.  We left the prison and went to a bar for a couple of beers.  Then we went to the VFW #1763 for another one.  When we got back to the Casita it was still 90 degrees on the inside with the air-conditioner on, outside it was 114 degrees.  It will finally start to cool off when the sun sets.  Tomorrow we will head out for San Diego -- hopefully it will be cooler near the coast.