Tucson and Carlsbad

Hello from Gulfport, Mississippi. We're on our way to Florida, but first I want to tell you about our excursions after we left Mesa, Arizona.

Our first stop was Tucson, where we stayed only three nights. It was actually Benson, about fifty miles east of Tucson, which was the closest RPI park we could find to the Tucson area. We arrived Sunday afternoon (the 2nd) and settled in. On Monday, Mark had an appointment to visit the "Bone Yard" at the Pima Air & Space Museum. Not being the least bit interested in looking at a bunch of old planes, I opted to stay home and hang out with my crocheting projects. Here are some pictures from that adventure...

Navy planes

Viet Nam era Huey

More old planes

Jet fighters outside the museum

More of the same

50's era cargo/transport planes

Bone yard - B52 missing two engines

Air Force B1 bomber

One of two YC14 experimental planes (C130s in the background)

Tuesday, in spite of the very chilly weather, we drove in to Tucson to visit the Old Tucson Studios. Being in the middle of the week during the school year on a cold day, we figured it would probably not be too crowded. We were right! The place was practically empty. But most of the interesting stuff was still going on. We saw a showgirl "talent show" that was fun, sat in on a talk about how to differentiate and draw in customers to your bar in an old west town full of bars, and saw a reenactment of an old TV movie about a nun who comes to town with a bunch of children to set up an orphanage in an old church, and the trouble she runs into. Of course, the good guy saves the day in the end and runs the villains out of town. It was a very fun day and worth the forty-some dollars we paid to get the both of us in.

From the "Little House on the Prairie" TV show

Our actors from the re-enactment

Remember the High Chaparral? (eons ago)

The "river" that runs through town

Tough western lady leading a walking tour

How to get folks to come into your bar

Beautiful desert scenery

A ride on the train

Our next stop was Carlsbad Caverns. That place has been on my bucket list since I was a teenager. Finally made it...and can't wait to go back again. What an amazing place. Pictures cannot capture the magnificent beauty lurking in the dark underground-- mainly because there weren't enough lights. My camera did an okay job where it was lit up, but in the dim light, all I ended up with are orange shadowy shots not worth posting. Here are a few...

Underground pool

One of many lighted "grottos"

Fascinating formations

Walkway down to the natural opening

Ominous cavern entrance

We thought about making the hike down through the natural opening and taking the elevator back up. In retrospect, I wish we had, but at the moment, twoish miles overall seemed far. We decided to take the elevator down as well to shorten the walk a bit. God willing there's a next time, I will definitely take the walk down. After all (at least for me) going down is always a breeze compared to climbing up, and hopefully I'll be in a little better shape by then.

One of our concerns about Carlsbad was campsite availability. We were pleased to find there were a few BLM camping options, and since we would be there only one night, dry camping was not an issue. We found a very large BLM lot just a few miles away where we spent the night before. Then the next day, we drove the rig right up to the Caverns and parked in their parking lot, where there was plenty of space. Another pleasant surprise was that our National Park Senior Pass got us in for free! (Great investment.)

BLM near Carlsbad Caverns

Since then we have been hopping and skipping across the country on our way to Florida, drycamping one or two days in a row, then stopping at an RV park for two or three days to rest up, shower, wash clothes, etc. Next week we'll be in the Florida panhandle and then we'll be two weeks in Pompano Beach, where I hope with all my heart to finally find some warm weather.

Until next time, God Bless and safe travels to all!


More Carlsbad pics...

The old caveman and his wife

How would you like to explore that gaping black hold from this ladder???

Faces lurking everywhere

Not really bottomless, but it looks that way from the top.

We Finally Made it to Quartzsite!

About 55 coaches gathered for this year's rally

January came and went, and here it is February already. It was a busy start to the year. We left Palm Springs and headed to Quartzsite, Arizona, on the 17th for the annual Alfa Roadrunner Rally. "Alfa Roadrunners" is a club for owners of Alfa motorhomes. The very first year we owned our Alfa, we made the acquaintance of some Alfa Roadrunner members and they persuaded us to join the club. We have been planning to attend their annual Quartzsite rally ever since, but have been sidelined twice so far from one thing or another.

Running concurrently with the Roadrunner rally is the big annual RV Show at Quartzsite that draws RVs from all over the country in the thousands. The whole area turns into one big RV campground due to the wide open spaces of free or cheap BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. Venders of all sorts gather in the Big Tent and you can buy all kinds of things you might need for your RV along with a boat load of stuff you probably don't need. We did a little of each.

The highlight, however, was the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of fellow Roadrunners, some for the very first time in the two years we've been members. 

The rally started out with a delicious dinner to welcome newcomers and old-timers alike. There was a social hour gathered around a blazing campfire every evening with either a potluck dinner or potluck appetizers. We arrived with full tanks of fuel and fresh water, and empty waste water tanks, and managed to dry-camp for ten full days with only one pump-out. I never thought I'd be able to do that!

Mark got some help with our batteries from our club tech guru, Dale Pritchard. What he did, with Dale's advice and assistance, was to connect the coach batteries to the inverter batteries. This change provides better power management. When we're disconnected from shore power, our inverter lasts longer before we need to start the generator to charge up the batteries. Then when we do charge up, it takes much less time to complete the charging process. 

We also finally purchased a flagpole so we can fly the flag when we're parked. That's been on our list for a while. 

On one of the days, we took a drive with some of our Roadrunner friends out to the Desert Bar , which I'm told is fairly famous--at least in the area. It's located out in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a winding rocky dirt road. It took us an hour to get there. I was picturing a little shack of a place, but was I ever wrong. It is a bar and grill that serves drinks, burgers, pizza, and such, along with live music entertainment. They have three full levels of seating that can accommodate hundreds of people -- and the place was packed out. We had trouble finding a spot to park. Word to the wise-- if you ever decide to go there, don't attempt the drive in a delicate car.

On one evening, some of us who were interested, gathered away from the camp a bit to do some star-gazing. One of our members was somewhat knowledgeable about the subject and, with the help of his laser pointer, identified many of the stars and constellations that the rest of us might have heard of but couldn't locate if our lives depended on it.

Probably the most beneficial part of the big tent experience was that we discovered (from talking to an RV roof company) that our RV insurance would cover a roof replacement because of the damage from the tree limb back in September. (You can read about it here.) We never considered the possibility that insurance would cover that kind of and accident. But we called them, and after a brief visit from an adjuster, they approved the claim right away and put a check in the mail to us. We have already lined up a place to do the work when we get to Florida.

After Quartzsite, we headed to Mesa, Arizona, where we camped for a week at a very nice Encore park. While there, we connected with Mark's niece, Becky, and her husband Ty. We also spent an afternoon with my good friend Jenny and her husband Troy. 

Troy, Jenny, Me, Mark

Other than that, I mostly just caught up on the laundry, which had piled up a little over the previous couple weeks. Our one excursion was to the Barleens Dinner Show in the Apache Junction area. It was great fun. The show we saw was country music, but they also do rock & roll, jazz, and variety shows. This establishment is run by the same family that does the Cody Cattle Company dinner show, which we saw when we were there a couple years ago. These folks are incredibly talented entertainers and we highly recommend the event if you're ever in the Phoenix or Cody, Wyoming, areas.

Our next stops are Tucson and Carlsbad Caverns. Until then, happy trails & safe travels!