Good day. So another restful night here in Tuscon, AZ. The morning sun rises early into the clear blue sky, yet it is cool at only 2C. I repeated yesterdays walk and then headed to the shower. The shower gets an 8/10 but there are signs that indicate the parks is renovating the comfort stations this summer.
Eggs & bacon for breakfast on the patio before retreating to the van for some reading. I picked up Andy Weir’s book, Artemis when we were at the Space Center Houston and today started reading it.
While I dive into the new book, Barb decides to do something with the Seville oranges we picked by making Marmalade. She had found that we have enough sugar with us for the number of oranges we picked. (BTW, shout-out to my Mom who later in the day after reading yesterdays blog suggested we make marmalade). As you can see below, it looks like it turned out rather well.
Marmalade!
After our lunchtime sandwich we picked a few more grapefruit and then took a walk to return the picker. I captured a few more pictures of the resort to give you a better idea of the place.
Picking grapefruit
Lazy Days RV Resort, Tuscon, AZ
We enjoyed fajita wraps for dinner and settled in for the evening. I finished the book I had started earlier today (highly recommended). That’s four novels completed on this trip. I’m now eyeing up one or two of Barb’s books to read.
Tomorrow we have to move to a new site, so hopefully it’s as nice as this one.
First full day parked in Tuscon. I should have slept in but nooo, I had to be up at 6:00am for no known reason. Ok, time for a walk then. The park is large enough that I walked along every roadway and it totaled a 5km walk. Nice.
Breakfast included fresh grapefruit from a tree next to our site. Yummy!
Handpicked citrus
After breakfast we spent the morning making reservations for the remaining parks on this trip. We are far enough along now that we can say for certain where and when we will be at a given location. This proved a little harder than we have previously experienced as it includes booking sites over the Easter weekend. We had to make a few adjustments and cut out a couple of places we had planned to go because of lack of site availability. The good news is that we now have all of the reservations we need and so can now relax and enjoy the days as they arrive.
Citrus and cactus in the park
Just before lunch we visited the registration office and extended our stay here by one day. We will have to move to another site, but that’s not a big deal. We also borrowed a citrus fruit picker so that we can get a few more grapefruit from higher up in the trees. We also learned that the few oranges we can find are Seville oranges which are NOT sweet. More on that tomorrow.
During lunch we had some new neighbors pull in that have driven here (via Florida) from Burlington, ON. So we had a good chat and loaned them our fruit picker.
As the afternoon got warmer, 29C, we decided a visit to the pool was in order. We floated around for a while and then retreated to our site for strawberry daiquiris and to do some reading.
Barb spotted both a Roadrunner and a Northern Mockingbird on our site. We’ve been watching out for Roadrunners as we drove through the desert only to finally see one at our RV park site in the city.
Roadrunner zipping through our site. Beep Beep.Northern Mockingbird in the citrus tree on our site.
Dinner was grilled steak, mashed potatoes and a salad which like all of our meals here we enjoyed outdoors. The evenings outdoors get cool quickly after the sun goes down and so after a phone call to my parents, we retired into the van for the evening to watch a little TV. I suspect that tomorrow will be a wash, rinse & repeat kind of day. Nice. 🌴😎
Three weeks into this trip and today will be the hottest yet with a forecast high of 28C. Ahh. 😎
To follow on from yesterdays theme of ‘Stranger things’, we awoke this morning to the notification that we had crossed into a new time-zone. Hey! Wait a minute, AZ is in Mountain time, isn’t it? Yes, yes it is… but they do not observe DST and as such in early March they do not turn their clocks ahead thereby effectively moving themselves into the Pacific timezone until October. We are now 3hrs behind our family at home.
Barb rates the showers here a solid 9/10 yet I feel I should remove a point as they decide to clean the restrooms at 10am a full hour before checkout even though the sign on the outside of the building indicates that they clean at 11am. Grumble.
Driving today is split into two parts, the first taking us to Tombstone, AZ and the second to Tuscon, AZ where we will be stopping for 3 nights.
The drive to Tombstone started on the now very familiar I-10W for 30min and just outside of Willcox, over the first mountain range the scenery suddenly changed to be that of a giants rock garden. The rocks (boulders) look as if they simply been strewn about by a group of unruly teenage giants. Of course, they exist as they do because over time the softer rock around them has simply washed away leaving these boulders to rest as they do. Quite a sight.
Southern Arizona
Leaving the I-10W and turning South towards Tombstone we cross ranch land where the road simply cuts through a farmers ranch and entry and exit from the farm is made by crossing a cattle-grate. A smattering of Pecan orchards are still seen but it’s mostly open ranch land before after 30min we arrive in Tombstone.
Tombstone, AZ is most famously known as the site of the ‘gunfight at the OK corral’ but the town, like many in the West had its start in mining when silver and gold were found in the mid 1800s. The town has experienced three massive fires throughout its history and the mines have also been closed multiple times because of flooding. After each catastrophe many have thought it would be the end of Tombstone, but no it lives on earning the nickname “The town that will not die”.
Tombstone, AZ
The town today lives on as a National Historic Site and survives on the tourism industry. It’s kitschy and yet not overly done. Sure we purchased tickets to the live reenactment of the ‘shootout’ that is performed several time a day but the town feels honest. The Main Street is unpacked and has horse rails and the sidewalks are boardwalks under the eaves of the storefronts. There are no modern establishments made to look like they existed in the 1800s, the stores are all small craftspeople outlets making and selling leather goods, jewelry, tobacco. The restaurants are old saloons that now serve food as well as whiskey. We had a great time, and would recommend this for anyone traveling in the area.
Gunfight at the OK Corral
Leaving Tombstone we were required to pass through a US Border Patrol checkpoint (you get used to these down here, even on the interstates) we retraced our steps North, back to the I-10W where we joined the highway into Tuscon. We are staying at the KOA Lazydays RV park at the SouthWest corner of the city. Although busy the site we have is spacious and has a patio and it’s own Orange tree (no oranges, Boo). There are however Grapefruit and Lemon trees about the park that they welcome visitors to pick and enjoy.
Today is planned to be a day of travel as we head into Southern Arizona. Up by 6:30am and out for my walk through a new housing development near the KOA. Total distance of 4.3km with a 79m elevation gain, phew. Nice homes being built here in the southwestern adobe style that is so popular. The development is on a hilltop and has wonderful views across the Rio Grande valley and Las Cruces.
It was while walking that I saw the first unusual thing of the day, a scrap metal roadrunner structure perched on the hilltop adjacent to I-10. No picture taken though.
Breakfast and packing up was the typical routine and we were on the road shortly after 10:00am. We settled into the drive and were again marveling at the starkness of the desert along with the surprise of yellow poppies that grow in the verges along the highway.
Yellow poppies
We stopped in Deming, NM at the Walmart to reprovision as supplies were starting to run a little low.
Leaving Deming we returned to the I-10W where our windshield was struck by a small rock. Damn! A small chip now exists near the middle of the windshield. It does not spread the remainder of the day so will see what happens.
Further along the I-10W closer to the NM/AZ border we passed the continental divide and then ‘Fraggle Rock’. Some of you may recall the children’s TV show in the 1980s of the same name. The rock we saw today is simply a large pile of rocks with the name painted on the side facing the highway.
Fraggle rock
Shortly afterwards we arrived at the NM/AZ border and stopped to have lunch at a rest stop on the south side of the highway. It’s the NM visitor center so we took a picture of the ‘Welcome’ sign as we didn’t pass one when we entered NM a few days ago.
I know, we’re actually leaving the state, but…
The far Western side of NM is prone to dust storms and strong winds. We came upon a couple of these strong gusts accompanied by tumbleweeds. Luckily we were able to avoid hitting any tumbleweeds.
In NM they have many large signs warning of dust storms, zero visibility and actions to take if caught in one. Entering AZ the signs changed to state that the area is prone to blowing dust. Meh.
Dust storm warnings
Welcome to Arizona!
A little further along the highway we pulled off for fuel at the hometown of movie character John Rambo the much anticipated Bowie, AZ. There is a mural of Rambo at the gas station and a picture had to be taken so we are sharing below. There’s nothing else in Bowie that we could see, and I mean nothing.
Besides the desert we were also accompanied all day by Union Pacific trains running on tracks that Paralleled the interstate.
One of many UP trains seen today
Our stopover tonight is the KOA in Willcox, AZ. as this will setup our touring tomorrow. All for today. Good night.
Sleep in the overflow camping area was easy. Peaceful. We were awake early and enjoyed muffins and coffee to start the day. I walked about the campground again and marveled at how rugged the landscape is and the type of person it would have taken to settle on it over 150years ago.
Good morning sunshine.
Packed up, off the site and tanks dumped by shortly after 10:00am. Seems to be our preferred departure time. We headed to the gas station and filled up the van for what today will be a fairly short drive.
Our first and only stop of the day would be at the White Sands National Park. It was only about 30 minutes from Alamogordo and we soon arrived. $25 entrance fee (yikes!) and one road into the sand dunes. It was paved about 2/3s of the way and then we were driving on hard packed sand. We drove back to the primary area where folks seem to go and hike about and found a mostly empty parking area.
White Sands, NM
The dunes are pure white sand, almost appearing to be snow or table salt. It is actually gypsum crystals that have formed from the repeated submerging of the land in sea water and evaporation of that water millions of years ago. The dunes are about 30ft tall and we were free to climb and walk about on them.
White Sands selfie
A common pastime is to bring a toboggan or sled and use the dunes like they are snow. Many people were sliding and taking pictures of themselves frolicking in the sand. Not us. First, we have no sled and 2nd we’ve sledded on real snow. Instead, we took off our sandals and climbed the dunes only to find the sand cold. Yep, the sun was blazing and unlike any beach we had walked on the sand was cold to the touch. We took some pictures and looked about and then returned to the van as the sun was blinding.
Fun with panorama pictures
In fairness people are advised to cover up, apply sunscreen, where dark glasses and drink lots of water. We did not cover up or apply sunscreen but we both wore dark glasses and hats and drank lots of water (the air is really dry in New Mexico). The air temperature was only 17C but the sun was blazing and if we were to be out for more than the hour that we were, sunscreen would have been essential as there’s nowhere to hide.
We stopped briefly at the gift shop on the way out to pick up a pin for in our van and then we were on our way to Las Cruces, NM where we have a spot reserved at the KOA for the night.
White Sands souvenirs.
However, before arriving at our destination we had to cross a mountain range. The highway was really good (albeit an almost dead straight road most of the way) and had a slow lane for the trucks and us on the ascent. The descent went rather quickly and before we knew it we had arrived into Las Cruces.
Our plan was to stop at a Mexican restaurant recommended to us for lunch before going to the park for the night. It being a Sunday and the restaurant being in a historic area with very narrow streets and no parking my stress level went way up as I tried to simply navigate the streets and not hit anything low or higher up like a tree. Not finding an obvious place to park a rig the size of our van in such an environment we drove onwards to the KOA and settled in for the night. It’s a really nice park and our site has split rail fencing and a patch of grass and 2 trees! Maybe we can find a nice place to enjoy lunch tomorrow.
