Rainy, Cloudy Saturday

Main Street, Tombstone

Boot Hill

Today was very windy with a mixture of sun, clouds, rain on and off and about 61F. A good day for spending inside, which we did, napping, reading and doing computer stuff. I made chicken cacciatore for dinner and that’s about the extent of our day. I did the usual walks this morning – about 44F.

We signed up for another day here as it looks like Monday will be a nicer day for traveling so we’ll head over to Las Cruces then.

Photos today were taken at Tombstone yesterday.

Tombstone and Boot Hill

Today dawned party cloudy about 40F and windy. Our plan for the day had been to return to Tombstone so we left here shortly after 11:00 a.m. and headed out. It’s about a 35 minute drive from here. First stop was Boot Hill. I took a photo of the sign for posterity and also because my friend, Lynn’s husband was always called Boot (last name Hill of course). Interesting that I should finally get to see the place.

We then headed into town and I looked in all the shops on the main street but didn’t buy anything. Another case of not seeing anything I liked better than my money. Living in an RV doesn’t give you much room for buying knickknacks which is good for the budget.

Gordon had planned to go to the shootout at the OK Corral but as it was clouding up and very windy he decided not to go so we left downtown about 1:30 p.m. Gordon said he was hungry so on the way in to Tombstone I had noticed a restaurant that served breakfast all day so we stopped at The Top of the Hill and had breakfast. Again good breakfast, décor lacking. The building was quite different, the dining area that we were in was actually triangular.

We arrived home just before 3:30 p.m. in time to feed my pooch who was very glad to see us. We had decided to leave him at home so I would be more relaxed about looking around the town. I don’t like leaving him in the truck if it’s sunny even if it’s cool outside. It gets too hot in the truck. I don’t think it bothers the dog as much as it bothers me.

I mentioned when we arrived at this park that there was a motorhome behind us that housed five mastiffs and two adults. Yesterday afternoon the male adult happened to be outside with the female mastiff, so here’s the photo of the dog. I left the car in the background so you could get some idea of her size – 230 lb.!

Since it looks like we’re going to have some less than perfect weather on Sunday, we may stay here an extra few days. It’s supposed to clear up by Wednesday. The forecast is for possible snow at 4500 ft. and our route through the mountains to Las Cruces, NM goes over 4500 ft. so with the wind forecast and possibility of rain/snow, we’ll probably stay put. We have to check with the office to be sure there’s room for us but there are tons of other RV campgrounds around. I’m sure if needed, we could find a space elsewhere in the area.

Today's remaining photos were taken in Tombstone today.

Looks like a typical evening of TV and internet.

Work, Work, Work

Today was mostly cloudy but a little sun peeked through every now and then. It reached about 64F this afternoon but was only 40F when I got up this morning. We’re expecting cloud tomorrow and rain on Saturday and Sunday. We’ll see if that happens.

Gordon left to go to Mescal Studios for a tour for 10:00 a.m. I think I mentioned the other day that it was built as the Old Tucson Studio was too filled with tourists so Mescal only allows tours on certain days and at certain times. Gordon was lucky, he was the only person for the 10:00 a.m. tour.

While he was gone I vacuumed and did dishes. Ever the drudge! I also got the laundry ready and completed that little task this afternoon.

After all my work, I decided I deserved a break today so we went out for dinner at Magaly’s Mexican Restaurant in Benson. The restaurant was full and we had to wait for about 15 minutes. The food was really very good however the restaurant itself was a bit lacking in atmosphere.

Now back home to TV and internet, our usual evening fare!

Today’s photo is one that I took yesterday morning in the park. Very interesting sky.

Local Bisbee Sights

This dog walks around Bisbee with a cat standing on his back. The cat has two white mice on its back. Novel idea for making money!

Open hole mine, Bisbee, AZ

Bisbee, AZ

Our Trip to Bisbee, AZ

Today we headed toward Bisbee, AZ. Neither of us could remember why we were supposed to be going there but knew someone had told us not to miss it. While going through Huachuca City, we stopped to look at a double wide modular home that we had seen yesterday. It was VERY nice and only $109,000 US. Photo is of Gordon sitting on the front verandah.

On our way to Bisbee we were rerouted due to an accident which we later found out was a propane truck that had overturned either in the tunnel at Bisbee or near the tunnel. The report we heard is that they were waiting for it to explode!

We reached Bisbee in a roundabout way and at first couldn’t figure out why this place had been recommended. We drove further and were stopped again by Department of Transport indicating there was an accident ahead and we could not continue on SR80. They let us go through to the Tourist Information and there saw the ‘open pit mine’ (copper). The lady at the Tourist Information recommended that we go in to Old Bisbee.

Bisbee was founded in 1880 and at one time 24,000 people lived there. It is considered one of the best turn of the century towns in Arizona. It is mainly narrow streets and old buildings which are now shops and galleries and expensive! We walked around for a bit and then returned through Sierra Vista as SR80 was still closed and the information I heard in town was that the road would not be opened before tonight. We’ll have to watch local news to see what happened.

It is quite cold and windy today, only reached 52F. When it started raining about 3:45 p.m. it actually looked like ‘sneet’. Only lasted for a few minutes, thank goodness.

With the rain and sun, Gordon went off in search of rainbows. We were hoping to see one on our way back from Bisbee but the conditions just weren’t right. He didn’t have much luck this time either.

On the local news the propane truck was the lead story. Apparently the truck ran off the road and 80 ft down an embankment. It’s too far down for another truck to siphon off the propane so they have hooked up a hose of some sort and directed the propane that they are siphoning off away from the rig and burning it. They figure it will take 18-24 hrs to complete the job. Luckily the driver was not injured. The cab burned but not the tanker, go figure. What luck!

Sierra Vista

Lone Tree at Sunset

Gordon ran out of paper sleeves to house our DVDs yesterday so today after walks and showers we headed into Sierra Vista, about 30 miles away. We were told that Sierra Vista is the closest shopping place. Indeed it does have WalMart (not a Superstore), Target and a small shopping centre with Sears and Dillards as well as a Staples where we were able to purchase the paper sleeves.

On our way, the clouds to the east were very black and it started to rain. It rained all the way to Sierra Vista and most of the way back until we were about 10 miles or so south of our campground. Doesn’t look like this area got much rain at all. In fact when I was in town, one of the ladies in a store said that the town of Benson hadn’t gotten any rain.

After lunch I drove myself into the town of Benson. We didn’t stay at Sierra Vista long enough to do any shopping as the wind had come up and we had to get home to make sure the satellite dish hadn’t taken flight. Benson doesn’t have much – a 99¢ store, a Safeway Grocery, Radio Shack and a Family Dollar. There were some other stores like a Western Wear and various other small stores. I wandered around for a couple of hours, bought a few small items and got home in time to feed my dog, read my book and take a nap.

At sunset we went out and took some photos along SR90 which is the highway that runs by the RV Park. I tried to upload a photo of a lone tree but for some reason the server won't accept it so will have to try another time.

Despite the threat of rain, the temperature today got to a respectable 69F. It was 57F when I got up this morning.

The Grandchildren

L to R-Faith, Caden, Grace
At Caden's 3rd Birthday Party
Thanks to Michelle for sending all the photos.

Grace

Faith

Caden

Lillian

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Moved to Benson, AZ

Today we moved from Tucson to Benson, AZ, only 48.8 miles from the Prince of Tucson to Cochise Terrace. We left about 9:45 a.m. and arrived just after 11:00 a.m., got checked in and set up, went and got showers and then went for a drive to see what was in Benson. Benson is a small town with not much there so headed toward Tombstone, 23 miles away.

While we were setting up camp, we chatted to the guy behind us. He has a huge Newmar motorhome. He was outside with his dog, a two year old mastiff. He said that this one was small only about 180 pounds. Then he told us that they travel with four adult mastiffs and they also have a mastiff puppy. The adults range in size from 180-230 lbs. I can’t imagine! Maybe I’ll have a photo later in the week if they are still here. They are huge animals but very docile. They are from Buffalo, NY and the mastiffs are show dogs. They have such cute faces!

Tombstone is a neat little town, named “the town too tough to die”, very touristy and still has the original western street, wide and unpaved. One of the photos today shows the stagecoach which goes up and down the street and for a small fee, you can have a ride. They also have shootouts every day at 2:00 p.m. I expect we’ll be going back so we can stay longer. It was quite hot 81F and the dog was in the truck so we only stayed about 45 minutes. I expect that Gordon will have a more detailed account on our Nomads News webpage.

When we got back I called my sister who has just returned from Spain. She had called as we were packing up to leave this morning. We had a nice chat. They are leaving for Florida soon and then heading out on an Amazon cruise. What great lives we have!

The other photo for today is of our site at Cochise Terrace. Much nicer and more spacious than Tucson and no smell of sewer gas!

We both thought that we would like Tucson but I found it quite old and dumpy. There were parts that were okay but we were glad to move on. The smell of sewer gas in the campground and the area around was too much sometimes. I think there must have been some industry in the area that was providing the odour. At first I thought it was the RV next to us that didn’t have his sewer hose hooked up properly, but I guess it was just the general area. Glad we weren’t there longer than a week!