Onward to Arizona

We left Mabank on Monday morning and drove to Big Spring, Texas that day.  We stopped overnight in the Walmart there.  There were signs posted saying no overnight parking without permission so I went inside the store and talked to the staff in customer service.  They said it was alright to stay overnight and directed me to park at the side of the store.  It was actually a nice spot.  By morning there were 4 other RV’s around us. 

Tuesday we drove to Horizon City, which is a suburb of El Paso on the east end.  During our stop for lunch I called Quail Ridge RV Resort in Huachuca City, Arizona to see if they had a spot open for us on Wednesday.  Stayed at the Walmart in Horizon City overnight.  This store was very busy so it was a little tough finding a big enough open area for us to pull into.  We managed though and throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening a few other RV’s joined us.  We’ve stayed at this Walmart twice before and we knew it would be a little noisy with busy roads all around us.  Not too bad though overnight.  While in the Walmart we bought a small electric heater that we could use to warm up the MH in the morning instead of using the furnace and propane.  This will come in handy when were in parks with electrical hookups.  For such a small unit it works quite well for our small space.

Wednesday we drove from El Paso Texas through New Mexico and on through Arizona to Quail Ridge.   We arrived about 2:30 and got all setup by 3:00.  We stopped at this park in particular because we knew our friends Bill and Patsy would be here and it would be nice to spend a couple of days with them.  Bill and Patsy were on their way back from Tuscon when we arrived so when they got back they came over to say Hi and stayed for Happy Hour.  It sure was nice to see them and catch up a little.  They are travelling with some friends of theirs, Bob and Jo-Anne. They also came to Happy Hour.  It was nice to meet them.  We made some plans to do some sightseeing with them over the next few days.

Thursday morning we all left the park at about 9:00 to go to Tombstone.  When we arrived we were about the only tourists there.  The streets were practically empty.  This made it nice for picture taking.  Last year when we were here it was quite busy. 

We strolled around for a while chatting and shopping and then we decided to go see the gunfight at the OK Corral.  This is a little drama reenactment of the famous shootout between the Earp Brothers and the McClaury gang.  The acting was a little cheesy but it was fun. 

At lunch time we went to Big Nose Kate’s Saloon for some grub.  The food was quite good and they had some live music as well.  After lunch we did a little more wandering and shopping and Bill and I decided to buy Cowboy hats.  Mine is a brown Stetson.  We began our drive back to the park around 2:00 and agreed to meet up for Happy Hour a little after 3:00.   

Friday morning the 6 of us headed off to Bisbee to go to the Queen Mine tour.  Bisbee is a mining town south of Tombstone, and the road to the town winds through a long canyon and then through a tunnel before ending in another canyon which is Bisbee.  The town at one time had a population of 20,000.  Half of these people worked in mines around Bisbee.  The Queen Mine was the biggest.  The Queen Mine tour is a guided tour and our tour guide was once a miner in Queen Mine until it closed in 1985.  He was very knowledgeable.  We assembled for our tour and had to don safety vests and hard hats and we each had a light.  The lighting in the mine is minimal so the lights would help us see things better.  We all sat on a mine trolley that the miners would have used to enter and exit the mine each day.  We travelled back into the mine about 1500 feet with a few stops on the way.  There was much to see and our guide explain the entire mining process.  There were examples of the various tools used.  What a great tour. 

After the tour we drove into the downtown area of Bisbee and found a place for lunch.  We ate at a place called Bisbee’s Table.  Great food.  After lunch we strolled around and the girls did some shopping along the way.  It was late in the day when we got home so we decided to skip Happy Hour.  After supper Bob and I headed over to the clubhouse to shoot some pool.  Bob is quite a good player and I was very rusty.  I think we played for a couple hours and chatted all the way through.

Saturday morning Bill and Bob and I drove into Tuscon to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum.  This is a huge museum with 100’s of aircraft on display.  Most of the aircraft are military  and they had pretty much everything you could imagine.  Some the aircraft were inside hangars but most were outside.  We toured the main building for a bit and got tickets for a guided tram tour of the outside aircraft.  The outside is very large so this was an easy way to see many aircraft in a short period of time. Some of the more notable aircraft to me were the B-17 and B-29 bombers and SR-71 Blackbird.  There were lots of fighter aircraft and transports as well.  I think the neatest thing about this display is that there were no rope barricades to keep you away from the aircraft.  You could walk up to them and touch them and many of them you could look inside.  You could look up into the bomb bays and look into cockpits.  That was a very enjoyable day. We had our last Happy Hour at Quail Ridge in the afternoon at Bill and Patsy’s site.  

Bill and Patsy and Bob and Jo-Anne headed out Sunday morning around 9:00 am headed for Yuma Lakes RV Resort in Yuma.  Kim and I also left and headed for Yuma.  We had a slight delay though.  When checking the RV tires pressure (a routine I do everyday we travel) I noticed our right side inside rear tire only had a few lbs. of pressure.  That’s not good, so once we were set to leave and after I started up the motorhome I used the air system on the motorhome to add air to my tire.  We’ve had to do this a couple times before.  It seems to be caused by something preventing the valve stem cores from completely sealing and air just slowing leaks out.  Anyway I filled the tire then got the car on the dolly.  I checked the tire one last time before heading off and it was fine.  Sure is nice to have our own air system for these situations.  We made a fuel stop on the way and when we stopped for lunch I called Pilot Knob RV Resort to see if they had a spot for us.  We had a reservation at the park starting the 14th of December but we decided we would just head there early.  They had a spot available.  We arrived at Pilot Knob at about 3:30 and got checked in quickly.  We were able to get the same site we had last year.  We like this spot because it’s on the outside of the park and we have an open view to west.  Now we’re all setup here for a few weeks.

The weather for the next week or so looks great. Lots of sun… temps in the low 70’s F (21or 22 C). Got some lights to put up on the motorhome and probably a little shopping to do. I’ll keep you posted.

7 thoughts on “Onward to Arizona

  1. prichie

    Nice catchup. It is great to be ‘bumpiing’ into you guys again. The more friends we have, the more fun the outings and Happy Hours. 🙂
    See you soon!

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  2. Skay kay

    You boys sure look good in those cowboy hats! Sounds like y’all had a great time together 🙂 Hoping we’ll be able to see you guys this winter sometime!

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  3. From what you wrote and reading Patsy’s blog certainly sounds like you had a good time in staying at Quail Ridge and sight seeing. Always fun to catch up with friends. Nice cowboy hat, “partner” (That is from Tom, he keeps looking for one.) Glad to read the air pressure thing did not delay you to long. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for a Christmas light display on your motorhome.

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    1. We always have a great time with Bill and Patsy and it was nice to meet Bob and Jo-Anne. Tom is just going to have to “cowboy up” and get himself a hat. I spent the day putting up our Christmas lights. Not as big a display as at home but it looks nice. There are lots of sites open here at Pilot Knob in case you want to come in early. Looking forward to seeing you guys!!!

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