Old Tucson and change of plans

On Friday Kirk and I went to Old Tucson, which has been the desert filming location for many (over 100) western movies and TV shows since 1939.  It is a replica western town and includes many buildings along with some fun live shows and things to do, including a museum that had displays from the many movies and shows filmed there.  We saw a "medicine show" which was funny, a dancing girls show in the "hotel", rode the miniature railroad and a stage coach, had BBQ for lunch which was pricey and not that great.  We also toured the "haunted" mine and shot some stuff in the shooting gallery.  There were quite a few people there, including some groups of kids (school was out Thursday and Friday for the rodeo parade and rodeo).  We spent over 4 hours there and had a good time.  Joe and Nancy were busy looking at fifth wheel campers while we did this.  They ended up buying one on Saturday so we will be staying here a few more days until they can pick it up on Wednesday. Then we will head to Elephant Butte Lake in New Mexico until the end of March.  We had planned on going to the Grand Canyon yesterday but they had over 2 feet of snow so we postponed that trip until the end of March.

Legendary locomotive used in many movies

High Chaparral Ranch site

Help! I need mercy!!

Tombstone AZ and OK Corral

We've had a busy week starting with going to Tombstone on Monday (about 90 minutes southeast of here).  I wasn't too excited about it but Kirk really wanted to go. We hired a girl from the park to walk the dogs while we were gone.  On the way we drove through a campground in St. David but it was an ownership park.  Nancy and I were not impressed but the guys thought it was OK.  When we got to Tombstone we stopped at the Boot Hill Cemetery which was very interesting. The years of 1881 and 1882 were good for the undertaker.  Most of the wooden grave markers were replicas of the originals and they usually said the cause of death on them (shot, hung, murdered, suicide, etc.).  All of the graves were covered with a pile of rocks, just like you see in the movies.

Then we went downtown to see the OK Corral.  For $10 each we got to see the recreation of the famous gunfight between the good guys (Wyatt and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday) and the cowboys.  It was a good show. We also got a free newspaper from that day from "The Epitaph."  Had lunch at the Crystal Palace Saloon which had a replica of the original 60 foot bar that burned in one of the two fires in town.  We walked around town for awhile, it's mostly gift shops of course but still looks pretty original.  The old county courthouse was a museum that had a lot of interesting artifacts from mining, cowboys, Indians, etc.  We took the scenic route home.

Tucson Rodeo

Today we went to the first day of the 10 day Tucson Fiesta de los Vaqueros (Rodeo).  It was a beautiful sunny warm day (as most are).  We got there early for the 4-7 year old "mutton busters" which is little tykes trying to ride on the back of a sheep by hanging on to their wool.  Quite fun!  Then came the junior rodeo which had competitors in events such as Barrel Racing, and Calf Roping.  The real rodeo had cowboys and girls from many different states and even Canada.  It was so warm out that Kirk and I decided to buy cowboy hats to protect our heads from the sun.  I think Kirk looks better in his hat! After we got back we celebrated the day with some tasty margaritas and home-made pizza.  Found out that the oven does work if you use the air bake cookie sheet (our first try at pizza was a terrible burnt mess!)
Still having trouble with the AC, but at least we got an appointment for Tuesday so we have to break camp and take it back to Camping World for another look.  Hopefully they will find something this time and fix it! We know it isn't working but they don't seem to believe us.  Kirk talked to the people at Keystone and they said that the 15000 BTU unit should have no trouble with the size of camper we have.  Let's hope we can get it taken care of as we are planning to leave on Friday.
By the way, we both won a game of bingo on Thursday night.  More laundry money!!

Desert Museum in Tucson

On President's Day Monday we went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  It is a huge place, containing many trails with desert plants along with displays of real desert animals.  We spent at least 4 hours there.  It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, but it was quite crowded since schools were out today.  Should have picked another day.  We walked around almost every trail, and saw the animals we hope NOT to see on our actual desert walks such as spiders, snakes and scorpions.  We also saw coyotes, mountain lions, javalinas, and many other animals that were hard to find since they were in the shaded areas. They had a raptor show which included a family of Harris hawks and a barred owl that flew over the crowds.  We really enjoyed the displays and finding out the names of the plants that we encounter daily in our desert visits.

Coyote in captivity

View from one of the trails of the Saguaro NP

Rattlesnake in captivity where it belongs!

Harris Hawk
 

Valentines Day

The high winds of the last two days have died down and we decided to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum near the Davis-Monthan AFB.  When we got there we found out they had a tram tour of the outside planes on display so we called Joe and Nancy to join us.  They have over 300 planes on display both outside and inside several hangars.  Nice selection, although most were military planes.  I listened in on a tour guide describing the SR-71 and was amazed at how much she knew.  We had an excellent lunch there and spent a total of 4 hours there. They have two buildings with planes from WWII, and a separate building devoted to space exploration.  It wasn't too crowded and we enjoyed it a lot.  When we returned Joe and Kirk made dinner for us- roasted veggies and steaks on the grill along with a green salad.  Everything was great and they even did the dishes! We enjoyed some dark chocolate filled with raspberry for the finale.  Good company and some great guys.

Blue Angels Demonstration plane

B-17 bomber from WWII

SR-71

Mt. Lemmon

We have been very busy this last week, we seem to be trying to cram in as much as we can before we leave Tucson on 2/27.   On Wed. we enjoyed the park's burger cookout and visited with some neighbors. Then Kirk and I went to Catalina State Park in the northern part of the area to do some hiking. It's a very nice park with a great campground that had large sites and even grass!  There had been an Indian settlement and a ranch on the property in the past and we saw evidence of both. Nice to have some variety in our hiking.  On Thursday I went to the huge gem show with a friend from the park and bought a few more jewelry items at very reasonable wholesale prices.  Thursday night we drove south to Green Valley to see Kirk's friend Dave and his wife Jane. We had a nice visit and they took us out for dinner at their golf clubhouse.
On Friday we had to take our camper to the dealer to have them look at the A/C so we then drove the 29 miles up Mount Lemmon on the northeast side of town.  There are pull-outs, picnic areas and campgrounds all the way up to the top- 9000 ft.  It was great to see pine trees! We stopped to hike a bit, avoided hitting the many bikers pumping their way up the mountain, and enjoyed seeing snow at the top at the ski hill (which was not open for skiing but there were people riding the chair lift).  There is a cute little ski village (not a bit of snow there) with some beautiful cabins all the way up the hill.  We had a giant cookie for lunch to support the local economy since the ski area has not opened yet due to the lack of snow. With the weather down here it's hard to believe they can even have a ski hill! By the way, no problems were found with the camper- guess we'll have to try again as we know that there are!!

Cold enough to wear fleece- 50 degrees!

Bad selfie from the end of the road!

Not enough snow to ski to the bottom.



Trouble in paradise with campers

Joe and Nancy arrived here on Wednesday and right off the bat things went wrong- the two living area slides will not go out on their camper.  They are able to get the bedroom slide out and have been able to use the bedroom and bathroom.  A service guy just showed up today and had bad news- they will need to move it to get it serviced as there are major problems with the wiring hooked up to the slide motors.  Since they don't have access to their kitchen (just the frig) we have been cooking for them, no problem. 
We have had issues with our new fifth wheel as well:  when Kirk tried to dump the black holding tank into the sewer, there was a loose connection which resulted in a flood (fresh water, thank goodness) in our basement storage compartment so everything we had down there had to be removed and dried out.  Then we discovered that our A/C is not working up to par.  A serviceman from Camping World came out late yesterday and fixed the plumbing and said the AC was fine- it is not doing its job today (temps in the low 80's).  Everyone in the park who stops by says that it is not uncommon to have issues with the campers but they are both new!!  Therefore, we have not done any of the fun things we had wanted to do when Joe and Nancy arrived, other than play bingo on Thursday night (no winners in our group).
We do have tickets to see the Oak Ridge Boys at the local casino tonight so that will be a bright spot in our week, other than the fabulous weather.  Kirk and I did walk in the desert this morning- it was nice and cool and we saw and heard a lot more birds than we do when we go later in the day.
Hope everyone is doing well back home- miss you all!

Here we are in front of the new camper with the sign Nan got from CESA 9.

Rain, movies and moving out and in

It rained here all day Friday and Saturday- we got to see the dry creek beds running with water.  Things are greening up already.  We went to see the movie "Unbroken" with Sue and Ed- it was very moving.  Nice to go in the middle of the day when it's not crowded and we get senior discounts besides!  After the movie we had our first Mexican food at the Little Mexico steakhouse.  Cute western decor with fake brands all over the walls. The food was good too.  On Friday we went to see "American Sniper". What an eye opener and I sure appreciate what our service people have to go through in war.  
We got our new camper papers signed on Saturday. Since it was still raining we opted to move in on Sunday.  We tried to get into one of the gem show tents but we were not dealers so could not.  We did see the Native American booths at one of the hotels.  Not too impressive- only a few sellers.  We'll try again after Joe and Nancy get here- the show runs for two weeks and there are tents all over town.
Saturday night we went to Roma's Italian deli for an early dinner with Sue and Ed.  Great food- and we had enough to bring home for another meal!! Came back and started packing up our stuff.
On Sunday morning we went to Camping World and parked our trailer next to our new fifth wheeler so we could transfer our stuff.  Our salesperson Paula helped us so it didn't take that long. Ole and Lexie waited in the truck.  After we got back and parked in our spot we continued putting stuff away.  Did not make it to the Super Bowl party at the clubhouse- we were too pooped.  Had to go buy dog food so picked up a Tombstone pizza. Unfortunately we burned it in our new oven so had to settle for salami sandwiches.  Saw the last half of the game in our camper.  We were really pooped so early to bed.
Monday was spent with little moving in projects, including going to a Laundromat to wash rugs and dog bed covers (Kirk walked the dogs while I did laundry). Sue and Ed left to go to Yuma and we are waiting for Joe and Nancy to arrive on Wednesday.  We are enjoying the new camper- it should work just fine for a number of years (we hope)!