Day Four - Tombstone and Grandparents

We left Tucson and the Arizona Huelle's at 9am and headed east. We had to stop for some allergy medicine though. I seem to allergic to Arizona. Insert three or four sneezes here.










The drive to Tombstone was not as pretty, kind of sparse, but it was short. The good thing about driving the RV and towing is that we don't go very fast and we see lots of stuff from the road. And we try to take the smaller highways instead of the interstate so we see more of the towns. The bad thing is parking, we can't back up at all with the tow bar, so we're always cautious about getting stuck. Tombstone is small, but there were no crowds and plenty of parking in a big lot when we got there.



That town is bigger than I thought, but it sure makes you appriciate places like Knott's. there you pay once and see the shows and sights, here every door you enter has a price, so you have to pick and choose what you see. I picked p a hundred dollars thinking we'd get lunch while we were there, but half way through I was down to twenty! It's like a fair, every shop and show is vying for your dollar. But ideas worth it.

Jake at the trunk of the "World's Biggest Rose Bush"

We saw the "World's Biggest Rose Bush" and the museum, very cool. Lots of old household stuff and history of a family that lived there a long time.

And we saw the Birdcage. That place is totally not like the one at Knott's! We took the tour of the inside. The boys were fascinated with all the old furniture and cowboy gambler old west stuff. Crazy to see things like a piano that have been sitting in that spot for over a hundred years. We saw a gunfight, of course, and when we came out they were hanging some kid in the street!

This piano has been sitting here since 1880!

Knott's Birdcage does not have this!

Backstage at the Birdcage

I swear this is Dr. Who!

We went back to the camper for lunch and then went to the courthouse to look around. The plan was to see it and then the OK corral, but we spent too much time in the courthouse so we had to leave for Grandpa Larry's house. Besides, I was out of money for this place! The courthouse was worth it though. I'm always amazed at how long my sons will spend looking at old stuff and reading signs. Jake made us watch the video in the courtroom about a trial held there over water rights and we were all glad he did because it was so good.

On to Sierra Vista! Grandma and Grandpa Huelle were glad to see us. The boys and I have never been here and Dan hasn't been here since we've been married. We sat around and told jokes and stories about when they were kids and Grandma Rita made us and awesome pork chop dinner. I was so proud of my boys and their awesome manners and watching them talk to their Grandpa.

We're staying here tonight and then moving on after breakfast in the morning. I can't wait to get to New Mexico!

Day Three - On to Tucson!

Can you hear Willie Nelson?

We left the KOA at 9am due to showers! Everyone needed one. We took Highway 79 down to Tucson because we didn't want to backtrack through Phoenix and I'm glad we did. It was really pretty out there. 

Again with the green. I thought this was a desert?

Had to take these pictures out the window as we drove through. 

We're already an hour behind schedule!

We stopped in "Florence" for gas and I wish I could have taken a picture of the sign "Entering Florence". There's a song on one of our Dr. Demento CD's about those signs and it's hilarious! Anyway, we arrived at Uncle Kirk and Aunt Candy's house around 11am and visited a while, then Kirk took us to the Titan Missile Museum. The boys were impressed!

Arrival at the museum.

Watching old "Duck and Cover" drill cartoons shown to school kids in the 50's.

There is a "watch for rattlesnakes" sign by that rock on the left. That is what they are doing from those benches, watching for rattlesnakes, but they never saw any.

Cool huge rock of Malachite.

The video portion of our tour.

Jake closing the blast door single handedly!

Tom and Jake launching missiles as the Ruskies!

Looks like Mission to Mars.

Down the hallway to the missile silo.

Check it out!

That's big.  

Jake checking out the shower head of fuel.

"Got Nukes?" It has some cracks but I bet they'd sell it cheap.

From the top of the silo.

After the museum, we drove back to Kirk's house, picked up Candy, and went Pinnacle Peak's for a steak dinner! That place was so good! Cousin Matthew works in the kitchen there and he came out to say hi. The restaurant is inside Trail Dust Town, which is a lot like Knott's Berry Farm. 

After dinner we walked over and watched the stunt show and we were very impressed! Again, I'd have more pictures of the evening but my phone died. This is getting annoying.

We walked around the town and played at the shooting arcade. The boys bought this...

as a souvenir and can't wait to try it on the cat when we get home.

We're staying at Kirk and Candy's tonight and will be moving on to Grandpa Larry's in the morning after breakfast!

Day Two - Into Arizona!

We arrived at the KOA in Apache Junction just outside Phoenix the night before after a long drive. Driving through the big tunnel was the highlight there and the boys were just as impressed as I was that it was such a big city.

The boys were up and ready right as the office opened at 7:30 because the were dying to play pool! After that, we drove the bug to Walmart and the post office to get some post card stamps. Then we were starving and after much debate decided to eat at the first place that came to us...luckily it was a Taco Bell! The boys were teasing me about my driving skills as we pulled in, but I told them to stow it because I was hungry and likely to beat them!

I wanted to go to The Lost Dutchman State Park so we drove up the highway and found it. They weren't in the mood for a long hike, but I did get to walk a bit close to that crazy looking Superstition Mountain. We need to come back here some day! Everything is so green right now. I just can't get over how pretty it is. It's like on big manicured desert garden. 

Here are the boys making faces about walking.

Ohhhh...pretty!

The light on this was awesome later in the day, but my phone died.

Walking back to the car.

Leaning tower of saguaro!

See how green it is?!

Then we stopped at the Superstition Mountain Museum. That was a cool find! There was a wedding going on inside the "Elvis Church" so we couldn't go inside. The museum was very well done. Lots of stuff about Native Americans, wars, gold mining, and legends. Jake got a pocket knife that looks like a shotgun shell at the gift shop.

Check out the weird Cholla they have here. They look like trees!

This is the Elvis Church and some other buildings from an Elvis movie "Charro". Add that to the list of movies to see!

We took this picture for Dan. It's an Apache Junction monopoly game!

This is a model of the biggest stamp mill I've ever seen. Can you imagine 24 stamps running?

Proud that the boys knew all the war uniforms and flags, except the first one "Castillan Spain".

We finished up there and headed back to camp for some swimming. This is the other reason the boys LOVE KOA's. It was perfect for it too. Plenty of shade for me to sit in and read a book. 

They are playing some strange game here.

Dan finished work early and we cleaned up and took him to the Goldfield Ghost Town that we had gone by earlier. It was awesome! We took the mine tour and loved it. The weather was gorgeous and scenery...wow! We had some lemonade and looked around the town. Tom and I went to see a live reptile display but Jake refused. Recently he has acquired a serious aversion to snakes, strange. There was the biggest rattlesnake I have ever seen! All of them coiled up with their heads in the middle looking at us with those sinister eyes. I would have taken a lot more pictures but my phone is being really rude and not charging well. I took these pictures with Dan's phone.

Here's the town. Looks like Knott's! They even have a Mystery Shack!

Looks like a movie, doesn't it?

Checking out some mining equipment.

More desert gardens.

The place closed at 5pm, so we headed back to camp. There was a terrible accident on the road home. So sad. I hope no one was seriously hurt. It was the same intersection we passed through and didn't realize that the cross traffic didn't have a stop sign. 

We had taco salad for dinner and went for a walk around the KOA, admiring other people's set-up. Then everyone went to play some more pool. I came back early to update our logs. I'm the record keeper here!

We are planning on hitting the road early tomorrow to get to Tuscon and visit with Uncle Kirk and and Aunt Candy!

On the road again!

As soon as Dan got back from working in the OC, we hit the road and stopped in Old Dale for the night so that we could get a super early start in the morning. 

We weren't in our usual spot so the boys found some treasure, shot up old computer parts!

I went for a quick walk. I love the trails from hole to hole across the desert.

And there was a beautiful sunset. It was pretty darn windy and that kept me awake most of the night, so I was amazingly tired when Dan started battening down the hatches at 4:30 in the morning. But it was fun to get on the road in the dark with the boys snoozing away. Tom did poke his head down and ask what was up, but went right back to sleep. 

On to Quartzsite, AZ!