DAY 27 Phoenix to Tombstone
I slept great, and Michael slept from 10:30 p.m. until 6 a.m. David got up to get Michael and ended up taking the dogs out, unplugging the camper and getting an early start on the driving. We are heading out of Phoenix and into Tucson.
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We found gas for $2.19!!!!! We filled up, of course.
Whenever we stop, even for a minute to get gas, Nora says, “Nice ride. Get out.”
Driving through Tucson, we saw a sign for Camping World, which is an RV supply store. They have stores all over the country, but none near us in Columbus, and we hadn’t happened upon one until now (although I‘ve ordered things from them over the Internet). We stopped and bought a bulb for our exterior “porch light” which hasn’t worked since we bought the camper (turns out it was shattered); an outdoor rug/mat; an extra long windshield washer squeegee; some air freshener; acrylic wine “glasses”; a transparent fitting for the sewer hose; and a cover that goes over the cab windows to keep out the sun. We have a curtain that goes across behind the driver/passenger seats to keep the sun out of the coach area and prevent people from seeing in at night. It is easy to put up and take down, but it also means we lose the space in front of the curtain when we put it up. Since we are starting to feel a bit confined, we decided to get the exterior cover. Even if the dogs just go up and lay on the front seats, at least that frees up some extra space for us. Of course we bought the one that said it was for our vehicle, but it didn’t fit. Fortunately I had suggested we try putting it on before leaving the parking lot of the store. Sure enough, it was for a smaller vehicle than this. David took it back in and got one that fit. It isn’t too hard to put on. We didn’t try out the rug tonight, though, because our site is gravel. Although gravel seems kind of cruddy from a Midwestern point of view, it has it’s advantages. For one thing, it’s much cleaner than muddy Midwestern sites, and also cleaner than the sand/dirt sites often found in the desert. It also makes it pretty easy to clean up dog poop.
This is a pretty expensive camp site we are in tonight. We have WiFi and full hookups, but $29/night is pretty steep unless there is a pool or something. However the old adage “location, location, location” holds true here. We are at the Wells Fargo RV Park, and it is less than a block from the main drag in Tombstone, where the shootout at the OK Corral occurred. We pulled in, plugged in, and walked over to browse the shops and see the sights. It’s actually fun going in the shops here, because they all have really cool Southwestern decorations, clothing and other items, which we both like a lot. All our Southwestern decorations are still packed up in boxes because we don’t have space in the house to display them, but that hasn’t stopped us from admiring new items and plotting to buy them before we leave.
We stopped in Big Nose Kate’s Saloon for a bite to eat. Downstairs, where the old bar used to be, is a gift shop and a view of the secret silver mine of the janitor. Apparently the place used to be a hotel (and brothel, I believe) and the janitor got a small room in the basement in exchange for his work. There was a silver mine nearby, but the janitor was angling for his own piece of the vein of silver, so he dug a mine from the wall in his room. He was discovered by the owner of the real mine and killed, but you can still see his old bunk and the big hole in the ground.
We are planning to get tickets to a couple of the tourist re-enactments and shows tomorrow afternoon.
The general store in town had movie rentals for $1.25, so we rented March of the Penguins, a documentary about the Emperor Penguins that live in Antarctica. We put it in a little before Nora’s bedtime so she could see the “animals on the TV, Mama.” I told her they were penguins, but she kept thinking it was “Pig-Ones.” She also started waddling around the camper, saying, “Look Mama! Watch!”
It’s hard to believe we’ve been on the road nearly a month. Honestly I don’t think of home much at all. I mean, I think of people, but I seldom think of the house. Michael is getting bigger, though. Not so big that people notice him in the Snugli, but big enough that I notice. He laughed this morning for the first time. I was talking to him and making faces at him and such, and he laughed!
Our next real stop after this is Carlsbad Caverns, in New Mexico. It’s too far for a one-day drive, though, so we are probably going to stop in Deming, NM, to break up the drive.
If you are wondering why there aren’t too many great photos on this blog lately, it takes a really long time to upload photos. About half the time, midway through putting a photo on, there will be some error and I’ll have to start over. If I try sending more than one photo at once, none of them show up at all. So that explains that.