Busy, Busy March

Tucson has a casino (free parking)! We find our spot in the large parking lot of the Del Sol Casino. If we can stay away from the slot machines maybe this free parking won't cost to much. The weather is great, nights are cool, days warm. Everything on the coach is doing well. We have learned to dry camp longer, meaning we only need to go to a campground every ten days or so to fill fresh water, dump holding tanks and catch up on housekeeping.

The Tucson area had Titan missiles. 18 of the 52 missile silos in the United States circled Tucson. These relics of the cold war have long sense been dismantled, all but one. There's still a Titan missile in the silo at "Titan Missile Silo Museum" just south of Tucson in Green Valley. Narrated tours of the nine level underground complex are impressive. To comply with disarmament treaties (SALT) this missile has the nuclear warhead removed and the blast door blocked, but an accurate launch sequence reenactment was chilling. We're reminded, not so long ago, of history during our generation.

Our friends in Tucson, Jerry & Jeri Dettmann meet us a few days later at the Pima Air and Space Museum. The history of aviation come alive in these five hangars, a WW2 barracks, the 390th B-17 memorial and the Space Gallery. Along with 300 plus aircraft outside. The open tram tour on the ground is narrated, this saves us miles of walking, but we still tour the buildings walking through different displays of planes hanging from the ceiling and set up on the floor. Civil, commercial, Presidential, and military aircraft are presented restored to authentic detail. Some examples are a replica of the Wright Flyer, a real B-29 SuperFortress, President John F. Kennedy's Air Force One, and a SR-71 Blackbird. This high altitude reconnaissance plane once flew from Los Angles to Washington D.C. in 64 minutes 20 seconds and was denied to even exist until the military was ready to present it to the public. An added part of the Pima Air and
Space Museum is the Davis Monthan Air Force Base boneyard bus tour, it's sold out today, we'll be first in line tomorrow.

The boneyard is just adjacent to the museum, our bus passes through security and we spend over an hour viewing the rows of planes, engines, and parts stored on the base. AMARC is the US Air Force Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center. This is the central depot for all US military planes pulled out of service and put into storage. AMARC puts these planes into long term storage, often covering them with a white plastic coating called Spraylat to protect the aircraft from the elements. In many cases, the stored aircraft are refurbished and sent back into service, sometimes after being sold to foreign nations. In other cases, useful parts are pulled off the aircraft and the remains sold for scrap. As a used parts depot, scrap yard, ready access, or mothballed, over four thousand planes wait in the desert, warm and dry with little deterioration. After a few more days of sightseeing, Jerry, Mary Ann, Linda and I are getting itchy feet. It's time to move on in southern Arizona, check in a campground and catch up on housekeeping. We spend a few days in the Escapees' Co-op park in Casa Grande, Arizona on our way to Yuma. A nice park with friendly RVer's, we top off our tanks and get ready to go west for a few more weeks of dry camping.

Yuma is recognized by the Guinness World Book of Records as the sunniest place on earth with 339 bright days a year and an average of 4 inches rainfall annually. We were dry camping at Cocopah Casino the day they got 4 inches. After warm sunny days sitting in the parking lot talking with other campers (over 100 rigs) it poured. The first rain we've had in 6 weeks and and all the road dirt washed off. Off the car, the lawn chairs, and the RV, on to the parking lot. A perfect mud impression of where everything was before the rain. We didn't realize what accumulated after being on the road a few months. The most visited attraction in Yuma is the "Yuma Territorial Prison" state park. This penitentiary housed the areas most dangerous and notorious criminals. 3069 inmates including 29 women were housed during the 33 years of operation. Film and television (3:10 to Yuma) have given this prison an infamous reputation, but written evidence shows it was a very humane for it's time (1876). Early history can be found at the U.S.Army Quartermaster's Depot, now a visitors center. The Army used the Depot to store and distribute supplies for all the military post (forts) in Arizona, and some in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and west Texas. The supplies were brought from California by ocean vessels traveling around the Baja Peninsula to Port Isabel near the mouth of the Colorado river. There , cargoes were transferred to river steamers and brought upstream to Yuma. Gateway park on the Colorado River, Yuma West Wetland Park, the Ocean to Ocean Bridge, Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area and Historic Downtown are best seen on the unique narrated Segway Yuma Tours. This two hour history lesson while riding Segways was great. After a few riding tips and supervised practice we were gliding through the streets and sidewalks on Segways like ducklings following our guide, listening to history of the area and buildings. We had a ball.

Yuma is the winter vegetable capitol of the nation. In this area vegetable production accounts for 85% of the total revenue of the county. Our guide tells us 900 plus tractor trailer loads move through Yuma County every day till the end of March, trucking produce to the east. Lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, peanuts, melons, dates and more. In March, a one of a kind annual celebration "Midnight at the Oasis" brings the community together with music, concerts, a car show and dance. The "Show and Shine" pre 1972 car show and rod run featured 1200 American cars, trucks, and foreign classics. Good fortune brings us to the area with so much community activities. Throughout our stay the Marine Corp Air Station (MACS) has had unusual activity practicing for the winter air show. The Casino is about a mile from the end of the runway and they are just over our heads. Still two weeks away, we'll have moved on by then and miss the show.

In a few days we backtrack to Casa Grande and the Escapees' campground for our housekeeping, then back on the road, driving east through the Salt River Canyon area of Arizona around the old west town of Globe. We are close to the San Carlos Indian Reservation and the Apache Mountains. This is Geronimo country, the Tonto National Forrest, Gila County, mining towns and history right out of a dime novel. Globes Old Dominion Mine produced more than 130 million dollars in gold, silver, and copper before closing in 1931. The Old West Highway, stage coach lines, train robberies, Billy the Kid, Pearl Hart and Black Jack made this area rich in history and folklore. During this time archaeologists charted the ruins of the Salado people.

Besh-Be Gowah is an archaeological park, museum, and gardens of the 700 year old ruins of the Salado. This advanced culture built 200 plus rooms for over 1400 people. Some multi-level stone walls of the pueblo have been reconstructed, others excavated and some untouched. The ground level rooms were used for storage, upper levels were later added for living quarters. Jewelry made of shells has been traced to the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf of California showing the Salado traded extensively. The museum houses the worlds single largest collection of Salado pottery and artifacts. Continuing east through Arizona we catch up with the Escapees' boondocker group camped near Safford, Az.

Our camp is set against majestic Mount Graham, well off the highway, east of Safford. A beautiful area with cool nights, warm days and level ground. We left the boondockers in January just north of Quartzite, Az. with 80-90 rigs. Most have started to go their own way as the weather breaks. Now only 15-20 RVs are left enjoying the great Arizona weather.

Sightseeing and day trips are planed. One day Linda and I are "tail gunners" (followers) in our car for a motorcycle run over to Glenwood, New Mexico. We follow Jerry and Mary Ann as they and five other bikes tour to Whitewater Canyon in the Gila National Forrest. We drive 80 miles to a gorge to hike up a catwalk over the Whitewater River. It was worth it. Originally built in 1890 as part of a gold mining operation, it was used by miners to reach the mines and to bring slurry down to the mills. We hike the catwalk that is hanging on the sides of the canyon over looking boulders rapids and waterfalls. A great drive with spring flowers everywhere. A great dinner in camp is the popular "potato bake". The campfire coals are spread out and foil wrapped potatoes are set in the embers for 45 minutes. Everyone brings condiments to go with their potato and some to share, You end up with a loaded potato. Butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese, onions, diced ham, chili and more. No one leaves hungry. More of southern Arizona and New Mexico to come, Skip and Linda.