Weather Alert !!!

Damn, we are about as far south as we can go. I had to get out and scrape snow off my truck, palm trees with snow and water pipes frozen. This is not what southern Arizona is suppose to be like. This is Nevada weather. And what was really hard to do was to put on long pants and a sweat shirt. Maybe this is a good thing, I know the guys back in TRE will be smiling knowing I had to scrape snow. But the good news it suppose to be back to the mid 60's and higher in a few days. We are in Benson Az. It is about 45 miles east of Tucson. There is a golf course less than a mile from our rv park and a Dennys across the street. Everything an old fart could ask for.

Tucson (Mission San Xavier Del Bac)

I have been a little slow on posting the blog, it has been about 2 weeks of being sick. Almost back to my normal self. We moved to Tucson Thursday and will be here for a few days. Jackie has a cousin Phala who lives here. She came to the rig Thursday for a visit and her and her husband Cliff took us sight seeing Friday. We went to the Mission San Xavier and it is hard to show in a few pictures how amazing it was. It is called the "White Dove of the Desert". It was built by the Franciscans between 1783 and 1797. It is considered the finest example of mission architecture in the USA. I took alot of pictures of the mission which our friend Esther will enjoy. Esther I will be emailing you some pictures and we picked up a little gift for you there. We are getting with Phala and Cliff again Saturday for more sight seeing. Sunday we are moving only 40 miles east to a town called Benson. We had thought we would go down to Bisbee area but the weather there has been cold and damp. So Benson looks like a good place to hang out for awhile. There is a small airport about 3 miles from where Jackie and I will be staying, so Jackie's brother may be able to fly in for a visit. Had a lot of fun flying with him in Quarztsite, it is a great way to see the country. Weather warm but small chance of rain Sunday, hope to get moved before it hits.

Our favorite place

First of all I have been a little slow on posting this blog, I have been sick and ended up at the Doctor a couple of times. Doing better, just a bad cold. Here are a few pictures of a courtyard where we go and have a few margaritas. They serve food and have a couple of guys singing. It is out of the wind and usually full of americans taking a break from shopping. We are going to be here a few more days then off to Tucson, Jackie has a cousin who lives in Tucson so we will visit a few days then will head east to Benson Az. It is about an hour east of Tucson. Plan on staying there a while and use it as our base camp. Found an rv park that is very, very close to a golf course. We are ready to leave this area, been fun but a little to much wind. Yesterday had a lot of rain, wind and an earthquake. It shook the hell out of this trailer. Even Pepper was looking at us trying to understand what was happening. Going to make several trips across the border the next few days, you can bring back one bottle of booze per person each day, so we want to stock up.

Lutes Casino

As I mentioned in the last post we found this place. It is located in the historic area of Yuma, Jackie and I had found it a week or so before we went in. The batteries in the camera had went dead so we decided to just come back later. The historic area has small shops, sidewalk cafes etc. as we walked around the cafes had a few people eating and were very low keyed. We were shocked when we peeked in. It was full of people, hundreds! So we came back to check it out. The place very busy on our return, they had a line out the door with a waiting list. It is a mostly a burger and sandwich place that booms when the snowbirds show up durning winter. I asked they staff how many people do they serve a day. Durning this time of the year 2500-3500 people eat here. I guessed there were about 200 people in the place while we were there. Since hamburgers appeared to be the most popular thing folks were ordering we got burgers and fries. They were served in a basket and were ok, not something we would wait inline for again but the atmosphere was what fun. A couple beers and burgers and 200 people laughing and having a good time it was worth the wait. This is the type of place Jackie and I hunt for, the suprise of what you can find inside and the people you meet, lots of fun. A litte behind on posting our blog but I was sick for a while. Went to the doctor yesterday, got a shot and some drugs. Feeling better already, just a bug of some kind. We are planning our next move, looks like Tucson for a few days. Jackie has a cousin living there, then we will head toward Tombstone area. Weather has been warm and not much wind, we got about 80 yesterday and will be cooling down the rest of the week.

Yuma Prison

We toured the Yuma Prison the other day. We had been here before but it is interesting enough to go to again. They have a building with photos, tools and various items that was saved from the prisons early days. The cells are block and concrete with just bars for doors. So they were exposed to the weather. And it gets hot here! Under the picture of the guard tower there is a 80,000 gallon water tank that was build by the prisoners. The weather has been warm but windy. It gets dusty when the wind blows and sometimes you can taste it. When the wind blows we take care of shopping and chores. Yesterday Pepper got her hair cut, she is still pissed at us. The town is a mix modern american and colorful mexican stores. We have been out looking for interesting places to visit. Yesterday while walking around the downtown historic area we found a place called Lute Casino. Peeked inside and was suprised to find..........(you will have to wait until next posting)

Yuma sights

We haven't been out exploring to much since we got here. Bill and Bev were here for a week so we spent some time with them. Yuma is a nice sized town, big enough to have almost every business there is but not crowded and easy to get around. There is a small town south of Yuma and another border crossing in San Luis, just outside of town the border fence runs a mile or so along the border. The interesting thing is you can walk around the end of it. All you need to do is walk a little futher. We found a farmers market in old town Yuma. It is the first Tuesday of the month, got some fresh picked veggies and fruit. There was a taco stand and they had great tacos. FYI finding a taco stand in Yuma is not much of a challenge. Took a short drive north of Yuma yesterday to see the "Bridge to Nowhere". This bridge is called the McPhaul Supension Bridge and was designed by the man who designed the Golden Gate. It was sort of a prototype. It was used for a short time, now there are no roads to it. The weather has been windy and cool but starting today it is going to warm up, 64 yesterday, 77 today and the low 80's Super bowl Sunday. We are going to have a super bowl party in the trailer Sunday. 1st we are going to walk into Mexico and get a couple $1.00 tacos and a beer, then Jackie, Pepper and I will sit outside and take in the sunshine. When the games starts it is iced tea and recliners.