Saguaro & Cowboys – Traveling Southern Arizona

We hit the road again heading south. We were heading to Tucson from Sedona. Initially when planning the trip we had planned to see the southern rim of the Grand Canyon at this time. We had though forgot about a little season called winter, which to our surprise still exists in a desert state like Arizona. (We had apparently also forgot what high elevation could do to temperatures). As we didn’t want to chance Bubbles water pipes freezing and bursting we thought that we would head back to the Grand Canyon on another trip and this time headed south to Arizona’s second largest city.

We were pretty happy about going to Tucson actually. Both Julie and I had been to the city before and were excited to see how it had changed since our last visit. We were also happy as we were meeting back up with fellow RV’ers Debbie & John from Syracuse, NY who we met while we were in Palm Springs, CA back in December. After stopping for lunch in Phoenix (had to stop at In-N-Out Burger) we made it to Tucson and to the RV Park. We checked in, set up Bubbles and went off to find Debbie & John. As luck would have it we were there just at the same time that they had friends come in from Syracuse (Sandy & Tate, Bob, Dion & Laurie) and they invited us to stay for dinner. It was strange but great at the same to be eating dinner with so many New Yorker’s so far away. It was a little taste of home and we loved it.

The next day we woke up at breakfast and we were off for the day. Today we would be going to see some awesome Saguaro. Tucson is pretty unique in that it has two national parks, one on either side of the city. Both have a ton of Saguaro cactus in them. We opted to see the eastern side as we had read that there were a few more cacti in this one. It wasn’t long before we entered the park, showed our national park pass and we were in. The park was pretty neat as it was the only one that we had been to that you could actually see city neighborhoods from. The eastern park has a big loop that we drove on that went on for 11 miles or so. There were various stopping points with trails or information boards that told you what you were looking at. Above all the Saguaro cactus stood tall in this park. They were the stars of the show.

From the park we drove back to the RV Park. It was Superbowl Sunday and we had been invited to Debbie & John’s Superbowl Party. I’m not sure how many of you have been to a Superbowl Party at an RV Park before but this is how theirs went down. Picture two large flat screen TV’s set up on the side of a large RV, 2 picnic tables full of finger foods and multiple coolers with beer and soda’s placed in front of the TV’s. There had to be at least 50 camp chairs set up in a semi circle around all of this. Then about an hour before kickoff the main food event took place. The shrimp boil was ready at some adjacent picnic tables. They had in a pot, shrimp, potato’s corn and sausage with a plethora of sides. To say that we were not full by the time the game started was an understatement. We had a blast at their party (as did most people), not only for the final score of the game but especially for the amazing food and of course the people.

The next day we woke up ready to have a city day. After breakfast and a stop at a post office to drop off some boxes full of stuff that was no longer fitting into Bubbles we parked in downtown Tucson. We parked and started walking around. While we found it to be nice it seemed as though they were having a hard time getting tenants to stick around, as a good number of storefronts were empty. There were pockets of pretty good-looking restaurants but as it was 10am they were closed. As this was the case we decided to walk towards the university instead. To get there we walked up historic 4th Ave, which we really loved. It had a mix of college student and hippies and was really neat. Because of this mix it had some really eclectic stores that we found ourselves walking in and out of. By the time the street had ended we were at the University of Arizona. I had visited the school back in 2006 while visiting a good friend Josh there and was eager to see it again. While I couldn’t actually tell if anything had changed since my last visit (I’m sure many things actually had been updated) I couldn’t tell and it looked just as good now as it did 10+ years ago. We walked around the university for a while stopping in a few buildings and the bookstore. From there we ventured out to University Blvd for lunch before heading back to the RV Park for the rest of the day.

The next day we woke up ready for a day of relaxation. We had stayed at a lot of RV Parks that had labeled themselves as “RV Resorts”. All of these up to this point had made us roll our eyes, as we could never tell where the resort was. You could truly consider Voyager in Tucson a true resort. With multiple pools, hot tubs, tennis & pickle ball courts and a small executive 9-hole golf course and restaurant this was truly a resort. As we had yet to use any of the resorts amenities we decided that today would be the day. One of the few pieces of sporting equipment that we decided to bring on our adventure was a pair of tennis racquets so we decided to hit the tennis courts first. After a few hours of tennis (which we tied 2 games apiece) we were a bit tired and walked back to the RV for lunch. After lunch we decided a swim was in order and hit the pool. From there we ventured over to the hot tubs before heading back to the RV. We were relaxed and feeling good. After a quick dinner we ventured back to Debbie & John’s RV to say goodbye. The good people that Debbie & John are invited us in for a beer and to give us all the recommendations that they had for points east on our travels. We thanked them for all their advice and treating us so well while we were with them in Tucson and promised to see them back in upstate New York this summer.

The next day we woke up ready to travel again. Today we would be heading to the town of Tombstone, AZ. Tombstone is famous for a shootout between cowboys and the lawmen and we wanted to see what it was all about. Shortly after leaving Tucson we passed though one of many in-state border checkpoints. We had been through a few at this point but honestly were starting to get annoyed by them. An in-state border checkpoint is basically a police (or customs & border protection) stop to find illegal aliens or drugs. When you pull up to the checkpoint one of two things happens. Either you are simply asked if you’re an American citizen or your asked if you’re an American citizen while a drug dog sniffs circles around your vehicle. After answering yes and assuming your not carrying a large amount of illegal drugs you are free to travel on. These do not take long to pass through generally less than a minute. We were taken back by these checkpoints as we live fairly close to the Canadian border in New York and do not have anything like these. They also slowed us down and if you know us we like to go, go, go! Anyway though we were cleared and headed to Tombstone.

We reached Tombstone and could immediately tell that the town had passed its heyday. It seemed that the entire towns economy was based on an event that had happened 100+ years ago. All that being said though the town was still pretty neat to see. They had recreated a few blocks to look as they would have in the late 1880’s with dirt streets and boardwalks instead of sidewalks. There were saloons and western wear shops as well as a plethora of other western themed stores. The big attraction to see was a live action show of the famous shootout between the cowboys and the lawmen at the O.K. Corral. We paid the fee to see the show and got in right before it started. It turned out to be pretty fun. The show lasted roughly 25 minutes and the actors gave you a short history of the events leading up to the shootout then went through the shootout, which only lasted about 10 seconds. These guys were true “gun slingers”. Afterwards you could take pictures with the actors so of course Julie wanted a picture with the bad boy cowboys. (They were actually really nice guys and cracked a few jokes while taking the picture). From there we wandered into one of the saloons for a beer before walking back to the RV Park for the night.

The next day after breakfast we hit the road southeast again. It was our last day in Arizona. Before crossing over the border into New Mexico we had one last stop to make in the town of Bisbee. Bisbee was only half an hour or so from Tombstone but when we got there it felt a world away. Bisbee was an old mining town that had to reinvent itself once its mine closed back in the 1970’s. It had the look of a true western town but its storefronts were filled with artisan shops, restaurants, hotels and gift shops. It was also located wedged between two mountains so it was very hilly which gave different sightlines from different streets. This was Julie and my style for sure. We were a bit sad that we could not stay but the only RV Park/Campground in the area was fully booked for the night. After walking around and going to the town’s brewery (Go to the Old Bisbee Brewery if you’re in town. Super good beers!) and having a great lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant we headed on. Arizona had been good to us but it was time to continue our journey east.

Next up….our 33rd state, New Mexico!

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