Galveston Island,TX visit Nov 9th, 2014-Jan. 4th, 2015

After spending time in Oklahoma visiting family and getting caught up with medical and dental visits, it was time to head south back to Galveston, TX We usually like Galveston for Nov-Dec so we can stay warm and be relatively close to Oklahoma to visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year didn't work out so well, the weather was most often chilly and lots of rain and fog.

www.sandpiperrvresort.com

This was site 5 at The Sandpiper RV Resort on Galveston Island, and it was our second time there in that spot. One of the perks was the City of Galveston has a free a fitness center at McGuire Dent Recreation Center. and we used it often. We also rode bikes as much as possible and enjoyed watching all the ships in the Gulf and in the shipping channels.

As long as the weather cooperates, Galveston is a great place to bike ride and enjoy the sights. Lots of entertainment, shops, and fine restaurants on Seawall Blvd to enjoy.

The main problem with going to Galveston is that Houston stands between you and the rest of the less hectic world. Driving through Houston is always interesting and a challenge., but when you go through the Houston metro area you have to visit a Buc-ee's Convenience store. They are huge and have the neatest gifts and tons of great food items. We stopped at one that had something like 52 fuel pumps and the clerk said that they were building a new one in Baytown that would have over 90 fuel pumps!

While we were in Galveston we got to enjoy a theatrical production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", which I must say was fun and quite.....different. The theater which is down on The Strand is a nice theater that even offered beer and wine for a "donation".

After our Galveston stay we decided to try this winter in Arizona since the Florida panhandle area, actually Destin, was way too cold last year.  We finally decided to give Tucson a try and booked our stay at the KOA/Lazydays RV park with the hope of maybe getting a workamper position. So on January 4th, 2015 we fired up the rolling fortress and off for a 4 day trip to Tucson. We usually drive 300 miles or 5 hours, after all...what's the hurry?

Quartzite, Arizona Holiday Palms

Feb. 6, 2009 (Friday)

Another drive day - headed to Quartzsite, seemed to be the best half-way point and some rains are headed our way. With the rains we decided that a nice state park on the Columbia River would be a waste with all the rain they are calling for. Decided on a private park, Holiday Palms RV Park so that we could have all the luxuries of home, ie Wi-Fi.  Arrived at 3:15, office staff was very friendly and assigned us to site E12.We were escorted to our site by another friendly staff member. Plenty of sites available, January is their busy month he told us. Seems rock hounds all meet here so where people are so are vendors!

Feb. 7. 2009 (Saturday)
Rainy day, stayed at the RV and played on the internet, watched TV, all the things you do on a rainy day.

Crazy Horse RV Park, Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Raining and supposed to last a couple of days so we are moving on. Packed up during a break in the rain and now slowly heading back east. Had to check with the ranger regarding the weather as high winds are further up north and expected to move this way. He said that I10 should be ok as they had not been given any advisories. It was ok, most of the way but here’s a picture of a sand storm we hit, there was a semi in front of us that we could just barely make out. There were advisories flashing on the highway sign but Bruce figured as long as there were some RVs coming from the east that we should be able to go west. The sand storm only lasted for a few of miles, thank God!

I-10 Dust Storm

We should have stopped for the night a little sooner but chose to keep going. Three of the state parks that we tried were all full, except for overflow, which was dry camping. We didn’t want to do that so went on in to Lake Havasu to a private park, Crazy Horse RV Park. We got a spot right on the water front, no sewer or Internet, and I’m having withdrawals!! Since it was late we just stayed hooked up and leveled it good enough until morning. Went over to the hot tub for a while, boy did I need that! I sure do miss my tub.

Tombstone, Arizona

Happy Birthday Gary!

Enjoying Tombstone!

Bruce's Tourist Shot

Today we made a trip to Tombstone for a nice relaxing day. It’s about 15 minutes SW of where we are so it was a nice, short drive.  Tombstone has closed off the main street, Allen St, and laid down dirt so that it looked like it did way back when. Most of the buildings were souvenir shops and all had about the same thing. Had a Bank of America so we went in and paid our credit card bill. Had lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and took some tourists type pictures.  We did a little more walking around then went to find the Post Office to mail Gary’s BD card and a couple of post cards. Had tolerated a bad headache all day which was not getting any better so was ready to go back and see if a little relaxation could get rid of it. Decided to take a couple of shots of liquid pain killer, Tequila, which helped very quickly. We sat outside and enjoyed the sun and warmer weather, about 73 degrees, then fixed supper, watched some TV, worked some Soduko puzzles then to bed.
Update on Dad’s hand, he had to be transferred to another local hospital for surgery - debridement. Not sure why that could not be done at the hospital he is at so called and left a message for a friend that is the QI Director to please check it out – crazy things are happening at what was once a great little hospital.

Kartchner Caverns Arizona State Park

Getting the heck outta Lifestyle RV Park in Willcox, AZ! There is a train track nearby that runs every 15 minutes and has to blow their horn all the way through the city. As you can imagine, very little sleep! By 6 AM decided that we just as well get up and get things packed down for hitting the road. Found an ACE store around the corner that had the screws we needed to get the skirt back in place, went to McD for breakfast and head toward the Kartchner State Park.
WOW, do we love this park! The view is unbelievable, the Camphost, Mary, came up immediately upon us picking our spot to greet us and give us any brochures we may not have got at Registration. She said that she had been told that traffic was pretty brisk so may want to get Cavern tour tickets ASAP so headed over the Dicovery to see what was what. The Big Room tour was already booked for the rest of the day so we bought tickets for the Routunda/Throne Rooms tour at 3:00. Went back to the 5er to have lunch then back for the tour and what a tour!! Our tour guide was an older gentleman, thinking probably a volunteer that trades RV site for work. Very nice and enjoyable guide. Very impressive the amount of time and expense that the State took to make sure that the Caverns were protected as much as possible and what the 2 guys that had discovered it when through to protect it. The 2 guys had found it in 1973 and kept it a secret of 14 years before deciding that there was enough concern that someone else could stumble across it and vandalize it. They thought that they were on government land but after investigating, found that it was private property owned by a teacher/rancher named Kartchner. They approached them with the find and the concern for secrecy. The family decided that they could not afford what would be required so then the decision was made to approach the State. This was also done in secrecy, it was quite fascinating the way they managed to keep this all under wraps until the time was right to protect the caverns. The caverns were something that left everyone speechless by the end of the tour. Want to go back some day to go through the Big Room, which is used during summer by the bats as a nursery.  Bruce called his Mom to see about everyone and found out that his Dad had to be admitted to the hospital due to his cat biting his hand and it was now severely infected. Hard to be away from "home" when family is sick!