Texas to Arizona

Tuesday - Sunday, January 27-February 1, 2009 Tombstone, Arizona, “The town too tough to die”

This town is named as “The town too tough to die” since it has survived 3 fires and many down economic times. We have named Tombstone “the town too tough to leave” because we are still here after planning to stay a day and we stayed almost a week.
On Tuesday morning we awoke early in Tombstone on a busy street and proceeded to the Arizona State Tombstone Court house where we parked under a lonely tree. The southwest’s most colourful and historic western town. We think this is the friendliness town on the planet.
Here we experienced an authentic western town from the 1800’s. Lunch at “Big Nose” Kate’s Saloon (Doc Holiday’s girlfriend’s establishment) commenced by being escorted to our table by a cowboy who claimed he had “the biggest one in town” gun that is...later lounging on the piano and contemplating getting into the casket that was marked “I got laid in Tombstone, Arizona”,....we decided to take some photos with lunch and come back tomorrow for the piano and caskett.

After lunch we proceeded to the OK Corral where we happened upon the re-enactment of the shootout between the Earp’s and the Clayton Gang. There the cutest little boy in the audience was at first disturbed by the idea of the fighting but when he was convinced that it was pretend he told his mother “it was a good story” and it was. Next to the re-enactment there was the original photographic studio of C.S. Fly showing many of his photographs of Tombstone but the most exciting find was the photographs of Geronimo, his life and his people. These are the most interesting photographs we have had the pleasure of viewing. Geronimo was born in 1832 and died in 1909 after being held prisoner for more than 27 years. It was very interesting to see photographs of the young white children mixed into the Apache tribe.

Later we shopped till we dropped in most of the stores in town. Yes, we finally succumbed to our shopping urges and purchased denim cow girl skirts.

At an RV park, Stampede RV Park, we caught up on the “work” of laundry, showers, and electric recharging... but the park was very quiet by 10:00 pm so we went for a walk. We lucked out! Found a local jam night at the 4 Deuces Saloon, just a block and a bit from the RV Park. Oh well, we will walk tomorrow. This had to be our reward, since we had experience a laundry disaster! A stray full lipstick jumped into our jean load (at least 7 pairs) and proceeded to redesign the fabric....not nice. We are still working on removing these unwanted designs, tomorrow is another day. At the jam we met some very nice people. Tombstone, AZ is a place with great locals. One authentic cowboy seriously decided that Marilyn was a potential spouse. He proposed right on the spot! We were very impressed and went home with a wink and a smile. He thought she might want “to be an American” and live in Arizona! Marilyn was more interested in knowing what cowboys actually do for their living!

Wednesday we awoke at the RV park and we went for a cowboy skillet breakfast and fixed the laundry. Before heading out the Kartchner Caverns, we took a Trolley Tour of the historic buildings in Tombstone. The Caverns rival Luray caverns in beauty but the State has worked very hard to keep the public and the dryness of Arizona from affecting this active cave. Marilyn received a “cave kiss” a drop of water that falls from formations and his said to be very lucky. The cave contains more types of formations than other cave systems. True to form most of the Tombstone locals we speak too have not taken the time to visit the caves. They just don’t know what they are missing. We applaud Arizona State for the care and concern they have taken to keep this cave system active and unaffected by the public tours. We topped off the day with Marilyn and cowboy called “Billie” playing guitar accompanied by comic rhetoric.

Thursday we rose at noon and proceed to go to the Ghost Town Tour but unfortunately we took too long locating propane which we desperately needed as the furnace is a necessity when the low temperature at night dips to 20 F. It was on the Karoke at the Six Gun Saloon. Marilyn sang and Patsy danced.

Friday we were going to leave but since it was the weekend traffic and we needed to drive 800 miles to San Diego with no large town providing weekend entertainment we were convinced Tombstone was a better bet. Friday afternoon Marilyn held a real pistol and did a session of target practice. The locals were extremely impressed with the shooting skills. Of course, Patsy took a rain check. We proceed to the Tombstone library which is housed in the original train station.

Friday night we went to the Crystal Palace Saloon for a New Orleans Funk band. Interesting music, although the local cowgirls and cowboys in Tombstone did not seem to appreciate this style of music and the bar was very empty so we moved on to the Silver Nugget for Karoke “date night” and traded this venue for a walk over to the Six Guns. We went to bed very tired.

Saturday we toured the Court House Museum which was built in 1882 and hosted the Ok Corral Trial and solved many serious water disputes in the area until 1940’s. The town attempted to renovate it as a hotel in the 50’s but this did not work so they restored it and opened as a museum and Arizona State. Park. We went for a ghost tour in the Birdcage Theatre Museum . The most notorious scandalous theatre in the west. Over 16 persons including one woman died there and the bullet holes are left to prove it. The Birdcage was kept almost complete intact as it was closed and unused for over 50 years and all the original furnishings and pictures as well as the last gold gilded Moriah worth more than $2 million today.

Monday, January 26. 2009: Arizona

We awoke at the Arizona Welcome Centre late in the day. How disappointing, the Arizona Welcome Centre lacked information and maps as well as pamphlets for Arizona. All the states so far had provided great volunteer ladies with lots of information on what their state had to offer....why not Arizona? We plan to spend significant time in this state.
We drove to Bisbee, even though the weather forecast for the low was 33 degrees F. On the way we travelled to the Cochise Stronghold. This side road was very straight with many dips and many signs about flash flooding. The sunset over the mountains was breathtaking. The community lived in the side of the mountain.

In Bisbee, there is a new town with a new copper mine and a very historic town with an old copper mine. The community sits in the mountains with the houses arranged like stairs up to the stars. There is a huge peace sign lit on the side of the mountain hovering over the main village. Many of the village store window displays were unique but unfortunately most stores were closed. A short walk brought us to a quaint restaurant where we enjoyed some amazing Mexican food. We left Bisbee late at night to travel to Tombstone and parked on the main highway.

Sunday, January 25, 2009, New Mexico

The morning was spent securing our bikes with a new lock and new positions higher off the road. Believe me it is not easy to find a small lock in El Paso!

We left El Paso on Sunday afternoon around 3:00 pm and entered New Mexico after 20 miles of driving. The roadway was lined with cattle pens and the accompanying smell caused Marilyn to ask if we had a sewage issue in the RV. Ooops! Nope it was the aroma of New Mexico. We had to slow down for a US Border Patrol Inspection Station. They are very serious about not having illegal immigration from Mexico. This region is very close to the Mexican border. Many signs warn against picking up hitchhikers as there are also correction facilities in the vicinity. Along the road we saw vast groves of trees. This area’s economy is support agriculturally by pecans, walnuts, cotton, alfalfa and chillies. Finally we called a halt to our day at the Welcome Centre on the border of Arizona and New Mexico. We needed Arizona tourist information so we would wait and sleep until the centre opened.

Saturday, January 24, 2009, El Paso, Texas

Upon arriving just east of El Paso we toured through the mission trail to see the native reservation. On returning to I-10 we found the Texas State Park where the Wyler Aerial Tramway takes you to Ranger Peak (el. 5,653 ft). The view from the peak includes 3 states and two countries. Our timing was superb for a stunning sunset over 7,000 square miles of view. In East El Paso is the Fort Bliss military reservation. Here we were surprised to see a barbed wire fence around the military YMCA - a small reminder that this country is at war.
We were ready for some down time but a passing drive alerted us to an issue with our bicycles. They were falling off. It seems that the bolt was bent and loose. A very nice service representative at an auto parts store assisted us in finding tools...yes men tools....and we are using them.

Then we went dancing! After visiting Club 101 and two other recommended locations we finally found late in the evening a live band performing Spanish alternative rock! The band was very good and the people very friendly. We closed the venue and slept in the parking lot.

Friday, January 23, 2009, San Antonio to Van Horn

Texas is a big state. We drove on from San Antonio to Van Horn. Every rest area throughout Texas and New Mexico warns against leaving pathways due to poisonous snakes.

Thursday, January 22, 2009 Corpus Christi to San Antonio

We left the serenity of Padre Island beaches and took the ferry back from Mustang Island to the mainland. The ferry held only a dozen vehicles and was free, but the state had more than 5 operating that day. It took no time. It was good to see the dolphins that love to accompany these ferries from one side to the other all day long. They were very cute. We arrived in Port Aransas and decided to purchase a few pounds of fresh shrimp at a nautical shop. The shrimp cleaning was a chore but worth it...hummmmmmmmmm. Drove back to Corpus Christi and headed out on the road again. Drove from Corpus Christi to San Antonio (300 miles) and stayed the night.

Tuesday and Wednesday January 21-22, 2009 Mustang Island State Park

Marilyn spent a few quiet easy days on the beach, riding the bike, watching the birds, combing the beach and reading while Patsy diligently completed her book keeping until the sunsets captivated us for an hour or so.

Monday, January 19 Corpus Christi

Purchased and rented movies at Blockbuster. Took bike in for repair and found mini-Martin for Marilyn! RV needed oil change so took care of that too...now on beach on the Gulf of Mexico all by ourselves!! What an amazing pink sunset! It is beautiful and soooo quiet, except for the lap of the waves and the hum of the generator to power the computer. We plan to be here for a few days while Patsy completes her 'books'. The temperature is perfect and Marilyn has already found a few shells for Zachary...

Sunday January 18 Texas

Recouperated from yesterday - too much food! Caught up with photo downloads. Saw large turtle sunning itself in swamp. Left Welcome Center at 3:15pm. Listened to last CD of book. Emptied sewage, filled up gas, water, propane at TA Center. Drove past rice fields and oil refineries. Saw several packs of animals - dog like - as well as deer - must do research. RV had 76,800 km at Houston. Parked at Walmart to sleep in Corpus Christi, Texas!

Saturday January 17 - Breaux Bridges, LA

Woke up in Walmart parking lot, Breaux Bridges. Drove to Cafe des Amis and had breakfast. We tried to dance the Zydeco - a Cajun/Acadian style of music. The place was hopping! Across the street we met Jill's Mom, Janelle. Had late lunch buffet - ate too much sushi. Looked for and found Acadian village but decided not to enter. Drove to Texas!

Friday, January 16 - Baton Rouge

Arrived in the Baton Rouge around 4pm. Did downtown tour of State Capitol Buildings, War Memorial, Planetarium, fountain, statues etc. Stopped for information at George's Bar and met three great ladies - Cat, Terry and Jill. We fed the juke box and celebrated TGIF with them. We travelled to Breaux Bridges to experience an 'Acadian Breakfast' and to meet Jill's Mom Janelle at Janelle's Gift Shop.

Thursday, January 15 New Orleans

We parked at Julia and Camp in New Orleans. As we were leaving the RV we met an interesting guy from Lafeyette. We heeded his warnings to move the RV out of that district. We moved the RV to the playright district of the French Quarter - took a mini road tour with pics along the way. Turned on generator to charge computer, cell phone etc. - imagine our surprise when two policemen knocked on our door - they had received a noise complaint about us...imagine that - in the party area of New Orleans at 8:30 in the evening!!! Went to Preservation Hall, a New Orleans tradition - old jazz musicians jam here to a packed house every evening - and then we went to Krazy Korner (Bourbon St. and St. Peters). Earlier in the day we had a blast at Mardi Gras World - took a tour of behind the scenes - prop and float creations - we even played 'dress up'. The sun was about to set when we took a walk on the levee to see the City of New Orleans from the area of Algiers. It is still very rundown from the effects of Katrina and poverty.

January 6 - 14 Canada, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana

Tuesday January 6, 2009

Our mileage when we left Ralph’s driveway was 73,897 km. Left Stoney Creek at about 9pm after locking our bikes securely – 4 locks – on the back on the RV. Much thanks to Rose for storing RV and to Ralph for helping us install bike racks. Sure enjoyed the big spaghetti dinner send off too!! Patsy was still recovering from the tarp incident...high winds and grommits on the tarp are not a good combination for the paint...hindsight is 20-20! The tarp was to protect the RV from our northern weather conditions. It did its jobs vis a vis no water entered the RV from melting snow. Who knew the tarp would rub the paint and bang up the finish especially on the hood. We are trying to see the bright side...visioning several air brushed fairies dancing on the hood!! Help us manifest this dream!!
The weather was – well a snowstorm but it did threaten worse weather below the lakes. So, we decided to travel on the 401 to Windsor. Fortunately slow drivin’ and good navigation got us through the freezing rain and snow from London to Windsor. We took the tunnel from Windsor to Detroit as recommended by CAA...we have to tell you it was not easy to find our way. There was a round about route through Windsor and a huge detour in Detroit....through dark rather scary streets – and we had to stop for gas. The upside was the border crossing had no line up...the guard was great and took only a few minutes...yay!!! Marilyn said we "were the good guys"!

Wednesday, January 7

About 5 am on I-75 Ohio below Toledo stopped in a rest area south of Findlay...snow and very windy...Got up and left around 3:30pm. First stop was at a Cracker Barrel in Lima, Ohio. We rented ‘Dark Angels’ by Karline Koen. This is an audio book – Helps pass the time during long distance driving. Patsy got coffee but they had no idea how to make hot tea!! We made it to Dayton Ohio by 5pm and arrived in Pendleton, KY by 9:50 pm to purchase $10 gas. We were looking for propane but no luck! Marilyn drove around Cincinatti. This trip even at night took quite a while but by 10:30 pm the roads were clear and the weather much better. We finally slept at a Visitor’s Centre after Louisville, KY. The 275 – 300 miles meant we had driven through Michigan, Ohio and into Kentucky.

Thursday, January 8

After finding propane, at a Yogi Bear campsite where we fed a flock of hungry but friendly ducks, we visited Mammoth Cave National Park ! The ranger who did the tour was a great guy! Marilyn took the ‘Niagara Tour’ for $10 US. We stayed in the park from about 11:45 to 4pm. While in the park we saw several white tail dear. The Mammoth Cave has a variety of formations in rooms up to 200 feet wide and 192 feet wide; the deepest pit is 105 feet. The cave contains more than 350 miles of underground passages.

Wohoo!! Finally we arrived in Nashville late that night but we still went dancing of course...the Wild Horse Saloon was really neat but the band only played two songs then finished. Surprising to see horses upside down dancing on the ceiling and more lights than you can imagine. They could have hosted U2. The huge dance floor was as big as a gym for line dancing. Very few people at the Wild Horse that night, so we headed up the street to look for a bar called Tootsies.

Instead we found Patsy’s favourite bar called Legends. The band was great and we danced til the wee hour. We actually slept in RV on street from about 4am till 8am, then Patsy moved RV out to a parking lot near the Opryland.

Friday, January 9

Okay so we snoozed most of day...are becoming nocturnal creatures? We decided to check out the Grand ole opry – look for tickets! We went over to Grand Ole Opry at Opryland but the show was downtown at the Ryman Theatre, Nashville. The Ryman is very close to wherer we almost wore out our dancin’ boots the night before! Yes we got tickets and we saw Vince Gill, Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith, Melissa Lawson, Little Jimmie Dickens, the Grascals, George Hamilton IV and V...all in all 16 acts on this radio show!

The announcer was Eddie Stubbs. It was better than we thought it would be and very interesting with loads of talent and history! Then we just had to finished off the evening into the wee hours with what else? Dancing!!!

Saturday, January 10

That night we slept in front of classy restaurant - The Smith House - The owner woke us up and asked us to move RV before dinner hour...no problem. We moved the van and found a perfect spot on the street with lots of people heading to a game. We had brunch of bacon, eggs and toast around 3:30pm. Then tea and coffee at an ice cream shop but aren't we good - no ice cream. Followed this relaxing event with shopping as we checked out some cowboy boots at a shop but settled on pocket knives for each of us: we have room for those...Oh yes, and a guitar shaped fly swatter for the RV. Hence the pact of 'not buying much- instead remembering what we would have bought by taking pictures. Alright, first things first, we had much needed showers at the downtown Y-for free but had to be out in 20 minutes...felt great to be clean. Patsy had a much needed nap, then we went out after supper for more - you guessed it - dancing!

Sunday, January 11

Wow we got to bed by about 7am...we talked about Patsy's Dad - anniversary of his death - such a great man he was! Went for a drive to check out the Opryland Hotel. What an amazing complex. Then we parked across street. Only left Nashville around supper time for you normal folks (breakfast for us..hehehe) but we found a station to dump sewage from the RV around Huntsville on I-65 at the entrance to Alabama. Stopped in Tuscaloosa Alabama to sleep around 11:20pm at a rest station. We drove about 200 miles that evening.

Monday, January 12

After driving to Meridian, Mississippi we found a Walmart plaza. There we shopped, washed the RV, caught up on laundry duty, gassed up at 1.49 gallon - the best price to date!! Then continued driving after our supper as far as the Welcome Center just inside the state of Louisiana - 160 miles, just north of Slidell.

Tuesday, January 13

In Slidell we found more propane after an intricate two hour search...it's cold in them thar hills, ya know!!!

La Fontaine Bleue State Park provided a place for an afternoon hike in the bayou and marsh. We sighted the nest of a Horned Owl.

After the park we headed onto the causeway over Lake Pontchartrain - 28 miles long! There were great views of New Orleans while the sun was setting over the lake. Our great parking spot in New Orleans turned out to be too dark and scary later at night, so we moved the RV to a more public and well lit place next to many government buildings with cameras. Now we had the right and perfect spot! Since the RV and bikes were safe, we headed out to check out the dancing and music on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. It was exciting even on a Tuesday but we just might have overdone it - just a little - wandered back through Harrah's Casino - didn't loose, didn't win, didn't play - proud of ourselves once again...

Wednesday, January 14

Marilyn moved the RV this morning all the way through the Warehouse District and then the Garden District to find Whole Foods. She needed a few gluten free items. Both these districts have recoverd well from the hurricane with the exception of the sidewalks and the roads. They sure could use some love and care! We went to a park near the zoo for brunch and returned to the Warehouse District for a tour of the Glass Factory and Gallery. Unfortunately there was not too much happening there but we did see beautiful pieces of art that we had no room for!! Then proceeding on foot we took a nice long walk of several hours past the Convention Centre and Riverwalk. This walk held many wonders, a paddlewheel boat, a huge train of 4 barges being pushed by one tug boat, homeless men looking for handouts, horse and buggies called caleche, artists in the square, street musicians, mimes and many boutiques, as well as the famous Cafe du Monde at the French Market. Believe it we had our first dinner out. A fabulous dinner at Margaritaville and we headed back to the RV via Bourbon street - ok we didn't dance that long.