Day 68–Western Sky RV Park, Las Cruses, NM–National Border Patrol Museum, El Paso Museum of Archeology

This RV park is really quiet and pretty deserted despite the many permanent residents. Not much human activity going on but lots of doggy barking. There are several people here who have  5 and 6 dogs. Makes for a lot of musical barking!

The National Border Patrol Museum is the only one of its kind in the United States. It is a private, not for profit, museum where exhibits cover the history of the United States Border patrol, from the old West, Prohibition, and WWII, right up to current operations, through displays of weapons, paintings, documents, equipment, photos, artifacts, and “hands-on” vehicles such as the Jeep, Helicopter, Scarab boat, snowmobile and  ATV.

 

 

                

 

                                

 

There are also boats and motorbikes confiscated from illegals  trying to  either get into the  USA in a quest for freedom or trying to smuggler in drugs.

      

                                              

 

 

    

                                                                      

 

 

                                           

 

The museum is being renovated to make room for more displays  and a mock –up of the  Statue of Liberty will be in one of the new display rooms.

 

                 

 

Ron was excited because there was an outboard motor on display that he had when he was a kid.

 

We stopped in the Memorial Room that is set up to honor those who died during service. There were several that were killed during confrontations at the border but surprisingly many died from injuries incurred during  single vehicle accidents while on patrol.

Next door is the El Paso Museum  of Archaeology so we decided to take a look. There was  a membership drive going on so there was music and food offered. The museum is nicely done dating back to when El Paso was still a part of Mexico.

We were told that on some days there are hundreds of rattlers that the people in the museum have to get them back into the desert and off the walkways!

                                   

 

                                    

                                            

 

The museum is small but well done. As we were leaving we were invited to have some Mexican food that was excellent. Overall, It was a good day.

Day 67–Travel Day–Western Sky’s RV Park Las Cruses, NM

Well, this day won’t take long to blog. We woke this morning to 34 degrees and had frost on the car.

 

Ron drove 244 miles in a brutal wind storm. We were running at 3000 rpm just to keep at 60mph. The windstorms here are really bad  and can cause zero visibility when the dust blows up. Fortunately, the area had recently received a lot of rain so the dust was at a  minimum.

As everyone knows Ron is very “thrifty” so he does extensive research when choosing a CG for the night – usually on Passport America – half price CG’s. He found Western Sky’s RV Park offering full hook-up’s, cable and Wi Fi for 1/2 price at $20.00 per night. Sounded good even though the RV reviews were not that great. It is close to El Paso so the choice was made!

Exit 155  to the park was closed  for construction so we had to drive down a service road off of exit 151. Here in the southwest they are installing “round-abouts” every where. We call them rotaries and back home they are being removed – HMMM.

Anyway we are on this service road with no traffic and come upon a newly installed round-about. No signs as yet because it is not completed and we can see the CG from where we are but  not sure which exit on the round- about to take. Ron saw a sign that said  “road closed”. OOPHS! That is the road we need to take. In small print it said in five miles so we were was OK.

The CG is under new ownership and is pretty run down.

 

The woman running the CG is doing it alone and from what we read is trying to upgrade the CG on a shoestring budget. The closing of exit 155 is not helping her business but she does have many permanent residences. It is a no  frills CG but has good  WiFi and really bad Cable.

We took Jewel for a walk and behind the CG we saw an old car that looked like the Oldsmobile Toronado that I had 20 years ago. It was aTrofeo Toronada – a little bigger then the Toronado but interesting to see there is still one around. The wind  had finally died down so turned out to be a beautiful day and we really enjoyed being out in the sunshine.

 

Day 66–Benson I-10 RV Park, Benson, AZ- Kartchner Cavern’s State Park

This morning we went to the Kartchner Caverns State Park to tour the caverns. I don’t think we have taken a road trip that didn’t include some sort of cave tour! Unfortunately  cameras and picture taking are not allowed in these caverns. Of course Ron took his camera anyway but respectfully did not attempt to take picture in the caverns.

 

                           

The park has a very interesting history and is one of the more recent  cavern discoveries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park

 

Since we are unable to take pictures I had to grab a couple form the internet.

  

 

 

The infrastructure that was built to open the caves to the public is amazing. It is 100% handicapped accessible so much so that we had a gentleman who was in a specialized motorized chair on tour with us. It was a great tour and we are glad we decided to see it. We went through two separate locked areas before entering the caves and were also subject to a mister to take the lint off of our clothes. They are very much concerned about introducing anything into this “living cave” that could destroy it’s natural beauty.  The presentation at the end of the tour is magnificent with  flute music playing in the background while lights dance against the rock formations.

 

 

We stopped for pizza at a local restaurant in Benson and had delicious pizza. We commented that it tasted very much like the pizza we get at home. When paying the bill we told the waitress how much we liked the pizza and that being from the Boston area we have been hard pressed to find the same taste and quality anywhere else. She told us that the original owners of the restaurant were from Connecticut and that when  the new owners took over 13 years ago they  did not change any of the recipes' that were given to them. We knew there had to be a New England  connection – the pizza was too good!

We have been out on the road for 66 days now and have yet to find a string of consistently warm sunny days with temps above 75 degrees. Instead we have moderately warm days and pretty cold nights. We are close to 4000 feet in elevation here in Benson so the temperature last night dropped to 35 degrees. BRRR! Sorry, not as cold as back home but still cold for here in “sunny”  southern Arizona.

This is the first time ever we are having difficulty filling our time with things to do having saturated this area last year. Because of the cold, unsettled weather to the North we have had to track back on the southerly route. So we are ambling toward home very very slowly.

 

 

Day 65–Benson I-10 RV Park, Benson, Arizona

We didn’t leave Wikieup until around 11 am. Our original plan was to stop in Casa Grande for the night but because they had no availability we continued on to Benson.

We drove past the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale where the Patriots won the Super Bowl!

 

                                           

                         

We arrived in Benson around 5 pm after driving 297 miles through some winding mountain roads.

I was told when I called for availability to make sure we arrived before 6 pm. He locks the place down at 6pm and then you are out of luck. The owner of the park is a little cranky to say the least. He read us  a set of rules that would choke a horse and would not take anything but cash for payment. There are a lot of no’s in his rule book and not a lot  of yeses! LOL

We made sure we followed all the rules just to get to our site!

                           

 

Once settled in I made dinner and made reservations  to take a tour of the Kartchner Caverns State Park in the morning.

 

Day 64–Drive to Dazzo’s RV Park, Wikieup, Arizona

We packed up this morning for our journey back home. The CG is quite  full and we have a new neighbor that came in with a full size box truck towing a trailer. We have been traveling around the country for many years and have never seen this type of set-up. The box truck is so big it didn’t fit in the parking space in front of his site and also didn’t fit into the  small parking space next to his trailer.

 

After the king-cab pick-up truck across from us left Ron was able to get around the truck without any difficulty. Then we were off to our next destination. Ron had found a CG in Wikieup, Arizona that sounded and looked good so that is our destination for today.

 Looks like a really nice place to stop and spend the night. It is a Passport America CG  with full hook-up’s and Wi Fi so a great deal at a $10.38 nightly rate. It is promoted as Dazzo’s Desert Oasis. Sounds  to good to be true. Well, yes indeed it was .

 

I was looking for this cute place that sounds great but somehow missed it at mile marker 123. We went up the road and stopped to call  to get more info on where these Caribbean colored buildings might be. We had a bad cell connection but finally I was able to decipher that the “oasis” is located right behind the biggest flag in town.  

 

We found the flag -

and Dazzo’s Oasis- Not quite as pretty as the ad, but OK. Notice – no peaked roofs and bright colors.

Then we  pulled into the CG.

 

We faced the mountains so the view great.

Couldn’t ask for much more for ten bucks.  The Wi Fi worked well and we ate at the diner for dinner. Excellent food too!

The area is failing and looks like it is on the same path as Route 66. A new highway will be coming through most likely cutting off this area to traffic. We met some very nice people staying here either permanently or for the winter. For $175.00 a month it sure is affordable.

 

                                            

Who knew you could get Chicago style hot dogs and  Philly Cheese Steak here in the middle of  no where!

During our drive here Jewel was very upset and crawled up on the pillow on the couch. ‘

She looks content but she is really mad at us.  LOL

It was an uneventful day and a nice ride/drive to Wikieup..

 

Day 63– Duck Creek CG, Las Vega, Nevada

We had the option to stay a few more days but decided we are done with Las Vegas so will be heading South on Tuesday. Ron belongs to several RV forums so posted a question regarding traveling to the Grand Canyon. The answers were varied but generally the recommendation was not to go at this time.

Went out to lunch and on the way to the grocery store we stopped at a casino.  The casinos off Las Vegas Boulevard are quite nice and not crowded.

 

                                                      

                                     

                           

 

 

                                          

We stopped to pick up some items at the grocery store then back to the MH. I reorganized and cleaned as did Ron in preparation for our travel day tomorrow.

On this day last year we were in Bisbee, Arizona in beautiful warm weather. We will be heading to Phoenix,  Not sure how far we will get tomorrow but hopefully we will finally be able to stop using the heat in the MH.

Day 62–Duck Creek CG, Las Vegas, Rock of Ages Show

It started raining last night and has continued through the day with occasional downpours. The same weather pattern bringing rain to Las Vegas is dropping lots of snow in the higher elevations. Not much doing today. Another leisurely day at the Tremblay’s!

When we left for the show it was pouring and cold. We needed gas so we stopped at the station just down the road. That particular gas station had the best price at $2.65/gal while the surrounding stations were at least .28 cents higher. Unlike at home gas stations here in Vegas are all over the place in price. Interestingly, when we stopped at the pumps there was a note taped to each pump stating they were out or regular and premium gas. How does a gas station run out of gas????? We did see that occur at a National Park out in the middle of nowhere but never in a big city!

Then we found another gas station ARCO AM-PM. Well unless you pay cash or use your debit card  then no gas. Ron didn’t want to use either so off went  on our quest for gas. We then stopped at a no-name gas station and got gas even cheaper using our credit  card that gives us 5% back. Such a deal. Who knew getting gas would be so much work! LOL Ron was still not happy because we needed to put air in one of the tires and they charged $1.00 for that  air.

We stopped for dinner and then made our way to the Venetian.

We had bought middle priced seats but when we arrived at the theatre we were upgraded to a better seat. The show was fantastic, funny  and very entertaining. Ron was a little skeptical at first but then really got into it. The young chick sitting next to him instructed him on how to wave his arms to the music and use his light. LOL It was a fun night for us and we are glad we made the decision to see a show. No pictures allowed in the theatre so had to still one from the web.

 

Tomorrow is our last day here. We decided not to extend and just head South and see what the next couple of weeks will bring.