Yuma AZ and our first trip to Mexico

After finally getting out of Tucson with the trailer all fixed and ready to go we decided to go to Yuma. Why you may ask. Well, it was half way to San Dimas CA, and we needed to be there on Nov. 1st, so it was the best choice. You see we really wanted to go to the Grand Canyon, but with only a week of free time we didn't want to go to the canyon and only see half of what we wanted, or kill ourselves rushing around to get it all in. We don't travel like that.

Our traveling has evolved into what we call the slow and steady style of traveling. We aren't on vacation. We don't have to be anywhere usually, at least not by a certain date. This is one of the few exceptions because if you don't book the holidays far in advance you might end up overnighting at WalMart. Wouldn't that be exciting. So we tend to plan the big holidays in advance and if it wasn't for the delay in our repairs we would of had plenty of time for the canyon, but it was not to be. So the canyon in either March or April of 2015. As always, the weather will determine our travels.

So here we are in Yuma at Shangri-la RV Resort. What a place! The people make this park one of the best we have been at. Everyone was super friendly. Our first night as we were doing laundry, we were invited to play in their shuffle board league. The next night we met a nice couple from Canada who winter there every year. They said they go to Mexico all the time when they are here. I said we have never been, but would like to. Two days later they were our guides across the border. We keep saying it's not where we are, but the people that we meet along the way, that make this life style as great as it is.

While we were in Yuma we also stopped in to visit some friends of ours from Wisconsin who winter there. Rob and Sharon. As usual I leave off the last names to protect the innocent. They just bought a park model at a park down the road. Very nice in a nice community where they have been going for years. Again it's the people. We had a nice visit with them and a great Chinese buffet. I've missed that food.

One of the highlights, other then Mexico, (sorry no pictures), was the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park. This is where the surviving Clantons were imprisoned after the OK Coral. What an interesting park with a ton of history. Some of the more quirky things was the prison was used as a high school. Hence the schools mascot to this day is the "Criminals". Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

A little cramped for 6

Many a movie has been shot here. 

Couldn't have been a very pleasant place in the summer.

Interesting way to take a mug shot!

Overview of the prison as it was in the 1800's

Well that's it. Next stop is San Demos CA. Our first time on the left coast. Really looking forward to it. As always, see you down the road. 

Tucson and RV repairs 101

Like I said we headed down to Tucson to have some work done on our home. If you think about it we have been very lucky. We have pulled our home over 8,000 miles and this is the first time that we really needed some work done. Now an RV like ours is no different than your house or apartment. The plumbing is the same as is the electrical except that we also have a 12 volt system running through our home. We have skylights, exterior siding of a sort, and our home has a rubber roof. A big awning, a basement, fridge, oven, furnace, and a water heater. See, just like your place. Except our place has bounced, banged, and jolted down the roads of America for 8,000 miles.

Oh, and we also have rooms that slide out 3 and 4 feet on hydraulic driven systems. That is what brings us to Tucson. About a month ago as we were opening our slides we heard a bump followed by a bang. I just so happened to be next to one of them on the outside and noticed something fall from the bottom of the slide. Hmmmm. That's not good. It looked like a tooth from a metal gear.

So here we are at Lazydays, and while they are at it let's fix a few small things, all covered by the extended warranty, while we are at it. Yep, it was the gear that moves the slide and the rail that it moves on. Let;s order parts. Now I can go into all the details about this but I won't. Suffice to say it has been almost a month and the parts are arriving tomorrow.

Maybe it was a perfect storm of happenstance. or the gods just don't like us anymore, but what could go wrong has. Moving a plant, had to make the parts, shipped to Lazydays in Tampa Fl, instead of Tucson AZ, wrapped up with a major traffic accident involving the UPS truck on it's way here. The parts still aren't here, but we are going on faith that they will be tomorrow so we are taking it in, in the morning.

People who have been doing this longer then us know about this. This is not unusual, this is normal. But you know what? Our saying is "We have to be somewhere". And Tucson is a very nice place to be as is the KOA park that we are staying in. So we roll with the punches and trudge on with our lives. Hehehe.

Our view

Lazydays/KOA Office, bar, and restarant. 

Relaxing at  KOA. 

Till next time. See you down the road.

Albuquerque, Tinkertown, Santa Fe and 2 new friends

Albuquerque NM. was not in our plans. I don't know why it wasn't but since we discovered that we needed some routine maintenance done on our home and there was a highly rated dealer in the area we figured, why not. The timing was good as the annual balloon fest was weeks away. That was good because we didn't have reservations, so we wouldn't of been able to find an RV park within 50 miles that wasn't booked. The city itself was interesting. They had the old town section and arts area, but those can get old after a while. One of the nice things, from my point of view, is that we don't have room for a lot of tchotchkes. So a lot of the really neat things that we see on the road we can't buy because we don't have the room. So what we do end up buying is something that we really like and simply can't live without.

One of the more interesting places we visited was the Petroglyph National Monument. (Do you see a theme here) These are symbols and pictures carved into volcanic rock by native americans and Spanish settlers 400 to 700 years ago. There are some nice walking trails that give you a good overview of some of the more then 15,000 glyphs. Here are a few.

The view from the top.

Lava field where many of the pictographs were carved

They really don't know what the symbols stand for and the pictures of animals and people are obvious but any meaning has been lost. All in all it is amazing to be looking at drawings that are 700 years old. 

There is a highway that runs from Albuquerque to Santa Fe called the Turquoise Trail. The reason is obvious as there are several turquoise mines along its length. Not that you can visit them, but there are stores along the way where you can buy them. There are also other attractions and small towns as well and we decided to stop at a few. One was an archeology museum, but it was closed due to lack of funding. Interestingly it was located at an RV park and the owner of the park, and I assume the museum, had some beautifully restored RVs. 

The next sign that grabbed our attention was the Tinkertown Museum. Our response, "Why not".  The Museum is built out of concrete and 55,000 bottles that houses 20,000 handcarved miniatures and various collectables like a fortune teller machine from Riverview in Chicago, dolls, a yacht, and other odds and ends too numerous to list. Only you can decide if this kind of thing is for you, but my recommendation is that if you're in the area, this is a must see. Check it out. 

Grand Mother Fortune Teller. 

Just some of the Circus Miniatures.

This project grew as people in the area brought him bottles to use. 

Just had to add this picture. 

Part of the outside.

It hurts just thinking about how long it took to build all of this. 

The miniature town he built. 

This boat sailed for 10 years around the world. Owned by the brother-in-law of the builder of Tinkertown. 

They don't make them like this anymore. 

After Tinkertown we hit the town of Madrid. This is an artsy town with the usual jewelry stores, knick knack shops and eateries. We ate at the Mine shaft Tavern. Great burgers and atmosphere. Alot of the walls are covered with one dollar bills that customers wrote on and then the owners put them up.  We also met a fabulous waitress, Britni,  who became a friend. We will meet again.

Shops, shops, and more shops. 

We loved these fountain rocks. Maybe we could make room for one. 

After Madrid it's a short hop to Santa Fe. We didn't go the same day because it wouldn't have left enough time to explore, so we went a few days later. This also allowed us to visit with Britni again and to meet her boyfriend. As it was, one day to see Santa Fe is not enough. The nice thing about our lifestyle is that we can stay as long as we want or plan to come back some other time. As much as we like NM we will be back. In the mean time we did spend a fabulous day there.

I had to get my fix.

This was hauntingly beautiful.

The detail was fantastic. 

Love the detail.

St. Francis Cathedral built in 1886.

The doors leading into the Cathedral. 

The relic in the center of the cross is a piece of  Christ Crucifix. 

Now that is a xylophone. 

The square in old Santa Fe.

While in Albuquerque we met fellow full timers Dennis and Sandy. They are veterans who have been doing this for many years and we learned a lot from them. We also enjoyed each others company in the park and on a excursion into Albuquerque.

Our first stop was the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. As most of you know the testing of the nuclear bombs took place in NM. This museum not only covers the development from the University of Chicago thru the cold war era, it also shows the use of nuclear energy in todays world. They cover everything from movies to fallout shelters and even explain E=mc2. They have an array of bombs and missiles, films showing how we hid under our desks at school so we would be safe.

Atomic Cannon

Various bombs and rocket delivery systems.

License plate  and photos of  Nagasaki.

Fat Man and Little Boy. Fat Man in the back was dropped on Nagasaki the other over Hiroshima. 

We spent another great day at Albuquerque Museum Hill which is a complex of 4 different museums. The statuary in the below photos are from the courtyard.

This is the Indian version of Mother Earth giving birth to all the people, 

The Museum itself was interesting. A good history of the Native Americans showing a collection of artifacts, their evolution throughout the centuries, and even touched on reservation life. A day well spent.

Well that's it. Onward and upward as they say. Or downward as we are going to Tucson AZ next to have some work done on the RV. Should be down there for only a couple of weeks hopefully.

See you down the road.