Tombstone, The Town Too Tough To Die

Wow, what a day it was. This is a really fun place to visit.

To actually walk where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday walked a hundred years ago is neat. To actually be on the same piece of dirt they fought that famous “OK Corral” gun battle on is weird. To stand on the very street and block where men stood face to face for a gunfight blew me away. We’ve all seen it on TV a hundred times but people actually fought those gun fights and died right there. Died, on the very spots where we now walk in peace, from air conditioned store to air conditioned store.

We visited the Bird Cage Theatre, the most famous Honky Tonk in America in 1881 and the site of 16 gun battles. This saloon is preserved in its original state. This is the actual bar where the men drank and played cards downstairs while the ladies of the night worked upstairs. It’s where Wyatt Earp met the love of his life, married her, and stayed with her until he died. They drank, smoked, played cards, fought and died in there. The floor is still original as is the bar. The bar was made of wood brought in from Africa, which would still be a big deal today. This wood shipped from Africa around the tip of S. America and up to San Francisco. Then it had to be shipped from San Francisco down to Arizona. It’s a priceless piece of America’s history.

As we were driving up there we chatted about how tough the people had to be back then. This country is brutal; I can’t imagine what it was like to be here without air conditioning, paved roads, or even a regular water supply. All they had was their horse and/or a wagon, a gun or two, and an amazing will to survive. I can understand why Wyatt Earp retired to Oregon and chose to be buried there. Who wants to be buried under a big old cactus?

This is a special place with tons of history, nice shops, things to see and do, lots of people in period costumes, and a couple of eating establishments. It was interesting to note that there was no McDonalds, no Wendy’s, and no fast food of any kind. We found a couple of nice art galleries and a Native American Jewellery store that was fabulous. They stocked only Native American Creations and the sales person was a young Native American guy that did a great job. His product knowledge was outstanding. It was far and away the best shop we found.

On the way back down to Benson, where we’re parked we toured a few RV parks in case we ever get back this way. At this point it appears we just might do that. So far Arizona is pretty nice.

Down in the Rio Grande Valley whenever Arizona comes up it’s always followed with some comment about how cold the nights are. It’s true. The daytime temperatures have been in the 70’s but the evenings have been down to the mid 50’s. So – that’s Arizona, I can handle it.

Yes - this is where it happened

This sign made my day.

So tomorrow we’re off to Tucson to see what we can find.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, thanks for stopping by and please so leave a comment when you.

Neal and Bernie

San Antonio to Tucson

People told us this was going to seem like a long, long trip and they certainly weren’t exaggerating. It is a long trip but it sure is an interesting one.

Bernie and I always think of Texas as flat, REALLY big and flat. It was quite a surprise when we got into West Texas. There are some extremely interesting spots out there. I think San Antonio to Tucson is around 550 miles. 550 miles of desolation. Last night we stayed in Van Horn Texas. The RV park manager was telling me about his cable TV. I explained that we were tired and I would just use our antenna and whatever was on the air. He laughed as he told me “there was no over the air out there” and in fact they could only get one radio station, intermittently. Ahh – the lights went on, we understood, until then we had been thinking our truck radio was fried.

That’s Texas. Despite being the second most populous state in the union (behind California) it’s so big there are places that radio and TV signals still don’t reach. It sounds unbelievable, we were just off of I-10, this is the US, we’re traveling an interstate highway, there has to be TV and radio. But he was right - nothing, 0, nada. It really served to point out the size of Texas.

It's no wonder nothing grows out here, there's no soil, it's all rock

We used to think the |Canadian Prairies were long and straight

We had an interesting drive through El Paso. It’s quite a sight to see. From I-10 you see it spread out in a shallow valley to the South. I’d love to see it at night. We didn’t even stop for coffee so we really didn’t see much, except Juarez Mexico. As we drove through Bernie commented “that must be a poor part of town.” Then we saw the border fence and we knew we were looking at Juarez. Yes Juarez, where drug lord’s and smugglers rule and everyone else has moved out. I had read that Juarez was practically deserted and in our brief encounter it sure did look like a ghost town. I wouldn’t cross the border there for anything.

I can’t believe we covered 500 miles since our last posting and I only having a couple of paragraphs to post. As you may know I can be much more verbose than this but there just wasn’t anything out there to write about.

This really is a long and desolate stretch of road but it's one we're really glad we had an opportunity to travel.  Would we do it again?  You bet.

So here we are in Arizona, just East of Tucson in Benson. It seems like a nice little place to hang out for the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll unload the Smart car and head for Tombstone.

More from Tombstone's "OK Corral" later.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

Pharr to Boerne

It was a late start today.  We wanted to say goodbye to all of our friends so we were an extra hour getting away from Tropic Star.  Our planned 9:30 to 10:00 start ended up being 11:00.  Oh well, stuff happens.

So tonight we're at the "Top of the Hill RV Resort" just West of San Antonio in Boerne Texas.
http://www.topofthehillrvresort.com/

The park is very nice, the people are very nice and I would recommend it.  They have some great pull through lots that can handle our 68' and more.  I paced a "back in lot" and it was 65'.  Nice park just off of I10, easy access.  The views are unbelievable.  This is Texas "Hill Country."  Bernie and I love it here.

A couple of pictures I took this evening.

Tomorrow ???????????  Somewhere between here and Tucson.  If everything goes according to plan we'll be dancing in Arizona on the weekend.

As usual. thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

A great weekend with Amber

Bernie and I are blessed to have three girls. Amber, our youngest, came for a visit last weekend.  It was great.  Thank you Amber.

Yours truly, Bernie, Amber

FIRST STOP - THE OUTLET MALL OF COURSE

Amber and Bernie on their return, looks like they did some damage and had some fun.

They were kind to "the old guy" and left me at home, I was SOOOO disappointed, NOT.

After the trip to the mall was out of the way we got down to some serious family time and enjoyed every minute of it. Amber got a tour of our resort, some good shopping, a couple of good sleeps, and times to meet many of our friends.

On Sunday friends Ken and Doreen hosted “a meet the daughters” evening. What does that mean?  Well, Amber was in town - along with friends Ron and Karen’s daughter Lori. So Ken and Doreen hosted a “meet the daughters” BBQ where we all had a great time.  Everyone there was from Alberta, except Bernie and I, but they let us stay anyway.

Bernie, Amber, Lori

Hosts Ken and Doreen at the top

Since Bernie and I and others are leaving in the next few days we had a “farewell” block party last week.  These pictures will show you that winter Texans definitely have too much fun.  We bowled with oranges, golfed with marshmallows, played a wienie game, (no details will be released, this is a family friendly blog) and capped it with a “Mexican Pile On” dinner. Needless to say a good time was had by all and everyone ate way too much.

Bernie about to drive a giant marshmallow.

She did way better than me.

So now it’s time to say goodbye to our friends, Tropic Star and S. Texas as we head for Arizona tomorrow morning.

Adios, see you next fall.

More from the road later in the week.  We’ll be spending a couple of weeks in Arizona before moving on through California, Oregon, and Washington to B.C.  We really miss our friends here, all of them, even the four legged ones.

This fellow comes by to visit and chatter at us all the time.  We thought he was going to crawl in our car yesterday.  He came to our block party, sitting on a Palm tree for awhile but then he came right down to visit with us all.

As always, thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie

A Family Time

We’ve been coming to the valley for five winters and never had a visitor from back home.  That all changed last week when we had an influx of Fishers to the Rio Grande Valley. My brother Ed arrived from Newfoundland with his girlfriend Julie and within 24 hours sister Jan arrived from Calgary.

Yours truly, Sister Jan, Brother Ed

Neal. Bernie, Jan, Julie, Ed

Coincidence ONE. Both Ed and Jan decided, with no consultation with each other, on the dates they would come down. After flights were booked they happily found out they would be here at the same time.

Coincidence TWO. They both decided to stay, without talking to each other, at a neighbouring resort called Victoria Palms.

Coincidence THREE. Brother Ed and Julie stayed with her Uncle and Aunt, while Sister Jan stayed with friends, who live just around the corner from each other.

So figure out the odds on this. In Canada they live 3500, maybe 4000 miles from each other, and end up in the same resort, at the same time, within a few doors of each other. I think the odds of winning the lotto are higher than that.


Dinner one night with Julie's Uncle, Aunt, and friends.

In Front Julie, Ed

Standing, Sterling and Joan (Newfoundland,) Bernie and I, Sherry Skippy, (real Texans - born and raised here)

Julie and Ed cooked us a Newfie (Newfoundland) dinner and we ate WAY too much. A Newfie dinner can mean different things depending on what part of Newfoundland you come from. I had fears of some kind of a fish boiled in a big pot with ?  :-)  As a very pleasant surprise it was a roast beef meal, great food, not unlike what a prairie (heartland) boy like me was raised on. The problem was, as usual, I ate way too much. We might have to get a bigger truck to roll me out of the valley this year.

At the time I’m writing this Jan has headed back to the “cold” North and Ed is still here for a few days. The cold North??????????? Figure this out - it’s warmer in Calgary than it is here today???????

BUT - life is good in Texas.

Plans are well underway for the trip back North. We were planning to leave here on the 15th of Feb., but are setting it back a week for another visitor (more on that later) and will now leave on Feb 21 or 22. The plan is to push pretty hard to Tucson. We’ll spend a week or so in Arizona, and then head over to Las Vegas and Death Valley for a few days. From Vegas, a good steady trip North through California, Oregon, and Washington.  We plan to be in B.C. about March 15th. We plan to spend a month with our kids/grand kids/friends in the lower mainland before heading to Calgary for a few days and back to Winnipeg for May 1st.

Everything is pretty well set. We still want to get an oil change on the truck before we put all those hard miles on her, and Bernie MUST get over to the Outlet Mall once before we go. Other than those two “must do’s” we’re good to go. I’m kind of excited to get back on the road. We’ll miss our friends here but something in my old body likes to keep moving. I blame it on all of those years I spent tied to a desk. More likely it’s a flaw in my character but we’ll blame it on the desk.

So that’s it for today, we’re off to a dance lesson, then a dance and then to dinner with friends. Tuesdays are fun days.

Thanks for stopping by and please do leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie