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Southeast (Gulf Coast), Texas, United States

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tucson, Arizona

We arrived in Tucson at about noon today. While we were walking through the big tent in Quartzsite checking out all of the vendors, we picked up a coupon for a free nights stay complete with dinner and breakfast at an upscale campground. It is called Lazydays, and for non-RV readers, it is a large RV dealership in Florida who recently bought out the property of a bankrupt dealer in Tucson named Beaudry RV. Here are some pictures in the park. Here is a look down one of the streets….

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An orange tree at one of the sites with fruit……..

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The store/restaurant complex and some carvings across the street…

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Our site and the Bus………..

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The park, RV repair shop, and the overall dealership is first class. However, the overhead is so high that they really can’t complete with a lowball price on a new RV. They said that they are offering the free night to get people familiar with the property. It is a good idea, and it is working. Most of the people in the restaurant tonight had the free dinner coupons.

Here are some pictures in the restaurant, beginning with the free menu….

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For my buddy, Mark, who will be stopping here on his way back to Louisiana, here are a few bullets:

  • When arriving, use the Irvington entrance (same as Camping World)…. not the Country Club address. Locked gate!!
  • Water pressure is 90—100 psig, so set up your regulator to begin with.
  • Verizon here has 4G service
  • Sites are very good, and full hookups including cable.
  • The restaurant food is also very good. Free menu is an abbreviated one, but food is great.
  • No sales presentations or pressure. Just check in and go to your site. You’re free to do whatever you want like any other campground
  • We are staying an extra night….. $45. Averages out at just over $20 a night for great accommodations.

After setting up in the site, we headed off to see Mt. Lemmon, as recommended to Patsy by Jag! It was a very nice drive. Here are some pictures……..

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As noted above, this route is one of the America’s Byways roads. The peak was over 9000 ft, but the road did not go that high! It appears that the upper elevations are a good environment for the cactus….. they grow tall and look very healthy. We did find snow, and it was a very pleasant drive. It was about 44 miles one-way from the campground.

As of now, we don’t have a major plan for tomorrow….. may just relax in the campground or drive to Old Tucson.

On to Gila Bend……….

Monday morning, we left the casino in Yuma and drove on I-8 to Gila Bend.  We discovered a small campground behind Holt’s Shell Truck Stop several years ago, and it is a Passport America park, which means we park there with full hookups for 1/2 price.

As we left the casino parking lot, we spotted a couple of interesting sights…. a very small Winnebago motorhome, and a Class A from Canada that must had the level sensor out of kilter, or the driver leveled it manually after drinking too much!  You can see the front wheels way off the ground …… while the coach in the forefront is leveled with wheels on the ground….

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Along the way, the road was somewhat lonely, but pleasant to look at the tall cactus.  Here are a few pictures…….

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On the way, we passed by Dateland, AZ, which used to be just a fuel station and a date store that sold all things…. dates!  Now, they have combined both into one new building, and the date stuff is disappointing……… it is now just a fuel/convenience store with a token selection of date stuff……

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It took about 2 hours to get to Gila Bend, and as soon as we fueled up and got parked in a space, we began to wash the car and the Bus.  There was a lot of desert dust on both…. inside and out!  Here are the results……

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After a good night’s rest, we will head to Tucson for two nights.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Yuma and Mexico

I forgot to post a picture in yesterday’s blog……. it is a poster that Mark and I saw in a store in Quartzsite, and we liked it. If you are tired of stepping in stuff left by other people’s dogs, you can capture it and print your own poster.

Now, on to what we did today. We woke up this morning, and since we had used up our three nights of ‘resort’ camping, we moved two miles closer to Yuma to the casino. Here are our new “digs”………..

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After we relocated the Bus, it was on to Mexico, about 3 miles away, and a walk across the border. It costs $5 to park the car in a safe lot, and the crossing was free. Since it was Sunday, and the most of the eyeglass places and all of the dentists were closed, the traffic was light on the sidewalks. The vendors were still aggressive, and we purchased something for our grandson, two bottles of Peach Schnapps for Patsy and her friends, as well as some vanilla extract and other legal drugs at the pharmacy.

Here are a few Mexico shopping pictures……….

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Crossing back was very easy with our passports, and there was not a line of people backed up. As soon as we got to the car, Mark called and said that some friends, Dave and Sandy were in town and at the place where they were staying. They were celebrating two ladies birthdays and cooking burgers, so we went over. Here is a picture of Dave (on left) and Sandy (on right), with Sue and Patsy in the middle. They stopped by and are on their way to San Diego.

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The event was at the home of Ed and Lavonne, friends of Mark and Sue.

Our friends, Greg and Mandy, also showed up. We had seen them yesterday at the Burger Bash at Jag and Bev's home resort.

Here are more pictures of the party and Ed and Lavonne’s place. They have a nice place with a patio yard. In the second picture, you can see Dave and Sandy's rig out in the street……

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Here’s Ed (hiding behind the pole) and grilling the burgers……

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Here are the two birthday girls (Betty and Sue) fighting over the cake………… or were they just innocently posing for a picture!!!

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A big thank you to Ed and Lavone (and Mark) for inviting us to the party!!

We left the party about 4:30 and headed back to “our” casino. We had registered yesterday for membership, and each received credit for $10 free play money. Before going back to the Bus, we decided to try our luck.

The rules were that you had to put at least one dollar in with the $10 credit to get it going. I put in $2 thinking that on the $$ machine, I would get 4 maximum bet plays. On the fourth spin, I hit $100, so I played one more spin, and Patsy made me quit!!! I cashed out for $102 (my winnings plus my original two dollars), and we tried Patsy’s free play. We hit a $10 win once, but kept playing until we went broke.

Our score for the casino was one night’s free dry-camping plus $100 cash. Not bad for a little fun. Now it Patsy hadn’t be with me, I might be a billionaire by now!!!

Tomorrow, we plan to head East to Gila Bend for one night, and then two nights in Tucson before heading back to Texas.