Arizona and Tombstone Territories RV Resort: November 22 through ?

Welcome to Arizona

On Thursday November 21, we left Alpine and drove to Las Cruces, New Mexico for a one-night stay at the Hacienda RV Resort.  Not much time to tour New Mexico, but we did visit old town Mesilla.  After New Mexico on November 22, 2013, BB, Henri and I crossed into Arizona.  Our home for the next few weeks is the Tombstone Territories RV Resort.
This is a great park situated in a basin near the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation area, surrounded by mountain ranges, between Sierra Vista / Ft Huachuca and Tombstone.

Our New Home

As you might suspect from the name, this park takes a Tombstone motif with all the streets named after the prime characters of the Gunfight at the OK Coral:  Earp Alley, Clanton Court, Holiday Street, Doc Drive, Boothill Lane, and Virgil View.  Not too original, perhaps, but cute.

Our nest is near the intersection of Holiday Street and EarpAlley, site H6.  Drop by if you're in the area.

While the park is well laid out with all pull-through sites, the very best component is the 360 degree views of the mountain ranges, which change beautifully with the time of day and the light.

Lots of beauty and things to see in southeastern Arizona.  Here's a list of some of the sites we hope to visit during the coming weeks:

• Bisbee (Old Town) and the Lavender Pit and Queen Mine Copper Mine
• Chiricahua National Monument
• Cochise Stronghold
• San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area
• Fort Huachuca
• Kartchner Cavers and State Park
• Tombstone and, of course, Boot Hill and the OK Coral 

I realized that it has been 40 years since I left Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista.  While I have yet to visit the post, Sierra Vista has certainly changed in those 4 decades.  It's population now is over 45,000, and the high-desert climate and low humidity in this area (altitude approximately) 4600, with numerous mountains over 9,000 feet, make it a very pleasant climate, and the population has brought in all of the stores and facilities you would expect in any large city.  Also, Ft Huachuca is likely best known for being the birthplace of Kelly Northcutt and Shelly Northcutt Hewett.  Since they were infants when we left Arizona, I'm suprised they don't remember more details about their stay in this area.  Likely the only thing they do remember is how hard it was to spell "Huachuca" on all of their school forms.  In Apache, "Huachuca" is translated as "place of thunder" or "thunder mountain."

Back in the day when I was stationed at Ft Huachuca, everyone rode dirt bikes (motorcycles).  Now, while there are likely plenty of dirt bikes still around, in our RV Park, most everyone has the radical 4-wheeled, tactical-looking, all-terrain-vehicles (ATVs).  Walking around the RV park, you see very few full-time residents, but a preponderance of military-retirees or veterans , most spending the Winter here in Arizona.  And given our age now, it's not surprising to see many Viet Nam campaign stickers, as most of us are all Viet-Nam veterans or Viet-Nam era veterans like me or older.

And given the changes that happen over four decades, it's not surprising that we've "graduated" from dirt bikes to ATVs.

So we'll use this location as home base for a few weeks while we explore southeast Arizona and watch the weather to time our move toward Oregon.  We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our current home:

Beautiful Skies in Arizona

Views Toward the Office

Views of the Park

Our Place for Awhile

Sunrise over the Huachuca Mountains

Relics of an Ancient RV Tribe the "Wheretheheckarewe's"

PS:  We are having a Thanksgiving pot-luck at the RV park at 5:30 pm on Thursday.  Bonnie and I will miss being with family and friends this Thanksgiving.  The three of us wish you a very happy Thanksgiving.  We certainly have lots to be thankful for, and I suspect you do as well.  Our best wishes and love are with you.

Till next time!