Tucson

In Tucson we stayed two nights at the Prince of Tucson RV Park which is in the northern end of the city right beside the freeway, though quiet enough. We have stayed here before and quite like the place, though most of the spaces are very narrow—no room for the awning, barely room for a chair or two. They have a pool and a hot tub which Art took advantage of to soak his aching bones. They cater to long time snowbirds as well as over-nighters such as us and quite a number of permanent residents. They have a large lounge with TV, coffee on every morning, newspapers available, pool table etc. They also have wireless (for a fee—the free wireless seems to be getting rarer and rarer these days)

First item on the day's agenda was the laundry, which we soon got out of the way, then around noon we went out shopping, primarily for a copy of the 4^th edition of Mike and Terri Church's “A Traveler's Guide to Mexican Camping” which was due out in late September. Bookstores in Canada were hoping for an early to mid October delivery, but though we had a request in at Tanners in Sidney, it hadn't arrived by the time we left. We had even driven over from the RV shop that morning to see if perhaps it had come in. We really wanted the latest edition as we knew it would contain a lot of new information and the older ones would no longer be supported on their website update pages.

At Barnes & Noble in Tucson we bought the last copy on the shelf! It retails for $21.95 but I think that by the time we got out of the store we had rung up $100.00 or so between the two of us! We then found a large shady tree to park under so the dogs would keep cool, out of the sun and in the breeze, and went to Appleby's for lunch. Again huge portions, sharing helps though, and we usually end up taking some home for next day's lunch.

That night (Friday) we again went out for dinner, finding a very pleasant Italian restaurant. Art's tummy

was playing up again so didn't feel that he could face another huge American restaurant portion so he settled for an appy of steamed New Zealand green muscles. There must have been two dozen! A chuck of crusty bread to soak up the juice. . . . Yum yum! Gillian can't remember what she had—it was too long ago. We really have to be a little more timely posting these blog entries!

At the next table to us was a man in his thirtys with his daughter who appeared to be about 10 years old or so. When they were almost finished their meals, the little girl went to the bathroom and he dad told her that he would see her back at the car. A few minutes later he asked the waitress for a doggy bag then he too headed for the washrooms—and never returned! We later spoke to the manager about it and he said this was becoming more common. They used to be able to spot potential runners but it is getting more difficult.

Such a terrible example to a child.

What we do remember is driving home afterwords. Art turned right and there followed a discussion about direction. Just as Art was beginning to think Gillian was right (why does he even bother to doubt any more?) flashing red and blue lights appeared behind us. We pulled over and the policeman asked for drivers license and registration which were produced, and he asked if we knew why he had stopped us. We had no idea, we weren't speeding, Art had signaled the turn—it appears that a tail light was out. And, he went on to say, he couldn't read the license plate because of the bike we are carrying! He didn't ask us to do anything about that though! Art said he would go to the auto parts store up the street in the morning and get a new bulb and maybe a spare or two--no point is giving the Mexican Police a valid excuse! The policeman agreed that would be a good idea, called the info in on his radio and soon returned the documents and wished us a good night. Art also told him that we had been having a discussion as to the correct direction. He asked where we were going and when Art said “Prince of Tucson Road, he grinned and said, pointing to Gillian, “she's right”. So Art turned around and we were soon back at the RV Park.

Next morning Art pulled the tail light bulb (the left one wasn't working) and noticed that the filament appeared intact. Knowing that appearances can be deceiving, he pushed it back in the socket – and it worked! Must have been a dirty or loose connection. (Two weeks later it's still working).

Once again appropriate we topped up with water and dumped the gray and black tanks as around noon headed south. We planned a short stop at CampingWorld in South Tucson then to overnight at the Desert Diamond Casino about an hours drive north of the Nogales border crossing.

At CampingWorld Art found a set of safety cables for the tow bar—he had bought new ones at home just before we left but when he put them on he found them not really suitable. They were the coiled kind, designed for a different type of tow bar, and found that they got in the way of the tracker's emergency breakaway “brakes on” cable. If this cable is pulled, the tracker's brakes would lock full on!

We also bought a few other little things and Art put the new Brake-Buddy cables on. Much happier, we set of for Desert Diamond. You can imagine our surprise when we pulled in to find that the parking lot was almost full of RV's. There had to be a hundred! Art said “I hope all these rigs aren't going to the border in the morning! So much for a quick and quiet Sunday morning crossing! A couple from Campbell River soon put our minds at rest—there was a bluegrass festival going on!

If Art had been feeling a bit better he might had been tempted to investigate—we heard no music anywhere, though we didn't go into the casino. However we wanted to be up and rolling early, so we had a bite to eat in the motorhome and were soon in bed.

Tomorrow, we cross into Mexico.