Tombstone, Arizona and 5-Star Rest Area in Las Cruces, New Mexico

34-Day Cross Country RV Trip + 7-Day Caribbean Cruise 2022

Day 3: Tombstone, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico

April 30, 2022

This morning, we only had a short 24-mile drive down the road from the campground in Benson to Tombstone. It's an easy, pretty country road with very few traffic on this early Saturday morning. I have done the research beforehand to figure out where we can park in town. There is a huge free parking lot for RVs and trucks down 6th Street, making this a convenient spot to visit. We were the second vehicle parked there that morning.

Tombstone is really an intrigue place with plenty of history and stories. One can spend as much time as they want here but we planned on only a couple of hours exploring this area which consists of just a few blocks.

Spacious parking down 6th Street in town.

Just a couple of blocks up to center of town.

Main street for visitors.

The infamous Bird Cage Theater.

Boardwalk

Horse-drawn carriage takes people for rides.

Signs along the street.

Cosmopolitan Hotel

O.K. Corral where they have gun fight shows,

includes admission to the Historama.

One block down from main street is another attraction with gun fight show.

Trolley that takes tourists on rides around town. $10pp.

Big Nose Kate's Saloon

Inside Big Nose Kate's.

$65 'antique'!

Painting inside Bird Cage Theater with bullet holes.

Bird Cage Theater

Menu of Big Nose Kate's Saloon with decent prices.

Great place for lunch, enjoying the atmosphere and good food.

My 'Hangover' burger. Excellent!

MOR's shrimp tacos.

We even had leftovers to go.

Ending our morning visit here.

Then we drove about five minutes away to the Boothill Graveyard for a visit.

$3 admission.

It is here where you could find those famous characters who died in Tombstone.

Here is Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers.

We also found a few Chinese who were buried here.

From Tombstone, we drove back north to Benson, filled up our gas tank and continued our drive east. We planned on spending the night at a campground in Deming, New Mexico but after talking to the owner on the phone, who kindly and honestly told us that the campground is a little off the track and we had to go on some gravel road, we decided to skip that and push further east to Las Cruces. I have read that there is a 5-star rest area near Las Cruces where we can spend the night for free. Just dry camping with no hook-ups. Sounds like a good option for us even though we have not done boondocking before. This is a popular rest area and for people who wants to spend the night, it's first come first serve. I was a little worried since it was a little late in the afternoon already. Fortunately, we were able to get into a good spot when we arrived, with some shades and an excellent view of the city below.

A sculpture of a road-runner made with recycled materials standing tall at the rest area.

Taking in the beautiful view of Las Cruces.

I-10 and Las Cruces

Part of the circular rest area.

We did not use their restrooms so not sure how those are.

Enjoying the beautiful sunset.

Other than the noise of trucks coming and going, we had a good relaxing night camping here.

Video of our day here.

"The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts."   -- I Samuel 2:7

 

Between Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona

34-Day Cross Country RV Trip + 7-Day Caribbean Cruise 2022

Day 2: Quartzsite to Benson, Arizona

April 29, 2022

We have decided that to make good use of our time, we would try to leave the campground around 9:00 every morning. This was just what we did on this second day on the road. As we pulled out of our camp site, we thought we should go in town to see if we can get some spare keys made for the RV. There are plenty of services geared towards RV, so we may have a better chance getting them done here.

Getting ready to leave our site.

The vacant lot across that was parked with many big trucks during the night.

We managed to get a couple of keys made but not the one for the ignition. The ones we had them made were quite expensive, sticker shock! 

Now, we are on our way to our next destination back on I-10 going east. Surprisingly, there are much to see on this stretch of the freeway even though it's just dry, desert land. The mountain ranges and the landscapes were quite interesting, making this an easier drive and not as boring.

As we got a little closer to Phoenix, about an hour and a half from Quartzsite, we made a stop at the Rest Area for a short break. We did not need to use the facility, just stopping for a brief rest. This rest stop was quite nice, with picnic tables and huge lot. They did a good job keeping this place nice and clean.

The last Rest Area before Phoenix.

Our plan for this trip is not to go into big cities along the way. For one, we did not want to deal with the traffic, and also we might have problems finding parking for our RV in town. We also tried to avoid places with lots of people, particularly indoor. We are still dealing with the pandemic.

I-10 started turning south before reaching the city of Phoenix, making it traffic-free for us. 

Caught a glimpse of Phoenix as I-10 turned southward.

Phoenix downtown

Passed by Pecacho Peak State Park which seems to be a good camping place.

Pinal Airpark Boneyard

One of our destination for today was to check out the planes at Pinal Airpark which is just north of Tucson. Sorry that I did not have photos of the planes because we were just driving by and very difficult to take pictures when the vehicle was moving. Please check out our video of the place if interested here. 

When we got there, it was almost 2:00. We wanted to try the Flightline Bar and Grill on site which has good reviews. We made it in time to get in last minute as the place was closing down for the afternoon. The servers were all very nice and did not kick us out but we just did not get to enjoy their salad bar which would have included in our orders. They have already cleaned up the salad bar. We did get everything else that came with our meals, including the all you can drink beverage bar. Food was delicious! Especially their famous Adobe Cream Cheese Burger. Yum!

The inside of Flightline Bar and Grill.

All emptied.

Waiting for food!

It was comfortable and cool 

The famous Adobe Cream Cheese Burger with a side of fries.

This one with a side of macaroni and cheese.

We had to come out from the backdoor since they were closed officially.

Front of Flightline Bar and Grill which, I believe, is mainly for the employees here.

Saguaro National Park West

After viewing all those planes parked at Pinal Airpark we continued our drive south towards Tucson. Of course, we had to make a stop at the Saguaro National Park. There are two Saguaro National Park sites in the area. One in the west and one in the east and we decided to visit the location on the west because of limited time. 

From Pinal Airpark it's a half hour drive whichever route to take but we followed the Google map GPS which took us through the back road instead of I-10. Seemed like a long drive but eventually we got there. We will only be visiting the Visitor Center here and just take a short hike to see the saguaro instead of driving the whole loop since part of the loop is unpaved. It wouldn't be good to ruin our tires so early on in this trip.

I am not going to explain too much about saguaro since most people know that it's the largest species of cactus and it's a symbol of Arizona. It takes years and years for them to grow into such awesome plants. 

Saguaros along the road as we drove into the park.

Huge RV parking available at the Visitor center parking lot.

A short walk to the building.

Visitor Center

View of the cacti from the back of the visitor center.

We thought this man-like shape cactus looked interesting.

600 feet of trail behind the visitor center, we can handle that!

Back of the building as we were on the trail.

On the trail.

Had to watch for bees and other critters.

Absolutely beautiful walk.

Valley Vista RV Resort

After enjoying our afternoon at the National Park, we took the last leg of today's drive to Benson where we will be spending the night at our first Thousand Trails campground. This is called Valley Vista Resort, one of the many 50+ campgrounds in Arizona.

We have already checked in online but they still had some papers for us to fill out when we got there. At least they were expecting us with a package waiting for us outside the office. 

This campground is really clean and quiet. This is not the busy season so the place was not full by any means. It would have been nice to take a dip in their swimming pool but after a day of traveling, we were tired. A simple dinner ended our day and we were ready for bed. 

Entrance to Valley Vista

Video of this part of our day here.

"...but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid..."   -- Numbers 14:9

 

Colorful Dinosaurs and Empty Quartzsite

34-Day Cross Country RV Trip + 7-Day Caribbean Cruise 2022

Day 1: Los Angeles, California to Quartzsite, Arizona

April 28, 2022

We came back home after a month-long RV trip to Florida last week. While on the road, I did not have time to do any posting on this blog or uploading video on YouTube. We were so busy visiting new places and enjoying our time traveling that we were tired at the end of the day. I have to say that we had an amazing trip from one coast to the other across this great country of ours. With the medical condition that MOR had on the last trip, I honestly had this shadow over me but we thank God that we were completely safe and came home in one piece. Everything worked out as planned and even better. We will have this epic trip in our memories for as long as we live.

The starting day is usually difficult. Making sure everything runs accordingly and that we have packed all we needed for the trip can be daunting. That was why we planned a shorter traveling day today. The RV had been sitting idle in the last eight months other than out on local drives to get new tires and also the smog test done. We were just hoping it will not give us any problems as we go on this long, long journey.

I was so busy with other things that I did not even have time to take more photos on this day and now realized that only have a few pictures to share. I promise that it will get better as we go along and you are welcome to check out our YouTube channel for a complete record of this trip. Here is the link. 

Cabazon Dinosaurs

About an hour or so away from our house is a very popular outlet. Most people called it the Palm Springs outlet because people come here on their way to or from Palm Springs. It is actually in a little place called Cabazon. Other than the shopping outlet and the big casino near I-10, the Cabazon dinosaurs is also one of the places families like to stop by for their kids. We've never been here before and I really wanted to check this place out and seemed like a good place to stop for a quick lunch.

Other than being extremely windy, it was a fun stop here. There's good parking space and a couple of colorful dinosaurs outside for photo op. We did not go inside the Dinosaur park, maybe some day. 

Cabazon Dinosaurs

Quartzsite

After a short break at the Cabazon dinosaurs, we continued our drive to Quartzsite, which seems to be the Mecca for RVers. Quartzsite is not far after crossing the state line into Arizona. It used to be a water-hole called Tysons Wells years ago. Snowbirds flock here every winter between November and March because there are plenty of RV campgrounds here with many BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campgrounds that are cheap or free (for certain number of days,) There is also the Big Tent Show with some other gems or rocks shows in the month of January that attracts over a million visitors each year. Many RVers come for the big gathering, meeting friends, and join the fun. After March, the town becomes deserted with many snowbirds going home or heading north somewhere else. Temperature can get as high as 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 50 degrees centigrade, which means it's not going to be pleasant here in the summer. We decided to come here at this time since it's going to be nice and quiet with good weather. 

Hi Jolly Cemetery

There aren't that many significant sights in Quartzsite but one place that means a lot to this town is the Last Camp of Hi Jolly on the west end of town. You may want to read this sign for the story behind it.

That is why camels is the symbol for Quartzsite, I suppose.

This town is not that big. From one end of Main Street to the opposite end only takes about five minutes to drive through town. There are many RV parks along the way and business gear towards RVers. During busy season, the tiny post office is one of the world's busiest. While we were there, the place was quiet with very few cars on the road.

Quartzsite RV Resort or Riggles RV & Event Center

There are a few RV campgrounds in Quartzsite that are affiliated with Passport America, a campground membership group that we are lifetime members of. As PA members, we can stay at any of these campgrounds for half price. There are blackout dates or limitations for each of these campgrounds but so far we have been making good use of these campgrounds that we are already getting our moneys worth. 

This campground is not far from I-10, which makes it quite convenient, on the east end of town. It's a newer campground that has good reviews. Looked nice and clean on the website and that was why we picked this one. For these PA campgrounds, we usually called the day of, and so far have not had any problems as long as it's a day that they are available for members. Actually, the one next door is also a PA campground but we felt good staying at this one. There weren't that many campers there on this day so we were far enough away from other people, making it a lot nicer. The only thing is during the night, there were trucks parked in the empty lot across the street, in and out at different hours making it a little noisy for a quiet night. 

Good spacious campground

The empty lot across the street with trucks parked at night.

Event center with meeting facility, laundry, full kitchen, bathroom, etc.

Good set up at our site.

After a simple dinner, we spent a quiet evening at the campground, rested up for another day of travel. 

"Do not say, 'I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you."   -- Jeremiah 1:7