Installment #5, 2007

We went to the car show in the big tent in Quartzsite before leaving – Too many cars to mention all of them, but did see a Subaru panel truck (1975), only one in the US ever; pick-ups with tear drop pull campers; a 1940 Lincoln Cabriolet; a bubble car (pictures).

We travelled to Yuma to be with friends, Penny & Arnie. Spent one night in a closed down Target store, and then on to Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Reservation (http://www.fourdir.com/yuma.htm), a mile from the Mexican border, where all the people were “boondocking” (staying without usual hookups). Most of them had solar panels. One guy sold wi-fi internet service, but only during daylight hours – due to solar energy. Picture inserted here of the great Arizona sunsets. We spent the evening around a fire built in a washing machine tub (picture), watching the helicopters, with huge spotlights, and border patrol, in trucks and on ATVs, trying to find illegal immigrants who had crossed over the border. Early in the day the border patrol had been all over the area dragging tires across the dirt so they could see if any new footprints were around later. The next morning while out walking we could see empty water containers and the reeds in the wash bent over where people had gone through illegally. Helicopters were still flying around that morning. After leaving and getting on Interstate 10 going East, the border patrol had closed one lane of traffic and everyone had to go through a check point. It seems this is the time of year when drugs are harvested, so there is more illegal traffic now.



We arrived in Green Valley to visit Sharon’s uncle, Matt, and cousin, Roy. Also toured the Titan 2 Missile museum. Sharon got to be the commander during the tour and turn the key to launch the missile (picture). http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org/

We drove around Green Valley the next day (a huge retirement community). Notice the picture of teapots on top of fence at one home and supersport PT Cruiser. The bike lanes were also for golf carts, according to the signs.

Our next stop was Tombstone. We stayed off interstates and got up to a mile high in elevation. Went into Bird Cage Theatre (http://www.americanwest.com/pages/tombston.htm) . A few streets in the town were made authentic “old west” style with dirt roads and boardwalks. U.S. mail wagons were used for touring the town with Belgian (related to Clydesdale) horses. Tony was thrilled to see a “Union Jack” flag flying below a US flag at an RV park. He stopped to talk to the chappie from Stratford-on-Avon (British).

We tried to tour Bisbee, New Mexico and the copper mines there, but all we could do was take a few pictures of the mine outside of town. The town seems to be fighting over who is going to provide the parking for tourists. However, there was a major roundabout as we were leaving the town, which again made Tony feel at home (picture).

Our next stop was Steins, New Mexico, a ghost town (http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/steins.html) . Unfortunately this web site shows more than what we saw. The town was closed when we got there. All we saw were a couple of donkeys and a few goats.

We travelled only 50 miles today and stopped in an RV park – we needed a dump station and water refill, so we stopped at Las Cruces, New Mexico for the night. Today after parking, we went to Mesilla (http://www.oldmesilla.org/) (click on tours to see the church in the town) (picture of Tony by one of the shops). Next we drove the car to the veterans memorial park (http://www.las-cruces.org/memorialwall/) and Bataan death march memorial (http://www.lascrucescvb.org/html/bataan_death_march_memorial.html) An interesting article on the bataan death march is here (http://ghostofbataan.com/bataan/abiemain.html). Footprints of men on death march from this area were cast in cement around the memorial statue (picture).

We are going to continue heading south and east towards Houston, and hope to go on to Florida in time to see a shuttle launch in Florida.

Interesting things we have seen – Sign - “There’s no beer in heaven, so you have to drink it all down here”. “Beware of cuidado” with a picture of a snake at a rest stop. Tent set up on side of road in the middle of the desert. $2.03 – the lowest for a gallon of gas to date. Thirty-five cars and trucks lined up on one lane of the interstate to go through border patrol. A “shoe tree” (see picture). A camper with a deck on top, pull down ladder inside for access

Thanks again for the phone calls, blog messages, and emails. It is nice to hear from all of you.

~~Sharon & Tony