3/25/05-Friday, Good Friday, Start every trip with an incident, start with forgetting camera and sunglasses, then the farm truck in front of us loses a tire, it rolls into oncoming traffic, where it is hit by a truck and accelerated into the side of the RV. Arrive in Louisville, KOA 60F

3/26 -Sat, Driving south to Tuscaloosa, AL the temperature increased to 85, target is Gulfport. Camped Knoxville AL, sites on side of a hill, and storms

3/27 -Sun, Arrive on the coast, find Bay St. Louis, Casino Magic. MLS picks up 200 in first 20 Min

3/28\- Mon, Went for a bike ride around the lot, got lost, had to ride 7 miles to get home. MLS returns to the casino, promptly picks up another 200. JW Still looking for first win.

3/29- Tue, What to do?  It’s a drive day, so we push on to Vinton, LA. This is just a stop so we push on to Corpus Christi, TX

 3/31 OK, this shows promise of some sun, so while MLS explores the pool, I settle in on fixing the computer. Make $10 printer work is the task. I forgot Windows 98 disk and now can’t find one after calling 5 places. So knowing better, I buy Windows XP, it loads but needs more memory, go to Laptop Shop, the computer will not allow enough memory to run, so the solution is  a new computer.  And new software, and hours of downloading from the Internet to get it all working……

4/6 Wed, We chased around town and went to the USS Lexington, “The Blue Ghost”

 4/7-9 Now to get across this state, first to Junction where we found a cute little Park loaded with Bird watchers, then to Fort Stockton where the truck stop provided the nights entertainment, then through El Paso to Deming NM. Plowing into the wind for two days is hard on the gas mileage, a neighbor bragged about getting 12 mpg, heading east, we were half that.  Tucson is just 3 hours away!

 4/10-Sun, Extra day, so laundry and shopping make the agenda, fix water leaks, still windy.

Talked to people who wintered in Quartzite and Yuma, both said it was a bad winter, no place to hide. Rain and cold.

4/11 Mon Hit the road to Benson AZ, Weather is great, so what the heck we'll stay a week.  Are in striking distance of Sierra Vista and Tombstone.

4/12 Tue MLS hangs at the pool, JW finds things to fix.

4/13 Wed  Butterfield RV Resort. A nice place but Benson is a little small, road the bike on 5-10 & 15 mile trips, MLS walking on the treadmill.

.........more of the same, there is not a cloud in the sky, soaking up the heat to thaw the bones.

4/18  Time to move on, so we will head west, 45 miles down the road to Tucson, or maybe Yuma, haven't decided

4/19 -4/21 Tucson, Just bumming around the Voyager,  built a crane to take top of the Jeep, puzzles, pool, reading and drive arounds.

4/22 With the mission accomplished and now able to remove and replace the top, the AZ sun is too hot so it is off to the store to buy a Bikini top to protect the front seat.

Then it's off to Gunsight Pass high in the Santa Rita Mountains, It has spectacular views and some problems.

Off to the Garden Canyon and the old Kentucky Camp. I walk a little of the Arizona Trail, I find it similar to the Appalachian Trail, it's about 12 inches wide. The camp makes a great place to stop over for hikers. I ride down into the canyon to find some gold.

Looks like the Gold is
 already spoken for.

Then a paved road to the top of Mount Lemmon entices MLS to go along, it gets a little chilly at the top in spite of the 90 degree valley temp, we have lunch at the top.

There was construction on alot of the road, evidently rocks  keep falling on the road.

5/9-Mon. This day we spend in St. Joseph's Hospital, since MLS fell off her bike and bruised her shoulder and ribs, very painful and no remedy.

5/11 Wed. So it is time to rest up and soak up some sun.

5/16 Mon Today I  plan to ascend Rincon Peak, 8442ft ,tallest mountain in Tucson. I can see it just 20 miles direct flight from the RV.  Pack up water and snacks for an early start to the trail head. The trail gets steeper with each mile, the legs give in 700ft from the top,  leaving enough reserve to get back down.  Only critters I saw were deer, squirrel, lizard, and red and black banded snake.

The legs are relieved to see the yellow chariot waiting at  trails head. 

16mi hike round trip, partly on the Arizona Trial, a little ambitious 
Making progress, the trail is so easy to find?

Only 700ft to go.
A view form the top of my climb, now to get down.

5/17 Tue- Gee I'm a little stiff in the joints, extra aches and pains, so we hit the spa after cleaning the Jeep.

5/20 Mary's Birthday, so I plan a movie and a big Steak at the Claim Jumper.  Temp = 106 at 6pm. More neighbors, Barb & Dave,  move out.

5/24-28 Sat- An action packed week, ML is off to the doctor with persistent shoulder pain, went to Pedata RV, looked hard at some new RV's, ate at Chuey's, ML went to the spa place, got a  new camera from Circuit City after two painful episodes with sales "associates", and it "rained", so now the AC is off and the fresh air is plentiful, So we are leaving today for Yuma, where the real heat is..

5/28-30 OK, arrived in Yuma after surviving vicious attacks by tumble weed, they lay along the edge of the road and then jump out in front of the RV, stopped at Bonita Mesa, but no one home, no one alive, headed to 32nd and 5E to find Villa Alameda, closer to town so easy to get to new mall, only 30 left in the park, looked around but all the parks are abandoned, ML hooked up with old school mate buddy, Charles Wells,  and we  had a lovely evening with them. They head back east Wed. Signed up for a week to give us time to mess around here, ML off to the pool. 

5/31-6/2-Thur We visited the Yuma Prison and stopped by the Cold Stone for a $5 Sunday.   Charlie and Jackie stopped over, had a little problem with the gnats. I took a ride to the high county, rode the Laguna Mountain Ridge trail, on the ridges one can't get out of the Jeep and if you miss the trail, you tumble!. 

Well, made it to the top, explored a little, is that Mule Ears?, and the water is plentiful in the Yuma desert, this water flow comes right out of a  Mountain tunnel.

Some prison, 35 years, and 35 escapes, lots of pardons. This hombre was given a full pardon, ML made me do it. 6 prisoners to a 12 x 9 cell, gee wasn't that the size of my office, and that's my employee #, temperature got to 130F, I had air-conditioning, that was the difference.

6/3-Fri Went to CA and visited the Sand Hills, just looked, a little like Jockey Ridge at Nags Head, but a million times bigger. The dunes make excellent watch out positions for the BP, They are hard to spot but they are on every vantage point. I would guess that I-8 is less than a mile from the Mexican boarder, 2000 ft.

6/5-Sun Weeks up, so we are off, every where we went people always talked about Quartzite, so we are off to see what's it about, turns out to be hideous, so its off to Lake Havasu, London Bridge and all.

6-6-7 Mon-Tue Moved to Cattail 
Cove SP, went for a Jeep ride up Standard Wash, met up with McGiever Rock, yep we are stuck, stranded, hanging on the skid plates, no one for miles. Rocks and jacking , rocks and jacking, 1 hr and its free, Xtine would've never gotten stuck here!

6-8 Wed, Went for swim,  movie and dinner

6-9 Thru,  Rode the Dixie Belle around the island, groceries and home. Found the London Bridge.

For sure and by far this is the worst place we have been. Hot, humid and it Stinks.  give me a home where he buffalo roam!