Raise Your Hands ... Who's Been To Tucson??

Not me ... this is another first on my adventure trail.  Patty and I left early in the morning to the Gem and Mineral Show in Quartzsite.  Every time we go, we learn so much more about our favorite turquoise.  As I mentioned previously, there are lots of mines in the Nevada area, one of the most well known being the Royston.  They are working the piles of tailings at the moment.  Interestingly enough, we met the owner of the mine, Dave Otteson and got more information, including the fact that you can visit his mine for a tour, keeping all the turquoise you find along the way.  His brother does the same, and you can camp in your RV.  Sounds like fun to me!!  I purchased this spectacular piece from him.   It looks green, but is more turquoise in real life.  It's a good thing we didn't stay longer ... I was running out of money!!

As we left Quartzsite headed East, the lineup of cars behind me stretched as far as the eye could see.

Between the people and car traffic, it took us a few minutes to navigate to the freeway.  Since so many people had been nice and let us cross, we did the same.  We are finally Tucson bound.

If you've been to Tucson before, you know the trip isn't the most interesting and I'm pretty easy to entertain!!  When we finally got a little altitude, the saguaros got my attention pretty quickly.  So many look amazingly like hands reaching up to the sky.

We took 10 East, then turned South on Hwy 85 to Gila Bend, to Hwy 8 East so as to miss Phoenix.  I've heard horror stories about Phoenix!!  Somewhere along the line I missed Gila Bend and Casa Grande.  They must be around there somewhere, but I never saw a town at all!!

As Hwy 10 turned South towards Tucson, the landscape looked pretty sparse and the freeway got bigger with more traffic.  

I'm NOT a fan of driving through big city freeways and byways, which doesn't bode well for me when I have to actually drive through Phoenix to get to Cottonwood in a week or so!!  YIKES!!

With REAL diesel fuel in our tanks from a Pilot station on the outskirts of Tucson, we headed another few miles South to the Chance Ranch RV Park.  It looked like a tight squeeze, but it was easy to get the rig in here ... I'm not sure about how to get OUT ... but if Mr. Chance can get his 40 foot rig out of here, I guess I can get my 36 out.  I'm pretty sure my insurance will cover the flag pole and bird feeder!!

The views here are amazing and the Arizona sunsets brilliant!!  Did I mention the trains??  I knew there were trains in the area, but didn't know they were a quarter mile away.  Big, beautiful freight trains, some headed to Mexico.  As you know, I love trains ... I love watching them, I love photographing them ... but when they go between my rig and that flagpole in the middle of the night ... not so much!!  Sounds travels better here than anywhere I've been!!  I guess it's the clean air!

Once I got back to sleep, I awoke to the sounds of coyotes saying it was time to get up, even though it was still pitch black.  The puppies agreed, so up it was!!  I can't wait to see if I can get some night-time animal images ... even if it is only a packrat!!  No worries, it's too cold for snakes!!