April, 2004
page 1
We're "On the Road Again." .....And a busy month it was!!!     After a round of "good-bys" with a few friends and neighbors who were left in the park, we pulled out of Palm Creek around 10:30am on April 1st.  It felt a little strange to be moving down the highway.  We made it all the way to our first destination in less than a day.......60 miles to Tucson, where we parked at the Beaudry RV Resort.  We had not taken time to make any "day trips" to the tourist attractions in the Tucson area, so we had decided to stop there for a few days as we got back on the road.  Our first afternoon we had plenty of time to visit the mission of San Xavier del Bac.  The mission was originally built in the 1600s by the Jesuits who were later forced to leave.  At a later time, the Franciscans took over and still maintain the mission which has recently been refurbished.  Its amazing that it is still standing.  On Friday the weather was terrible...lots of rain.  So, we stayed home and did major cleaning and laundry.  We did go up to the wonderful restaurant at Beaudry's Clubhouse for lunch and to use the internet connection in the lobby.  While we were there, we ran into Beth Floan who was travelling with the retired military caravan. (We had crossed paths with her last month in Casa Grande).  Friday night we went to visit Tom's cousin and her husband, Joanne and Don Blair.  We went to a Chinese restaurant for a great dinner and had a wonderful visit.  They have bought a motor home and have their house for sale.  They plan to put the RV on a lot at the Voyager RV Resort in Tucson. 
Saturday weather was a little better so we headed south from Tucson....making a stop at the Titan Missile Museum.  This missile silo is the last remaining of the 52 that were once ready and waiting to be deployed during the cold war years.  We got to go down underground and tour the command center and view the actual missile.  From there we headed to Nogales, where we found a parking lot for the car and then walked across into Mexico.  For several hours we toured the streets looking in various shops and arguing with the clerks about prices.  Just when we decided it was time to head back to the car it started to rain and we had to stand in line for about 30 minutes to get through customs. 

On our way back north we stopped at the Tumacacori National Monument which is another mission that had been built in the 1600s.  This one has not been as well kept as San Xavier.  We also stopped in Tubac, which is a small town that has become a colony for various artists with many shops and galleries.  It was closing time, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time there.

Sunday's weather was threatening once again, but we decided to drive in the opposite direction of the black clouds and went to the Saguaro National Park.  We took the scenic drive through the hills and enjoyed the many kinds of cactus and desert plants.
Inside the mission San Xavier del Bac
The nose cone of the Titan Missile
We left the Beaudry RV Park on Monday, April 5 and went just a little further south on I-10 and Route 90 to Huachuca City, AZ to check in at "The Caverns" RV Resort.  However, their definition and ours of "resort" were not quite the same!  We did have the usual full hookups, but we were definitely in the dusty desert.  The manager told us she was giving us a site with a view of the mountains, but she didn't tell us that we'd have to look to the horizon and ignore the junk yard just over the fence in front of us.  But, we enjoyed our "day trips" exploring the area that we lived in 36 years ago just after we were married and Tom was stationed at Ft. Huachuca with the US Army.  We drove onto the post but recognized or remembered very little.  We toured the Historical Museum and realized that one of the two buildings had been the movie theater.  The drive through the trailer park where we had lived in Huachuca City was depressing - but its still there.  The school where Mary taught has been enlarged greatly and the once one-room, open once a week library is now a beautiful user friendly place where we went each day of our stay to check e-mail.  Otherwise, Huachuca City hasn't changed much since 1968.  The nearby town of Sierra Vista, however, has flourished.  In 1968 it was about 7 blocks long.  It is now a bustling town with many new homes, a mall, Wal-Mart, Target, Big K and various restaurants.  We battled the crowds on Wednesday to take advantage of double coupons and senior discount day as we had in Casa Grande.  
Other adventures in Cochise County included a trip to Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas.  We walked the boardwalks in Tombstone and took in some of the Old West atmosphere, peeking into the shops and saloons.  In Bisbee, we marveled at the homes and shops perched on the sides of the canyon walls and peered into the huge Lavender Pit Copper Mine, which has been pretty much abandoned by the Phelps Dodge Company.  In Douglas we went into the Gadsden Hotel, which was built in 1906 (still in operation) and has a beautiful Tiffany Glass mural in the lobby. Being right on the Mexican border, when we ate at the Burger King for lunch we had to use our Spanish language - we were definitely the "outsiders" in the group of Wal-Mart shopping pedestrians.
Tombstone, AZ
Click on "forward" above to see more of our April adventures.
The Mission at the Tumacacori National Monument.
Scenery at the Saguaro National Monument.

Friday, April 9th we moved on from Huachuca City, AZ to Las Cruces, NM.  We spent the Easter weekend at the Hacienda Resort.  This is a beautiful RV park with wide landscaped sites and a gorgeous clubhouse and patio.  They had a free margarita party on Friday night, Strawberry Shortcake Social on Easter afternoon and they serve free breakfast every morning.  It would be a great place for a weekend chapter rally.  While in the area we toured the White Sands Missile Range Museum, the White Sands National Monument and in Alamagordo we toured the Space Museum.  The dunes of White Sands are amazing and it was fun watching people slide down the big hills on their saucer sleds.  There were RVs there that were all set up for a long day's stay...lots of beach but no water!  Easter Sunday was cool and rainy so we drove around the old areas of the city and out to the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum...which turned out to be a wonderful museum with a great steakhouse restaurant.

Monday morning we were again headed east....back up through Alamagordo and on towards Carlsbad...through the Lincoln National Forest and Cloudcroft where there was lots of SNOW!!!!   It was beautiful on the pine trees...we're glad we didn't have to drive in it as it was actually coming down.  We arrived at the Escapees RV Park "The Ranch" in Lakewood in the mid-afternoon...where they rang the big bell to announce our arrival.  At Social Hour we were introduced to everyone...a very friendly group, but the park is in the middle of nowhere...I don't think we'd enjoy staying there all winter.  So, Tuesday, we continued our travel....stopping for the night at a Wal-Mart in Abilene, TX.  We proved the adage..."It's never a free stay at Wal-Mart." 
The Thousand Trails Preserve, Lake Tawakoni, was our destination on Wednesday, April 14.  It is about an hour east of Dallas on the shore of a huge lake.  The sites are quite wooded and there were lots of bugs!!!  We stayed at Lake Tawakoni for 6 nights and using this as a base, took in some sights in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  Going into Greenville to use the library, we discovered a museum dedicated to the cotton industry and to World War II hero, Audie Murphy.  Near the DFW Airport we toured the American Airlines Museum. We got a glimpse of the Mary Kay Cosmetics industry with a tour of the corporate center and museum and also a tour of the manufacturing plant. We also made a visit to the "Sixth Floor Museum" which is the former Texas School Book Depository from where President John F. Kennedy was shot.  It was a somber but interesting visit to the spot and they have recreated the scene inside the building as it was at the time.  One day we drove to DeSoto,TX and watched some kite flyers.  A couple that we had met at Mary's mother's park in Pharr, TX several years ago was camping at Thousand Trails, are avid kite flyers and had told us about the festival. The windy weather really helped them out.
April, 2004
page 2
The missile park at the White Sands Missile Range
Take a second look...it's not snow!      It's the dunes at White Sands National Monument, NM
The Texas School Book Depository in Dallas, TX.  Shots were supposedly fired from the 6th floor corner window.
A puffer-fish kite at the DeSoto, TX Kite Festival.
The site of President Kennedy's assassination.
Assembling mascara at the Mary Kay Cosmetics manufacturing plant, Dallas, TX.
Click on "forward" or "back" above to see more of our April adventures.
Back at the Caverns Resort we did attend their ice cream social and video night and even played snake ball one afternoon.  We took another side trip one day to Patagonia, Sonoita and Elgin, visiting a small winery and some shops and galleries. Patagonia has become somewhat of an artists colony and there was some beautiful work displayed there.  This area is also a favored area for bird-watching so we went to a garden behind a private home where the public is invited to come and enjoy the gardens and birdfeeders.  There were lots of colorful butterflies and hummingbirds.  We enjoyed a great lunch at an outdoor Mexican cafe in Patagonia as well.
The Lavender Pit Copper Mine in Bisbee, AZ.
Thursday, April 22 was another travel day.  This time we moved on to Branson, Missouri.  We'd been planning to stop here for three years and finally made it!  We checked into the Treasure Lake RV Resort for a five night stay and got hooked up before the heavens opened with rain.  It rained and rained and rained for several days!  The resort is quite large and has many activities.  We took in some shows...starting with the "Shoji Tabuki Show" (the Japanese violinist),followed by "The Delene Show" (a musical review) "From Patsy to Present" (a tribute to Patsy Cline and other female artists since the 60's) and "Andy Williams and Ann-Margaret" (a great show and lots of energy for a couple of senior citizens!) The rains lasted for 3 days and the area had close to 10" of rain.  The coach sank in the mud and we had to raise the levelers and move up in our site on Saturday.  Apparently we were in Branson at the beginning of the season....the shows were not filled to capacity and the traffic was not anything like we'd been told is would be.  The Sunday paper announced that there will be 122 shows to choose from in full season. And with all the water parks and amusements we can only imagine how busy it will be in the summer.
April, 2004
page 3
Click on "back" above to see more of our April adventures.
Tom and his "uncle" Andy.
Ann-Margaret on her motorcycle, two days before her 63rd birthday.
On Tuesday, April 20 we were traveling once again....from the Thousand Trails east of Dallas up to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  The park we stayed in here, Riverview Paradise, was a strange set-up, but quite decent....it appeared to be a residential golf course community gone sour where the owners were trying to get a few bucks serving RVs.  In Hot Springs we visited the National Park which is actually most of the town, but especially the "Bathhouse Row."  The Visitor Center is an old bathhouse which has been returned to its 1930ish setup. The bathhouses are built at the foot of a mountain which has numerous hot springs running from it.  The water comes out of the springs at about 140* and they actually cooled the water to use it in some of the therapies.   It was amazing to see some of the equipment and to think that it was "state of the art" at the time.  It looked a little scary to us. The bathhouses also had huge parlors and music rooms where people gathered after they had used the separate mens and womens facilities.  The mens facilities were much more lavish than the womens!  There are several bathhhouses still operating, but we didn't take advantage of their services.
The Fordyce Bathhouse, Hot Springs Arkansas....which is the Visitor Center at the Hot Springs National Park
Leaving Branson on Tuesday morning, April 27 we drove up I-44 to Lebanon where we stopped at the Russell Stover Candy Outlet (never can pass up one of these!!) and at a barrel factory.  We had a quite interesting time watching them make bourbon barrels.  (No free samples here!)  Next stop was the St. Louis area and the Harrah's Riverport Casino.  We have stayed here several times before as we passed through.  We played a little Blackjack and had a nice dinner - thanks to the casino!  This is a more profitable place to stay than at Wal-Mart!  But, we stayed only one night, then headed on east on I-70.  We're finally back in Speedway/SuperAmerica gas territory and found a station where we could fill up with fuel and use the vouchers we've been collecting all winter. It sure is nice to not have to stop as often as we did when using gasoline rather than diesel fuel.  We spent Wednesday night at a Flying J Travel Plaza in Indiana and were at our daughter's home in Marysville, OH around noon on Thursday, April 29....gathering hugs from the three granddaughters.  A great way to end the month!