Alaska Kiwi: March 2013

Tucson – Rincon County West RV Resort

February 20^th_March 16^th

We really enjoyed the time we have spent at this campground and the weather north of here did not look favorable to travel so we decided to stay here until March 16^th before starting our journey north. There always seems to be plenty to do at this camp, the management had a customer appreciation day picnic, where they served 1000 people in 45 minutes. It seems like a lot of people at this camp, but we have never felt that it was crowded. We also enjoyed a couple of potluck get togethers that our neighbors in the camp have every so often. There is a drama group here that put on a play that we went to. There was an arts fair that the people who live here put on, a group of singers were performing the night we left, and there were many other activities that were on going.

We visited a few more of the sites to visit in Tucson including The Mirror Laboratory where the mirrors for the large telescopes are built and polished. The maximum size that they can build a mirror is 28ft wide and that is due to width of the highways.

We went back to the Sabino Canyon, but rather than walking into the Canyon we took the tram to the end station and went for a hike from there. The tram pretty much follows the river up the Canyon where we got off and enjoyed the flowing river.

We also went to the San Xavier Mission which is about 5 miles from the campground along the Santa Cruz River Valley. Very interesting and well maintained structure.

We also had a fun day at the Old Tucson Movie studies, where many Western Movies were made. We saw reenactment of 3 different gun fights and were shown how the stunts were done to perform these fights. There was lots of fun and historic stuff to enjoy at the studio.

We went for several bikes rides along the river wash, which has a lovely trail on both sides of the wash. The Santa Cruz wash was dry at this time of the year.

While at the campground we had some friends from Anchorage who visited us for a couple of days. Brook and Susan are doing similar to what we are doing traveling and spending time in a sunnier climate than Anchorage is at this time of the year.

The last evening we were at the camp we were in the swimming pool soaking up another beautiful Tucson sunset. We found a real comfort zone at this his camp, but we have to move on.