Tucson and a new desert

On Tuesday, February 9, we left El Paso bound for Tucson, AZ.  The road was good and the traffic wasn’t heavy, so Darlene took a turn at driving the rig.  She was proficient with our previous 5er, but this one is bigger, so she was nervous.  When it looked like we were coming to a mountain pass, she passed the helm off to me again.  She did well and only needs to build confidence which comes with time behind the wheel.

 We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in San Simeon, AZ.  

OK. We ate in the rig and just used the parking lot.

This drive took us from one desert to another.  West Texas and New Mexico are in the Chihuahuan Desert, while Tucson is on the Sonoran desert.  

Later in our trip we will move into the Mojave desert as well.  We were in the Great Basin desert on our June 15 trip.  This will make 4 out of 4 for US deserts.

By late afternoon we pulled into the Pima County Fair campground.  There's no fair now, it's in April.






For our stay in Tucson, we decided to try out our dry camping skills for a full week.  That means we would fill our water tank (93 gal.) and use our inverter & batteries & generator so that we would not have to hook up to park utilities.  We only run the generator for a few hours each morning to charge the batteries.  At the end of a week, we are doing quite well and don’t feel deprived of any RV “luxuries.”

We attended Ash Wednesday and Sunday services at Christ Lutheran Vail.  It has helped us remember the season we are in and what’s happening for Christian family and friends as Lent is observed in preparation for Jesus’ glorious resurrection on Easter.

Saguaro National Park brackets Tucson on the east and west.  Since the east or Rincon Mountain section is closer to our campground, we spent time in the Visitors Center and drove the 8 mile loop through a saguaro forest.

Our week in Tucson has been very enjoyable.  We like the city and the weather so much that returning here seems likely.  


We’ll be doing more boondocking (dry camping) in our next few locations, so this shake down time has proven quite helpful.  



So now it’s time to move on west.  Our next destination: Why?  I guess you'll just have to come back to find out.