Solo life on 30 amps - Living full time in an RV: March 20th through March 26th, 2022 - Week Twelve

Destination number: 91/171/29

As I look at the destination number above, I marvel at its meaning, and hopefully it will help those who might be new to my blog.

Since 2009, I have driven this motorhome has been to 91 destinations.

With all the numerous RV's I've been in during my life; I have been to 171 RV destinations.

I've been to 29 different RV destinations since I became single again.

This week finds us in Tucson Arizona as Remi and I make our way back to California. The RV park we are staying at this week is the "South Forty RV Park" in Tucson. Like just about every other RV park along the I-10 here in Arizona, it is a 55 and older park only. Though I fit into the category of being over 55, finding a park that allows dogs over 30 pounds none the less proves to be a challenge. Fortunately, this park doesn't have any size or breed restrictions. They only have concerns about aggressive individual dogs. The park is one of the cleanest ones I have ever stayed at. A lot of mature Saguaro cactuses and other plants. The roads can be a little tight to navigate, but they have someone in a golf cart that will help you to get into your spot.

Our travel day was on Sunday, this time and I decided I wanted to treat myself and Remi by going out to a restaurant that Remi could join me at. I ordered a Black and Blue Salad. Sadly, the steak that came along with it was one of the toughest I had ever eaten. I think Remi's size was scaring the waiter cuz he never came back to ask if everything was ok, or if I needed a drink refill. In fact I had to go find the bartender just to ring myself out. But that is ok, Remi's company was wonderful.

Also, today was Remi's Adopt-a-versary, so we went by Petsmart and picked her up a pup cake to celebrate! :-)

Though Tucson wasn't really what I considered a destination spot for me, I did manage to visit three locations while I was in Tucson this week. Because I had a software upgrade scheduled for Friday night and Saturday of this week, I took Wednesday off to go explore three great locations. And fortunately, I didn't have near as many challenges with "Spring Break" visitors as I did last week. Of course, that may be due to the fact that I went on Wednesday instead of Saturday or Sunday, but either way it was a win for me.

My first stop on Wednesday was a visit to Kartchener Caverns South of Tucson. I was especially looking forward to this stop because I had missed out at Carlsbad Caverns when I was in Las Cruces. I knew making this trip that dogs were not permitted at all at this State park, so I left Remi at home this day. Because of so many people dropping cell phones, binoculars, cameras and other items into the caverns in the past, the folks at Kartchener prohibit you taking anything other than your wallet, car keys and glasses (if needed for distance) into the caverns. They had a number of great exhibits in the visitors center to give you a sense on what you are going to see. The caverns DID NOT disappoint, though I think they have taken some editing license with the coloring in the caverns from what you see in real life. The caverns were beautiful, but not quite as colorful as what I saw on some pictures. None the less, this tour is very much worth while! Before you go in the caverns, there are several examples of rock quarry tools that are used in breaking up rock.

The caverns get their name from the fact that the caverns were found on the Kartchener Ranch back in the 1970's. The caverns were found by a couple of explorers who then reached out to the property owners about preserving the caverns for historical purposes. The owner of the property remarked that they are not surprised the caverns were down there because he thought the ground sounded hallow when he rode his horse over it.

Kartchener Caverns was the furthest out location that I planned to visit, the other two were along my way back to the campground. My next stop was Saguaro National Park where there is a huge reserve of Saguaro Cactus on display throughout this park. Most of the visitors center is closed still due to COVID Concerns, but, there is a great 8 mile loop drive that you can drive through the Saguaro by car or ride a bicycle. There are also a couple of trails through the park as well to walk among a few of the Saguaro, but really the best way to experience this is either by car or bicycle.

My last stop this day was the Pima Air and Space Museum. I've always heard of it, but never been to it. If you come and want to go on a tour of the "Bone Yard" where old plane go, you must go on Thursday through Sunday. The tram tour does not run on Monday through Wednesday. So, again, I missed out on that. Oh well. The rest of the museum is well worth the price of admission! The number of aircraft here has to be without equal. There are 5 hangers that have various aircraft in them, as well as a whole tarmac of various aircraft parked outside. This is a place you could easily spend 4 hours or even an entire day. The three hours I spent here were not enough for someone who grew up wanting to be a jet pilot. They had everything from a replica of the Wright flyer and just about every flying vehicle made after it.

They had a whole hanger dedicated to the B-17's which were pivotal to the battle of World War II. I didn't get any Picures of it, but I did get video so check that out below.

This is a German V-I buzz bomb. One of Hitlers many Wonder Weapons. Kind of a predecessor to a drone.

An old Lockheed Constellation, also called a Connie back in the day.

This was Air Force one that served for John F Kennedy and Lydon Bains Johnson in the 1960's.

The "Guppy" was used by NASA to transport some segments of the Saturn V rocket, that when assembled were used to fly men to the moon.

I got out and did my exploring on Wednesday of this week, primarily because I had to work on the weekend on a software upgrade. The software upgrade of this software always ages me about 10 years each time we do it because it is a three part process. Each part takes at least 2 hours to complete with a spinning wheel that gives you no idea how long the process will take. And, you don't know if somewhere along the way it is going to fail or if it is hung up. One process is notorious for taking 6 or more hours to run. In my case, it had run for 12 hours, and I reached out to tech support twice for guidance. The first time the analyst (on the night shift) said, just let it run. The next day, the analyst on the day shift took a bit more of an investigative approach on the issue and we determined that the "Indicator" was stuck on "Running" but the process had in fact completed sometime earlier. After about 38 hours straight of baby-sitting the upgrade, it was done. I still have a few cleanup issues to address, but I'll get those taken care of this next week.

Here is the video from this week's exploration and also a sampling of what the RV Park looks like.