We left Fort Stockton after a good night, and started the climb into the hills. Suddenly we were caught by a severe crosswind (later reported to have been 55-60 mph). We fought that wind all the way to Las Cruces, New Mexico. I had to keep a quarter turn of left steering just to stay on the road. The gusts were enormous, tossing us about like a ship at sea. We made it to the Walmart in Las Cruces, and snagged a good spot, put out our hydraulic levelers, and sat amazed as the wind continued to rock us, even here sitting still!
The wind died down overnight, and we set out on the final leg to Tucson. We arrived here with no incidents, thankfully the winds were more manageable, and set up camp at the Desert Diamond Casino, a nice place we've visited before. On Thursday we went to check out a few RV parks, and were not impressed. They seem to make the spaces as small as possible, to jam you in like sardines in a can, then charge you $600+ electrical for the privilege. We finally settled on a place we sleuthed out online, the RV park at the Pima County Fairground property. This is a no-frills place that offers the same size sites as all the others, but charges only $100 a week including everything. After deciding to move to the park we'd chosen, we celebrated by enjoying a nice Italian buffet lunch in the casino, for just $7.49 each.
Friday morning we moved to our site at the fairgrounds, and found that this weekend there would be a gun show here, as well as ongoing horse shows. By staying here we save on parking charges if we want to go to an event. It was very peaceful here Friday night, but next weekend there is drag racing at the track on the property so it might be noisy then.
Saturday morning we visited the swap meet, and bought some very reasonably priced veggies and a new bed cover set (an anniversary gift to ourselves). Check out the picture above to see what $9 buys you in vegetables here. From the swap meet we went to Safeway and picked out two nice rib-eye steaks and some asparagus to go with the multi-colored baby potatoes and the portabella mushrooms we got at the dollar store. Topped that off with some mussels in garlic butter sauce, and we had the makings of a nice anniversary dinner.
After our shopping expedition, I went to the gun show, while Marlene stayed home with Ben. I'd never seen anything like it... a big flea market full of every kind of gun, and every kind of gun accessory. In addition to guns, there were purveyors of knives, ammo, leather goods (holsters), militaria, antique arms, books, pepper sprays, knuckle dusters, combat batons, stun guns, etc.
There was a mix of dealers (who fill in paperwork for each sale) and private sellers, where no paperwork is required. One enterprising fellow was selling a LAWS rocket and launcher, just in case a tank gets loose in the neighbourhood and needs to be destroyed. There were quite a few fathers shopping for a first gun for their kids, and one old lady in her eighties trying to decide between several revolvers, each of which had to be test fitted in her purse. I bought a neat switchblade knife for $5. The scene was amazing to me, a citizen of gun-hating Canada. Sorry, the pictures above don't do it justice.
Saturday night we feasted on our steak dinner, and it was fabulous. Never had those purple potatoes before, and we were surprised how different they are. Well sated, we retired to bed and had a peaceful evening. Stay tuned...
No comments:
Post a Comment