Albuquerque-Benson AZ - 2018

Welcome to Albuquerque!  We decided to stay at the KOA (20-27 Nov) here mainly because it was closer to my sister's place.  Our son came down from Denver for Thanksgiving also.  It was a good time with my sister, brother, nephew, son and wife.  All I can say is we got stuffed.  After everyone went their own way, we headed back to Elephant Butte State Park (27-30 Nov) for a few days and then on to Benson AZ.  That is where we and this story continues.

So we arrived at the SKP Saguaro Co-op Escapee's park in Benson AZ and plan on staying here from 30 Nov to 15 Dec.  This is a members only park that is first come style park.  Also, they have long term lease members that "Own" each site.  The owners have the choice of renting out there spot to people like us that come and visit.  Most spots have a Casita on them, but some are just empty lots with some having a patio.  The spots are very large and long.  Most SKP parks are the same way and you can become a leaseholder too if you like.  That is what we decided to do since this park has most things that we would use like a large dog park, a fully equipped wood and metal shop, small gym, large movie collection, and a storage lot for each lease holder.

The way this park works (all are different) is you put down a deposit to get on a waiting list and as spots open up, you get on the list by calling in.  If you are the lowest number on the waiting list that called in, then you get the spot.  Then each year, you pay a maint fee and then when you are done with it, you put it up for lease.  After it gets leased again, you get your lease money back.  You don't make any money, but you don't lose any either (less maint fees).  We figured that was a good deal for us.  Maybe in 4 or 5 years, we will be low enough on the list to get one.

So what did we do while we were here?  Well we went to Tombstone, a cactus national park, and a biosphere.

So our first outing was to Tombstone where we saw a lot of tombstones at Boothill Graveyard, they were just dying to get in...sorry just had to say that.  If you want to check out a bunch of graves, check out this link to my pics.

We then wandered into town.  We tried to get a show in a saloon with shootouts but when the time came for the show, we were the only ones in it, so they gave us our money back and we went to the OK Corral to see the gunfight show there.  They had some wacky bullets, because they didn't even point the gun at the other person, but they still got them.  Made me wonder if they could shoot around corners too.  Anyway, did you know there wasn't even horses in the corral, just people on benches looking in the same direction.  I have a video of this show, or parts of it at least if you want to see it.  Here is the link to that.

Then we mozied the other end of town and checked out the Bird cage theater.  I hear this was pretty famous and it was also in the movie Tombstone.  But here are the pics for that.  After that, we had lunch and headed home.  Here are some picture of the old town street.

On another day, we headed to Tucson to check out Biosphere 2.  Its a research center studying the environment.  Some of the things they study is the impact on different environments during different weather patterns.  Like when there is a drought in the rain forest, or excessive rain for that matter.  Or when the humidity gets too high in the desert as another example.  They also find the best way to use solar panels.  They have this one (of a couple) room that is used to change the pressure in one section or another, like the rain forest for example.  It has a big bladder that can move as much as 10 feet if I remember right. (see the picture to the right).  Anyway, it was cool if you want to check it out someday.  Oh, they even had a TV series on this, if you recall.  Here are the pics for that.

We eventually took another trip to Tucson to check out the Saguaro National Park, You know the one with cactuses, the really tall ones.  They say, that at 6 feet tall, they are something like 35 years old, and don't start getting arms until they are in there 60's.   At another place we visited, stated that when the arms are going up, the cactus is happy, but when they go down, then the cactus is not very happy.  If they are forced down, it's because of too much rain which makes the arms heavy and the can rotate down I guess.  The arms can continue to grow and the ends might start going back up, but the part that went down, stays down.  Just a little hmmm for ya.  Anyway, here are the few pictures we took there.



Boy are we exhausted, on to Yuma for a little rest and relaxation...or warmth.  Hop on the 3:10 and meet us there.  P.S.  If you clicked on the Albuquerque link, you can skip to Yuma Link.