Mar 31, 2008 - Gila Bend, AZ

We have been here for the winter. It is getting to be time to move on. We are both getting itchy feet and are ready to start our next trip. As long as gas is not cost prohibitive we are planning to travel to the New England states and on in to Nova Scotia. We went to Organ Pipe National Monument on March 27, with my brother, Larry and his girlfriend Hilda. The center picture above is of them in front of an Organ Pipe Cactus. We will be departing Gila Bend on April 7 and are going to Las Vegas, NV to see son, Randell and family. Frank, also,...

Mar 6, 2008 - Gila Bend, AZ

Well, after being in Tucson for 25 days, we decided to leave. We ended up at Hilla Bend, AZ. We just stopped thru here on our way to California. The camping was only 7.00 a night and the laundry was free! We stayed for 2 nights and then headed out. When we were there we drove over to Ajo, AZ and saw a mining hole we also went and ate at the Space Age Restraunt. It is a Holiday Inn hotel and dinner that has been open sincew the 1960's and is done in a space age fashion. Really neat but over-priced!

Feb 8, 2008 - Gila Bend

Day 59 Friday - We left Tombstone & headed West. Stopped off to walk round the Boothill Cemetery on the outskirts of Tombstone. The cowboys killed in the OK corral gunfight are buried there. The drive across Arizona was mainly through desert with lots of the tall cactus plants that one sees on the cowboy movies. There are still mountain ranges all around. We bypassed Tucson & continued along Interstate 10 & then 8 to Gila Bend which is just a small place in the middle of desert country. Most of the deserts we have driven through in Texas,...

Feb 1, 2008 - Gila Bend and Beyond

We are currently about 30 miles south of Gila Bend, a small town of sparse accommodations and high gas prices. Spent most of the morning dumping, getting water, gas, and propane in preparation for our foray into the "outback". Stopped at Gila Bend to top-off on gasoline before turning south. Our campsite is in the desert, near another Gummit proving ground. I think they have jet fighter dogfights around here, but haven't seen any planes yet. It being Friday, they may not be practicing until Monday again. Interestingly, when we were driving...

Jan 19, 2008 - Gila Bend

Left Benson this morning, after a 20 degree night. We believed the forecast, which was for just below freezing, so didn't bother to shut down the water. The hose was solid from end to end, and the tap was frozen open. Glad Jan has a hair dryer, since it served to thaw out the tap, and allow it to close. The hose was another matter. I left it in the sun, and about an hour later was able to connect it, and force a bit of water to flow through. It opened up, and blew out little slugs of ice. We travelled to Gila Bend, via the 1960's. Just up...

Jan 11, 2008 - The Ranch in Gila Bend, AZ

So here are the pictures of "The Ranch" that I promised to post. Stephen is very artistic and the house and courtyard reflect his artistic talents. The house was a double wide trailer that they straw bailed and then stuccoed into a little hacienda. Randy and Stephen have been working for the past 3 days on putting in a new water system for the ranch house. Spencer even helped out a little bit the last couple of days. It was a big job to replumb the whole house with pex, but Diana is so grateful to finally have running water in the kitchen....

Jan 11, 2008 - Gila Bend, AZ

We picked an inexpensive RV Park tucked behind a gas station off the interstate, because we only intended to stop for one night in Gila Bend, Arizona. The RV park turned out to be much nicer than we expected. It was easy to get in and out of, had big, level sites, and full hook-ups. Best of all, it was set back from the Gas station in the middle of the desert. We liked it so much, we ended up staying there for three nights. Every afternoon, we took a walk in the desert. We also enjoyed reading the local paper. Although Gila Bend is small,...

Jan 2, 2008 - Happy New Year!

Hi again everyone. We hope you had a wonderful New Year celebration. Ours was spent at the Young's house in Gila Bend, AZ. The Youngs are friends of Stephen and Diana and were kind enough to invite us over for food and fun. Spencer met a boy named Kegan, who is from Iowa and was in town visiting his Aunt Barbara who owns a vacation place here in Gila Bend. They hit it off right away and had a great time playing together. Yesterday we took a hike up the mountain again. It was a great day to hike, there was a little cool breeze and it was...

Dec 14, 2007 - Joshua Tree National Park

Today we went to the Joshua Tree National Park. Spencer had a great time climbing around on the rocks. We walked through the Cholla Garden (teddy bear cactus) and Randy just had to test to see if they really jump at you, they don't. They do have barbs on the ends that attach to you easily, so you do need to be careful. Next we visted White Tank and Arch Rock. These rocks were a lot of fun to climb around on. Spencer found a few choice spots. We proceeded on to Skull Rock where you can take a 1.7 mile interpretive hike. Spencer actually...

Dec 3, 2007 - Overnight in Gila Bend, AZ

Gila Bend is a real overnight kind of place - middle of nowhere and nothing to see. GPS: The marvel of gps gets us where we want to go with no misturns - wrong! We each have a gps operating in our rig/pickup. One is set for the scenic route, one for the most direct and the third for the bus route (to avoid low underpasses}. Guess what? Each gives different directions! We do a lot of "recalculating, recalculating." The Pellegrini gps gave directions to the rv park in Gila Bend that made no sense, took us literally in circles, and gave us a...

Apr 13, 2007 - gila bend, az camp

OUR DAY 1 PHOTOS

Mar 9, 2007 - Please Quit, or THANKS!!!!

OK, if someone out there is playing games with me, please stop it. If I have had a BUNCH of new readers in the past few days, THANKS!!!!!, and help me to understand. I've mentioned before that I get a traffic count each day for the journal. I was all excited when the count spiked sharply up to 171 for February 1......very excited, but I knew then from where the additional exposure & readers were coming. I had been able to get the journal's address listed on a couple of directories of travel journals. That February 1st tally remained my...