Tombstone, the Elks, and Harvest Hosts

While at Escapade, we decided to take advantage of an opportunity to join the Elks with an accelerated initiation. All we needed to do is show up at the Elks lodge in Willcox, AZ on Tuesday, March 27 at 5:30 pm for the initiation ceremony, pay the annual dues and we would be in. Dan was among 75 other individuals from Escapade that decided to join. That meant we had to find something to do from Friday until Tuesday evening.

Tombstone

We initially looked into some nearby BLM land to boondock on but decided to go to an RV resort near Tombstone, AZ to check out the historic town. We ended up at Tombstone Territories RV Park. When we arrived to check in, the RV in front of us was another DRV Mobile Suites. It is not common for us to see another DRV in the parks we stay at much less be checking in at the same time as one.

This was a very nice park with large sites and was located just 10 miles west of Tombstone. The only downside was that they metered the electricity and charged by the kWh used. We decided to not even plug the RV in and continued to live off the power generated by our solar panels. I guess we are becoming cheap in our retirement lifestyle. We did take advantage of the water and sewer hookup, however.

On Saturday, our first full day here, we went into Tombstone to do the tourist thing. We watched a live reenactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral, which included some of the back history that led up to the famous confrontation between Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and Morgan Earp on the side of the law against Ike and Billy Clanton, and Tom and Frank McLaury. This staged reenactment took place just a couple hundred feet from the actual location of the original act. On that site stands some life-size animatronic replicas of the participants standing where they were supposedly standing as the gunfight broke out. If this is accurate then its amazing any of them got out alive but the law prevailed, none of the lawmen died and three of the outlaws did. The only gunfighter that came out unscathed was Wyatt Earp.

After the gunfight was over, we walked around the historic mining town which is now a big tourist attraction. Since it was lunchtime, we looked for a place to eat but every diner and restaurant was pretty busy so it looked like we were going to have to wait a while. We decided on the Crystal Palace Saloon, which was founded in 1879. As it turns out we hit it just right and were seated immediately. The food was OK but the atmosphere was nice and did give you a little bit of a sense for the wild west era. After we finished eating, we did some more walking and worked our way towards the Tombstone Brewery for some local brew. The beer was good but we decided not to take any home with us.

On the way home, we stopped at the historic Fairbank ghost town that was recommended to us and was only 2 miles from our RV resort. There was an interesting hiking trail here but we were not prepared but we did walk through the restored school house. We returned the next day armed with hiking shoes and plenty of water. The hike was interesting and passed by the town’s cemetery and the ruins of a silver stamping mill. The graves in the cemetery were mostly piles of stone used to cover the deceased and we could tell from the size that some of the graves were for the very young. The looping trail returned to the starting point by traveling along the banks of the San Pedro River. This was a very enjoyable hike with free range cattle grazing on the opposite bank of the river and birds flying from tree to tree. After we got back to our rig, we tried out the RV cleaning kit we bought at Quartzsite to remove the bugs off the front of the RV and truck.

Joining the Elks

We left Tombstone Territories RV Park and drove a little over an hour to Lifestyles RV Resort in Willcox, AZ. We knew we were going to arrive a bit early, so we decided to pull into the rest stop along the I-10 section we traveled. As we pulled in, we saw another DRV Mobile Suites and parked right next to them. As mentioned, our brand of 5th wheel is not as common as other brands and it is relatively rare to come across another one while traveling. So, it was surprising to cross paths with two on the same leg of our journey. Since we needed to kill some time, we chatted with the owners of the other DRV for about 20 minutes. We are learning it is true that you meet so many nice people while traveling the country in an RV.

We chose the Lifestyles RV resort in Willcox because that is where our friend, Jim, was staying while he also waited for the Elks initiation. We had dinner with Jim on Monday night and on Tuesday morning, we drove to Chiricahua National Monument for some hiking. The rock formations in this National Monument were fascinating and our almost 7 mile hike was a wonderful mix of forest and desert highlands. We finished the hike early enough to get back to Willcox in time for Amy to do laundry while Dan got the truck refueled. Then, it was time for the Elks initiation ceremony which we can’t talk about. We did plan to have dinner with Jim along with Kay and Paul after the ceremony but it took so long that the only thing left open was Pizza Hut. We decided that would have to do because we were hungry and we may not see each other again for some time.

The Windmill Winery Harvest Host

We needed an overnight stop partway between Willcox and our next destination near Sedona so we decided to utilize our subscription to Harvest Hosts. The only logical choice for a host was the Windmill Winery located in Florence, AZ, a little southeast of Phoenix. We definitely had a positive experience for our first Harvest Host stop. The venue was beautiful! They host many events here, and from what we could gather, are very busy with weddings throughout the year. We met another couple who were also spending the night at this Harvest Hosts\. It turns out that they were also at Escapade and had joined the Elks in Willcox the night before. Go figure.

It has been a busy 5 days since we left the Pima County Fairgrounds and the Escapade Rally. We are now headed for some public lands between Cottonwood and Sedona where we hope to sit tight for a while and relax. We’ll tell you all about that in our next post.