We loved Tucson!  The beautiful mountains in the distance and the tall saguaros were fascinating sights as we pulled into the Mission View RV Resort in Tucson   which is located on an Indian reservation.  

The weather was a little chillier than we had hoped for, but their was the promise of warmer days to come.

We rode downtown and found some interesting photo opportunities.  

Our last day in Tucson we went to the beautiful Mission San Xavier, a short drive from our campground.    Construction of the mission began in 1783 and was completed in 1797.    At that time Arizona was part of New Spain and became part of Mexico in 1821 following Mexican independence.  The mission became part of the United States in 1854 and became a National Landmark in 1963. It is the oldest intact European structure in Arizona and is still an active church with a K-8 mission school with an enrollment of 135.   

Bill found a county park nearby in the desert –  Tucson Mountain Park which will give us an opportunity to experience camping in the desert, so we decided to leave Mission View and head to the desert.

After staying an extra day in Deming, New Mexico due to high wind advisories against driving on the interstate with large vehicles, we headed to Benson, Arizona for a one night stay on our way to Tucson.  We stayed at an Escapees Co-op park which was great for a one night stop.  It went down to 24 degrees that night and we awoke the next morning to a car covered with a heavy frost.  Bill had a package scheduled to arrive by UPS at the campground the day before, but for some unknown reason the UPS driver could not find the address, so we drove to the UPS store in Sierra Vista to pick up the package.

On the way back from UPS we decided to take another route back to the campground to pick up the RV.  We wanted to see as much of the area as possible, and we were so glad we did because this route took us right through Tombstone, Arizona which we had thought about visiting.

 On this cold morning not many people were out, but we did see a stagecoach  and got feel for the old west feel of the town.  If you enjoy seeing what the old west looked like and watching staged gunfights, this is the place to go.  We stopped by Boothill Graveyard and peeked through the fence at the tombstones.

tombstones

We didn’t have a lot of time to explore since we had to get back to check out by 11:00, but we were glad we had a chance to see what Tombstone, Arizona was all about.  If we are ever in the area again, it would be nice to spend a day strolling down the street like Matt Dillon and Miss Kitty did all those years ago!

We went through yet another border patrol stop, our third since leaving Texas.  They are always very pleasant and we were quickly on our way back to the campground.