RV Fun Trips

A Trip to the Southwest and the Plains
November 2007
The Southwest — Page 6

Tubac, Arizona
The day began a little late due to us taking advantage of being at The Wishing Well RV Park a day ahead of schedule and we slept-in. When we got around to calling Kevin and Tina, they were surprised to hear that we had arrived already.

After a quick lunch Kay and I headed out to find our way to Kevin's and Tina's house. We reached the development okay; however, I made a couple of wrong turns before finding Mickey's place. As we walked up the front walkway Mickey was welcoming us by barking from behind the front gate. A soon as I called Mickey "My little bitty buddy" — a phrase he recognizes — he began wiggling his tail as he welcomed us to "his" house.

We are welcomed by Mickey as we approach "his" house

It was good to see our friends Kevin and Tina in their Arizona home. We were given a tour of their desert abode and told stories of their encounters with the local wildlife. Kevin and Tina always make visitors feel right at home.

Tina told us that we would be taking an afternoon trip to the fun little village of Tubac located south of Tucson. As we found our way through Tucson, Kevin and Tina told us about the sights we were seeing and things to do while here in the area. It was very clear that there are a lot of things to see and do.

The fun conversation, as we were riding through town and country, made the time go by quickly. It seemed as if the turn-off to Tubac came up quickly. Kevin drove past what looked like a northwest gateway — that was made in the old Spanish mission style — to an entrance on the southwest side of town.

Spanish mission style entrance to Tubac, Arizona

It was very clear that this little community was made up of artists, importers and businesses that sold a wide range of items. Some were beautiful pieces of art on one end of the scale to funky items that were made to appeal to a person with a special taste in art on the other end of the art scale.

Tina suggested we go to the ice cream store to take a break from our walking. If I remember correctly, there was no opposition to the idea. The weather was balmy, so we found a table outdoors to relax with our cold treats. Next to the area was what might be somewhat of a contradiction to what we were eating. As we ate our ice-cream cones we looked at a display of red peppers hanging from the rafters of a roof overhang. Sort of like fire and ice.

Clusters of red peppers hanging near the outdoor eating area

After our short break, we went to the other side of town. This little village is bigger than it looks at first glance. At several stores the objects on display appeared to overflow the property boundaries into the street. From a distance this produced a small sea of colorful items flowing from a house to the street. Tina and Kevin found a piece of pottery to take home for use in there backyard.

A colorful sea of pottery flows toward the street

I know someone who wants a donkey cart for their backyard

One of the stores had a courtyard set up to display the wares that were for sale. On one side of the courtyard was a bench with a manikin that looked like a somewhat realistic Native-American man sitting on the bench. I sat down on the bench and struck a pose like that of the manikin. Kevin took a picture of the two of us contemplating whatever there was to contemplate in front of us.

Maury and his new friend — he doesn't talk much — Photo by Kevin

As we left Tubac, it was getting close to time for dinner, so it was decided that we would go to a nearby casino buffet for our evening meal. The buffet was inexpensive with a nice selection of foods from around the world. This made things a bit difficult when it came to making a decision as to what to pick because there were more choices than a person could eat at one sitting.

Tubac Photo Album

As we consumed our meals we discussed what we had seen during the day as well as what we should do with the remainder of the evening. Even though we were in the Desert Diamond Casino, Kevin suggested we go to the new Desert Diamond casino in town that had just opened days before.

Using gambler's psychology, two people in our party came out ahead at the new casino. This means that the winnings were enough to mostly recover previous losses. The bottom line was that we were able to play the games with a lot of more money than we had and were able to walk away with almost as much as we had when we began.

As Kay and I departed from Kevin's and Tina's place, we were looking forward to the next day that had been planned for us by our hosts.