Benson Memoirs

We have spent the last week exploring the Benson area. We started out by driving down to the old wild west town of Tombstone of Doc Holiday and OK corral fame. We toured the old Tombstone Courthouse which is now a museum and other historic buildings. There were also several attractions there like a reenactment of the shootout at OK corral and gunfight shows. Of course, they charge admission to watch these shows. We also went to the Kartchner Caverns State Park. These are probably some of the best preserved caves in the world. The guys that discovered the caverns kept them secret until they could have them designated as a State Park.

There is also a Meritage homes family development here that we visited. Southern Arizona is a big retirement area and we have begun to think about maybe moving here in the future. The Cincinnati Reds moved their spring training facility here a couple of years ago from Tampa, Florida and the Cleveland Indians also have spring training at the same ballpark.

Benson Layover

We arrived at our RV Resort in Benson this afternoon. It was pretty much empty because it is summer here and very hot. This is a winter destination for "snowbirds" along with many of the other age qualified RV Resorts from Phoenix to Tucson. We saw a lot of billboards for Active Adult Communities all the way from north Phoenix to here. These are typically 55+ age restricted golf course based single family housing developments with many amenities and associated high HOA dues.

Time to Go Home

Our tour of duty at Sunset Campground ended today. We gave all of our host materials to our replacements who will finish out the season. The last three months here have been really great and we made quite a few new friends. We met people from all parts of the world here but especially many German and French people. It was a great experience!

We will leave tomorrow to return to Forth Worth but we have decided to take the longer route through southern Arizona along I-17 to I-10 which passes through Phoenix and then Tucson before going through New Mexico to Texas. We are going to stop for a week at an RV park in Benson, Arizona which is near Tombstone. Benson is just east of Tucson along I-10.