Focht Family Blog

The part was in by 8:00 and it was repaired quickly. We picked up a rental car in Tacoma because we weren’t sure that we could make it to the local company before it closed. We have decided we need to start checking in while it is still light because it seems like we always end up setting up in the dark. We have two pull-thrus next to each other and we parked mom backwards so our doors are facing each other. It is cold and there is snow on the ground but the roads were all clear.

The last three days been very full and very tiring. We left San Diego and drove to Newport Beach. From here we rented a car on the advice of mom’s friend Tom who lives there. After we picked up the rental, we drove to meet one of our old family friends, Dave and Claudia Amyrauld. We met them at Olive Garden and had a wonderful meal with them. Dave and Claudia were always my favorite place to go when we had to be babysat when we were growing up. They have two daughters, one who is the same age as my older brother and one that is a little older.

The traffic in California is horrendous. It took us forever to get to the restaurant crawling at 5 miles an hour. I will be glad to be out of California. At the moment we are stopped in Northern California, broken down…. again! More on that after I catch up on what we did in Southern California.

Today we are leaving Tombstone. Yesterday was a day of spotting wildlife. Nathan went out to walk Misty in the morning and was about 30 feet from a coyote. Then later that day we saw roadrunners around our campsite. This thrilled Timmy because he has been wanting to see a roadrunner since we passed into Texas. Then as the sun was beginning to set I spotted a skunk in the dog walk area. I did manage to get a picture of the skunk but it wasn’t very good. However, the sun setting over the mountains was absolutely beautiful, so I took some pictures of our last sunset in Tombstone Territories RV Park.

Today we will be taking our time. We will check out of here by 12:00 and then we have a few places we want to stop and shop in Tuscon. We will spend the night at a Walmart somewhere in AZ. We wanted to go as far as Yuma but they do not allow overnight parking there. We have reservations in San Diego starting Thursday but check-in isn’t until 2:00 so we will be able to take our time getting there.

Yesterday we just stayed around the park. I thought I would post a picture of the kids from the first night. They had a beautiful pinata that was a ball with cones all around it. I have never seen a pinata like this. The kids all took turns with two other children from the park hitting it and the whole shell finally fell off and left the paper ball in the middle, still unbroken. Here are the children with two of the broken off cones.

The next morning they had the opportunity to meet an African Gray that is in one of the neighboring RVs. The kids enjoyed seeing his tricks.

Then we went to the pool in the afternoon. It is heated and in a room that blocks the wind. Unfortunately I should have taken a change of clothes with us because although the pool feels great while you are in it, it is extremely cold when you get out. The temperature dropped a little while we were swimming and the wind picked up quite a bit so we froze on the way back. Here are the kids on their way to the pool.

Today we went to Tombstone. At first driving into the town we were a bit disappointed because it didn’t look like an old town. But then Nathan found the touristy street. Here is a picture of one of the stage coaches that you can take a tour in.

We ate lunch at Longhorn. Virgil Earp was shot from the second story of the building. It used to be the Bucket of Blood Saloon. According to the plaque on the door, the original building burned down and this building was rebuilt on the site so it isn’t the actual building where Virgil Earp was shot from.

After lunch we were trying to find something to do while waiting for the OK Corral reenactment at 2:00. So we went on a mine tour.

We all had to put on safety equipment before we could go into the mine.

This mine was active for 9 years. They mined silver and mined $3 million worth with only candles and chisels. The mine is still full of silver ore and also copper. He said the price of silver needs to go up another $10 an ounce to make it worth the money to continue to mine the site. Everyone enjoyed the tour but it was a bit too much excitement for Josh.

The next stop was the OK Corral. The group that was performing today did some skits that showed several different sides of life in the era before showing the reenactment of the shootout. Here is a picture at the end while both groups are lined up right before they started shooting.

The final picture is of the three dead performers laying in front of their tombstones with the other actors behind them. The Earps and Doc Holiday were in front of the saloon and I didn’t get a picture of them.

The funniest part was when Josh was waving goodbye to them and William Clanton waved back to him while he was supposed to be dead. :) After the OK Corral we went to Walmart and bought a metal detector for the kids that Nathan is going to take them out tomorrow to use. Unfortunately Misty has a cut on her pad and also has a stomach virus that medicine doesn’t seem to be helping so we will also have to find a vet tomorrow. When we came back to the RV she had gotten on our bed and their was blood on our bed as well as a bloody path from one end of the RV to the next so we will have to figure out how to get all of the blood stains out tomorrow as well.

This morning we woke up and started back on the road. We stopped in New Mexico before the Arizona border and drove to Stein’s Railroad Ghost Town. It was extremely small and was closed until January 24. So back on the road we went. We drove to Tombstone Territory RV Park. They have huge sites and advertise that no rig is too big so we actually have both of us on one site. We paid for our site and then you pay for your electricity separately when you leave so they didn’t care that we are using both the 50amp and 30amp plugs.

As soon as we parked we got out our stickers and put Arizona on.

I think we are just going to rest and enjoy for today and tomorrow. They have a heated pool and a jacuzzi so we will probably do that tomorrow. Mom is happy because they have a book exchange. Tonight at 6:00 they are busting open a pinata so we will take the kids to that. It seems like you are in the middle of nowhere out here but it is beautiful and we have views of the mountains all around us. Here are some pictures that I took outside of our site.