Monday January 22nd 2018

It was cold overnight. I found ice when I went to reconnect the water hose to the RV this morning. My guess is it was in the twenties. The inside of the RV was only in the forties with the furnace set low. I raised the furnace set point around 6:30 in the morning so it was comfortable when I got up a couple of hours later. The big front windshield remains the source of the greatest heat loss in the motorhome. It also works the other way to raise the temperature of the RV when the sun is on the front. The inside was in the eighties this afternoon with the sun on the front. The outside high for the day was in the mid fifties, but it was dead calm all day.

Desert all the way to the mountain ridge

More desert to the mountains.

I spent the day getting familiar with the RV park and the community of Benson Arizona. The RV park shows signs of age with evidence that efforts are underway to improve the facility. The laundry facility looks usable, but the equipment is old and makes me wonder if I can/should stretch things out until my next stop. The area surrounding the park is open desert land going on for miles in the direction away from town. In the distance are mountains that frame the area.

Distant mountain ridge at sunset.

The town of Benson developed as a rail depot on the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880. A stage coach station in the area preceded the railroad by thirty years. It was the railroad station and freight depot that served the thriving town of Tombstone twenty five miles south and the mining communities in the whole area. Today it is a stop on AmTrak’s Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to New Orleans.

Another view of the mountains at sunset.

I drove around town and found the Safeway Supermarket and the Walmart. A quick stop in Walmart for bread and water was quite a confusion. This Walmart was obviously converted from something else. The layout was unique. On my tour of town I bought gas for the car so I can get going in the morning without worrying about filling the tank. I plan to head down to the tourist draw of Tombstone tomorrow.