Moving day we were on the road by 7:30AM headed for St. David, AZ, the next stop on our trek back to Florida. St. David is located 270 miles south east of Salome, Az, a good six or seven hour drive most of which is on Route 10. Our empty pantry, you may recall our Salome pot luck dinner story, and the fact that Susan J. Cat was down to one can of cat food necessitated a stop for groceries. Our GPS listed three Walmarts en route and we decided to "stop and shop" at the one mid way. It took about an hour to fill our extensive shopping list. Climbing back into the coach, I put the groceries away, Bill started the engine and we exited the Walmart parking lot. With a long ride ahead we were anxious to get under way, but it was now lunch time and I was craving a french vanilla coffee. A few miles out Bill spotted a gas station/convenience store where we were assured of getting a hot dog, one of our favorite junk foods; add a french vanilla coffee and we are in heaven! We gobbled down the dogs and headed back to the coach with our coffees ready to hit the road once again.St Davids RV Resort is a Western Horizon Resort that accepts RPI members. Ten dollars a night isn't bad, but we found out later it also accepts ROD members... we could have had a rent free week....live and learn. The park has some nice amenities: hot tub, swimming pool, miniature golf, bacci ball court, club house and activity center. The down side is the park provides only 30 amp service. This means we have to monitor the use of appliances, electric heat, water heaters and the washer/dryer. For example we cannot run the micro waive, coffee pot, and water heater at the same time. Washing/drying clothes needs to be done midday when we can turn off the electric heat. The punishment for forgetting is one of us (Bill) needs to go outside to reset the breaker; not fun on a 25 degree morning.
Perusing St David's weekly activity schedule we discovered there was a lot to do: pot luck dinner, craft sale, steak dinner, a sausage gravy/biscuit breakfast...and two ice cream socials! Bill spotted the general manager's help wanted advertisement. The manager was looking for a couple to volunteer in the area of food/activities for the months of Jan, Feb and March. Perfect...we had time to kill before our April 1st report for duty date at Koreshan State Park. After changing into appropriate interview clothing we headed to the office in search of Joan, the general manager. Our timing was not good. We found Joan, but she told us she was on her way out to handle a crisis. We told her that we were retired, in no hurry, and would wait for her. Twenty minutes later, our patience paid off and we ended up having a lovely chat with her. Joan told us she had just returned from vacation that day and had unearthed several serious problems: a non working phone system being the worst. The position, she finally told us, was for a couple to work twenty five hours a week organizing games in the activity center and preparing/serving food at park sponsored events in exchange for free rent. She said she would send Mae, the activities coordinator, over to talk to us on Thursday.
Wednesday we decided to visit Desert Diamond Casino located a mere fifty miles away. Why not take them up on their offer to new players club members of a free buffet and $10 in slot money? The buffet food alone, we discovered, was worth the drive and we were able to play for quite sometime before loosing their money and some of our own.
Thursday afternoon we were sitting outside, Bill cracking pecans at the picnic table and me reading from my Kindle, when Mae showed up. We had a lengthy chat with her and we assumed we were hired when she gave us assignments for the week: show up for some card games and help out with the Saturday night steak/chicken dinner. Bill volunteered to make the biscuits for Sunday morning breakfast; she agreed to let him. We should have known after week one that our talents were not going to be used by Mae. Playing cards with the other residents and standing around doing nothing at the Saturday dinner didn't consitute earning our keep in our minds.
The following week we were again given limited assignments. So onWednesday we decided to visit Tombstone, AZ located about ten miles from St. Davids. A perfect day trip. Our first stop was at boot hill cemetery where we found a McFarland grave site (my maiden name...a possible relative ?) among the graves of infamous historical persons.
The town of tombstone was a hoot! The pictures below tell the story best. We strolled the streets looking into the windows of many of the gift shops; browsing inside a few. There is really just too much to take in in one day. We will definitely need to return to see the "gun fight at O.K. Coral" and tour the old hotel/brothel.We had burgers for lunch in the O.K. Cafe. The multitasking waitress/ hostess/cashier was pleasant in spite of being overworked. The hamburgers were just OK. (pardon the pun) Maybe we should have tried the buffalo burgers!
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