Off on our jaunt

First of all, a big Thank You to all those who left a comment or an email in response to Suzy’s blog about her experience getting an epidural. She reports her pain level continues to improve, and moving about is much easier. Long-range mobility will continue to be a problem, but she is much more comfortable as a result of the procedure. Thanks again, we both really appreciate your good thoughts.

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After we got Suzy’s shot, we bee-lined it for home in Benson, loaded a few last minute items, gave house keys to a neighbor, and pointed Rocinante, our 36 foot motorhome, to the east. Our first stop is Willcox, AZ. only about 40 miles away. for the annual Rex Allen Days celebration. We had made reservations to camp at the Elks Lodge in Willcox, and had also found out the Elks were having a special brisket dinner Friday night. The RV park is quite nice: each site is either on grass or has a grass sitting area; they all have water and 30amp electricity.

We wandered into town, hoping to find some schedule of events for Rex Allen Days, but all we found was a roster of cowboy singers and poets who would be performing Saturday and Sunday. The Rex Allen Museum, we thought, would know what’s going on, but that roster was all they had, and no one else seemed to have any information at all.

We made a quick cursory tour of the few vendors who were already set up, then returned to the motorhome.

The much vaunted brisket dinner was, to our taste at least, a disappointment. The meat was kind of stringy and tasteless to me, and Suzy found hers to be quite full of fat. That was a shame, for $10 a plate! At least we know we contributed to Elks charities by eating there,

The rain that fell most of the night was gone in the morning. We skipped the parade but went back to see more vendors, watch the costumed characters,

and listen to some cowboy singin’ that was pretty good.

Suzy found a Kokopelli for the motorhome,

and I came away with a froggy solar light for our garden.

 

We bought old fashioned sarsaparilla pulled from a keg and served in a colorful tin cup, as well as kettle corn seasoned with chipotle pepper. Yumm!

Lunch was a chili verde burrito sold from a rinky-dink hole in the wall called Rodney’s, Tasty, but an awful lot of people wouldn't venture in, we’re sure. For the day, Rodney’s had taken over the building next door as their “food court.” One man took orders, another cooked and assembled the food, then delivered it to the food court next door. He’d show up at the door, yell out, “Two hamburgers and a cheeseburger.” You’d better listen up and answer fast, or he’d go back to work at the range!

The big attraction was Rex Allen Jr. He put on two shows Saturday. We attended the afternoon show and had a great time. Rex has a good strong voice, an easy style and fine stage presence.

 

 

 

His three sons shared the stage with him, as well as a seven-man chorus who treated us to some barbershop-style old time cowboy songs.

Rex’s oldest son brought his two-year old toddler on stage for some “aw, ain’t he cute” response, and Rex Junior sang a special song to his grandson, wondering who’ll be his heroes when he is old and grey.

 

 

 

After the show we headed back to the Elks Lodge, and caught this picture of the moon rising over the Dos Cabezas range to the east.

There were so many things, so many pictures! To see more, please visit our Picasa WebAlbum!

Now here it is Sunday morning. We’re just relaxing for a while, then we have to make the 80-mile round trip back to Benson to pick up a few things we forgot or simply missed picking up. We had firmly decided that, if we needed anything, we’d just go buy it someplace. When the “something” turned out to be the power cord for one of our laptops, we knew we couldn’t just drop in at Wal-Mart and get one. Good thing we aren’t far from home, in this part of … Our Life on Wheels.