"Please Mom, I NEED this hat!"

Tucson, AZ

Woke up in the surreal landscape that is the Arizona RV park. We had a great sleep because by 9:00 PM the sidewalks had been rolled up and all the other "campers" had snuggled into their beds to watch TV or e-mail their grandchildren from their laptops. Hollis and Bowen tried to have some fun this morning on their skateboards but were shooed from the loading dock by some old grouch who told them that skateboarding is not allowed. They are now fully loaded up with outlaw skateboarding cred.

Other than all the rules that discriminate against non-geriatrics, life here is pretty good. The bathrooms are kept cleaner than our own and we have the pool, hot tub and all the exercise equipment to ourselves.

We find we like the groove here in Tucson a lot. Liz put her finger on it when she stated that Phoenix is for old people and Tucson (the RV park notwithstanding) is for young people. You gotta love a university town. We will be here at least one more day, exploring.

The re-build of the van continues. A leak had developed in one of the rear tires that was quickly worsening so we took it into a shop. The guy looked at the age of the tires and asked incredulously, "You drove all the way from Canada on those?" So we have new skins on the rear wheels. I wonder what the old crate has waiting up it's tailpipe for us next.

Oh, and the photo? We discovered a great thrift shop in the funky part of town that inspired Liz to invest in a whole Hallowe'en outfit to be sent home. It includes a wig, which I must say I found intriguing. There might be some trick or treating going on in the Tompkins household long before October 31 this year. While Liz was busy re-inventing herself, Bowen donned a few new threads. I guess he doesn't get enough dress-up time playing with Hollis so this was a good opportunity to express himself. You can't always tell what is going on behind that gap-toothed grin, and he continually surprises us.

Finally, Liz found an inexpensive coaster bike which completes the family bicycle suite which we anticipate we will be using extensively in Mexico. It is shiny and silver and pleased Liz like punch. I carefully mounted it on the rack on the back of the van to bring it back home from the shop, drove it back to the RV park and immediately backed into a very sturdy steel guard beam. The sickening crunch elicited a word from Liz' honeyed mouth that made quite an impression on the boys.  Apparently my karma account was full as the bike swung out of the way and only the bike rack itself made any real contact. Anyway, it can't look too new when we take it across the border.