Gilbert Ray Campground is a park that we have heard about from several people so we were excited to check it out after we left campus. It was every bit as beautiful as we heard! We were (mostly Leigh) worried about packrats from reviews we read so we put lights under the coach, but luckily everything was fine.
Arizona Sonora Desert Museum
We slept like babies that first night and woke up Sunday ready to explore. There is a museum not far from the campground that we had heard good things about – Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Wow – the good things didn’t even begin to describe it! It was incredible. In fact, we had only planned to spend a few hours there in the morning, but we ended up spending the whole day there! Museums usually aren’t our favorite, but this one is definitely an exception. We loved checking out all of the exhibits and the demonstrations.
Museum Demonstrations
They had flight demonstrations where they bring out birds and talk about them while they fly around you. This was awesome! We got to see hawks, falcons, owls and more! I loved it. They do this twice a day and we went to both of them! We also went to a demonstration where they talked about the gila monster and the rattlesnake. While they were talking about each species they had it out on the table so we could see it. It was awesome learning about these ferocious reptiles and getting to see them too. After a full day in the museum it was time to head back to the RV.
Early Morning Departure
We have had a busy few weeks so we decided to stay another night in Tucson instead of driving back to Phoenix to spend the night somewhere before our flight the next morning. That meant that not only did we get another awesome desert sunset, but that we would have to leave SUPER early the next morning to make our flight. We hooked up the Jeep and packed everything up before we went to bed. Then, the next morning Austin started the drive while I was still in bed!! We have never done that before, but I could get used to it!
Home for Thanksgiving
We got to Phoenix, stored the RV, and made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. Luckily we had a pretty uneventful travel day back South to be with my family for Thanksgiving. Tucson is a great place to check out – especially in the fall!
