TOMBSTONE IN THE REAR MIRROR

The parties are all over,
They ended just past dawn.
But the jungle drums are beating
With the tales from late last night
Cause the stories bare repeating
For everyone’s delight

Jimmy Buffett got it right as it makes no difference whether it’s a “burn the house down”, twenties something, party or more sedate event like the Tombstone rally, “cause the stories bare repeating for everyone’s delight”.

The rally is in the rear view mirror, the fun, good times and camaraderie are but a fond memory.  We all arrived not knowing what to expect much less what to do, a little intimidating no doubt.  But we left as friends exchanging contact information and looking forward with anticipation to the next outing, even projecting beyond that point.

There were four rigs.  Mike and Kristen arrived for the weekend, both have busy professional lives; limiting their free time.  They toured Kartchner Caverns and spent some time in Tombstone before joining us for dinner at the RV Park’s kitchen/dinning room.  On the day of their departure we ran into them in Bisbee as they were checking out the town before heading home.

Eddie and Marilyn live up the road apiece, both Arkansas transplants, both with that Arkansas drawl.  Eddie’s quick with a joke, a quip, a laugh, in other words he’s a hoot to be around and a real live wire around a campfire.  Need to know anything about travel trailers or Rv’s?  He’s your man.  One night Eddie showed us how to run a fuse as a coupler that turns on all the R-pods exterior lights.  We had three pods glowing in the late evening light.  I called it Eddie’s red light district.  Just before Hollywood and Lee departed for home we were discussing future outings and Lee quipped, “Be sure to bring Eddie along”.  Marilyn in many respects is the mirror opposite of Eddie she’s quite and reserved on the surface, a gentle soul.  However, I rather suspect that she’s just like Reta in our marriage; when Bert’s train jumps the track and starts down a dirt road Ms. Reta picks up the train set and puts it back on the tracks.

Like many, if not most of us, Lee and Hollywood are also transplants, newly arrived, and planted into the warmer climes of Arizona no need for a snow blower and frostbite is not in the upper Senora Desert vernacular.  Lee was involved with things with wings and rocket boasters.  One evening around the campfire, at the behest of Ms. Hollywood, Lee regaled us with one of his misadventures while traveling east to a place that launches things without wings.  While driving across a vast state that normally requires three days to transverse in his “really nice car” it occurred to Lee that given the car’s capabilities and lonesome nature of this great state the time of passage could be greatly reduced.  What followed next I’ll leave for Lee to tell.  Without question Hollywood is one of those free spirits navigating through life on her own terms with her own form of panache.  For those familiar with the Sisters-On-The-Fly, Hollywood’s a sister without the formal sisterhood tooling down the road towing the R Pod 179, “just don’t ask me to back up”.  She had mentioned that she wanted to purchase a hat we told her about a milliner, Optimo Custom Hatworks, in Bisbee so off she and Lee went on a mission returning with a new chapeau.

As for Reta and I, well I’m like a mandolinist who’s, out of tune and out of time, dreaming and scheming, waiting for the train to jump the track.  Reta, she keeps the train running on time, picks it up when it jumps the tracks for a dirt road and puts the train set back on the track…”all aboard”.

Four different couples from differing backgrounds with two common bonds, R Pods and having fun, came together.  From it sprang friendships and a promise to share the camaraderie and adventures going forward.  We’re not the Sisters-On-The-Fly but more like R Podders on the fly chasing down the glowing desert sunsets in the Arizona sky…all aboard for the next stop.

A special thanks to Travis and Forest River’s R Pod group for providing the swag…much appreciated.

Here's a link to the photo album

http://methus.smugmug.com/Tombstone-Rally/

Here's a tip.  On the photo album page just above the 1st picture is a gray triangle.  If you click the triangle it will present the photos and captions as a slide show.