For our winter trip to Arizona, we left our home in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on New Year’s Eve and made our first overnight stop at Firewind Casino in Shawnee, Oklahoma. (The parking with no hookups was level, free, and security men stalked the lot!) Being the party animals that we are, we took advantage of the Casino’s prime rib buffet, and retired to our bed before 10:00. At the stroke of midnight, booms as loud as cannons woke us.  We thought the Civil War had started again.  Fireworks!  Spot moved from his bed to his comfort zone in the bathroom, and we turned over without even opening the curtains.

Darkness falls at 5:30 in the desert and on our second night out, we pulled into a campground in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, right at dusk. Arizona was our goal and we did not tarry in any towns along the way. We celebrated New Year’s evening with a trip to the local Denny’s—minus the black-eyed peas that are supposed to give us good luck. Again, we fell into bed early and started our final day of driving on January 2. We pulled into the Saguaro Co-op, an Escapee park, as the last sun ray slid behind the mountain. Since we were late, we had to find our place in the boondock parking area. A helpful employee, who happened to be watering shrubs, guided us in the darkness.

We awoke on January 3 to see the beautiful Saguaro Co-op in Benson, Arizona.  We checked into a nice spot and made Benson our home base for the next four nights, doing day trips each day. Saguaro Co-op is quiet with wide streets and neat-as-a-pin landscaped sites. We occupied one whose owners were traveling elsewhere. People taking morning walks spoke a friendly “hello.” Their activity schedule overflowed the page. However, we were busy sight-seeing, so we did not take advantage of the amenities in their spacious clubhouse.

Benson is ideally located along I-10, and we determined it a good base for the places we planned to visit: Biosphere 2, north of Tucson, Historic Fort Huachua in Sierra Vista, Saguaro National Park, the Rex Allen Cowboy Museum in Wilcox, and Chiricahua National Monument. Benson has a Safeway and a Wal-Mart for shopping, and several choices of restaurants. A longer stay at Saguaro Co-op would be a good winter stop. We had previously visited nearby Tombstone, but I would enjoy another visit. And I definitely want to revisit Chiricahua National Monument. More places for next winter’s trip.