Benson, Arizona

Morty is back in Benson, so to speak, because this is the town of the Kartchner Caverns State Park which was his first Arizona stop heading West. This time we picked a campground out of the AAA book which has a heated pool. We found Butterfield RV Resort right near the heart of town. There is a lot to like about this campground, named after the early Wild West stage line.



For starters, it has its own astronomical observatory seating 15 people and putting on a couple of shows every evening. It houses a 16 inch telescope with a GPS star-finder. We looked at star clusters, the Andromeda Galaxy, Mars, Orien's Betelgeuse, Rigel, and the Great Mollecular Cloud  -- quite a show! Another nice activity is Tuesdays' Texas Hold 'em tournament. A complete newbie, I entered the poker tournament, and lasted for over two hours, which was longer than several experienced guys at my table. I even won the first hand, with "pocket pair of fives."

The next day, I bike out of town to explore and find the signs to the airport. First one leads down slope one mile and turn left. Second one is three miles straight ahead up the mountain. I only go a little over two before I start worrying about being too far out in case of a blow-out or other failure. Consequence is no airport photos, but a couple of desert views.