We left the Walmart in Tempe, AZ this morning, and after stops at Lowe’s and the bank, we headed Southeast to Casa Grande National Monument.  There’s not much here, as the Monument exists primary to preserve and interpret the three-story “Casa Grande”, the largest known structure built by local 15th century Native Americans:

It doesn’t seem like much of an accomplishment, but considering the fact that the entire structure was built using clay plastered over wood framing, it’s pretty impressive:

Junior Ranger badges were earned, as usual:

Leaving Casa Grande, we headed South towards Tucson, stopping at a Walmart for dinner.  This Walmart has “no overnight RV” signs posted, probably due to local campgrounds lobbying town government to restrict overnight camping in an attempt to force RVers to pay for camping at their facilities.  I suspect most RVers in fact do what we did, namely, move on to the next free parking location.  The real loser here is Walmart, as RVers that park overnight tend to purchase items while they’re there.

We headed South for another 20 miles and are parked for the night at the Desert Diamond Casino on South Nogales Highway.  There are 10 or so other RVs here, and we do have WiFi, though it’s only twice the speed of dialup.  Tomorrow we will head East to Chiricahua National Monument.  See the trip map for details.