A trip to Tucson
We're getting a bit bored here with all the blue, cloud-free skies and consistently warm weather. So we decided a road trip might be a good idea. PLUS we've only put 1,800 miles on our new car in over a year. But where to go? We don't want to go anywhere cold or rainy or dangerous or smelly or bumpy (the road that is).
Tucson, Arizona seemed to fit the bill...only about 5 five hours away on a good stretch of hi-way. Warm, not smelly, etc.
So we went to Tucson for three nights. Apart from our stay at the hotel - Arizona Inn - we didn't spend much time in Tucson at all. In fact we'll have to go back to see what there is to see in Tucson. The inn is an older place but pretty decent. Well maintained and well populated. We took the cheapest room in the place but it was still pretty outrageous. Oh well...it's only money!!!
One of the attractions of the area is the old cowboy town of Tombstone...you remember the gun fight at the OK Corral - right - Wyatt Earp and his pals had a shoot out with some bad guys. The town of Tombstone is a ways out of Tucson - 90 miles - but we (or I anyway) though it would be interesting WRONG...pretty hokey. PLUS a very cool wind made it a quick trip down the main drag.
If you're ever in the Tucson area and you're tempted to visit Tombstone just save your time and rent the movie with Kurt Russel instead...it's (strangely enough) called Tombstone....best cowboy movie ever in my opinion - but then I haven't seen them all. In fact this is probably the only cowboy movie I've seen on the paast 30 years. A good one though.
On the way there we stopped at the Saguaro National Park.
Saguaro is pronouced sah-wah-ro.
This is a major cactus park..all kinds of 'em. Big ones, small one, fat ones, round ones...Spill The Wine...Eric Burdon and War
So after the Saguaro forest we drove to Tombstone. As noted earlier...save your time.
These three pics are of the main drag
And this is the original courthouse. It goes back to the 1880s. If we were more "museum" folks we would have gone in and I'm sure it is very nice. But screw that...the sun is shining and we want to be outside.
Like I said... save your time and money.
After Tombstone we wasted another hour going to Bisbee. This trip was recomended to us by a couple different people at the hotel we were staying at. It was just another 25 minutes past Tombstone so we thought - what the hell?..Anyway Bisbee is at a fairly high altitude and it was colder than a witches t&t there. And me with only a tee shirt. We walked around a bit but is was too cold to even take a picture. You'll just have to go see it yourself.
Next morning we went downtown. There are people living right on the sidewalks....no kidding. They have their little houses set up right on the street. Only took one pic as I didn't want to hassle anyone...specially me
See here
After checking out downtown we felt the need to get out of town so we went to Sabino Canyon for a wee hike. This is kind of a strange hike as you're on pavement most of the way. It's 4 miles in and 4 miles out again. Most of the people take the buses instead of walking but not these retardees. We're walkers!
Another link.
It's very scenic. The pictures below will not do it justice.
This is a shot close to the start of the walk - I call it a walk rather than a hike because I think if you're on pavement you're walking - not hiking.
Another walker on the road ahead of us.
I'd say 95% of the people here took the trams up to the top and maybe 20% of them got off the trams and walked back down. It's no wonder all these yankees are fat assses.
Like all good canyons there is a stream running down Sabino Canyon. Not a big one. The water is brown so it must be picking up some mineral on the way down.
Here we are at the top.
After the canyon walk we went up Mount Lemmon which is a ski area. The main attraction is the scenery on the way. And it is very scenic. Once again...the pictures I took in no way compare to the real thing. Come here...see for yourself!!!
Not much snow as you can see. Not enough for skiing tat's for sure. It wasn't even that cold - about 50 degrees F. Too cold to take the lift to the top of the hill though as we hadn't brought any cold weather gear.
Another link
I took these shots on the way back down. Just some scenic pullouts on the way.
And there's always some idiot who wants to improve on mother nature's work. Morons!
Here we are again.