Tubac is a historic village about 45 minutes south of Tucson. The historic Adobe is home to traditional crafts from all over Latin America, as well as the Southwest. Some very cool stuff, and some very good ideas for El Rancho Escapo. Pretty much the whole town is one big artist colony housed in a series of adobes. Apparently the town was the first European settlement in the US, in 1752, with good old Juan Bautista de Anza horning in on a nice little settlment inhabited by the O'Odham Indians. Man, did that man get around or what? The adobes are the remains of the presidio that Anza built. Anza still has descendents in the area and the O'Odham own the entire eastern end of Tucson. Including a lovely casino. No, really, I mean a LOVELY casino. This place is something that belongs in Las Vegas. Not the size, but the classiness of it. And several really good restaurants in it. So, it was only fitting that after we spent the day around Tubac, we went over to the casino for dinner and to listen to music in the waaaaaay too crowded nightclub.
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 This metal sculpture cactus is a fountain. I want! |  St. Annes Church. This isn't the original, but this is the site of the first Spanish church in the U.S., predating the Caifornia Missions. Very small and charming inside. |
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The Inside of Casino Del Sol, on the O'Odham Reservation. The ceiling is made to look like a lovely clear blue sky. That didn't come out too well as a photo. The rest of it is a quaint European village look. We had cocktails at the Tequila Factory and dinner at An's Sushi. Very good sushi. According to the reviews, considered the best sushi in Tucson. All really Japanese sushi makers. And quite lovely. Not what you think of as an Indian casino restaurant.
We spent Tuesday at the Tucson Air Museum. They're not hotrods, but we do try to hit air museums when we can, and when we hear they're good ones. This one has about 300 planes. I'm a nose art guy and was a little disappointed there, but I decided to concentrate on the little planes on my theme of pix. Some really great little flying craft.
 This is the sculpture at the front of the museum. Loved it! |  |
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And the odd
 A float boat |  The Super Guppy, transport vehicle |
 AWACKS plane, with radar equipment in its little rotunda |  Heavy equipment lifting helicopter |
And the plane we actually went there to see, The SR71. Huge frikkin' plane that I could barely get in a photo and its only a two seater. Also the fastest plane ever. Very sleek. |  |
Oh, and yeah, the nose art
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After a day at the museum, we found "Historic Old Town Tucson". HA! Like historic back to the 1960's. Honestly, head shops, tatoo parlors and a hookah smoking lounge. Yup, felt like I stepped back in time alright. What a trip. We covered one end to the other, two blocks, pretty quickly. There wasn't even a bar I wanted to stop into and it WAS cocktail time. Rather, we headed over to what is advertised as the oldest Mexican Restaurant in the US. El Charro's on Court Avenue opened in 1922. Very cute place. Well, the restaurant was too family and was just OK. We went nxt door, through the courtyard, to the bar. Had a great time there. One poor bartender and both the bar and sizable restaurant were PACKED to the gills. And quite a few brave souls outside in the courtyard dining area. On a Tuesday. A lot of people stopping in after work for a drink. Apparently, this is the place that invented the chimichunga. Which wasn't like any chimichunga I've ever had. They're usually deep fried and a guilty pleasure; these appeared to be baked. Not greasy at all and really good. Mark had a chili colorado chimi and I had one that basicly tasted like a tortilla wrapped around a chili/cheese tamale. Lovely. Coulda used more cheese but then, there's never enough cheese for me. http://www.elcharrocafe.com/. If you're ever in Tucson, definately worth the stop. There are 4 or 5 of them around town, but the original on Court is supposed to be the best.
We are in Tucson for a couple of weeks. Not exactly IN Tucson. We are just over the western hills of Tucson bordering 40,000 acres of public land: Ironwood Regional Park, Tucson Mountian and Saguaro National Park. A - Mazing place. And yes, that IS two words, Mark.
Saguaros are very cool. We are excited to find out that San Felipe is in what is considered the Sonoran Desert and, therefore, has Saguaros. I don't remember if I saw one on our property. I know we have a ton of ocatillos. I digress.
Tucson, itself, is pretty souless. We have riden into, through and around the City of Tucson a couple of times now; 1) just to ride around, and 2) to meet Ron, who was here for business, for dinner. Unimpressed. We do want to see what is considered Old Town, where there is supposed to be an awesome Mexican restaurant that's been around since 1922 - El Charro. Review on that to come.
 Me "leaning" against a Saguaro in Ironwood Regional Park |  This is a "hanging fruit Cholla". We call it a dingo ball cholla. Like the Teddy Bear Cholla, they drop body parts and throw them at passersby. |
 Our backyard |  The sunset from our camping spot. |
 From a hill in Ironwood Regional Park, looking over the vast open space |  Dinasaur Mountain, between Ironwood Park and Tucson Mountain Park. Both of which we'll be hiking this week. |
We drove down to Tombstone this week. Now, I guess I can say I've hit every major cowboy town. Cheyenne, Laramie, Cody, Yuma (which was disappointing) and now Tombstone. One of my favorite shows in TV was Tombstone Territory. And then, of course there was Wyatt Earp. Sigh. Very tourist, but very cool. Nicely maintained as a old west town. We had lunch at Big Nose Kate's, who was Doc Holidays girlfriend. Nice place, music, cowboys, history. And then, of course, we had to hit Boot Hill.
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 My cowboy |  Their cowboys |
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 |  Big Nose Kate's. The local cowboy took our picture behind the bar, at which we ate lunch. Above is the very good CW band playing. |
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Over 50% of the graves in Boot Hill are "unknown". There is "unknown, killed by indians", "unknown, shot", unknown, suicide". The women are "Mrs.whatever, (no first names), killed" or Mrs. whatever, suicide". I loved the Chinese section with Chink Smiley and "Two Chinese". These were in a separate section. Also, the guy who was hung by mistake. "He was right, we were wrong" And yes, the Clanton Gang were considered to be murdered by the Earps, and that is on their gravemarkers. We love cemeteries and this did not disappoint.
Next week, we'll hit Tucson Mountain and Saguaro National Park, Old Town Tucson, Tubac, and the Pima Air Museum. Busy week, and we plan to leave here on Saturday, Feb 26, heading for Yuma.
Its February. Can you believe that? We thought we'd only be able to do this for a few months; 4 maybe 5 at the very most. Its been 7 and its been an incredible 7 months. This is IT though. We plan to cross the border the first or second week of March, depending on where and when we get Bogart's immigration check. She went to to the vet in Cave Creek and got a stirling bill of health. So, we're just about ready. We have accomodations all set up, we've chatted with contractors, we've picked out kitchen appliances and bathroom fixtures, and even furniture; yup, we're ready.
So we're in Cave Creek for another couple of days. We have simply LOVED it here. And have seen little reason to head into the more congested areas of Phoenix or Scottsdale...although we spent a day each in both. One day. That's enough. We did go to Cooperstown, which was recommended to us by a high school chum as a superbowl possibility. we knew we weren't getting back to Phoenix so we went there for lunch. Sports Bar owned by Alice Cooper, near the ballfield. Cute place, good food, odd but pleasant bartender; lots of rock memorabilia, obviously.
Super Bowl Sunday. We checked out Harold's, the Steelers Bar. It was OK. Next door, we checked out Buffalo Chip, he Packer's Bar. It was OK. The two, combined, are having a HUGE SB party in the parking lot between them. One tent has been up all season for games, and another tent went up Saturday. They are, combined, expecting over Four Thousand people. For a frikking football game. Lucky for us, we found another Packer Bar. They don't bill themselves as such, but its a locals place that we liked righ off, and they just happen to be Packers Fans. So every one at the Smokehouse ... or at their bar the Pour House... were pretty much Packers Fans and they kept passing out green and yellow jello shots. There was one poor couple of Steelers Fans and they did get to get excited for a little while. My rule is that I root for whichever team scores first. I really do not give one hoot about any of these teams. I have Steelers friends and I have Packers friends. And I have Cowboy friends and so on. Me? I don't give a rat's ass. And Mark only cares that its a good game whoever is playing and whoever wins. As fate would have it, the Packers scored first, and then I am pretty much committed. I was all on their side. It was a good game so Mark was happy too. Frankly, the Steelers did some pretty stupid things, right from the beginning. And the commercials were good. My vote goes to Doritos. And the food and drink at the Pour House rocked.
Cave Creek rocked.
 I love Los Muertos stuff. Several places in town had some nice dead people. I love these dead ladies and I know I will have to have one. Maybe not the 5' variety; maybe 3'. I must have one. |  Yes. We did have lunch here. How could one not? Very popular lunch place. They have a hotrod night on Friday. Lots of rods in town on weekends anyway. Mark says the have a pretty darn good burger. |
The hiking in Cave Creek continued to wow us. With all the combinations of trails within Cave Creek Regional Park, and the Balck Mountain in he middle of town, we were ... tired. Then we found Spur Cross Ranch. This is 2000 acres of land that the people of Cave Creek bought, adjacent to Tonto national Park, so it could not be developed. Lovely park. We started in Spur Cross and cross over into the National Park somewhere down the line. We only did about 6 or so miles, according to the map, but there were a lot of very steep ups, and very sttep downs; not to mention the liberally rock littered trails that made both a bit rough.
 Looking into the park from the entrance |  Looking up at where we were headed. |
 Cave Creek, for which the town was named. We had to ccross the creek 4 or 5 times; only two areas had what might be called bridges. A lot of rock hopping and good balance. |  Looking back into the valley between peaks on our way up. |
 Above: These things are called Teddy Bear Chollas and they are about the cutest darn things in the desert. BUT, they drop body parts and throw them at hikers as they pass by. These spikey little demons land on shoes,. clothes, exposed body parts and they are nigh impossible to dislodge. THIS, spoken from experience. Right: Mark with his Seguaro buddy. |  |
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 | A lot of the hiking we've done, everywhere, has been on loosely defined trails that are not so obvious to follow. Or like today, when they're hardly evident at all. Whether its rangers or fellow, sympathetic, hikers marking the trail or what, we've found rocks symbols leading the way. Sometimes its just a pile of rocks, sometimes its elaborate, like at the left, sometimes , like in Palm Springs, they make arrows out of rocks. Its like; Yes, this way, keep going this way, or no,turn right. These have been pretty important landmarks in our adventures. |
All in all, Cave Creek Arizona is a destination. We will be back. Now. On to Tucson.
