Adventures in Arizona
I finally got together some of the pictures I took while in Arizona.
I've grouped them according to topic, in some fashion,
rather than the usual chronological order.
Birds
We saw quite a few birds, although the birding should be better in the
spring. Here are a few shots. We had a pretty long visit from a
Goshawk
on the back patio gate. Another hawk of undetermined species perched on a
neighbor's roof.
While we were doing the final inspection of the house, a
Roadrunner
was quite friendly. Finally, we spotted this
Cardinal
at the feeder on the back fence.
Traveling around
Madera Canyon is one of the hiking places near Green Valley.
David and Bonnie
(shown with Amelia) came to visit us one weekend, and we took a trip up
Madera Canyon and went on a little hike up the mountain. When we came
back down to the entrance, I took a series of shots and stitched them together
into this (135 degrees, more or less)
panoramic view of
below Green Valley (to the left) and toward the northeast (on the right).
Incidentally, David and Bonnie are on a long trek, and David is documenting
lots of it on his
Blog.
Back home, I took this late evening shot of one of the bell towers for the
Presbyterian Church.
Becky came to visit, and among other things, we took a trip down to Tubac
and then to the
Mission San Jose
Tumacacori. It is now a
National Historic
Park. Another shot from the
right front and
the rear, showing part of the
graveyard.
Tortillas
were being served, and Amelia sampled them (so did I).
On Sunday before escrow closed on the townhouse, we went for the final
inspection. Here's
Becky
posing in front of the carport. In the arroyo just behind me is
one hole of a golf
course. Afterwards we went on a little drive to see the
hills of sequaro,
stopping to shoot a closeup of
this one near the
road. We stopped to see the
Mission San Xavier
del Bac, near Tucson. It is currently under restoration and part of
it is surrounded by scaffolding.
After Becky left, Linda and Sandy came for a few days. After a bit of a
whirlwind time, we took a little trip down to Nogales to sample the sights,
sounds, and food and other things. Here's a shot of
Linda coming out of
a shop after a successful venture inside (she didn't buy anything!).
Here's a shot of some of us at the,
Elvira Restaurant,
where the food was very good. Of course, they served us all tequila, and
Sandy showed us how
it is done. With that obvious recommendation, I
tried it, I liked it, I
liked (?) it. Enough of that.
Car show in Tubac
On the day we went to Tubac, the Santa Cruz Car Nuts had their annual show
at the
Tubac Golf Resort.
There were around 400 cars there (including some late model ones, both
customized and not, mostly uninteresting to me). However, there were a
number of intereting cars, so here are a few shots (sorry, should have
written down the years of some of them, but I didn't, and I don't want to
take time to figure them out). I may have most of the makes right.
Here's the
Wedge, a home built
car. This is a true mid-engine car - the engine is between the driver's
and passenger's seats. Here is a nice
Linclon Continental
convertible. Also an eye-catcher is this postwar
DeSoto convertible.
Another eye-catcher was this late 1930s
Plymouth pickup.
A bit later model is this 1970s
Volvo P1800.
One later model (1983) car that I did find interesting, because it is
pretty unusual, is this
Avanti convertible.
Down the line was another red convertible that I found quite interesting,
because I have a white 1964
Valiant just like
this one (well, except for all the rust on mine). This
Corvair was
interesting because Amelia had one just about like it when we got married
(but I married her anyway). There's a little nostagia (not for me, personally,
but...) in this
Studebaker Starlite
coupe. By far the oldest car at the meet was this 1903
Olvera, which looks a
lot like a curved dash Oldsmobile. The owner, sitting behind the car, had
an interesting story to tell me. When he first came to Green Valley to visit
friends, they all immediately went to an open house nearby. While he talked
to his friend out front, his wife went to look. She came back out and said
(in so many words, I don't quote) let's buy this house. Elapsed time in
Green Valley: 30 minutes. Oh yes, they bought the house. Another pair
of unusual cars is the two
Franklin automobiles
that came down from the
Franklin
Museum in Tucson. But - FLASH - if you live nearer to Tucson than to
Cazenovia, New York, get over there soon, because they are moving. As some
might know, Amelia's maiden name is Franklin (not related, I suppose).
While not real rare, it is always a treat to see a
Ford retractible,
1959 I think. This 1930s Bow-Tie
(Chevrolet) roadster
looked might pretty. There was also this lime green (or is it seamist?)
sibling of the earlier
Lincoln Continental,
this one a coupe. There were two tributes to
Henry J Kaiser
on display. Has anyone seen one of the Sears Roebuck versions lately?
Here's a nice 1930s vintage four door
Ford cabriolet getting
some attention. Wrapping it all up, here is a fairly rare (around 50 produced)
1962 Ford Thunderbird
Sports Roadster. I saw one of these at a show promoting the current Ford
Thunderbird in Phoenix, Oregon several years ago.