Ettore

Currently In:  El Paso, TX
Next Up:  Alpine and Del Rio, TX on our way to Rio Grande Valley

Our friends Bob and Celeste Bird suggested we check out the art museum Gallery in the Sun in the north part of Tucson.  It was built by Ettore "Ted" DeGrazia in 1965, who was born in the mining town of Morenci, Arizona and moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona.   He had a very creative mind and boundless energy.

All of the artwork was done by Ted, including the entryway here.

He built several ramadas (open shelter using branches for the roof) dedicated to various Native American tribes.

The entrance to the gallery was unique and is supposed to be reminiscent of a mine entrance.  The doors were modeled after the doors to the prison in Yuma.  I think DeGrazia was successful here.

He not only designed the gallery, but he and a crew of friends actually built it, too.  He wanted it to have the feeling of the southwest, so he used adobe and wood.

DeGrazia created a technique using cholla cactus inlaid into the flooring.  It's stunning.

Although Ted considered himself primarily a painter, he worked in several other mediums as well.  He focused Hispanic and Native Americans themes. I liked his paintings of the Mission San Xavier which was just a mile from our RV park.

We saw many paintings with these types of figures.

We took a walk through the garden that has these cool sculptures.

Next to the Gallery is the Mission of the Sun also built by the artist.  It is dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  There was a fire in the Mission over a year ago and the Mission continues to be closed for repairs.  We took a peek inside a window and saw the open air ceiling, and we also saw a lot of damage.

Next to the Mission is a small gallery for visiting artists.  These small windows have stained glass in them - not sure I captured the colors in this photo.

Next to the Little Gallery is the Medicine Man Mosaic.  I'm a sucker for a good mosaic.

We took a quick look at his first house built with his wife in the early 50's.

Just 3 rooms - here's the fireplace in the living room in the southwest style with an old photo of the room.

 The tile in the kitchen was a beautiful southwest blue.  It's hard to see in the photo.

After the museum visit we were hungry!  As our last tourist activity in Tucson, I wanted to experience the 23 miles...

There are signs all over Tucson promoting 50 "generational" Mexican restaurants.  They lie within 23 square miles of Tucson.  These establishments were chosen because of authentic flavor and  strong ties to the region.  I chose Aqui Con El Nene (Here With The Baby) because it was close to where we were staying.

We weren't brave enough to try any of their specialties - Sonoran hot dog or stuffed potato.  So we stayed with tried and true street tacos which were awesome!

A delicious end to our stay in Tucson.

Ski Patrol

Leaving for El Paso
Next Up:  Alpine and Del Rios, TX  then Mercedes, Austin and Fredericksburg, TX


Hey all you folks in the arctic Midwest - stay warm and stay safe!

The Sky Island Scenic Byway to the top of Mt. Lemmon (just north of Tucson) was just delightful!  The temperature started at 65F.

The first part was the Sonoran Desert that we have seen so much of in the last few months.  At this point we were right around 3000' elevation.

Here are the rock formations.  More saguaros!

Lovely view of Tucson.

We saw a canyon at the Molina viewpoint.

There is the small stream that created the canyon.  Looks like the landscape is in the desert grasslands.  Now we were closer to 4000'.  Didn't seem like the temperature had changed too much.

Up we went into the chaparral landscape at 5000'.  The peak in the distance in known as Thimble Peak.  Starting to get cooler!

I turned around and saw these rocks.  So pretty agains the blue sky.

At the Manzanita viewpoint we saw hoodoos.  The trees show that we are in the woodland now at 6000' elevation.  Definitely needed to put my jacket on here.

Another view from Manzanita viewpoint.

We saw these rock fins that will eventually become hoodoos as we continued up the road.

We made it to the Pine forest at 7000'.

I'm on bear watch again!

And it's much cooler up here, but beautiful snow in the trees.

Turning left off of the mail road is Summerhaven, a town that is frequented in the summer by people from Tucson who are trying to beat the heat!  The homes through these trees are big and gorgeous.

Back on the main road we got to the ski hill.  I never thought we would see skiing while in Tucson.  The lifts were up and running.

Gotta have the ski patrol on duty!

And it was the end of the trail for us today, as the balance of the road was closed due to road conditions.  There was a big snow here over New Year's weekend and this part of the scenic byway had not been cleared yet.
But this was 8000' elevation and the mixed conifer forest, including aspen trees seen on the right below.  When we got out of the car it was 41F - over 20 degrees cooler than at the bottom of the mountain.

The day ended as wonderfully as it started.  We went to the home of Tom Aceto and his wife Nadine for dinner.  I know Tom from my days at Inland/Ispat/ ArcelorMittal Steel.  Tom's homemade pizza was delicious!

Tom and Nadine also shared a special wine from the Willamette Valley in Oregon bottled by a former  steel supplier that we both knew from years back.  Very nice.

Such a fun evening with friends.

We never know...

Still in Tucson!
Heading for Texas in a couple days


We made a plan to meet our friends Bob and Celeste Bird (also full time RVers - we caught up with them in Santa Fe in September) in Casa Grande, about an hour north of where we are staying .  Casa Grande supposedly has a historic downtown area, and we thought it would be fun to hang out there.  Wrong!  This town had a lot of empty storefronts.  We never know if an "historic downtown" will actually be worthwhile.

But we did find a great history museum near the downtown area.  This stone Presbyterian church was built in 1927.  In 1984 it began to serve as a community meeting hall.

The Woman's Club across the street was built by the same stone mason.

The history museum was very well done.  We learned that Casa Grande was built around the Southern Pacific railroad in 1879.  Then farming and mining became its main industries.  There were lots of old tractors and other farm implements on property.

We also saw an old internal combustion well pump that helped farmers get water for crops and animals.  It's 2 cylinder, 140 HP, and weighed over 7 tons.  Gotta get the water somehow.

I was also intrigued by this early phone booth made of cement.  It was used on the railroad in the 30's.

The guys were doing some clowning around in the pioneer area. They thought they were really funny.

I didn't get any other photos of the 4 of us, but we had a great time catching up during happy hour.

Queen of the Copper Camps

Currently In:  Tucson, AZ
Heading to Texas this week

Several other RV friends told us that we needed to check out Bisbee, AZ.  So we did!

Bisbee, like many towns we have been to out West, was a mining town.  It has reinvented itself as a tourist destination and reminded us a lot of Jerome, AZ that we visited last year.  There are several historic buildings that go back to the mining days.  This one, from 1897, was the headquarters for the mining company.  It is now the historical society.

The Copper Queen Hotel was built in 1902.  I looked around the lobby because I like checking out old hotels, but this one had nothing special.  The building architecture was really interesting.

Once the hotel was built, they needed a bar.  The oldest one in Bisbee is from 1902 as well and is still operating.

Once there's a bar, there better be a jail.  1909.  It's empty right now.

The Copper Queen Library dates back to 1882, but the first building burned down and the second building was torn down.  This brick building was built in 1907.  At one point, the library building also housed the post office and other meeting rooms.

The library is on Main Street.  Here is a view of that street - lots of shops and restaurants.

Once mining hits the big time, financial institutions follow.   The Stock Exchange Saloon was the investment firm of Duey and Overlock in 1914.  The firm closed in 1964, but the trading board and ticker tape machine remain.  There was too much glare to get a good photo of the board.

One of my favorite buildings in the historic district is the Pythian Castle.  Built in 1904 by a Swedish immigrant, it initially served a secret fraternal society called the Knights of Pythias. Naturally the Knights got in an argument with the unionized miners and lost control of the building.  It is now an apartment building.  The clock tower and green copula are so unusual.

Bisbee has several staircases along Main Street that, added altogether, total 1000 steps.  There is an annual race called the Bisbee 1000!  We took one staircase of about 50 steps.  That was enough.

Eventually, we got back in the car and drove a mile or so out to the Queen Mine.

We took a look at the Lavender Pit. Open-pit mining began in Bisbee in 1917 and ended in 1974.

The pit is huge! 4000 ft. wide, 5000 ft. long and 850 ft. deep.

The different colors represent different kinds of minerals.  The gray is granite which contains small amounts of copper.  The yellow is breccia clay that surrounds the granite. The red is oxidized sulfide.

I turned around and saw this beautiful landscape.  The elevation is 5500' so we saw more green!

Just beyond the mines is the Warren District.  Many of the miners lived in this area.  It has the oldest operating baseball park in the US!

It wasn't open, but we poked around anyway.

We had a fun day in Bisbee - loved this bus promoting the town!