Wednesday, February 27, 2019

A Mission in Tucson

So located just outside the city limits, on a reservation, is this lovely place:
It is called the Mission San Xavier del Bac, the White Dove of the Desert. It is a Franciscan mission, and still an active Roman Catholic church. There were tours given every 30 minutes (no funeral this time). The tours are given by volunteers, and they accept gratuities; the gratutities were collected in tithe envelopes by one of the guides. It was founded as a Catholic mission in 1692 and a church with this building by 1797 (the one you see here today).
So looking at the front section, there is a lot of symbolism here. In the middle piece, there are two hands around the cross. The right hand is Christ's. The other is for Saint Francis of Assisi. At the top of the cross is a rope. The Franciscans tied their cassocks with a rope. When you see this symbol, this tells you this church is a Franciscan church. On the two side panels are lions. Spain's mascot was the lion, so Spain helped establish the church. The shell is a symbol for the patron saint of Spain, Santiago, or James the Greater. And further down the panels are several women saints that are saints of music, art, etc. Some of them are missing parts due to erosion. The church is constructed of low-fire clay brick, stone and lime mortar. The lime gives it its white color. Imagine seeing it far, far away while riding in the desert!

When you go inside, your breath is taken away by the artwork.
This is the view from the front door, but let's look at it a little closer:

right side 

left side

the altar

ceiling above the altar (hand painted)

above the front door

As you can see, this church is visually stunning inside. There were also paintings on the walls; but I did not have time to take pictures of everything. There were too many people milling about and praying. Again, this is an active church and I did not want to disturb. 

The alcove for prayers and candles


Again, visually stunning. So thank you all for coming along to this mission with us. It was free. We just strolled around for about 20 minutes or so. Then we went back to the campsite and chilled out. We are traveling tomorrow to the west coast. Chasing more sunny weather! Y'all come back!😉



Thursday, February 21, 2019

Got Boots On in Tucson

So there's this Big Bad Storm that re-routed us from Grand Canyon, so we came here:
We are staying at a lovely park called Miracle RV Park. There are nice people here, mostly those who live here full-time. The staff are very friendly and helpful. We also have a lemon tree outside of our front door that we can help ourselves to for fresh lemons in our tea. How delightful!

The first thing we had to do was get new shoes for our camper.
Don't they look lovely? Now we can go another few years before we have to do this again. It only took a few hours of back and forth travel to the Goodyear store. For a Google search, they were not only friendly, they were very helpful, even loading the tires back into the truck! AND, they recommended a great hidey-hole to go eat breakfast while we waited for the first set:
It's called The Happy Rooster Cafe. They only serve breakfast and lunch, and it is the best little nondescript place ever! I admit, the outside did not please me very well, but you walk in and feel like you're in your Grandma's kitchen. It was great! I had french toast and scrambled eggs, G had a wonderful omelet. And the coffee was bottomless, hot, and delicious. They even had flavored creamers!

So that was our first day here in Tucson. On the drive down, we saw some great landscape and flora, like these guys:

They were on the side of the road on the way into Phoenix. It was pretty spectacular, since I've never seen a saguaro up close. We are 20 minutes from the Saguaro National Park, so I hope to visit that while we're here, too.

We started our trek here in this place:

This is the beginning of the Grand Canyon, and alas, the closest I will get this time of the year. They are expecting 17-20 inches of snow and temperatures not above 32 the whole time that we would be there, so we would have been snowed in with no hope of getting to our next destination, which would have been outside of Sedona. They were expecting 10 inches of snow! Tucson is expecting rain, maybe an inch to three of snow, but higher temperatures when it's over, so we are good. I hope to see more of this little town. Down the road is the "Miracle Mile." We could check that out for its historical significance. But there is also an historical mission, a horse rider's museum, and another park. Ya'll come back! 😉

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Movie sets and Monuments

Hi all!
Get a load of this:
This is Monument Valley, Utah; one of the most photographed places in the world. It is also what people recognize as "The West." Several movies were filmed here. Check out this list:
It's pretty extensive. I can see why they want to use this site. It is only 934 miles to California. Not sure how far to Hollywood. But I could look at this site all day, every day. The shadows change each time. I take different pictures each day. But I won't bore you with that.

We took our own tour of the Valley. It is a Navajo Tribal Park, but it's set up like a national park. There's a Welcome/Visitors' Center, tours, stops, signs, marked roads, etc. You pay $20 for a carload of 2-4 people, but it's a pass for 2 days. The trail is a gravel road and winds about 17 miles (loop). There are bumps and washboards, so if you have a truck, that is nice. A car can do it, too. Just be prepared for some roller-coaster dips. Along the trail are marked "monuments" and the map at the gate tells you about them. If you want to go and see the other 13 sites, you pay a handsome fee of $75 for a day tour. No, thank you. You can still see them from the dirt road. The extra fee is for interpretation and lunch. So here is your tour:
East Mitten; West Mitten in the far middle back 
Signifies spiritual beings watching over the valley

Elephant Butte (see his trunk?)

The Three Sisters
A Catholic nun facing her two pupils

Camel Butte

The Hub
Navajo see it as a fire place in the center of a gigantic Hogan (Navajo home)

Sand Springs
An aquifer runs under here and keeps things green

Totem Pole

Artist's Point

North Window

The Thumb/Cowboy Boot

As you can see, the weather was sunny and clear. The highs have been in the 40s and lows in the 20s. But it's not bitterly cold like out east. It is actually mild and pleasant. Today we had snow! 

We are staying at Goulding's Campground. Their names were Harry and Leona, but he called her "Mike." The Gouldings were a couple who came out here and traded with the Navajo. Then they built a house with goods on the bottom floor and living quarters on the top. Harry noticed that the Navajo were poor and this area was beautiful, so he got Josef Meunsch to take pictures, went to Hollywood, and got John Ford to come out and make movies. The first movie was "Stagecoach," and a little unknown actor named John Wayne got his start. The rest is history.


So thanks for stopping by. We are here for another two days, then we meander to the Grand Canyon. Ya'll come back!😉

Thursday, February 14, 2019

Missed the left at Albuquerque

Hi all! So we were headed to Fenton Lake State Park in New Mexico but were re-routed to Albuquerque because of this:
This was on the shoulder, and the road into the park was relatively clear; but when we called the park, he said the roads were still a little icy. Umm, no thank you. So we turned around and headed back to Albuquerque where we stayed for a few days to "cool our jets."

While in AlBQ, we visited Old Town. It reminds me a lot of Old Town San Diego, except a little more compartmentalized. We found a lot of neat little things there. The main draw is the church. And once again, there was a funeral service. But this time, we waited until it was over and went inside!




There is a town square, so all of the shops and things revolve around it. It's very quaint. Most of the parking around the square is 2 hours. We parked on a lot for $5 for all day. It took us about 2.5 hours to walk around. But if you did shopping and things, it was well worth the $5.
So New Mexico is the Chile (pepper) capital of the world. And you can see them hanging around Old Town in the neatest of places.



And Albuquerque is the Balloon Capital of the World! In fact, each year they have BalloonFest, which is in August, I believe. That's when all the sky fills up with hot air balloons. Supposed to be real pretty (and real hot + real crowded = I'm not gonna be here). 



There were some other neat things on our walk around Old Town. We ate at a neat little place called Church Street Cafe. It is actually someone's house that has been there since the 1800s. The family still lives there, and they also use it as a restaurant. From the front, it looks small, but it actually rambles back a good ways. The guys on top serenade you as you go in (lol)!

You go walking along quaint walkways and and peek in hidey-holes in Old Town.




It was a great time walking around down there. If you get a chance to visit AlBQ, come on down! Some other cute things worth noting, then ya'll come back!😉