South of Tucson…

We arrived in Amado, a little town south of Tucson, last Friday and have kept pretty busy since then.  The weather has been sunny and warm for the most part…in the high 70s to low 80s, so that’s just about perfect.  Last night, however, we had a bit of a rainstorm which was unusual for this area.  One woman said that it’s the most rain they’ve had at one time in the last four years.  Anyway, it was just a little rainstorm to us.

 

The weekend that we got here there was an Art Walk in the little town of Tubac just about 10 miles south of us.  It is a real artsy place and I’m madly in love with it!  Last time we were here I took a few art courses there but this year there is nothing going until January.  Anyway, I get inspired by seeing the work of others and so have started painting a little bit myself.  There are studios all over Tubac that run from painting to jewelry making to metal art and just about any other kind of artwork you can imagine.  One store had the most amazing carved gourds…they had feathers, raffia, beads and turquoise embedded in them or hanging from them…absolutely amazing!  Other places offer Mexican style metal art and lots of it!  Some of the work is really quite interesting.  One of the places in Tubac is especially made for husbands who have had enough shopping….it is the Grumpy Gringo’s “husband drop-off center”.

We’ve spent a little more time getting settled and set up for a longer stay here than previously this trip.  We’ve been to Walmart a couple times and bought a few things we’ve needed and stocked up on food.  Tom bought some ribs the other day so I think he might try to smoke them in the smoker this weekend.  He does a really good job of it…the ribs are delicious!

On Wednesday, the little town of Green Valley which is between here and Tucson has a market…lots of food, arts, crafts, etc., so we stopped in there yesterday.  Saw some really neat things but didn’t spend any money…there is an “Arts and Crafts Spectacular” coming next weekend so I thought I’d wait and do some serious shopping then.

The highway south of Tucson is the only highway in the USA that has signs in metric.  That is because so many Mexicans come from Sonora up to Tucson and so they made the highway signs in kilometers.  Interesting that the whole world works on the metric system except for the US…maybe this is a tiny step in that direction!

The cactus in the surrounding area are amazing.  This desert produces saguaro cactus, barrel cactus, compass cactus (always face south) and many others.  This picture of a little succulent after the rain turned out just beautifully.  I love the round droplet of water caught on the petal.

There is a mountain to the east of us called Elephant Head.  If you look at it from the right position and in the right light, it really does look like an elephant’s head right down to the tusks.  I’m going to try to paint it…we’ll see if it turns out.  You’ll need to use your imagination to see the elephant in the picture in this blog.

We went for dinner one night at a place called “The Cow Palace” …sounds classy eh!  Well the food was good and the history of the place was interesting.  I guess John Wayne used to frequent the place years ago.  He must have lived in Tucson at one time and he used to drive down to the Cow Palace for dinner and drinks…from what we’ve heard, mostly drinks!  Anyway, was fun to think he might have sat in the same chairs we were sitting in. 

 

The town of Tubac and neighbouring Tumacacori (Too-muh-KAH-ko-ri) has three different missions that have an interesting history.  They were built in the 1600’s by the Jesuit Missionaries when this area was part of Mexico.  Over the years the mission was attacked by Apaches and Spanish rebels, and had to be rebuilt several times.  In 1775, Juan Bautista De Anza finally led the 250 inhabitants of the mission plus their 1000 or so cattle on an 1800 mile journey by foot to the Golden Gate where they established a settlement that is now known as San Francisco.  The mission is now a historic monument.  The picture to the right is part of “old Tubac” a very interesting place to visit as well.

The RV park here is quite nice.  They have a dog park for Oso and he loves to go down and play with the other dogs.  It also has a salt-water swimming pool and water aerobics every morning.  I’ve started going and it’s been fun so far.  The park was a Greyhound race track at one time and the track is now converted to a walking area.  The race track buildings have been converted into a restaurant, craft room, sewing room, pool, billiards room, and gym as well as a few meeting rooms and the main office.  There are lots of activities planned and we get a calendar of events from surrounding areas as well.  There are plenty of holiday events planned in both Tubac and Green Valley that we can take part in as well so we’re looking forward to lots of Christmas fun this year.  Will keep you posted!