Blogs from Tucson, Arizona, United States, North America - page 8

Arrived LAX, took 2hrs to clear customs an immigration, moved from room to room, no one knew where we should be. Lots of waiting around, a bit of a nightmare. Hotel eventually, hooray, long day over 12hrs. Departed LA, still couldn't get away from queuing when collecting car, about 45 mins. Connected the sat nav but had a few issues, being Friday the 13th this didnt bode well, but sprung into life. Temperature on the road creeping up, 102F - 111F very hot, leaving LA seemed to take for ever, this is one large impersonal city. Hundreds of wind turbines in the desert hot springs area, looked like an alien invasion. Decided to go to yuma via salton sea, so headed south at indo took the 111 south to El Centro same route Jeremy Clarkson took ... read more

Tucson wurde 1775 gegründet (ist also vergleichsweise "alt") von den Spaniern, die hier ein Fort errichteten gegen die Angriffe der frechen Apachen. Die Reste der Mauer um dieses Fort sind eines der historischen Highlights der Stadt. Aber wenn man Adobe kennt, dann ist klar, dass diese Mauer jedes Jahr ausgebessert werden muss..... Die Gegend bei der Mauer heisst "Presidio Historic District", heute sind da Kunstgallerien, Cafes, das alte Pima Courthouse mit einer schönen Kuppel und das neue Museum of Art. Gleich südlich davon: moderne Hochhäuser von Judikative, Legislative und Executive. Ich meisterte die Anreise zur Innenstadt mit dem oeffentlichen Bus, stieg bei der Rückfahrt gleich bei Ironhorse BMW aus, Berta war fertig (für schlappe 1500 $). Zuerst verstand ich nicht, warum alle so verblüfft waren, weil ich sie gleich mitnehmen wollte. Aber beim Aufsteigen wurde mir ... read more

BLACK SUNDAY The oil refineries around Ploesti, Rumania supplied the Nazis with about sixty percent of their fuel supply. Winston Churchill called it the “taproot of German might”. The oil works were a vital target to the allied war effort but they could not be attacked by the Royal Air Force because Ploesti was far beyond the range of their most capable bombers. The Russians pretty much had ground forces only and they were busily engaged with the Nazi peril elsewhere. The Consolidated B-24D Liberator burst onto the scene in the Mediterranean Theater during the summer of 1942. The B-24 was an ugly plane, and it was a brute to fly, but its unique wing configuration enabled it to carry a much heavier bomb load over much further distances than a B-17 could fly. ... read more

We are packed and anticipating heading to PHX by 9:00am tomorrow. Our flight does not depart until 2:30pm from PHX and so we plan to meet up with our "old" neighbors Rowena and Doug for an early lunch and to catch up! I have been battling a "head cold" (or so I thought) and decided to head to UrgentCare this afternoon. The verdict?? I have Sinusitis and have a cadre of drugs to help me great better. More to follow tomorrow!... read more

May 4th and 5th. We made it into Tucson where we stopped at Davis Monthan AFB where we plan to stay two nights. Monday before we hit the road, I plan to purchase new tires for the trailer and have them mounted at a Discount Tire Store. We regret the cost but expect to feel much better about how the rubber is meeting the road. During our stay here Joe and Cindy introduced us to Eegee’s. As it turns out we departed with our freezer full of fruit slushes for future consumption. Our total trip mileage to Tucson from San Antonio is 886 miles.... read more