Blogs from Tucson, Arizona, United States, North America - page 6

Our friends ( and former neighbours) Sheila and Alvin arrived on February 7th for a visit. From all appearances, they seemed quite happy to be out of winter in Mississauga. It was great to have them to tour around and we made the most of their time with us. Sunday we're off to Nogales Mexico which is a twin town to Nogales Arizona. They are similar in name only! It's amazing how 2 communities with the same historical and cultural background can be so different. We parked on the Arizona side and walked into Mexico with absolutely no border check. On the way back into USA, it was quite a different story and it took about 1 hour to clear customs back into USA. Alvin sharpened his skills by negotiating and excellent price on some very ... read more

Every year, Tucson comes together to commemorate the capture of Public Enemy Number One, John Dillinger. On January 1934, the Dillinger gang chose Tucson as the place to lay low after their crime sprees. Robbing over 24 banks and four police stations, John Dillinger was the most notorious of all Depression-era gangsters. J. Edgar Hoover launched the modern day FBI as an answer to fighting John Dillinger and organized crime. Most of Dillinger's escapades took place in the midwest, and I've grown up hearing stories about him, but I had never heard about his connection with Tucson before. He was born and raised in Indiana and started his life of crime there. After his first robbery, he was sent to prison, where he learned how to be an even better criminal from some of the best ... read more

With a population of less than 1 million, Tucson is Arizona’s second largest city. Surrounded by low mountains, it offers excellent facilities for golf and many other year-round sports, as well as being an artistic, cultural, museum and academic centre, and site of the University of Arizona. Visually, it offers a welcome change from the narrow claustrophobic streets with skyscrapers that you find in so many cities of this size. While Tucson itself is laid-back and interesting, its surroundings too have much to offer, since it is located within the Sonora desert, which extends up from Mexico. The Saguaro National Monument in particular is breathtakingly beautiful. Probably its most famous icon is the San Xavier del Bac Mission. Often referred to as the “White Dove of the Desert”, this magnificent structure on an Indian reservation south ... read more

Arrived home at 4 PM this afternoon. We traveled 3775 miles...and get this...total cost for gasoline was only $284.11!! Of course, it helped that the average price we paid for gas was around $2.85 a gallon. We rented a Hyundai Elantra that averaged 45 mpg for the trip. It was actually about $100.00 cheaper to rent the car and pay for the gas than it would have been to take our pickup and pay for the gas. Not to mention no wear and tear on the pickup and no cost for an oil change afterward. We had a good time visiting with all of our friends and relatives and hope to see all of them again our next trip. We are going camping for three days at Lake Patagonia on the 31st October and we're really ... read more

HYSTERICAL JOURNEY TO HISTORIC PLACES He’s doing it again. Another long road trip to visit historic sites, take some photographs, and write stories about how the sites are significant. When I get back home I will begin to post them to the blog. Today is pretty much just an uneventful drive of 513.6 miles coming to roost in Santa Fe, NM. I had a fine lunch in Deming at El Camino Real Café. The enchilada plate was muy sabroso. It was a cheese enchilada with rice and beans served with green salsa, onions, and an egg fried over easy for $8.90 including the can of Diet Coke. Gasoline over in Hatch cost $3.70 per gallon for regular unleaded that was partly ethanol. It was $3.35 in Deming. Hatch is a thriving little community. Everyone there is ... read more