Old Tucson Studios

Yesterday we spent about five hours at Old Tucson Studios. This was another attraction that was in the Tucson coupon book we purchased. Admission was $16.95 and we got one free with the coupon book. It was an okay place to visit at half price. I don’t think it was worth full price.
Old Tucson Studios has been in existence since 1939. The original buildings were built for a movie called Arizona. Since then there have been over 500 productions filmed there including over 300 movies. Some of the more famous films include 3:10 to Yuma, Young Riders, Gunfight at OK Corral and Tombstone. John Wayne filmed four of his movies at the site. Here’s the main road.

Lots of TV shows were also filmed here including Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, and The High Chaparral.

One of the more recent movies was The Three Amigos with Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. The film ended up costing three times more than budgeted because those guys kept screwing around. Imagine that :)  Here’s the mission seen in that movie as well as many others. The mountain in the background is called Golden Gate Peak, and is the signature scenery for the studio, seen in every movie filmed here.

There was an area that was being set up for a shoot next week. It was a secret, but they did tell us it was for a well known cooking show and the studio would be closed to the public for a week to film the show. There were three very large expensive looking grills in the road.

There were some informational presentations and shows throughout the day. We watched a couple of the shows including a can-can dance show, a gunfight, and a show in honor of Arizona’s 100th anniversary as a state.

The shows were not the best, pretty low budget stuff. But, we had a good time and learned a little about the business of making westerns.
They had a train and a stagecoach you could ride on. There was also a carousel and some old fashioned cars for kids.

Today is our last day in Tucson. We went for a nice long walk in the desert this morning. I will miss the nice hiking trails right behind the park. I won’t miss the noise from the Tucson Skeet and Gun Club a couple of miles away. Every day you can hear the pop, pop, pop of guns being fired. The noise really takes away from the beauty and peacefulness of hiking in the desert.
I don’t know that we’d come back here. We enjoyed our stay, but there are so many other places to see. The RV park was adequate, but somewhat old and tired, and the sites are quite tight. Our plan for next year is to spend the winter months in Texas.
Tomorrow we’ll be on the road to Buckeye, which is west of Phoenix. We’re looking forward to enjoying some Spring Training baseball games.
I’m just watching the news, and they’re showing more damage from today’s tornadoes in the Midwest. It’s the same weather front that came through here on Monday and brought very strong winds. I’ll take the wind over the tornadoes any day. My heart goes out to all those people!
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Sabino Canyon

Yesterday we spent the day at Sabino Canyon. It is located in the Coronado National Forest. There is a nice visitor center and a tram that takes you the 3.7 miles to the end of the road into the canyon. Private vehicles are not allowed on the road.

The cost of the tram is $8 per person. The driver does some narration along the way, but nothing special. We thought the price was a bit high for the short ride. We could have taken the tram back to the visitor center, but instead we chose to hike back.

I’m so glad we did, because this canyon has breathtaking scenery and views. On the way into the canyon we saw this Cardinal.

We chose to hike a trail that goes along the edge of the canyon about half way between the road and the top of the canyon walls. Our total hike was about 5.5 miles. The trail was quite close to the edge, so we had to be very careful where we were walking. Every so often, we made a point of stopping and just enjoying the scenery. Here’s a view from the trail looking down at the road. If you look closely, you can see a tram on the road. (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

There were saguaro cactus and lots of flowers growing all along the canyon. The pictures don’t do it justice.

There is a river that flows through the canyon. As we finally got back to the bottom of the trail, there was another fantastic view. Near the water are a number of cottonwood trees with bright green leaves. A nice contrast to the desert-like slopes of the canyon.

 

The moon was out above the canyon wall. Another beautiful site. We really enjoyed our day at Sabino Canyon and would recommend it as one of the must-see sites in Tucson. If you have the stamina to hike the eight plus miles round trip into the canyon, I’d recommend skipping the tram especially if you’ve visited some of the other area sites. Most of the narration was about the plant life along the canyon.

 

 

Some sad news today. Davey Jones of The Monkees has died at the age of 66. I had a crush on him and David Cassidy in my teen years. His death makes me feel old.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

My Senses Are Confused

Yesterday we went for a 2 hour, 14 mile bike ride. Tucson has some really nice bike paths that run along the Santa Cruz River. There is no water in it, but it’s still called a river. I was talking to a local person, and she told me that there hasn’t been water in it for a long time.

The sun was out and the temperature was in the high 70s. As we rode along, the warm breeze felt so good. We passed a park where I heard the sounds of a softball game and kids playing on the playground. The smell of a charcoal grill was in the air. These beautiful flowers were growing wild along the path.

As we were almost back at the truck, I spotted a Carls Jr along the side of the path. This beautiful day had me in the mood for some ice cream. They had an Oreo Ice Cream Sandwich that tasted so good. So, I know the calendar is telling me it is February, but all of my senses were telling me it was summer!

Some of you that are in colder climates may not appreciate this post. Go ahead and send me your hate mail. I deserve it :)  But, I just have to say, we’re loving our life!!

 

After the bike ride, we took a drive up to the top of Sentinel Peak, or the A Mountain as it is more commonly referred to. The paved bike path is right along the other side of the orange fence at the bottom of the picture. There are miles and miles of paved paths along both sides of the river.

 

 

 

When we got to the top of the peak, this is what the A looks like. The peak is 2900 feet high. The large stone A was constructed by University of Arizona students in 1915 as an engineering class assignment. It measures 70 feet wide and 160 feet tall. It was originally painted white, but after September 11 the colors were changed to the school colors of red, white and blue as a sign of patriotism.

There are some very nice views of the Santa Cruz Valley from up there. The Hohokam and Pima Indians were the first settlers of this area. The Indian name for the valley was Schuk-Shon which means at the foot of the black mountain. The Spaniards pronounced it Tucson and that’s how the city got it’s name. The tall buildings on the right are the downtown area.

We saw more quail on our hikes in the desert last week. I’m thinking the warmer temperatures has caused them to be more active. Most of the time they are running along the ground. But, we happened to catch this guy sitting up in a tree.

More and more little flowers are popping up in the desert. It amazes me that these flowers grow out of the sand and rock.

Last week we had an absolutely gorgeous week. Today a front came through and winds were gusting up to 50 mph. No walk today. I spent the day working on a new sewing project. The rest of the week is supposed to be less windy with temps in the high 60s to low 70s. I think we can handle that.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Goodyear Finally Responds

It took two months, but I finally got a response from Goodyear regarding our tire problem on January 1st. We had purchased the replacement tire in Midland, Texas on our way to Tucson. I took pictures of the defective tire, and planned to deal with Goodyear once we arrived here.

I called Goodyear on January 6th and was told they would not consider reimbursement for the tire if we did not have the defective tire to send to them. I explained the situation and told them I had taken several pictures, but the guy blew me off and said I was out of luck. They would not do anything based on pictures. I thought pictures would be sufficient since it was the same problem as we had last year.

I went to Goodyear’s website to see if I could find contact information for the corporate offices. They had an area on their site where you could send them an email, so I sent off an email. I never heard from them. It really irks me when companies have a spot of their website to email them and they don’t respond!

I remembered hearing Clark Howard on the radio say that if you don’t get satisfaction from the customer service of a company, you should find the names of the President or other top officials and send them a letter. I got the name of the President and VP of Marketing from a news release on Goodyear’s site, and I sent them each a letter with a picture explaining the issue.

Yesterday I finally received a phone call from Kathy at corporate headquarters. It took almost two months to get to this point. She said that after reviewing the picture, they determined that they would reimburse us, but since there was some tread wear on the tire they offered us 50 percent of what we paid for the new tire.

Since we made the mistake of not keeping the defective tire and the tires are four years old, we took the 50 percent. Kevin will continue to keep an eagle’s eye on the remaining tires.

Today there was a craft fair in the park. I had some leftover quilted sunglass cases I made last year, so I signed up for a table. There was no fee, so what the heck. It was just an in-park event, so there wasn’t much activity, but I did sell three of them.

Tucson has been a very busy place this week. There is a world golf championship going on with Tiger Woods in attendance. Major League Soccer has had some games with David Beckham playing. The Tucson Rodeo has been taking place all week. The rodeo is such a big deal that the kids get two days off school each year and there is a Rodeo Parade. It’s the largest non-motorized parade in the country. I watched it on TV, lots of horses and carriages.

The weather this week has been perfect. It’s been in the mid 70s, sunny and low humidity. An absolutely perfect week for hiking. Tomorrow is supposed to hit 80.

Next week is our last week in Tucson. We have planned a couple of excursions, so I’ll have more interesting posts next week.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Are We Crazy?

Today we had a phone interview with the recruiter from Amazon.com. It’s possible we are a little crazy, but we have agreed to work for them again this fall.

We did make it very clear that we will not accept the same job we had last year. We stressed that we want the picker job where we will be walking instead of standing. We also said that we would prefer the day shift, but would consider nights again if that’s all that was available.

The recruiter assured us that he would do everything he could to get us the picker job, but it might require adjusting our start date a little. We’re willing to do that as much as we can based on our commitment in Wisconsin. I made it clear that if they give us the same job as last year, we would decline. So, we’re hired, and we’ll have to see how it works out as the start time gets closer.

Between the two of us, our take home pay last year was $10,000 for 10 weeks of work. Since we plan on buying a new truck this summer, we want to earn back some of what we will be spending. There just aren’t many opportunities for seasonal, temporary work where we can earn that much. So, we’re willing to give it another go. If anyone out there is interested in more information, send me a message. Amazon offers a referral bonus, so keep us in mind if you might be considering working at Amazon this fall.

We had a very nice visit the last two days with a Canadian couple we met almost five years ago on a European bus tour. They are just a little younger than us, and have recently sold their business and retired. They bought a travel trailer and are touring the United States.

We’ve been friends on Facebook and have stayed in touch. In the last month they’ve traveled from Nova Scotia to Miami and then across to Arizona. Kevin tried to convince them that slowing down is a good thing :)

We took them on a walk through the desert behind the RV park. Then we told them about some of our favorite places they might want to visit as they continue their travels. They are headed to Yuma today, and then plan to continue on to sites in Arizona, California, and South Dakota as they make their way back to Nova Scotia. They’re basically making a giant loop around the entire United States. Wow! I forgot to take a picture, but we sure had a great time reconnecting.

I love this lifestyle. We have met such nice people. It’s great to reconnect with people we’ve met in the past, and meet new people as we move on.

The people parked behind us have several birdfeeders set up on their site. Everyday I see lots of birds outside our window. There’s one bird that is so cute. It looks like a little sparrow, but it has red on it’s head and breast. I don’t know what kind of bird it is, but I love watching them.

I have my hummingbird feeder on the window. The other day a beautiful hummingbird was at it. It had a totally red/scarlet head and green body. I’ve never seen one like it. Of course, by the time I grabbed my camera, it was gone. But, oh my, it was just gorgeous!

While we were working at Amazon last fall, I saw a product for saving in progress puzzles. I bought one, and we’ve been working on this puzzle this winter. We finally finished it. It was so hard to do with all those white golf ball pieces.

You build the puzzle on the yellow mat, and just roll it up on the inflatable tube, put some Velcro straps around it, and put it away. It works great. The RV park here has tons of puzzles to trade. So, we’ll be checking it out and finding a new one to work on.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

An Enjoyable Hike

We’ve been hiking in the desert behind our RV park for about an hour almost every day. Tucson Mountain Park begins about a mile outside of the park.

Today we decided to do a longer hike. We followed a wash that took us to a small mountain which we climbed. Our total time was two hours, and we estimate we hiked between 4 and 5 miles.

The views from the top were great. Here’s a look back at the trail we were on to the right of the picture. The white spots in the distance on the left are the RVs in our park.

The desert is starting to show signs of blooming. There were a couple of bushes with these pink, fuzzy blooms.

The creosote bushes have had little yellow flowers on them for the last couple of weeks.

 

Some of the Ocotillo are starting to sprout their red tips. They are so pretty when they are in full bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also saw these pretty yellow flowering bushes. I don’t know what they are called, but up until today I’ve only seen them in people’s yards. It was nice to see them out in the desert.

 

 

 

We were pretty tired by the time we got home. All of our hiking while we’ve been in Tucson has been on pretty flat ground. So, today’s incline was a little more strenuous than what we’ve been doing. But, it felt good.

The last few days have been a bit cooler and overcast. I’ve been doing some sewing, and we’ve been working on a puzzle. I bought a new presser foot for my sewing machine which has a 1/4” guide for quilting. I should have gotten this foot a long time ago. It makes sewing the quilt tops so much easier.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Yesterday we visited this museum. It was in the Tucson coupon book we bought, so the cost was $14.50 for both of us. I loved this museum!

It’s actually a combination zoo, museum and botanical garden. Most of the exhibits are outside. Some have outside and inside viewing areas.

They have a raptor show twice a day. Our friends Janie and John visited last year and told us to go to both shows. Thanks to their great advice, we saw two awesome raptor shows.

The morning show featured five different raptors. The trainers come out and the birds are released. They soar over the crowd and then land on perches throughout the viewing area so everyone can see them up close. The first bird was a Chihuahuan Raven.

Next up was a Gray Hawk.

 

After that a Great Horned Owl came soaring towards us. What an awesome site!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up was a Prairie Falcon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final bird was a Red Tail Hawk. It was absolutely amazing to see these birds fly overhead and then get to see them up close!

In between the raptor shows we also went to a presentation about venomous creatures in the desert. The first one was a Gila Monster. I didn’t realize they are venomous. The lady said odds are slim to actually see one in the wild.

The second one was a rattlesnake. The guy gave us lots of information about them. I always thought that rattlesnake bites weren’t that big of a deal. We learned that although most bites aren’t deadly, the venom eats away the tissue from the inside out. If left untreated, a person can lose their fingers, toes, arm or leg. The anti-venom medicine costs $5,000 per vial, and up to 20 vials are needed to treat a bite. It’s very costly and painful. I’ll be extra careful to keep my eyes open for any rattlesnakes.

We saw a number of animals that can be found in the desert, including a Javelina

Bobcats

Mountain Lion

 

Prairie Dogs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, drumroll please, the ever allusive Big Horn Sheep. You may recall Kevin and I hiked a number of trails last year in California looking for them. We never saw any. At least I’ve now seen them in captivity. What amazing creatures. They ran up and down those rocks as if they were flat ground.

 

 

 

 

The afternoon raptor show featured four Harris Hawks. They soared over us for about 10 minutes and then landed on the perches. Another fantastic spectacle.

There was a hummingbird enclosure. This little mama was sitting on her nest. How cool is that!

There was much more to see, but I think that’s enough pictures. I would highly recommend this museum. In fact, I think it would be worth a trip to Tucson to see it.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, and Happy 100th Birthday to Arizona today. As a birthday treat, Tucson had a little snow today. We just had rain where we are, but the northern areas of Tucson had a little snow. Highs today were only in the 50s. Tomorrow is expected to be in the 60s and back to the 70s for the weekend. I’m hoping the rain will help along the desert blooms.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!