Mesa, AZ
Bisbee mostly a mining town for Freeport MCMoran I believe from my memory. https://www.fcx.com
(Topic ID: 231982)
Oh yeah, yesterday in Bisbee we saw a New Zealand flag flying outside a hotel - The Inn at Castle Rock.
If you look closely at the white sign, it says “parking for kiwis only”
A quick google in the street ... turns out a NZ guy by the name of Chris Brown bought the place in 2009. He moved to Bisbee in 2002.
Then we went around the corner to a recycle store, and an Aussie lady was working there. She was just like Keitha from Flight of the Conchords lol. She had been there for ages too.
Small world.
Arizona is home of the Cactus!
This breed, the Saguaro, only grows around here. They can grow to 12m (40ft) tall!
They can be hundreds of years old. They don’t grow the “arms” out the side until they are 75-100 years old!
Desert plants are funny - they only grow in certain spots. You’ll drive along and there’s a bunch of cacti - then none for 20 miles. Same with Joshua Trees.
rd
2087A2A8-CF38-43FE-98F6-9FBCE80FF189 (resized).jpeg4BD88B21-B401-4796-8757-12802AE946EB (resized).jpegThis morning, we drove out to Mission San Xavier ... just outside Tucson.
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The first church on this site was established in 1692 by Spanish missionaries - the current structure was started in 1783.
7000 Pesos was obtained for the project - They worked on it for 14 years until the money ran out - note only one of the towers has a dome on it.
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The local citizens formed a trust in 1978 to restore the Mission. They’ve done a pretty good job, the interior of the church used to be black with soot from the fireplaces.
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The mission is still in use as a church - in fact, there was a funeral running when we first showed up.
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B48C7BA6-8645-4F00-925B-E669E9658D84 (resized).jpegQuoted from rotordave:Tanker trucks sure are reflective ...[quoted image]
Cool picture. That door picture too!
Quoted from Pinballlew:Cool picture. That door picture too!
Thanks! I’m all about doors for some reason. When we went to Europe last time, I got back and 90% of my photos were doors. And door knobs. Maybe because of all the history they have... these doors are older than our whole country. Or maybe I just like old doors. Ha!
Here’s another mission door. Why not! 
Quoted from rotordave:Thanks! I’m all about doors for some reason. When we went to Europe last time, I got back and 90% of my photos were doors. And door knobs. Maybe because of all the history they have... these doors are older than our whole country. Or maybe I just like old doors. Ha!
Here’s another mission door. Why not!
rd
[quoted image]
Yeah old doors are cool. I do like your photo capabilities as I enjoy taking pictures myself, I’m not very good at it though but the more I see stuff the better the ideas are coming to me while taking pictures.
Took a rest day today in Phoenix. Good to take a break every now and again. Already clocked up almost 3000 miles so far ....
Hit the gym for an hour, then the Coffee Bean for a double Capp. Then had another one. Loll. Got a good buzz out of that ...
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Then hit up Walmart (they sell walls don’t you know ..) to get some supplies for my Evel Knievel restore. Check out the matrix style wall of spray cans ...
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Got a good red and blue for the EK — some more triple thick for my back glasses, and some mirror paint to try for my Led Zeppelin custom pin.
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They also had the cool little $299 mini arcades in stock. They played really nicely. 4 Atari trackball games built in.
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Quoted from rotordave:Tanker trucks sure are reflective ...[quoted image]
Guessing that trailer was either made by West-Mark Trailers of Merced, CA or the Weld-It Company of Los Angeles. Weld it makes some of the nicest, sturdiest Tank trailers out there. It was ran by my pal, the late, great Ray Schaffer for many years.....
Great reading mate ...
I followed your last travels across the USA
Just cannot believe it was 4 years ago ..
Quoted from Pinoffski:I followed your last travels across the USA
Just cannot believe it was 4 years ago ..
Yep, May 2014. So 4.5 years ago ...
Time flies when you’re having fun, as they say ...
rd
Just got back in at 10pm. Been a big day after all!
After the Mart that sells Walls, we headed to the hills to check out the fancy pants part of Phoenix. And very nice it was! Some real nice places up there, around the Paradise Valley area, which ironically, was on a hillside.
Of course, us being us I had to google a couple of guys I knew lived up there ...
1: ALICE COOPERS HOUSE!
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2: ROB HALFORD FROM JUDAS PRIESTS HOUSE!
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Well, according to the internet anyway.
If that was Rob Halfords house, I can imagine him looking out the window, and saying (in his British accent) ....”looks like we’ve got 3 heav-yyy met-al maaaanics outside my house tonight!!”
If it wasn’t his house, some old lady was probably looking out saying “look Frank, there’s a car full of weirdos doing high kicks at our gate! Call the cops!”
rd
Leduc, AB
Quoted from rotordave:Check out the matrix style wall of spray cans ...
Those cans can't go by air transport, guessing that you should of grabbed a few more cans of Triple Thick. Sell the extras to other pinball enthusiasts in NZ.
Quoted from Darcy:Those cans can't go by air transport, guessing that you should of grabbed a few more cans of Triple Thick. Sell the extras to other pinball enthusiasts in NZ.
They’ll go inside the pinball machine and go via boat.
rd
So, after the Rock star stalking, we went out for some dinner.
I got emailing with NimbleNuts who reminded me he had bought some of those mini arcade machines at a sweet deal - so at 7:50 we whipped to Marshalls (closed at 8..) to see if they had any!
I couldn’t see any - Danni asked at the counter and they said they had one left. I didn’t realise they came in a little box, I was looking for a built up one! They had the 12-1 deluxe version for only $199 including the base. Normally around $399 elsewhere.
So...
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rd
All loaded up, we headed back to the centre of Phoenix to check out a sculpture.
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The blurb:
“Janet Echelman’s Her Secret is Patience (2009) comprises a vortex-shaped sculpture suspended 38-feet above Civic Space Park in downtown Phoenix. Inspired by Arizona’s monsoon cloud formations, as well as saguaro cactus features including blooms, the piece was created with polyester and steel. Its three-dimensional multi-layered form is situated within a framework of steel rings, cables, and poles. At night the sculpture is illuminated with shades of blue and magenta, which gradually shift over time through various seasons”
Sorta looks like a jellyfish to me ...
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Phoenix is a cool place. Similar vibe to Los Angeles , but with 1/10th the traffic. And a lot more Cacti.
There are 4.7 million people in the greater city area - about the same as the whole of New Zealand. The city is very spread out, getting around is pretty easy.
They say it gets over 100F here about 40 days of the year, so it’s pretty hot! Second only to Miami in the highest average temperatures in the USA.
Liked the look of it!
rd
Quoted from Darcy:Hope she is just pushing back on her glasses, instead of flipping you off.
The glasses ... she will give me the cheeky “reverse Winston” from time to time though ...
rd
Quoted from Darcy:Those cans can't go by air transport, guessing that you should of grabbed a few more cans of Triple Thick. Sell the extras to other pinball enthusiasts in NZ.
Well, ValuJet allowed them on one of their last flights. Do we all feel safe flying on Air Tran?
The Route took us via Yuma, and right along the Mexican border.
Again, lots of spare real estate just a few minutes out of Phoenix. Although the closer we get to the West coast, the greener the scenery becomes. There’s also some cropping going on in places a bit further along.
F395E9FA-CF48-45FA-9ED9-F541D08C67D2 (resized).jpeg6C4F720C-B913-4FC1-B664-77BEA16EF91C (resized).jpegOn the way, we stopped at a place called “Dateland”
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Unfortunately, it’s not a place you go to pick up the ladies ... it’s a place that sells dates.
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Date palms grow in the crappy ground around the desert - there is a heap up around Salton Seas too.
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This place is famous for DateShakes ... milkshakes made with dates. Fiona got one and it was very good. Quite sweet ... well, dates are quite sweet so I guess they would be.
Dateland has some kennel facilities... Dannis Feisty pets had been particularly feisty so we needed to kennel them up for a while while we got the date shake ...
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But unfortunately when we returned, they’d escaped and somehow turned the tables. Bummer!
rd
D6C2D04D-9071-4EBF-81A5-EE208FC2C270 (resized).jpegYuma was surprisingly big! 95,000 population in the greater area.
Yuma was established by the Spanish in the 1600s. Yuma is situated by a narrowing in the Colorado River - only 1000 foot wide, ideal for a crossing point - so they thought that’d be an neat place for a settlement.
The first thing you notice as you drive into Yuma is the 1000s of fancy RVs in the many RV parks. Turns out there are an estimated 85,000 retirees who spend the winter months in Yuma. Possibly because Yuma has the most sunlight hours of anywhere in the world!
There is a downtown historic area, but not much to report from there.
But there was a cool abandoned hotel that took my eye ... the Hotel Del Sol was built in 1927, opposite the train line. It has been abandoned since 1970. It was used in the Baldwin remake of the Getaway movie back in the 90s.
The plan for the building is to turn it into a transportation hub. One day, maybe.
rd
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Quoted from rotordave:Yuma was surprisingly big! 95,000 population in the greater area.
Yuma was established by the Spanish in the 1600s. Yuma is situated by a narrowing in the Colorado River - only 1000 foot wide, ideal for a crossing point - so they thought that’d be an neat place for a settlement.
The first thing you notice as you drive into Yuma is the 1000s of fancy RVs in the many RV parks. Turns out there are an estimated 85,000 retirees who spend the winter months in Yuma. Possibly because Yuma has the most sunlight hours of anywhere in the world!
There is a downtown historic area, but not much to report from there.
But there was a cool abandoned hotel that took my eye ... the Hotel Del Sol was built in 1927, opposite the train line. It has been abandoned since 1970. It was used in the Baldwin remake of the Getaway movie back in the 90s.
The plan for the building is to turn it into a transportation hub. One day, maybe.
rd
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That looks like one of the Fred Harvey hotels. But I don't think it is. Google that name. What an incredible visionary he was. I remember the Fred Harvey restaurants on the Interstates up until the late '70's. The last one was the small service center on the West end of The Chicago Skyway.
After Yuma, we set off for San Diego, running along the Mexican border.
The scenery changed all the time ... you had some arable cropping land, next minute land with rocks all over it like something from the moon surface, then huge sand dunes that looked like Dubai.
California had set up camping areas there with toilets etc, so you could stay there and go dune buggying. Pretty cool.
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The dunes had some real cool textures (like Dubai) but hard to capture from the roadside. You’d get some cool shots out in a buggy and at the right time of the day.
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After 7-8 hours of driving and mucking around, we hit San Diego and did what normal folk would do.
Today we headed for Mexico!
Last time we went to Tijuana was about 23 years ago. It was pretty basic back then ...
Border crossing was pretty easy ... park the car, walk up the corridor and fill in a form in Mexico. The form is a new thing - in the old days, nobody checked anything.
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The rubbish remains a little, but the car bodies have gone, so that’s good!
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We just went for a quick walk around the downtown Tijuana area for a couple of hours ... that was plenty enough to see the sights and sounds.
Taco Bell wasn’t doing much business today ...
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4D48C7D0-62D9-4C25-9CA0-24E1ABFED185 (resized).jpeg56FDDF0D-D9E8-44C1-80C1-C1EEDC76D6F7 (resized).jpeg0D3A5BF0-5E88-4773-BE9F-3D68B449E571 (resized).jpegC6C30122-0CED-4E4D-A199-041A4A40CE05 (resized).jpegAlso a lot of dentists ...
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The famous Mexican Zebra!!
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Strawberries for all!
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EEFFCBE4-3C83-48B4-9A89-B74A27A6BA02 (resized).jpegECEA4020-E0D5-423C-943E-44317C624DB9 (resized).jpegQuoted from rotordave:Lots of shops selling “Dong Pills” ... is it a thing to cross over and buy pharmaceuticals? There sure were a lot of pharmacas.
[quoted image]
We just went for a quick walk around the downtown Tijuana area for a couple of hours ... that was plenty enough to see the sights and sounds.
Taco Bell wasn’t doing much business today ...
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Unlike the US no prescription is required. So people tend to buy whatever pain medications they think they need and whatever is good to mix with alcohol and party on or abuse and smuggle it back home.
I went on a spring break cruise ship to Encinada and it seemed like everyone was packing from the drug stores lol
Or technically Estate Cars.Quoted from MrArt2u:Back in SoCal? I hear it’s a good place to pick up a classic, rust free souvenir pinhauler.
[quoted image]
They look like winners Art!
rd
Ok, I have to make this clarification. Snakes are NOT poisonous; they are venomous. Poisonous implies you touch something and absorb the toxin/poison - like poison ivy or poison oak. Venom is injected - like a snake or spider bite.
I feel better now : ).
Quoted from rotordave:Taco Bell wasn’t doing much business today
I love that Taco Bell. It's not like the chain, they just took the name. You can eat inside (when open) but I just stand by the left roll up door and order tacos from the guy. Big flat top grill with different meats cooking. Get a few carne asada tacos and a beer. The tacos are the smaller street tacos. So much better than "Taco Bell".
Thanks for a great trip report. Maybe see you at INDISC.
Quoted from NPO:Ok, I have to make this clarification. Snakes are NOT poisonous; they are venomous
Please address all complaints to the New Mexico Transportation Department.
rd
E61EB90E-5BAE-43F1-8B4F-FC024E8E2A4B (resized).jpegTonight we went to Brewskis Bar to play in the Tuesday night tournament at 7pm.
Good line up of modern Sterns, and a Houdini that Danni played for the first time. We like that game. Someone sell me one for $5000 and I’ll ship it home!
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So anyway, we got there about 6:30 and got some bar food before the comp ... about 7:10 nobody is there - I check the SD pinball Facebook page and its “oh, comp is Wednesday night!” Doooooooooooh
Got to meet the owner SDAmusements and he was a nice guy. Might get back tomorrow ...
rd
I haven’t been to Tijuana in about 15 years but from your pics you posted, it hasn’t changed a bit. Used to enjoy going with college buddies, but all the murders scared the tourists away and it became a ghost town.
Did you get a good whiff of raw sewage as you crossed over the channel?
Quoted from vicjw66:Did you get a good whiff of raw sewage as you crossed over the channel
Not this time - definitely did last time though!
Was I right in remembering that Channel was not concrete 23 years ago?
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Not this time - definitely did last time though!
Was I right in remembering that Channel was not concrete 23 years ago?
rd
It was concrete, but it was covered with so much silt and foliage growing out of the silt, that you could easily think it wasn’t. They cleaned it out pretty good it looks like.
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