Having survived 2023, it’s time to enjoy some lo-jinks in 2024.
Not much had happened after I arrived in Tucson, John, my host, and I got back into our old-guy routine of sitting in the sun in front of his garage every afternoon enjoying the weather (normally sunshine even on coolish days) and tossing stories back and forth. We strictly avoid politics. But we’re both atheists so we do complain about the latest religious outrage on occasion.
I do enjoy the sunsets here…
And of course, we continue on our adventure of trying to find the best pub/brewery in the area. This is one we tried. Quite the drive from the south west area of Tucson though.
It turned out the owner of the pub was there, he’s a retired Navy Seal and we did our best trying to convince him to build another pub over in our area of town to expand his chain. Wasn’t very enthused about the idea. Too bad. Only bar we have for miles and miles is Tiny’s. Which has seen better days and leaves us cold but the food is generally good.
Speaking of food, here’s what my fired chicken looks like these days, that’s EVOO it’s frying in:
Talk about good.
And then one day, decided to finally visit the Old Tucson site. I had wanted to visit in past years when I was in Tucson but never made it, partially because of my eye problems, but since the eyes are doing better now, though not completely healed, I decided to visit. They cleverly never mention that it’s a replica of 1860’s Tucson and I just didn’t pick up on that for much of the tour or when looking at the media about it. I thought it was a real siting of the first Tucson town in the area. Actually it’s miles and miles from downtown Tucson and I should have picked up on that…but didn’t. Here’s a map showing how far it is from Tucson proper.
Anyway, I did buy my ticket and take the tour. Here’s the Wikipedia article. I was a bit disappointed it wasn’t a ‘real’ old western town but the tour didn’t cost much. But having been built in 1939 as a movie set it does have some stories, pretty much about the movies and movie stars that were here for several movie shoots. There’s a huge parking lot out front, you head into the ticket/store and buy your ticket, eventually the guide shows up and ushered the crowd out into the fenced enclosure.
This carriage is an actual antique from the 1800’s. The weather is pretty dry here in Tucson so it survived easily.
Some (most) of these items, wagons, buildings, etc. were made specifically for a movie…like this jail wagon. It looks to be made of steel, but it’s just painted to look that way.
The train tracks were part of a kids carnival area put in by and entrepreneur years after the place and western movies had faded into history.
And further into the town…I don’t know about you, but I’d be comfortable living in a town like this. As long as I could take my modern conveniences.
No old west repo town would be without a blacksmith’s shop.
Many locals with old timey skills were hired to people the town during movie shoots and populated the businesses. Including O’odham Indians.
Large town square. Needs some trees and a garden perhaps?
The guide had a story about an old movie star that had worked in or near the many places we visited, and it took me a while to figure out that this wasn’t actually Old Tucson. Yea, I can be a dummy. But I listened for the most part. I’m not a big celebrity person myself so eventually I just tuned him out and enjoyed the creative construction and reproductions.
And that was it. An hour and a half tour around a movie set. I wasn’t too disappointed that it wasn’t the real Old Tucson and enjoyed the tour. I asked the guide if the actual Southern Pacific railroad had ever passed through here but no, it hadn’t. But it’s place here in the desert miles outside to the real Tucson sort of explained why there are so many businesses out this way. Now the area immediately surrounding the site is mostly public land and includes a wildlife and plant life desert museum & park.
Interesting desert area with a few places to visit. Last week I went to a western theme restaurant out that way and found after 27 years (opened in 1997) it had closed and the owners retired. It’s becoming more a bedroom community out that way so it was strange they weren’t able to sell. It is more than a mile up the road from a bustling manufactured home area with hundreds of RVs too. Along with the typical strip mall. But lots of BLM land for dry RV camping in the area. Worth the visit if you’re in town.
So that’s it for this post, thanks for reading!