The Traveling 3some - Day 36 - From Las Cruces to Tucson, Arizona

November 11 - Veteran's Day - Drove 404 miles today in 65 degree T-shirt weather - 38.8mpg

Left the hotel at 9:45am after relaxing over a hot/cold vast array of breakfast treats and watching the news update on the Washington goings-on.  Of course, we also found a Starbucks nearby.

Cricket is so famous that he has his own store 🐾🐾🐾

Could this be Blake Shelton?

Miles of signs leading us to nirvana...must be a very large and wonderful megastore.

We get it!

What?  THIS is "nirvana"? And what's with the cartoon Injun? Running with a hatchet in his hand? This really IS the Wild, Wild West. 

Still more signs lining I-10.  Think the same guy owns both tourist traps?

Dust storm warnings...yikes.

Ever see tires this big?  

What a way to block the serene landscape! Deregulation will bring these to a California freeway near you. And why not?

Are we back in Roswell? One would think that seeing mile after mile of billboards for this wonder that we'd stop out of curiosity. Nah.

About 90 miles outside Las Cruces, we passed the continental divide.

Looking around, looks flat as a board with mountains in the distance, sort of like Death Valley below sea level. However, it's actually 4,585 feet at the Divide, just a few hundred feet shy of Denver "mile-high city". 

And hasty la vista to you too.

About 50 miles in from the border, we finally saw the Arizona welcome sign.

Arizona's centennial sign. After four years it must be cheaper to leave it up than take it down since it's past it's sell-by date.

So many miles, so many gallons. 

Colorful gas station where Norm got his upteenth fill-up on the trip.

Our first stop in Tucson was the Museum of Art.

The architecture is very modern with concrete ramps leading to each floor.

A genuine Rodin.

A genuine Picasso ( before he went modern).

A genuine Renoir.

The modern art gallery within the museum. 

The museum gift shop - for the house that has everything.

Next we walked along the historical walking tour called The Turquoise Trail.

Many artisan shops, bars and cafes surrounding a large courtyard.

The interior courtyard.

We enjoyed a beer on the patio.

The Cathedral of Saint Augustine located in the historic area. It is the Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Church of the Diocese of Tucson. It was completed in 1776 and given a full restoration in 1968.

The exterior may be baroque, but the interior has an austere simplicity.

Looking at the rear of the cathedral.

Scooting to the outskirts of Tucson to see this mission before it closed at 5 pm.

Quite a sight seeing this rise up out of the desert scrub, Taj Mahal-like. Built between 1783 and 1797, it is the oldest European structure in Arizona. It's widely considered to be the finest example of Spanish Colonial architecture in the U.S.

Those "pan" shots do create some distortion, but cram everything into the frame as an offset.

Marvelous carvings inside. They have a patina gained over the centuries.

On an outside gate.

One last, parting photo at 4:55 pm.

We arrived at our hotel in Tucson at 7pm in 75 degree mild weather.

May 29, 2018 - On the road with Frank Lloyd Wright

Well, not literally on the road “with”, but after prepping for this road trip to Chicago with a plethora of Wright books as well as good stuff from the internet, we feel that we’ve become pretty good buds with the old guy. We will immerse ourselves in the heart of Wright country and see many of his creations up close. We’ll cover a few thousand miles over one month and there’s lots more than FLW to see, too. All the while we’ll pass on a few pearls of wisdom - depending on your perspective, of course. This blog is actually being written for us, so that we can relive the exuberance of youth when in our dotage. As with our past road trips, for those friends who want to come along for the ride, there’s no obligation, no app, plus it’s free. That said, we’re  happy to have you join us as we head for our first stop when we leave on Tuesday, May 29, to that old standby, beautiful downtown Winnemucca. Chicago is still a few days away and many miles down the line. Wagons Ho!

Day 1: Gold River to Winnemucca NV, 288 miles.

The kitchen sink is NOT there. Just the necessities. Our house’s foundation rose a full foot, though. That said, now you see it.....

...PRESTO, now you don’t.  Cricket was sweating bullets.

Great day, top temp in the low nineties. Cruise control “on” while listening to a fresh 64 gig MP3 stick that Pam just loaded yesterday with the vast majority of our personal music library. Pandora and You Tube eat your hearts out! Yay Ray Conniff!!

January 28 2018 - Day 2 - de Young Museum for the special Teotihuacan Exhibit - and Sausalito

January 28, Sunday, rise and shine to a bountiful (free) hotel buffet breakfast and absolutely pristine weather. The kind of day when residents say they would rather be drawn and quartered than leave the Bay Area. Twenty-five miles north will bring us to San Francisco and the de Young museum to tour the soon-to-leave Teotihuacan exhibition. Wonderful artifacts on display along with a wealth of narrative context to put it all in perspective. Items were pulled from all over, from museums in Mexico and here in the U.S. and from private collections. One thing missing is what the original inhabitants of the city communicate to us other than their art and constructions. The residents of the city left no written language, no glyphs, no hieroglyphics, nothing. But such superior imaginative renderings in all forms of artistry go a long way.

All of the trees cut back, ready for the next season.

No selfie here. Another innocent passerby conscripted for photo duty.

In part of the underground chamber illustrated above is a fully realized 3-D depiction of a section of the earth to include lakes filled with liquid mercury. The ceiling is embedded with flecks of pyrite, gold and silver to represent the heavens. In flickering torchlight, the scene would come to life with the "heavens" alight with stars and the mercury below shimmering. Like Apple's headquarters building, this was no doubt a highly restricted area, only for the cognoscenti.

Scrimshaw on a solid tusk or whalebone is one thing, this is quite another. Conch shells are an order of magnitude more delicate to work with, so this artifact is a tour de force. 

Very intricate work on all of them.

It doesn't say so, but we'll consider this a mother and her child. Every object needs a back story.

See below for description. When these colors were fresh, even more "pow!".

See below for description.

Some remaining green pigment can still be seen. Research shows that color was everywhere - a riot of color. This fellow wasn't intended to be drab natural stone. Still, either way this is not the guy to meet in an unlit alley telling you to give him your wallet. 

There's a lot going on here. Great how something so delicate survived in tact. Gimme color!

Holes in the earlobes have this mask at one time wearing earrings, probably big hoops of some type.

See below.

Pan shot of one of the rooms - there were many rooms devoted to this exhibition.

Ah, for a shelf at home to hold them all. Way better than Beanie Babies.

Color reveal yourself. This one has pastel vestiges, so be thankful for what remains.

The artifact Norm is looking at has been reconstructed from several broken pieces with some areas of missing pottery filled in with clay - a restorer's jewel.

This whimsical little fella was Pam's favorite. Wonder why?

Okay, so it may have been used to catch the red runoff from sacrifice captives. Then why does this bird look too cute?

Nice that it's not crowded . 

See below.

See below.

In the center is the "poster boy" of the exhibition. 

More fragments of what was. So much looting went on, in particular, in the early '60's and when that loot was ripped from context it became more like an insect on a pin.

Evidently there was a large industry devoted to making ceremonial goods to use in burials, gifts to the gods, tossing down cenotes, religious ceremonies and this was a large employer and economic engine. These goods were often figurines or the ceremonial knives shown here. So, in a sense, throwaway societies are nothing new. For two gods you'd need two ceremonial goods, four gods, four throwaway trinkets. A booming business with visitors from the empire descending upon the city daily. Some far distant future museum may have a display like this, only of PEZ containers. And people would wonder, "just what the hell are these figurine thingys, anyway?".

Next to the bird vessel, this goofy looking guy with the orange earrings was Pam's second favorite creation. But cute? Not so much.

Necklace with connecting string long since disintegrated. The smaller U-shaped beads are actually realistic teeth when viewed closely. But smaller and more stylized, with all of those ugly root projections of real teeth missing. Much more refined for a woman of means.

The cutout in his belly would have probably held a tiny effigy of some type, perhaps an offering.

This fellow is doing some serious leg splits while reaching out - perhaps an advert for a fitness center.

How civilizations end is much in the current thought. By the time of the Aztecs (we know how they ended), Teotihuacan had been long abandoned even by those who had hung around for awhile after the initial "troubles" in the 7th century CE. Another mighty empire, an amazing civilization, "poof!". We want to know because if it can happen to them then what's to say....? 

Next stop....the gift shop.  A beautiful, thick volume, issued in conjunction with the show was on sale for $75+ tax.  We passed on that and instead, bought the same book on Amazon for $56, free shipping, no tax.  YAY!

Our own empire may come to an end sooner or (hopefully) later, but for now the fountains are running and the sun is shining and Sacramento is beckoning. The building in the back is the Steinhart Aquarium.

Taken purely for artistic reasons.

This is the Spreckels Temple of Music, a bandshell next to the museum.  A piano, placed nearby for public use, was being played by various passersbys who seemed to know what they were doing.  Very pleasant.

What a city. Compare this view to that in the opening credits of the 1950's TV weekly policed drama "San Francisco Beat". Norm watched it in real time, Pam was just a babe in swaddling.  

The life of Riley.

Back at the home front, opening the front door and we are greeted by our house mascot coincidentally named "Teotihuacan" ("Teo" to friends). We bought him three years ago at an art gallery and named him after Norm's interest in Mesoamerican cities of old. No city rings a bigger chime than Teotihuacan. 

P.S., the door is actually a dark red rather than the pinkish hue the camera makes out.

Teo is constructed of pottery in three separate pieces, the head, torso and legs. Since he went on guard duty our front door has not been breached by either burglars or ruffians. Not bad for a guy with one arm.