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.
