November 24-27, 2021 Tucson, Arizona

 71 and mostly sunny!

John fighting with the turkey breast he is smoking tomorrow for our T-day dinner. Sunset tonight. 

Been working on this basket. It has a lizard in the middle. I decided to make a bead lizard on the rim of the basket, but it looks more like a toad. Will have to work on it more. Sunset tonight. 

More sunset. John was going to smoke a turkey breast for Thanksgiving, but his smoker had a melt down and the bird went in the oven. It was all very good. Today was 70 and sunny, Very windy. Some cool clouds this afternoon.

Sunset tonight. 

We had the bus washed and waxed this morning. It is so nice and shiny now, Miles and miles of pecan orchards south of Tucson. 

We went to Madera Canyon and hiked to the Carry Nation Mine. Madera Canyon is a sky island. Mt Wrightson is 9.453 feet high. It is very wooded. 

Fall oak leaves on the stream. Alligator juniper bark, backlit grasses, thistle flower, fall leaves in the stream, white sycamore tree. 

Some old mining equipment at the Carry Nation mine. The mine itself hit water and has a stream coming out of it. 

View above the mine. John crossing the grass at the mouth of the mine. 

More alligator juniper bark, a small fern, a heart shaped knothole, gray squirrel with a bushy tail begging for food, white flower. We are just south of Tucson. It is amazingly green and wooded, for the middle of the desert.

Mt Wrightson and the Santa Rita mountains in Madera Canyon. Mt Wrightson is 9,453 feet tall. 

November 21-22, 2021 Tucson, Arizona

 75 and partly cloudy.

There is a dog show going on at the fairgrounds where we are camped. We checked it out. The actual show and below is the vending area of dog products. A few of the dogs shown. Very nice dogs.  I don't think I have ever seen a samoyeds this clean and fluffy before. 

There were more people grooming dogs than dogs being shown. Some t shirts in the vending area, the different classes of dogs I think, an afghan, I love being where there are palm trees, makes me think warm, two different hot dog stands and the canine semen center in the vending area. 

I finished this basket today. The center is a piece of glass I fused. It is made with dyed pine needles, polyester thread and glass beads. It is 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 inches. 

A pastel sunset tonight over I-10 as we drive over to check out where we are dropping the RV off tomorrow at 630AM. It will kill me to get up that early. But it will be worth it to have the suspension fixed. 

We dropped the bus off to get the suspension fixed and went to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Blooming sweet acacia  in front of the museum. The Bumble bee, the smallest biplane, and a salt flats racer. The driver has to lie flat on their belly inside to drive it. 

John standing under a Black Bird. Some of the outdoor exhibits. 

Super Guppy. It was used to fly rocket boosters. Me in my mask and hat at the Pima Air Museum.

Jaws a reconnaissance drone, the front of a sea plane with a boat hull, a plane with two sets of propellers. Some airplane art. 

Reconnaissance plane, a Rolls Royce engine on a monstrous and a mars rover.  Animals you may encounter when walking around the airplanes,  Dream Liner and mosaic bench memorial. 

John inside a DC3. Weird shaped transport plane.

Plane art. One painted like and eagle and kind of abstract. 

Sunset from camp. The suspension on the bus is fixed! Only need a couple valves adjusted, no parts. Rides nice again. 

November 20, 2021 Tucson, Arizona

 80 and partly cloudy. 

Yesterday we saw billboards for miles to go see the THING! So of course when we drove by we stopped. Kind if like Wall Drug. The entrance to the THING. Of course the main event was the huge gift shop in front of it. The first thing you see when you enter is the Aliens vs Dinosaurs. 

The museum presents a different take on history. It starts with What if the dinosaurs were ruled by aliens from another planet? There are diagrams of how the aliens  controlled the dinosaurs. What if ancient petroglyphs show aliens??

Aliens vs dinosaurs. This T-rex seems to have swallowed the wicked witch of the west or pippi longstockings. 

1849 RV. What if you had to travel across the country in this? What if Elvis was actually abducted by aliens? What if this 1837 Rolls Royce as really driven by Winston Churchill- with an alien driver and a scene from  deep in the copper mine where the THING was discovered.

At last the THING! Looks to be a paper mache model of an alien clutching an infant. They said it is a THING of great power. Texas canyon along the highway. 

We are now parked at the Pima county fairgrounds. We got a site with a tree. There is a dog show going on now. Will have to wander over and check it out. Sunset from the fairgrounds tonight.

Welcome to the Pima County Fairgrounds. Last year we camped here in this huge lot. It was covid and there were only a handful of people here, no events. Today when we arrived they only had 30 of 300 spaces left. There is a dog show going on. We scored a nice spot in a more secluded area with trees.