We had a wonderful tour of the Franklin Auto Museum. Franklin was one of hundreds of auto manufacturers that went through the depression but ended up failing shortly after. They manufactured cars from 1908 to 1930. One of their nicer exhibits was a room that showed the early progress of Franklin, and by extension the progress of the automotive industry. They went from a horseless carriage to something that looked like what we would call a car in just 15 years. The speed of change in those days was breathtaking.

Franklin cars had three hallmarks. They used air cooled, highly reliable engines. Our guide told us that some Franklin engines are still being used for industrial purposes. All of the museum’s cars still run. Franklin used aluminum where possible. This made the car much lighter than competitors. The third hallmark was an extremely high price, due to the cost of the aluminum. These cars are in almost perfect condition. They have driven cars to auto shows across the country, including Hershey Park. They have won top prize several times. Here is a picture of one of their later cars.

The museum is run from a house that is as interesting as the cars. This is an original adobe house in immaculate condition. The furniture was all purpose made for the house. Here are a couple of house shots.

This afternoon, we ate a famous local food: Sonoran Barbecue hotdogs. Then we visited the botanical gardens. Tonight we will visit the Dillinger Days Speakeasy.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Yesterday and today have the best weather for our time in Tucson. Afternoons are 70 and sunny. Tomorrow we return to cooler weather. Since the weather was so nice, we decided to do the zoo. It’s large enough to be interesting and small enough to easily see everything in one visit. This was the first Giant Ant Eater I had seen.

The carousel offered rides on lions, tigers, and other zoo animals.

After lunch, we had some serious lounging by the outdoor pool.

The best is yet to come. We have tickets to a concert highlighting Itzak Perlman.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Bonus:

We wanted to see some petroglyphs and also visit the Pima Air Museum. We learned that taking an Uber out of town is a lot easier than getting an Uber to get back. So we Ubered to a rental car company and drove ourselves. We planned to use an old car GPS but we were sort a critical part. So we fired up the smart phone map app. Danita held the phone and gave me advice while I heard the phone’s instructions though my hearing aids. It sounds rather confusing, but we quickly got navigation working pretty well. We saw plenty of petroglyphs. Here’s one that I think represents a goat, two sun bursts, and a wagon wheel.

My favorite is a very nice spiral. The Australian aboriginals used spirals in their ancient art, and still use them today. It is thought that ancient spirals represented water, which would be quite valuable in an arid climate such as exists in most of Australia and the Sonora Desert.

After lunch, we visited the Pima Air Museum. We saw more airplanes than we could count. Here’s an attractive plane that caught my eye.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

We started our day at the University of Arizona Tree Ring Museum. This is a big deal museum, the biggest and best of its kind anywhere. They have over 750,000 tree ring samples going back to the 1920s and coming from around the world. They have several professors pulling down grants on various tree ring related issues. I would say more, but I can’t get past what I’ve already said.

After lunch, we went to the Arizona History Museum. We saw pretty much what I expected. Some of the boards seemed to have text that was word-for-word what I had read earlier. That doesn’t mean I didn’t see a few way cool things. For example, here’s a snap shot of a Thacher slide rule. The scale rotates in a helix around the cylinder to get additional precision in calculations. It is very rare to see one in this excellent condition.

Studebaker was known for building rugged, dependable, high quality horse drawn wagons. Here’s a 1903 Mountain wagon that would be perfect for traveling across Arizona. I don’t think I convinced Danita this would be a fun thing to do.

Unlike most other wagon manufacturers, Studebaker successfully converted themselves into a thriving car manufacturer, maintaining their reputation for rugged, reliable, dependable cars. Here’s a beautiful 1923 “Big 6” Sheriff’s special, generating 70 HP and capable of going 80 MPH. Studebaker sold this as a 7 passenger touring car. Many Arizona Sheriffs had one of these bad boys.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

UA does a lot of interesting things. We took a light rail (new transportation mode — you hoo!) to see two of them. Our first stop was the pharmacy museum. Danita appreciated this because her dad trained as a pharmacist. Dr. Ted Tong was kind enough to give us the tour. UA has what is probably the best pharmacy museum in the world. Here is a pic of them in front of an early machine to help make pharmaceuticals.

We spent the afternoon at the Carris Mirror Lab. This facility makes large mirrors (up to 8.8 meters) with an accuracy of 14 nanometers. This is the only facility in the world that can make one of these mirrors. They are limited to 8.8 meters because the highest overpass out of Tucson has only 10 meters of clearance. This picture shows one of many mirrors that will be used in the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently under construction in the Chilean desert. This mirror is being polished to its final shape. It doesn’t look shiny because the lab provides only the glass for the mirror. The mirror will be coated with aluminum in Chile.

The lab has not yet made a mirror for use in space. The guide told us that a land-based mirror sees as well as a mirror in space, thanks to new technology developed by Cal Tech that removes atmospheric turbulence from the image. He said that if this technology had been available, they would never have launched the Hubble telescope. If ever you visit Tucson, I strongly encourage you to spend a few hours taking this tour.

I hope this finds everyone doing well. And come to Tucson to visit the Carris lab.

We visited the Tucson Museum of Art yesterday. They have a few pieces by well known artists such s Rodin and Sisley. The majority of their collection provides a wide view local art — Native American, Spanish, etc. The museum is built on land that used to be Tucson’s China Town, then became a lively Hispanic neighborhood. One building from that era is restored and focuses on this part of local history. Here is a pic of about a third of an El Nacimiento. Comparing this El Nacimiento to a Nativity scene is like comparing a model T Ford to a rocket ship. The nativity is in the upper right.

Another section focuses on Native American art. The largest reservation in southern Arizona is for the Tohono O’odham. This is a group I hadn’t heard about before. This modern pot caught my eye.

For food, we start with the hotel breakfast, have a nice lunch out, then have salad and sandwich in the room for dinner. But yesterday we took a 40 minute bus ride to Pinnacle Peak. This is a low cost steak house popular with locals and tourists alike. The restaurant is surrounded by small shops (notably including a chocolatier) and a small train ride, all with an old-time western motif. Some 30 years ago, I joined Danita on a business trip to Tucson. The place hasn’t changed at bit. The restaurant’s hook is that if a man comes to dinner wearing a necktie, the waitress will cut it off. The ceremony includes a cow bell and a loud speech denouncing neckties. The ceiling is covered with tie remnants. I now have two ties immortalizing my visits to Tucson.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

Our only activity today was the Desert museum. It’s a huge facility, and we spent over four hours there. They have a zoo-like display of animals, but also much more. Over 100 volunteers keep the place humming. If you visit enough zoos, you will find a show of birds flying out in the open. We’ve attended several such shoes. But the show at the Desert museum was the best ever. Everybody stood on the trail. There were hand-hold bars to help visitors turn and look while the birds flew just inches over our heads. I can’t find words to describe what it’s like to witness a raptor fly directly at me just a few inches over my head.

The down side of the day was that transportation got quite confused. I won’t try to offer a detailed account, mostly because it’s boring for you-all. I’ll just say that Uber transportation can be somewhat less than perfect.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

First things first, and the most important first thing is food. Our breakfast is included with the room. We eat lunch out, then have salad and sandwich for dinner. We thought we had everything solved yesterday, until we got to the end of dinner and had nothing for desert. The hotel has a snack shop, but that’s not the kind of desert we wanted. So first thing this morning, we went to the bakery around the corner and got a couple of treats for after dinner, It was just right.

We stayed within walking distance of our hotel today. Our first stop was the Presidio, a Spanish fort. The adobe fort is long gone. But the locals dedicated a sizeable area where the fort used to be. The built a very effective re-creation. We thought we would get a docent tour, but the docent called in. That turned out to be fine. A school group of 50 or so kids was there, along with a full complement of reenactors. We got to read the “adult” posters we wanted to read, hear many if the interesting presentations, and enjoy the energy of 50 kids running around in somewhat organized outdoor activities.

For lunch, we were lucky to hear about the El Charro Cafe. This restaurant has been owned by the same family for over 100 years. They claim they invented the chimichanga when a cook accidentally dropped a burrito in the fryer. The cook cursed, but found the result was surprisingly quite tasty, They couldn’t sell a dish named after a cuss word, so they changed it slightly and came up with “chimichanga”. Best of all, the restaurant was only two blocks down the street. How could we not have chimichangas for lunch? If you look closely, you will see Danita is sitting in Senator John McCain’s chair.

In the afternoon, we visited the University of Arizona’s gem and mineral museum. This is the best such museum we have ever visited, including the Smithsonian. It is one of only three museums with a moon rock on exhibit. The moon rock doesn’t look like much, but it illustrates the level of quality of this collection.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

It’s really nice to have over two weeks in Tucson. We don’t have to rush, or prioritize sights. We’re just taking our time. We started with the visitor center. Unlike other visitor centers I have visited, this one is a museum in its own right. It’s located in the old courthouse. It discusses several facets of Tucson and southern Arizona. We learned something new about the Native Americans, the history of transportation, development of Tucson, etc. One of the fun exhibits is a thorough renovation of the courtroom where John Dillinger was arraigned. They had a pretend radio show about what happened, complete with an old time advertisement.

After a nice lunch, we moved on to the Transportation museum. We didn’t expect much from this one. In spite of our low bar, the museum was way below what we thought it would be. On the bright side, it was free.

As I mentioned yesterday, the local grocery store is closed. We learned that they plan to take 10 months renovating the place. We decided to take the bus to a Safeway supermarket. It takes more or less half an hour one way, depending on how long you have to wait for the next bus. Busses are free this year. And we added a new transportation mode to our trip. But the sobering thought is that downtown Tucson is a food desert, at least for the next 10 months.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.