Sometimes quirky can be a lot of fun. We visited the Ignite Museum of Signs. Their focus is on Neon signs, most of which actually use Argon. We saw all manor of signs — working, not working, large, small, and in all colors.

They have a few interesting things that aren’t signs. Here’s Danita with a Bendix TV. (Danita used to work for Bendix.)

When Neon signs were new, Tucson had a stretch of road they called the “Miracle Mile” that was loaded with flashing signs. Locals were proud of it, until Life Magazine did an article and called it the ugliest mile. Tucson wanted to get those signs off the road. They passed a law that once a sign was taken down, it couldn’t be put it back up. A couple of lawyers wanted to renovate a sign for a motel and sued Tucson. The law was amended to allow re-installation of signs if a duly appointed committee agreed the sign was of historic interest and would be appropriately renovated. Today, a few of the Miracle Mile signs are still up and working.

Our other activity was the Tucson Art Museum. It had some interesting surrealistic paintings, including a Dali.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We visited the local science center. It’s a lot smaller than the blockbuster science centers found in larger cities, but they did a nice job with the space they have. We especially enjoyed a video of the mission that collected samples of an asteroid and safely returned them to Earth. The entire 20-year mission was lead by the University of Arizona. The mission isn’t over. Scientists will try to do a fly-by of another asteroid. Several school groups were visiting the science center while we were there. The biggest impact on is us was that the planetarium shows weren’t available to the general public, so I didn’t get my science center nap.

Our other activity was in the evening. We saw Cronan the Barbarian at the Gaslight Theater. This wasn’t typical theater. The audience was encouraged to cheer the good guys, boo the bad guys, sing along, and say Arrrg with the pirates. Jokes were really bad, and spirits were high. Food was available for those who wanted it. Everybody got a large bag of popcorn. Free ice cream was given to folks with a birthday, anniversary, or from out of state. It was a riot of fun.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Danita was checking our next hotel, an Embassy Suites in San Diego. She found that the pool is closed. She planned the trip so she could do her pool exercises. It didn’t work here in Tucson because the pool is there and it is heated, but it’s only 3 feet deep. The combination of cool temperatures and a shallow pool made it impractical to use the pool. So she was doubly interested in the pool at Embassy Suites. Ans seriously miffed that she wouldn’t be able to use the pool. Again. After considering our options, we decided to cancel our reservation at Embassy Suites and stay at another hotel which, hopefully, has a working pool more than 3 feet deep.

In the mean time, we’re still in Tucson. Just about everything is closed for the holiday. That didn’t bother us. We went to the Jazz Festiva, an outdoor venue of jazz music. It’s a lot of fun. Here’s a pic of the crowd. See if you can spot Danita. ;-)

We stopped at a bakery on the way home to get an after-dinner treat. We were surprised to see the bakery also had (excellent) gelato. What could we do? We limited ourselves to just one single dip each.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

The speakeasy last night was nice. There was jazz music, dancing ladies, and gun twirling. Here’s a pic of a jazz group.

We had an an excellent day today. We started out with a visit to the Museum of Miniatures. I went along because Danita wanted to go. Danita figured we would spend an hour there. We ended up staying well over 2 hours and could have stayed longer. These miniatures are far beyond anything I had seen before. Being a guy, I especially enjoyed this miniature of the Merrimack. During the civil war, the Union burned and skuttled 4 ships so the Confederates couldn’t use them. The Confederates raised and rebuilt this one, adding iron cladding. The ship is the Merrimack — the ship that fought the Monitor for the first metal-clad ship battle.

My other fav was Savalat Fidai. He carves figures out of the lead in a # 2 pencil. Here’s one of a bird in a cage, and also one of a horse. Check out this video to watch him create Bird in a Cage.

We closed out the day in a tent circus. It was a lot of carny and a ton of fun. We were having so much fun participating, I didn’t try to grab any pics. If you want, you can find some pics here. Zoppe Circus

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

I lost my necktie at a restaurant at the end of the bus #8 route. It’s a 45 minute ride, but there’s more to see. We decided to go back take a look. There’s a small museum. The property is clean and modern, but the exhibits are of little note. One room has paintings done by local artists for sale. The paintings were nice enough, but with price tags between $1,000 and $12,000, we didn’t spend a lot of time looking at them.

There’s a restaurant called Millie’s Pancake Haus. Millie’s sells potato pancakes, which we both ordered. They were OK, but nothing special. It was a slight disappointment.

There is also mini-golf. We were surprised to find that they have two courses. We decided to play both. It was a lot of fun. Danita got two holes in one. For the first one she hit my ball. That knocked my ball into the cup. I’m not sure whether that counts as a hole in one for her or for me.

Unfortunately, the chocolate shop wasn’t open. So for our capper, we went as a very nice grocery store. We got fixings for most of our dinners for the remainder of our stay in Tucson. After a satisfying day, we took the 45 minute ride home and did laundry.

I hope this finds everyone doing well.

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.