Tucson, AZ

We arrived into Voyager RV Park in Tucson, AZ on January 1.  Overall the weather was fantastic for January, very few days in the 60s, but mostly in the 70s and 80s.

We immediately began trying to secure concert tickets as they have such great entertainment for their Wednesday night concert series and they were already sold out at the Activities Office.  So we kept watching the board where people post tickets to sell and we secured Good Rockin' Live, Those Were The Days by William Florian and Piano Men Generations which did songs from Billy Joel and Elton John.

We started getting to know people around us and especially parking next to a couple who had two Collies and a Sheltie.  We were told about the Happy Hour group where they put an orange cone out in front of their spaces for anyone to come between 4-5.  It took us awhile to find the cone because it did look different than what we were thinking, but below is a picture of the cone in front of our motorhome when we hosted Happy Hour.

We went sightseeing a few days.  The first place we went was the Mission San Xavier that was started in 1783 and construction complete in 1797.  It is the only intact mission in Arizona and continues to be a working parish.

We visited four different wineries in Elgin:

Kief-Joshua-

Flying Leap -

Callahans - This was our favorite from a perspective of cost and quality and they have had wines selected for various White House dinners.

Wilhelm Family Vineyards - 

Our next outing was to see the Asarco Copper Mine.  We took the tour and was able to see the open pit mine, and then onto the mill where they start processing the sulphate ores before sending to Hayden to do the smelting and then finishing the processing in Amarillo, TX.  Arizona produces 2/3 of the copper in the US and is known as the copper state.

Tire from one of the 240 ton trucks - smaller than
what they use today

This is a low grade copper vein minuet
2 1/2 miles in diameter and 1400 feet deep.  

Crushing machines

Another outing was to Sabino Canyon.  We took the tram tour up into the canyon about 3.7 miles.

We were able to visit with a couple of work friends while in Yuma and one couple that we met on our Panama Canal cruise.  We enjoyed seeing our friends new Air BnB and having dinner and seeing the home of some people we met on our cruise.  Elsie and Raymond from Oregon spend every January in Yuma and since we didn't see them in Yuma this year, they decided to spend three days in Tucson and we went to Sierra Vista to visit a mutual work friend, VA.  Unfortunately on the Pietrocks way back to Yuma the day after this picture was taken, Raymond had a massive heart attack and died at a rest stop. So sad.

We don't go out to eat that often unless we are with friends, as we do a lot of barbecuing.  We did Baby Back Pork Loin ribs, a rolled meatloaf with ham and cheese and Pork Roast.  We decided to go out for breakfast one morning as Craig wanted chicken fried steak and found this small diner (picture below).  The breakfast was wonderful and very plentiful and cost only 7.29.  We'll be back.

Our last sight seeing trip was to Tucson Botanical Gardens.  There are 17 specialty gardens within the 5 1/2 acres along with a Butterfly and Orchid Pavilion and a Chrysalis exhibit.  They also had a special exhibition "Origami in the Garden".  The gardens were started back in the 1920s by the Porters and then was donated to Tucson.

Still more places to see for our next stop in Tucson.  4th Street and Lindy's Burgers, Gaslight Theatre, more Sonoita and Elgin wineries, Tubac and the rooster restaurant, Dragoon, AZ and Barrio Brewery.

We travelled to Yuma on February 1st.