Second Day In Tucson

1 October 2014

Weather: Sunny and 32C

This morning we had breakfast with Heather having stayed the night at her place.  At this point Justin left to spend the day at the Pima Air and Space Museum.  He had wanted to go to this museum and to see The Boneyard for many years.  When planning our trip originally it was too far out of the way from the other places we were going to visit.  We had wanted to do the trip a year early but due to other staffers holidays being when we wanted to travel we decided to hold off another year.  This turned out to be the best move as it allowed us to take an extra week than if we had of traveled the year before.  In the meantime I had met Heather, Mum's third cousin, so when the opportunity arose to meet her and her family and to stay a couple of nights it was just perfect.  Justin had his tickets to Pima and the 2:00pm tour of The Boneyard booked.  

Heather asked me if I would see Tucson with her but I said I would prefer to do family history and DNA research together instead.  I hope she was not disappointed.  I also used Heather washing machine to get some clothes washed.  We spent most of the day on Heather's computer using 23andme.com to see if we could find any additional DNA matches but we didn't have much luck there.  I tried to do some research on ancestry.com for her father’s ancestors but we didn't have much luck there either.  Do you know of an Ann Ramsay who married George Frederick Mietzcke?  We had a break from the family history stuff to have a salad for lunch and then a rest.  Having been on the road for three weeks it was good to have some down time.  After the refreshing rest I showed Heather photos of my family and she showed me photos of her family.  

We started to prepare dinner when Justin returned from his day out.  He enjoyed the Pima Air and Space Museum and was glad he got to go there.  If you want to know more about Pima I recommend you visit their website, as this is my blog and not that of my husband's (harsh), www.pimaair.org .  Here is some photos though.

B-36J Peacemaker

C-141B Starlifter

Pima Air and Space Museum

B-17G Flying Fortress

That afternoon we had a visit by Heather's son and grandson again.  We gave them gifts from Australia and sat around talking about the days adventures.  This would be our last night at Heather's place and it would be sad to say goodbye to our relatives. 

First Day in Tucson

30 September 2014

Weather: Sunny and 29C

This morning Justin drove us to Tombstone, the traffic from Phoenix was bumper to bumper on the highway so I was glad he was driving.  It was midday by the time we reached Tombstone which was later than what we had planned.  

On arriving we raced to Allen Street to see the shootout at the OK Corral.  Unsure on where it was to be held we followed the actors from out the front into the OK Corral where we paid the entry fee and rushed around to the area behind the shop.  The re-enactment is held very close to where the actual shootout occurred between the Earp's plus Holliday and the Clanton-McLaury gang.  Today the actual spot is set up with dummies in the positions where they were said to be in during the historical shooting.  At the end of the live re-enactment we walked around the OK Corral visiting the museum, saw where Doc Holliday was staying at the time of the gun fight, and visited the livery and the blacksmith's from the time, 26 October 1881.  They screen footage on the town’s history at the Historama but we decided not to wait to see it as the day was getting away.

Historama and OK Corral in Allen Street

Shootout

We had lunch in Big Nose Kate's Saloon where we were recommended the Rueben Sandwich.  If you don't know what a Rueben Sandwich is like us it is bread with a whole lot of corn meat on it and a bit of pickles, it was an enormous sandwich.  

Where we had lunch, Big Nose Kate's Saloon

After lunch we went downstairs in the saloon which was the original location of the bar and we walked around Allen Street which was the main street at the time of Wyatt Earp. We visited the Bird Cage which was the gambling hall but only saw the lobby as Justin planned to go in after we finished looking around Allen Street.  We visited most of the gift shops and I decided on buying some belt buckles for my Dad.  

In our travels we met the current Marshall in Tombstone, Danny, he walked around the street with us.  He talked about the history of the town as we went, he also answered questions we had about policing in the USA.

It was around 4pm when we drove through customs on our way north to visit Mum's third cousin who lives in Tucson.  It was about this point that we realised that we forgot to go into the Bird Cage, so please visit when you are in the lobby otherwise you might forget like us.

It was around 6pm when we arrived at the relative’s home because we had stopped to get a memory card for the GoPro on the way and we had missed some of the turn offs to get to her place.  We spent the evening talking about the differences between Australia and the USA and there is a lot to our surprise.  It was great to meet relatives we had never seen before but which I had been communicating with through email as we have a shared interest in family history and this is what brought us together.  We all seemed to get along like a house on fire. 

Phoenix

29 September 2014

Weather: Early storm followed by a sunny day 22C

This morning Justin still woke with a headache so we didn't rush to check out of the Red Roof Inn leaving around 8:30am.  Justin drove from Gallup to the Barringer Crater where we did the one hour walking tour on part of the rim.  During the tour you learn about how the crater was created, early studies of meteorite craters, how the Barringer family bought the land and view some fossils.  We spent time looking through the museum and took photos from the two highest viewing platforms.  We decided to have lunch there as they have their own Subway and if wasn't much different to the ones back home in Australia.  

Holsinger Meteorite 

Barringer Crater

Barringer Crater Museum

Afterwards we drove onto Sedona as we wanted to see Boynton Canyon.  The road to Sedona was windy and most of the State Forest was closed due to fire, this meant that you couldn't stop at any of the pull off areas and so we didn't see any turn off for Boynton Canyon.  I freaked out when driving up to our first roundabout on the whole trip, driving on the opposite side of the road I wasn't sure if I could handle it, so we pulled over before the roundabout and Justin took over the driving.  He did a great job finding our hotel the Courtyard Marriott - West Phoenix/Avondale.  The hotel was of a high standard of accommodation and reasonably priced.  There was a NFL game being played nearby at the stadium between the Cardinals and the Redskins.  Justin watched the game in our King Room and I relaxed, that evening we dined at the China City Buffet which was not far away.  The selection of food on offer was amazing.

King Room at the Courtyard Marriott - West Phoenix/Avondale