Now Boondocking in the Barry Goldwater AF Range

Yesterday, January 28

After a night at the KOA conveniently located within 3 miles of the Tucson Airport, Martha and I rode Scarlett, the Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig to get her to her flight home.

I will continue camping through February unless something comes up, chasing warm weather and solitude when possible.

Pursuant to that goal, I drove the VRRV west towards the town of Ajo, AZ.  I'm now boondocking in one of the publicly accessible portions of the Barry Goldwater Air Force Gunnery Range for the next few days.

Being at a lower altitude and with warmer weather seemingly starting in Arizona, it was a nice 65 degrees for a high as I set up camp.  The location is becoming very popular it seems, I managed to snag the next to last site!

During the Golden Hour, I took Yagi, my TW200 out for a short spin to capture views of some of the other rock formations in this area:

Jan 28 Sunset

Uraling to the De Grazia Gallery in the Sun Museum, Catalina, AZ

Friday, January 24

Martha and I left the campsite shortly after 10AM when temps had risen to above 50 degrees under sunny skies.  We rode down to the Catalina suburbs of Tucson to check out the De Grazia Gallery of the Sun Museum.

Martha's parents had liked De Grazia's art work and had taken their girls for a visit, this was a nostalgia trip for Martha.

I must admit, I like his work a lot.  I'd seen some of his stuff down in Bisbee, AZ's museum and had found it dark and unsettling.  Not the stuff in the museum though, it was quite nice and pleasing to the eye.

Here's some of the art work (various mediums) created by Ettore (Ted) De Grazia/

Here's the entrance to the studio/gallery....built by De Grazia to emulate a mine entrance.

There was way more art work in various mediums than shown here, these are only the ones that caught my eye so to speak:

Stained Glass versions of De Grazia's work

Oil on canvas, St Xavier de la Bac Mission

Stained Glass 

Deer Dancer

I liked the notion of a nun

swinging whimsically

(tile on copper)

White Dove

Don Quixote and Sancho Pancha

(Tile on Copper)

Dog Soldier

We lucked out in that there was a temporary exhibit of de Grazia's Roadrunner collection:

Mother and Child

Kino's soldiers and pack horses

Celebrations at St Xavier's Mission

West side of the Baboquivari Peak?

de Grazia's easel and painting gear

The Bus

De Grazia at St. Xavier Mission

Martha and De Grazia

Father Kino brings cattle to Altar Valley

Raiding indians steal horses from Kino's Village

Kino's soldiers battle Apache

La Compañia Volante

Altar Valley Padre Kino Entrada 1687

Chapayecas - Clap Clap Clap Clap

Yaqui Indian Easter Celebrations

Pase de Muerte

Outside the gallery there was a large collection/display of cacti and other vegetation.

The Deer Dancer

Music Room?  The paintings are the Mariachis

Small "mission" built by De Grazia

So, for a $10/person fee, you get to view and enjoy De Grazia's work, well worth it and a recommended stop if you're ever in the Tucson area.

After the tour of the gallery, we adjourned to the El Charro Mexican Restaurant nearby.  It's one of four of a family owned franchise which has been in operation since 1922 and its the oldest single family run restaurant in the nation.

The food was excellent!  Highly recommended if you're in the area.  We had gone there based on a recommendation from Martha's sister: Laura.

Fresh Guacamole made at one's table

Prickly Pear Margarita and fresh Guac

Yummy

Sunset was pretty good though distant.

Here's the sunset on our last night at this camping location, Jan 27.

Uraling in the Saguaro NP and now Boondocking near Catalina, AZ

Wednesday, January 22

We Ural'ed our way to the Saguaro National Park's Visitor Center on the west side of Tucson.  The NP also has an eastern portion which we didn't go to.  We figured, either side had thousands of Saguaro Cacti.

Martha got her NP sticker and stamp.   Then we did a slow cruise via Ural of a dirt road loop, admiring the many Saguaro cacti and enjoying the very small amount of tourist traffic.

We called these "the squabbling couple"

Nice park, lots of hiking trails apparently but not much else in terms of motor vehicle touring.

We then attempted to check out the Desert Museum but it's co-located with a Zoo apparently and I was to cheap to pay the $30/person entrance fee.

Returned to the campsite and rested the afternoon away.

Thursday, January 23

It was past time for us to depart the Snyder Hill BLM area today.  More and more tent campers with associated sketchy looking individuals had started gathering nearby.  It was like the sight of tents attracted more tent campers.

Martha reported the latest batch had one relieving himself right by his camper.  Classy.

Luckily, displacing had been part of the plan, as we were tired of the noise and crowds of South Tucson and this particular BLM area.

We motored north out of the city via US 77 and found a nice spot in AZ State Trust Land west of Catalina, AZ in the Oro Valley.

I think we saw like three other campers in the area as we drove slowly in before finally picking up a nice spot: