We didn't do any sightseeing traveling from Florida to Texas.

Texas - June 2005

San Antonio, Texas   All Pictures   (River Walk,  Japanese Tea Garden,  Mission San Jose',  Mission Concepcion,  The Alamo) 

June 6, 2005

Today we took the City Tour of San Antonio.  We were up and out by 8:30 AM to get the tour bus at the campground office.  There were 12 people on the tour and the guide was funny, straightforward and very good.  San Antonio is the second largest city in Texas and still growing.  The city is modern but with the historic downtown still reflecting the old Spanish style buildings.  As they say, big cities with a small town feel.  There is such a diversity of cultures here from American, Mexican, Chinese, Mexican, and Spanish to Mexican.  Yep, I think there is a Mexican Restaurant on every other corner. 

Japanese (Chinese) Tea Gardens  

These gardens were sculptured by a Japanese man out of an old lime rock quarry.  As you enter through the gate, the name on the gate is “Chinese Tea Gardens”.  Seems the gardens were finished just as World War II started and being Japanese the man didn’t want the gardens destroyed by well meaning Americans so he changed the name to Chinese instead of Japanese.  Afterwards he gave the gardens to the city as a gift.  However, for years when rebuilding and restorations were done in and around the city the gardens were forgotten and left to deteriorate.  With no money and no buyers when the Mayor tried to sell it, the gardens were to be destroyed.  This got the residents to band together to raise the funds and restoration has started.  After entering through the gate you go up several steps to the Tea House.  This is a large structure like an umbrella with five stone pillars supporting a wood beamed and thatched roof.  You can see where vines and weeds were removed from the stone pillars but the roof’s wood beams are sagging and there are large gapping holes in the roof.  There is now a three foot high fence around the Tea House for safety.  Beyond the Tea House you follow stone walkways down into the gardens.  The walkways and bridges are lined by stones and wonder through plants and flowers.  The bridges used to go over lakes full of coy but today the bridges go over dry lakes as the guide said there is a leak somewhere in the lakes and they removed all the water and put the coy in the San Antonio River; even the waterfall is dry.

River Walk Boat Cruise 

There was a special boat waiting for us when we arrived.  The cruise takes you along the river passed all the restaurants and the manmade extension loop through the River Center Mall; the cruise lasted about 40-minues.  The river is up to 12-feet deep and the manmade extensions are only 4-feet deep.  It was a nice leisurely ride.  Afterwards we went up stairs to the IMAX Theater to watch a 2D movie called “Alamo…the Price of Freedom”.  We had reserved seats right up front on the second tier.  The movie was pretty good and made you realize just how hard and bloody those 13 days were.   After the movie it was lunch.  We had 2-hours to eat lunch and see the Alamo so we ate in the food court of the Mall, sat outside for a little while to enjoy the sun and river before walking across the street to the Alamo. 

The Alamo 

The Alamo or Mission San Antonio de Valero as it was known was constructed in 1718 and was the first of five missions built by the Spanish friars in the San Antonio area.  The battle took place in 1836 at the end of the Texas Revolution and all 189 men, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, died holding their ground against 1,800 Mexican solders during a 13-day siege.  The Chapel that is large, plain but beautiful and Long Barracks and the stone wall around the complex are all that remain today.  Inside Long Barracks are artifacts from the battle including Jim Bowie’s knife and Davy Crockett’s rifle and several slats with the names of those men that died.  The limestone walls are engraved with names of those men and when I asked the guide how many they counted, she only replied that there were lots and that an architectural student found one of the oldest from 1837 in the Bell Tower.  Outside you walk into a well groomed garden with walkways taking you around the compound.  

Mission San Jose' 

Mission San Jose’ is the largest and best known of the five missions.  Built by the Spanish and inhabited by the Indians, it is fully restored.  You enter through the stone walls where you can see the small holes through which the Indians would shout their guns and canyons.  Yep, the Spanish even gave them guns and canyons to defend themselves.  Inside are six acres with rooms where the Indians lived, wells, stone ovens and a few buildings used as mills.  Toward the west end is the Church that houses the famous “Rose Window”.  The guide told us that the Priest had a lover and the window, facing west, would always reflect the setting sun that would show where his quarters were so his lover could find it when she arrived.  However, she never joined him but the legend lives on.  However, the brochure says that the Rose Window or Rosie’s Window was done by the sculpture to honor his lover.  The window called the Rose Window is the only wood trimmed window in the Church but is on the south side of the building and the guide told us that the window over the west entrance is the real Rose Window.  Both are beautiful and are said to be the finest pieces of Spanish Colonial ornamentation in the country.  The Chapel is beautiful and inside are rooms showing some of the original wall paintings.  Outside the walls there is also a Visitor Center and Gift Shop.

Mission Concepcion 

Mission Concepcion is the oldest unrestored stone church in America today.  There are no walls here and is much smaller than Mission San Jose’.  The Chapel is much smaller but just as beautiful.  Outside is a small yard that is being dug up to find the original foundations so it can be restored because the chapel’s limestone walls are cracking and deteriorating.  I walked into a room in the back building and found a woman working on the wall.  It looked like she was trying to restore the painting.

The Market Square  

We left the mission and went to our last stop, the Market Square.  Market Square is actually two buildings, one with 32 shops that’s a replica of an authentic Mexican market and the other with 80 specialty shops.  The guide told us that the bakery in the Mi Tierra restaurant had the best sweetbread (pastries).  We headed there first thing, got two pastries, sat down and enjoyed them in the bakery that had all kinds of piñatas hanging from the ceiling.  We then walked around the market outside that had various clothing, jewelry and lots of piñatas.  

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San Antonio Zoo          Pictures

San Antonio, TX - June 3, 2005

The zoo is a good size and houses over 3,500 animals.  It is set in a former limestone quarry so all the animals roam in rocky natural settings.  The animals we saw were birds, bears, lions, tigers, elephants, hippos, snakes, antelopes, and others.  Most were trying to get some shade.  We ate lunch in the small café, walked around the giraffes and monkeys and headed back to the motor home. 

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Arizona - June 2005

Tucson, Arizona

 Pima Air & Space Museum       Pictures   

June 17, 2005

Up this morning at 8:00 AM and it was already 93 degrees.  High for today is to be 103 degrees.  We headed out to the Pima Air & Space Museum just down Valencia Blvd.  We purchased a “combo” ticket that admitted us to the museum and a motor coach tour to the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) facilities at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  With 45-minutes before the motor coach tour we started the tour through Hanger #1 of the Museum.  The museum is the World’s largest privately funded Aerospace Museum, has six buildings with planes and memorabilia and six acres of planes outside.  Inside Hangar #1 we joined a tour and listened to the guide as we walked passed a replica of the Wright Brothers Plane, the “Timken” Learjet and a SR-71 Blackbird exhibit outside.  The tour guide kept saying I’ll give you the shortened tour because of the heat but by the time we headed toward Hanger #2 it was time for the motor coach tour.  This tour took us into the facilities of AMARC.  The guide said there are 8,000 people working here and only eight are Air Force, everyone else is a government worker!  This is where all the airplanes were we saw from the road yesterday.  This facility has over 5,000 airplanes at a value when new of over $27 Billion.  It’s not really a graveyard but rather a regeneration center.  Arizona is ideal to store these planes because of the low humidity they don’t rust.  There are over 5,000 planes sitting in the yards.  I think we saw every kind of plane that was made!  We even saw the Flying Fortress and the Super Guppy; boy, are these babies big.  We saw Bombers, F-15, F-16, F-17 Fighters, Helicopters, Migs, Warthogs, B-52’s and Trainers, just to name a few.  I can’t remember all we saw.  You drive passed and look down rows and rows of planes, each covered by a special white vinyl type material.  We saw some pretty strange planes and lots of ones being parted out.  They take parts from several planes to refurbish others and can have any plane ready to fly between one week to one month time and the guide said they refurbished and readied 600 of these planes for Viet Nam and 150 for the Gulf War.  All day there are planes flying overhead and supposedly all these planes are fueled and flown to keep them in condition.  The tour lasted about an hour and was very good.  After the motor coach tour we ate lunch in the Grill at the museum and continued our tour by walking around the buildings and yard, this time on our own.  Each hanger has items dedicated to a particular group of flyers and was very interesting.  Outside we walked around Bombers, Cargo Planes, Fighters, Seaplanes, Helicopters and Fire Fighters.  I can’t believe we were walking around a huge gravel yard in 103 degree heat for an hour or more and not passing out.  I really didn’t expect to spend all day here but it was definitely worth it.

 

Williams, Arizona -  All Pictures   (Williams,  Old Tucson Studios,  White Buffalo) 

Williams is known as the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon” because that is where the Grand Canyon Railway departs to go to the Grand Canyon and Route 66 goes right through the center of the historic downtown.  The whole town is on the National Register of Historic Places and all the buildings in the downtown district were built at the turn of the century and are some of the best preserved in Arizona.  We walked over to the Grand Canyon Railway Station that was originally a Fred Harvey House.  Fred Harvey was the mastermind behind The Harvey Girls that served visitors at the Grand Canyon Hotel in the 1890’s.  

Old Tucson Studios   

We drove west on Speedway to Gates Pass Rd. to get to the Old Tucson Studios.  This is set up as an old western town where they made several movies.  Inside the Town Hall they have displays of pictures of the movies made here and old movie camera and equipment.  The other buildings were a Blacksmith Shop, Sheriffs Office, County Bank, Homesteader’s Cabin, Brewery, Train Depot, Bar, Grand Palace Hotel & Saloon, Cantina an Ice Cream Parlor.  There was also a church, graveyard and a mission where they were doing a show when we got there.   

Spirit Ranch, Home of the White Buffalo 

Williams, AZ

I wanted to see the White Buffalo at the Spirit Ranch on SR-180.  The White Buffalo is a sacred animal to the Indians that symbolizes peace throughout the world.  There is no road that crosses between SR-64 and SR-180 so we had to drive 23 miles up SR-64 to Valle and turn down SR-180 south for another 31 miles to the Ranch.  Jack didn’t like this too much.  The Spirit Ranch has four adult white buffalo and two calves and three other buffalos that are not white.  The buffalo are kept in pens that you walk around.  The guy in the office told us not to take pictures of the big black buffalo or even lift my camera because people were teasing him yesterday and really riled him up, besides there were signs saying to stand four feet away from the fences.  He was a big guy and I didn’t even raise my hands when we walked passed.  As we started out the door to the pens, their black dog walked out in front of us and the woman said he would be our guide.  Sure enough, he walked in front of us around all the pens and back to the office.  The White Buffalo were lying down; they are not really white but more a cream color and definitely not the usual brown or black we saw before.  The calves were not white either but a light tan; they change to the cream color as they grow.  Well I saw them now, I’m happy!  We drove back up SR-180 the 31 miles and back down SR-64 for 23 miles back to the campground; we got back quicker than going, at least it seemed that way.  Thanks Jack.

 

Flagstaff, Arizona       All Pictures   (Lowell Observatory; Oak Creek Canyon; Red Rock Canyon; Chapel of the Holy Cross)

 Lowell Observatory

Flagstaff, AZ - June 24, 2005

We drove into Flagstaff to see what was around.  We drove up to the Lowell Observatory at 7,200 feet in the mountains.  We arrived 30 minutes before a tour so we watched a short film about the observatory and the Astronomers who work there.  They also have two display rooms about the starts and plants with some interactive exhibits and a gift shop.  On the tour, we were taken into the dome housing the historic 24” Clark refractor telescope.  This telescope is the oldest, biggest and best telescope made.  They claimed that the two glass lenses were the most perfect hand-made lenses ever made and even today this telescope can not be beat when it comes to quality.  It has a focal length of 32 feet, weighs almost two-tons and it can be moved by one person!  The dome used to be moved by pulling on ropes but is now powered and rolls around on truck tires.  However the doors in the ceiling are still opened by ropes.  As powerful as this telescope is it can only view a very small area at a time and is for looking at things after they are found.  So we continued on to the telescope that was used to discover the planet Pluto.  This is the same type telescope but much smaller with a focal length of about 12 feet and is used to research the skies for new plants.  We then moved on to the Exhibit Hall where there were displays of equipment, pictures and a library.  They also have a telescope set up with the pictures taken of the planet Pluto.  You look through the telescope and see each picture one after the other and notice that only one small speck seemed to have moved.  That’s how the planet was discovered.  The telescope takes a picture of an area and another one a week later; stars don’t move but planets do and in these two pictures you could see that one speck had moved.  Now they plotted the small speck and used the 24” Clark to “focus in” on the planet.  They still don’t know what Pluto looks like yet because it is still too far away.  It would take you 226 light years to get there; that’s really far!  They now have a new program in partnership with Discovery Channel to build an even more powerful telescope to further research our universe and beyond.  We also saw the mausoleum of Warren Lowell, the founder of the Observatory.  The view from the mountain of downtown Flagstaff is great.

Oak Creek Canyon, Red Rock Canyon, Chapel of the Holy Cross 

Flagstaff, AZ - June 25, 2005

Oak Creek Canyon is a canyon between the mountains with high spirals rising from the canyon floor surrounded by tall pine trees.  All the mountains around the canyon are full of pines and made for a pretty scene.  Further down the road is Red Rock Canyon and I do mean red rock.  Large mountains of red rock rise from the canyon floor creating all kinds of formations.  We drove down I-179 for about three-miles to the Chapel of the Holy Cross.   This chapel was completed in 1956 twenty-five years after its conception by artist and sculptor Marguerite Brunswig Staude.  It is built on a twin pinnacled spur, about 250 feet high and juts out of a thousand foot rock wall.  To get to the chapel you have to walk up a long spiral walkway.  The inside is a simple chapel with large beautiful floor to ceiling twin windows overlooking the mountains and valley. 

 

The Grand Canyon, Arizona       Pictures

Grand Canyon, AZ - Jun 26, 2005

It was a nice drive to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  We walked up a concrete trail to Mather Point.  What a view!  We walked all over the area taking pictures but it was a little after 2 PM and the Canyon was washed with light that didn’t create any shadow at all and it looked washed out.  Looking out across the Canyon or down into the Canyon your perspective is totally off and you really can’t tell just how far across or how far down the floor of the Canyon is.  The North Rim is just 10 miles across the canyon as the raven flies but 216 miles around the east end driving.  And to think that from any point at the South Rim you can only see one-third of the entire Canyon.  There are three shuttles that take you around the Park; the Blue Shuttle that goes from the campgrounds and hotels to the Village; the Green Shuttle that takes you along the Kaibab Trail Route; and the Red Shuttle that takes you along the Hermits Rest Route.  Most routes are closed to private vehicles and only accessible by the shuttle system.  We took the Blue Shuttle to Mather Point and caught the Green Shuttle that goes on the Kaibab Trail Route to go out to Yaki Point for the sunset.  This shuttles stop at four or five overlooks before getting to Yaki Point.  You can get off and catch the next shuttle that comes every 15 minutes.  At South Kaibab Trailhead we got off and walked around taking pictures.  Most of the area is natural, without railings and lots of loose gravel so if you are not careful you could fall off real easy.  I don’t know if anyone has fallen off the cliffs but they rescue 250 people each year from the Canyon floor.  The sun was setting and made shadows in the Canyon; boy what views.  They also have stables here for the horse and mule rides.  We caught the next shuttle to Yaki Point which is the furthest point on the South Rim.  I walked over to the far end and saw some guy sitting on the rocks above a tree watching some black ravens.  The sun was slowing setting and the Canyon colors were showing up.  Back on the shuttle to Pipe Creek Vista, the third stop on this trail.  Once again we walked wherever we could taking pictures.  It’s unbelievable and the shadows help to define the canyon.  Back at the Visitor Center we walked across the plaza back to Mather Point to watch the sunset.  There were lots of people doing the same thing.  Both Mather Point and Yavapai Observation Station were packed with people.  One person was even further out on the point sitting on the rocks where it was hundreds of feet straight down.  Boy does he have nerve.  The shadows brought out the orange and green colors of the canyon but the further the sun set the greyer the canyon got.  All the color was gone and all definition was gone!  Not what I expected.  Around 10 PM we took a look outside at the stars and WOW! So many and you can even see clusters like the Milky way.  

 

The next day we drove on the Desert View Drive, SR-64, to Desert View Point, 25 miles from the South Rim and at a height of some 7,438 feet.  This is also the East Entrance of the Grand Canyon.  The prettiest views of the Grand Canyon were from here.  You can see most of the Canyon and it was beautiful.  There is a Marketplace, a Bookstore and a Trading Post with all kinds of gift items.  A blacktop trail leads down to the Watchtower and the observation point.  The Watchtower is a large circular tower built entirely of rock and said to have been a place for food storage and to observe the havens.  You can walk inside and up four flights of stairs winding around the inside.  On each floor there are windows overlooking the Canyon and paintings and decorations on the walls.  Each floor is open in the middle down to the first floor.  From the second floor you can walk outside on a deck like area that has a large fireplace at one end facing the Canyon and a large round table in the middle.  I have no idea what the table was for but if this was for food storage I’d imagine it was used to cut up the meat.  At the observation point you can see what seemed like the whole length of the Canyon, but of course it isn’t.  This place has the one of the best viewing spots we’ve seen yet.  We continued on to Navajo Point, Lipan Point, Moran Point, Grandview Point and Yaki Point.  Each stop gave us a little different view of the Canyon and some spectacular views but the sun was high in the sky and I think the pictures may be washed out and the definitions of the Canyon will be lost.  The drive was really nice and the day couldn’t have been better, with a temperature of 78 degrees and sunny.  

 

Nevada - July 2005

Las Vegas, NV  -  Pictures   

July, 2005

We spent a little over a week here and boy did we have fun.  We tried out every casino, ate at every buffet and watched several shows that were great.  

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The Hoover Dam & Lake Mead       Pictures

Las Vegas, NV  - Jul 8, 2005

We then drove to the Hoover Dam.  We first parked on the Arizona side but it was just too far from everything and it was too hot to walk back over so we moved and parked in the Parking Garage near the Visitors Center.  We took the Discovery Tour of the Dam that started with a slide show presentation and information about the dam.  The dam is 726 feet high and is one of the highest concrete dams ever constructed.  The Colorado River would surge in summer when the snows melted and flood the low-lying land and dry up again in early fall, leaving no water to irrigate the farms.  The Hoover Dam was built to control this flooding and drying process and create a year-round water supply; the electricity is a by-product.  Begun in 1931, the last concrete was poured in 1935.  President Hoover, for who the Dam is named, advocated that the Boulder Canyon Project (name of the project authorizing the dam building) be self-supporting, financed entirely through the sale of hydroelectric power generated at the dam and is still operated and maintained with revenues from the power sales today.  The plant generates more than 4 billion kilowatt-hours a year for use in Nevada, Arizona and California.  One interesting fact is that none the electricity generated here is used by the city of Las Vegas; they get their electric power from a coal burning plant further north.  Next we took an elevator down 500 feet to where the generators are.  There are 8 generators that are huge and there are hundreds of electric transformers all over the mountains.  From the generator room we went back up to the Observation Deck.  The guide there told us where the state line was and other information about the dam.  The guide also told us that in August the temperatures on the Observation Deck could reach 120 degrees.  I believe it, it was really hot up there.  Next we walked across the street to the two statues.  These are brass but are left to tarnish to show age just like the dam and were sculptured to represent the men who built the dam but to show them as more than just man but as “super men”.  Each statue is a figure of a man with up-stretched arms with wings, is unpolished brass and 50-feet tall.  The guide said that if you rub the toes of the statue and gamble you will win.  Yea right!  I rubbed them anyway.  We also took a tour of Lake Mead on the Desert Princess Paddlewheel boat .  It has three decks, the top deck having no shade and at 109 degrees that sun was really hot.  The cruise went around the lake and close to the Hoover Dam, which only looked like a large wall of concrete with two towers.  Lake Mead is America’s largest man-made reservoir.  It can store 28.5 million acre-feet (9.2 trillion gallons) of water or two years of the river’s average annual flow.  The water is a beautiful emerald green with mountains of various color rock.  You can see a definite line all the way around the lake where the water should be; the mountains are colors down to this line and the rest of the way to the water is white like the rocks were bleached.  This bleached area is at least 10 to 12 feet long so the lake is very low due to the draught.  The cruise lasted 90 minutes and the disappointing part of the cruise was not being able to hear the narration; the speakers were very very low and you couldn’t hear anything. 

 

Carroll Shelby Auto Museum         Pictures 

Las Vegas, NV

Carroll Shelby manufacturing plant.  They only give tours in the morning and we were too late for that but we could walk around about 15 models of Mustangs in the showroom.  They had some GT 40’s and a couple cobras; one being the original 249 cobra.  Jack enjoyed it. 

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Madame Tussauds Wax Museum         Pictures 

Las Vegas, NV

This museum has all the wax figures standing around a large room as if at a cocktail party and you are encouraged to touch and pose with each figure and even take a picture of you with Elvis before you exit.  You also walk through a room that shows you how they measured each celebrity to get the details of their face for the wax figures.  They had everyone from the President, George Bush, George Burns, Bob Hope, Basketball players, football players to the Rat Pack.  There were people taking pictures dancing with Patrick Swaezy and golfing with Tiger Woods.  The figures were pretty good too.

 

Fremont Street Light Show           Pictures 

Las Vegas, NV

Fremont Street has a large canopy over top the street and makes it look somewhat like a tunnel or huge train station platform you walk under that is covered by millions of lights and every night there is a light show, you stand in the middle of the street and look up!  We caught the last 5 minutes of the show and there wasn't another one until a hour from now.  Disappointing, I thought it went on all night.  

 

Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden           Pictures 

Las Vegas, NV

The Mirage is home to the Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy White Tigers.   After a guide explained the garden layout and safety rules I walked down to three pools housing dolphins that are used for research.  The handlers do have them do some simple tricks for the audience and you can also go down under the pool to see them.  After seeing the dolphins, I walked behind the pools following a pathway going through lush gardens coming up to lush natural habitats where the white tigers are.  Each area is large and lush with six white tigers, four with dark stripes and two white with very light stripes.  They were beautiful and really big.  Another area housed three white lions, two female and one really big male with a huge mane.  This guy’s paw was the size of my entire head.  Further on was a Siberian Tiger, a malamute, a leopard and an elephant.  Even though this whole area is outside it was a little cooler in the garden.  I didn’t realize I was in there for almost an hour; Jack was wondering where I was.  Silly him, he should have known when it comes to cats, I don't hurry.