30/8/22 Up to Flagstaff

 There isn’t too much to write about or show today, I drove from Tucson to Flagstaff, had a bit of a drive around and had some dinner. 

Breakfast is pretty good at the hotel, it changes each day - today was scrambled eggs, bacon and French toast. Thankfully they didn’t drench it in cinnamon and syrup beforehand. The fascination with sweet things for breakfast is beyond me.

THre are some truely weird hills around Tucson, mostly due to volcanic eruptions around 70 million years ago.  New Zealand is only about 23 million years old so they’ve had far more time to get creative.

A quick collection of clips from the drive that is bugging my OCD because the iMovie app put together the clips out of order so I’m arriving at the hotel in the middle of the video. 

I could actually mount the GoPro to the windscreen today without it melting because for the first time I wasn’t headed towards the sun - heading North instead of East.

The Hotel view - Flagstaff is a bit more treey than my earlier stops, and quite high up at 7000ft.

Must like buying tyres and petrol. And have a small penis.

Dinner was at a place called the Cornish Pasty which didn’t really have an English theme, but the food was mainly pastys and other English delights such as mushy peas and baked beans. The music was pretty good with some great 80s and 90s English songs from Stone Roses, The Cult and a bunch of one hit wonder rock songs. I got to sit in the tree shaded outside area and it was so nice being outside without feeling like I was in an oven.

Here we have a water, lemonade and a Mother Road Observe & Protect golden pale ale.  The lemonade was great, and the waitress had made it herself.  We then agreed that it was very confusing that the US calls this lemonade but the rest of the world doesn’t have it and this caused a bit of confusion and spitting of drinks when she tried a shandy as described by an English customer (beer and lemonade is very different in England and the US)

My first wings of the trip, reheated in an oven but still really good.  And I didn’t get sauce on my shirt.

The main event, a “Cornish” pasty with garlic and cheese mashed potato. A shame they used that awful orange cheese that seems to be so popular here.

Tomorrow it’s off to the Grand Canyon so there might be one or two scenic photos from that.

29/8/22 Desert and Tombstones

Today was definitely a mixed day of great and not so great experiences.  It started  with a genuine crazy pallet load, with two stacks held on with some pretty thin looking straps and not the best balance.

I passed him just after this so I wouldn’t collect the load when it came off.

The first stop of the day was the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum that held a huge range of dry climate plants and some cool animals, apparently not all secured away from the innocent tourist.

Once again any slightly rattling noise had me on edge

The walkways around the Desert Museum is about 2 miles, or 3.5 km for normal people which is a fair ask in the middle of summer.  Added to that is the challenge of avoiding the docents who are hidden around the park and corner you with facts about their specific area of interest.  I did get caught out by John who gave me a overly detailed explanation of the cochineal insect who eventually got to the point of why it was in the desert museum (it lives on the prickly pear cactus) but furnished me with extensive information on the dying of the British soldiers uniforms during the war of Independence.  He was also the second person on my holiday who asked about our Prime Minister dancing and her partying. Despite both people being fully supportive of a leader who is capable of dancing I had to break it to them that it was Finland, kind of on the other side of the world from New Zealand.

There is a cougar somewhere here.

This Black Bear was a little hot, but they have plenty of water, cool shade and ice to lick.  

So cool to see one in real life and not be at risk of being eaten.

Grey Wolf

This guy was not happy to see me

Some squeaking thing just hanging out.

Prairie Dogs, like furry slippers with eyes

I hope Mr Birch appreciates the irony

Mr Beaver happily hiding away until some twat comes along and turns on the light

Hummingbird - these things are TINY and they belt around the place like crazy.  I went around the enclosure once thinking there wasn’t any there.  Then I realised there were a bunch and they were flying past so fast that I didn’t notice them.  I finally got a photo of one sitting on a branch.

Sign on the way out.  Information that there are coyotes just wandering about would have been better on the way in.

After this I headed about an hour and a half further East and South to Tombstone, the location of the shootout at the OK Corral, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday. They seem to disapprove of the movie Tombstone as it is a stain on the history of the place, yet they’ll happily sell you merchandise based on the same movie. America.

My first stop into town was the Boothill Cemetery that has the graves of the Clanton clan plus many other names.  I’d read somewhere that a lot of the bodies aren’t buried here, but in another cemetery nearby.  Without asking I was told in no uncertain terms by the man at the entrance that there were all buried here so there’s obviously some feudin’ with the local graveyards. It didn’t really matter because it was a cool place to visit and you get a booklet telling who was buried where and what they died of.

Now it’s the police shooting them

Names from the OK Corral shootout, namely those whose aim wasn’t the best or fastest.

Not much has changed in the US Judicial system then

Their Vivid marker must have run out.

Those damn Bisbee jackasses

Famous Arizona skies

“The Old West”, and by old I mean run down and tatty. To the left was a shabby collection of themed shacks, a mini golf course of two holes and a closed museum which seemed to hold the only interesting things in the whole place.

I would have walked where they fell but I was 2 minutes late for the start of the show (which started off with a 20 minute video on the town) so they wouldn’t let me past the gift shop.

More a site of boozin’ and a-whorin’ that the theatrical arts if the stories are to be taken seriously 

This street was mostly shops selling old western clothing that smelled musty and saloons that had very surly looking locals in. I went into one for a drink, was ignored by the barman and scowled at by a local so I left. In fact the friendliest people in the actual town were a couple of very tattooed and hairy bikers who asked me if the OK Corral was any good.

This is the site of the first time I drove on the wrong (correct) side of the road, and probably gave a local one hell of a fright as he came around the corner.  It was fixed in seconds and involved me turning out of the supermarket across the road and heading into this car park - but my pulse was raised at least.

Dinner was at Jack in the Box - a repeat visit but I was starving and there wasn’t anything else around.

Unlike Popeyes, this burger looks like it tasted, pretty average - although the fries were bloody good.

I tried their French Toast because why not.  It was bland, that’s why not.

Tomorrow I move North to Flagstaff via Phoenix with a drive to the Grand Canyon on Wednesday.  Looking forward to some mountains and trees!

28/8/22 A plane day

Today I saw so many of the planes that I loved as a child and still do!  There were so many that were a lot bigger or smaller than I thought.

Firstly I’ll do the food update for those that enjoy that - breakfast was from the Hotel, typical eggs with cheese, potatoes and the standard paper thin leathery bacon.  The red is cranberry cocktail which was good but I think it was just watered down cranberry juice.

Lunch was a Gatorade which is probably the first time in my life where I’ve actually needed one and felt a lot better after having it.  It was only 36c today but all of the aircraft are either out in the open or in stifling hot display hangars.

Dinner was, at last, Popeyes where at last I had the famous chicken sandwich.  It was great, just perfectly cooked chicken, so soft and tender with a properly crisp coating and a cornmeal bun. I had a poke at some chicken and some potato & gravy too.  So much better than dirty old KFC, no dry chicken or greasy sloppy coating.

The green is supposed to be there, it’s part of the gravy.  The potato has onion in it as well as some really good seasoning.

This is supposedly a leg and a thigh, all I know is that it was good good good.

The star of the show - the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich.  

Not much to look at by one bite and chicken burgers will never be the same again.

So, so good.

The view from my hotel room.  Supposed to get thunder storms tonight so I’ll have to set up the time lapse shindig.

America, so subtle about being American.  Note that the flag is behind those trees and the cars.

There are heaps of solar power panels everywhere here, and really handy for keeping the car from catching fire in the sun.

F-15, as big as I thought it would be.

A work of art, I may need to buy some (there were three different types)

Very forward thinking of them,  but as always you can’t mention the sinful body parts.  

Heaven forbid you write Breastfeeding.

A nuclear bomb!  It was shinier and smaller than you would think, 

I may encounter what now?

A passing thunder cloud, lots of noise but no action

I guess they gave up on it if it’s here

Reminds me of a few people

A MiG-15, it was so small and short.

Crazy Japanese rocket plane. Clearly not as explosive as you’d think if this one survived.

B-29, the same type of bomber that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The B-17 on the outside

And the B-17 on the inside

Planes on the plain

Because you can never have enough engines, even if you do put them on the wrong way.

One of these is not like the other… actually pretty similar really

What the holy hell have they done to this P-51?

The world’s largest paper airplane, or what is left of it.

The gun from an A-10

And the shells for the gun - look at size of it against my meaty hoof.

The gunner’s station from the back of a B-52.  The green bit at the top is where the gunner sat.

And the back of the gunner’s seat. Nope.

A replica of the plane that flew after Richard Pearse’s

A rocket booster front the Space Shuttle. I gave it a tap and it’s a solid hunk of metal.

Row upon row of Hercules aircraft - hundreds more than the RNZAF just sitting there.

I’ve just noticed the drain there as well, fuck me they must have some rains.

If I haven’t succumbed to chicken overdose by tomorrow morning I’m off to Tombstone, site of the gunfight at the OK Corral with Wyatt Earl and Doc Holiday.