Travels with Twinkles: Desert Trails

December 8 - 15, 2015:

We arrived back in Tucson at 11 PM and it was about midnight by the time we arrived back at Desert Trail RV Park. The old gang is all here, it’s like a home coming week! This is the start of our 4th winter here and Twinkles is having a glorious time seeing everyone and planning her activities. I’m mostly the anti-social type but have to admit it’s nice staying in one place for a while and the people here are extremely friendly and nice.

Nice to be back in the neighborhood again

They had a most excellent concert here on Tuesday evening by a local member of the local Pascua Yaqui indian tribe named Gabriel Ayala. He is a world class classical guitarist who is amazing and inspirational to watch and listen to, another one of those “anything is possible in American” success stories. He told how he started playing late, at age 15, then practiced daily until he passed out to catch up. He did much more than catch up !

www.ayalaguitarist.com

I am feeling soft and weak so I joined LA fitness for the next couple of months, you can pay month by month and it’s not too far away. All those young pumped up bodies will hopefully motivate me. These places always schedule you for an assessment with a personal trainer, which turns out to be a sales pitch to use a personal trainer, which I have no interest in at all. I actually hate the gym, but it feels so good to get pumped up a bit.

Next stop was the local Pima County Library of which I am a card carrying member. They renovated it this year, took away much of the books, but added many computer terminals and the free WiFi is very very good. I suppose this is the way of the future with getting your books on line.

The music scene here is great as usual, could see live music every night if I desired. Wednesday night I go to Monterey Court in Tucson for their monthly Tucson Songwriters Showcase event. There were nine musicians who took turns playing original songs, it was excellent. I will definitely be making this a regular activity this year. This place is amazing, they have live music almost every night.

The stage at Monterey Court

Friday night I’m off to downtown Tucson to the Hotel Congress for a concert event. A couple of my favorite musicians in Tucson, Miss Lana Rebel and Kevin Michael Mayfield are having a CD release show. They have their full band which I have not seen before. The Hotel Congress is one of the college crowd hot spots spots in Tucson and the place was packed.

Show poster

Miss Lana and Kevin

Monday night it’s back to the Chicago Bar to see the Ronstadt Generations Band play. They are so good, I especially like it when do the Spanish songs and polkas. The Chicago Bar is a real dedicated live music club where people actually go and listen to the music and dance.

Live at the Chicago Bar every Monday

Thursday morning I go on a moderate hike at Tucson Mountain Park, needing to get some Sonoran Desert views. The cactus and plants here are so vibrantly green at this time, doesn’t seem much like a desert.

View from the trail

Something to ponder left along the trail

Friday night and again on Monday it rained and we are having a cold spell for a few days. It’s actually colder here than in our home town in central New Jersey. It was 24 degrees at 7 AM on December 16th, that just isn't right ?

We go to the Tucson 4th street winter festival on Sunday, it’s a great street event, probably the best one we have seen anywhere in our travels. They have lots of artistic and creative vendors, food and music and it was a beautiful day. I saw my favorite street performers, St. Cinder playing again on the sidewalk, they are so good and they were selling CD’s like crazy, something rare these days.

Lots of Lemonade in front of the Hippie Gypsy store

Shirt on the left was my favorite

In poor taste

Lots to eat

Big crowds

The kid is fascinated by the cat

These guys are define awesome !

Large pieces of smoking meat

Sunday evening at Desert Trails, the premium area of the campground, known as “the Circle 7” held their annual Luminarias Christmas event. Huge tables filled with desert items, hot chocolate, hot cider and many christmas lights and fires, all good.

Many lights

Well, then it’s back to the gym on Monday, the muscles are hurting, but if it’s any consolation, I’m still in better shape than many of these kids.

The Tucson Museum of Art is having a western pulp fiction exhibit which I needed to see. It was really a good exhibit of art used in western pulp fiction books and magazines from the 1920's to the present. They also had great exhibits on Latin American folk art and ancient objects from 1600 BC to the present.

www.tucsonmuseumofart.org