Another full go around

January 1 - 15, 2018:

The highlight of my New Years day evening was a trip to the Chicago Bar to see the Rondstadt Brothers Y Los Tucsonenses perform.  I could have seen them at the campground the previous Friday evening, but it’s far better at the Chicago Bar.  

A Christmas present of mine was a video recording of a Muddy Waters concert in 1981 at Buddy Guys “Checkerboard Lounge” in Chicago.  This was a great concert even before the Rolling Stones showed up at the club and joined Muddy on stage. Mick Jagger did the black sharecropper blues talk thing so well, Muddy was looking at him with wonder at times.  Also rough looking Keith Richards and Ron Woods on stage with cigarettes dangling from their lips were classic.  They were joined by other notable blues players and a dapper looking young Buddy Guy.  

I’ve been slacking off lately on area history, that needs to change this month.   We take in the Arizona State History Museum with lots of exhibits on local Tucson history and multitudes of other stuff.

A1923 Studebaker car, a pretty fancy car for the 
Pima County sheriff !

Tucson street view

Old original stage coach

A romanticized view of Custer's last Fight 

My usual Wednesday evening at LaCocina with Lana and Kevin is a special one as old friends of Lana were on hand to join in.  As a result Lana is doing the vocals on many old country songs from previous band days back in Portland, Oregon.  Also, the parents of Lana’s old bandmate were there who once lived in both New Jersey and Vermont.  We had an especially good time talking about Vermont where I have spent considerable time.  I need to get back there again soon, the Northeastern states may be in the travel plan this year.

Kevin and Lana on the LaCocina stage

On the live music front I’ve been very busy making the rounds between LaCocina, Hotel Congress, Chicago Bar, St. Charles Tavern, Borderlands Brewing, The Tap and Cork and Monterey Court.

Dan O'Rourke and Kata Hay at Monterey Court, Kata is a Dolly Parton clone who appeared on the "Voice", great voice but I preferred Dan's music.

Eb Eberlein has become a favorite of mine, a
great laid back vibe with attitude to match and
endless stories and songs

Rich Hopkins and the Luminaries at Tap and Bottle, nice to see
a real guitar god in action, it was a 60th birthday party for Rich 

There have been a few hikes and a few decent photos but nothing very exciting.  In the next few weeks I need to pick up the action and get in some serious hiking and do some of the other things I planned to do this winter. 

The sharp jagged peaks surrounding Tucson are ominous from this viewpoint

Love these hazy mountain views

The trail to the old stone house near the 36 street trailhead

It was once a nice house

With a great view !

A close up of a Saguaro shows the woody interior

The pretty Saguaros shouldn't get all the attention,
I respect these old haggard survivors even more

As we have been driving the wheels off our Jeep for the past four years (I can’t believe it’s been four years) it now has 125,000 miles on it.  It has been very reliable, but at that mileage repairs and reliability issues are expected.  We soon found that new Jeeps are sort of pricey, but that used Jeeps hold their value really well, negating the advantage of buying a slightly used Jeep.  As a result, we started thinking new with the anticipation of getting a good trade value on our 2011 Jeep.  We then found that Jeeps hold their value really well until they get upwards of 100,000 miles at which point their value nosedives.  We then had trouble deciding between the two door and four door versions.  The Jeep has a dedicated following and an iconic image to maintain and as a result the basic body styling inside and out has not changed for at least a decade.  There isn’t really much difference between a 2008 and a 2018 Jeep.  We ultimately decided on the two door in a light color mainly for some some change.  I’m glad to be done with this, I hate the car buying experience. 

The Jeep in front of Cat Mountain

We’ve been having above average temperatures and mostly sunny days with virtually no rain.  It’s another “beautiful day in paradise” as many here like to say,

as I’m having another miserable winter cold, I seem to have no resistance to them.   

We are in limbo as to where we are going and what we are doing next year, it’s becoming more complicated.  More will be revealed in the next installment.

Keep watching, also check out our friends on:  https://www.hitchupandgo.com

Twinkles and Slick