TUMACACORI NATIONAL MONUMENT

Friday, January 9 - We headed out this morning to visit Tumacacori National Monument. The Park lies 45 miles south of Tucson and 19 miles north of Nogales. The Park consists of the remains of the Mission church San Jose' deTumacacori and associated cemetery, mortuary chapel, lime kiln, and the convento. Father Kino lead the missionary for the O’odham tribe. There are guided tours, but not at the time we visited the Mission. We did the self-guided tour.

What the altar might have looked like.

Today.

There are hints of the original colors of the altar.

What the original church interior might have looked like.

Today.

Look how thick the walls are.

Garden.

Mortuary chapel in the cemetery.

Melhok Ki. A dwelling for the O’odham people.

The mission is being studied and preserved, but there are no plans for restoration.

It is a very interesting tour, and one is free to explore the entire property. There is a rather nice museum that answers many of the questions that may arise during your visit.

While visiting the Museum, Marsha was so excited to see that the original statues were able to be saved. These statues are between 4’5’-5’ tall.

There was a Hispanic lady preparing tortillas over an mesquite wood-fired oven, which we both found very tasty.

We really found the next bit of information interesting.

We really enjoyed our visit. The tour takes a little over an hour. We world recommend it to anyone in the area.

Just a side note: We truly appreciate all the comments our readers leave for us. We really enjoy replying to your comments, but we do not have some of your email addresses. If you didn’t receive a reply from your last comment, please email us at pmbweaver@gmail.com. We would enjoy getting back to you.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

PIMA FAIRGROUNDS…TUCSON, ARIZONA

Thursday, January 8 - With freezing rain predicted over night and early Wednesday in Columbus, NM, we decided we had enough and threw-in the towel. Too much like winter! After checking the weather reports for Tucson, AZ, we decided to move up travel plans by a day and head to Arizona.

We had plans to stay at Justin's Diamond J RV Park but decided on the more economical (read as cheap) Pima County Fairgrounds. What a wonderful surprise! We have a beautiful semi-private site overlooking the green park. What an interesting area for Bella to explore and for us to enjoy sitting out in our chairs. The hookups were a little weird, forcing us to fish our electrical and sewer lines under the RV, but what the heck. This is a great site and the temperatures are in the 70's!!!!

Looking right.

Looking left.

Our backyard and Bella’s little bit of heaven.

The people working in the RV office are very friendly and helpful. There are several different RV parking sites on the fairgrounds. We took a walk around some of the grounds. There are many buildings, patios and barns. This place is huge.  For fellow Escapee readers, this is the site for the Escapade coming up in March.

An update for the Blogger Fest

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

PALOMAS, MEXICO

Wednesday, January 7 – On Tuesday, everything thawed out by early morning, and we were on our way to Puerto Palomas de Villa, Mexico also known simply as Palomas, is a small town of 4,688.

Palomas, Mexico, is a very small town three miles south of Columbus, NM. There isn't much of anything there. A couple pharmacies, several bars, and the famous Pink Store. We walked around town, which took all of about 15 minutes and then headed over to the Pink Store.

Mexico’s famous Pancho Villa.

The streets are nothing like Progresso, Mexico.

The Pink Store is a restaurant/bar/Mexican souvenir store. We walked around and looked at the items for sale and came to the conclusion most everything was over priced compared to Progresso, Mexico, across the border from Mission, TX.

Marsha thought the furnishing in the restaurant were so cute.

We heard the lunch menu was very good so decided to have dinner. It was OK but nothing to write home about. The only bargain in the place was the Margaritas. We each received a free one, compliments of the Pancho Villa Museum and decided on a second one to drink with our meal.

The Pink Store Plaza General Pershing and Pancho Villa Shaking Hands

We felt comfortable in Palomas…never felt threatened! The trip across the border was uneventful in both directions. The locals were friendly, and there was no customary sales people trying to sell us various trinkets.

All-in-all, the trip to Palomas was interesting but nothing we would consider a "must see." Come and enjoy the tranquility of Pancho Villa State Park and travel to Palomas as an interesting "side-trip."

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!