Left in Tucson

Years ago, the Tucson city council adamently opposed building a city interstate highway loop around the town,  like you find in other metropolitan areas.  As a result, Tucson's main streets have been turned into 6 and 8-lane thoroughfares in order to handle the current volume of traffic.  There is only one interstate highway leading from Tucson to Phoenix and no Tucson community has easy access to it.  Coming from New Jersey,  where all shopping centers are accessed via highway exit or entrance ramps, and  local roads are mostly the two-lane variety;  driving around town inTucson took some getting used to.  I-10 is reserved for traveling outside of the City.  Try to imagine New Jersey's US Highway 22 or 17 as your main street through town; but with fewer cars.  What was really unsettling at first, was making left-hand turns and U-turns while crossing 6 lanes of oncoming traffic.  You won't find a jug h...

Jim and I spent a pleasant spring afternoon driving from Tucson north to the historic town of Prescott, AZ. The trip also served as a shakedown cruise for Jim's new wheels, a Silver 2006 Impala SS, named "Brandy."  Prescott lies about an hour and half drive northwest of Phoenix.  It is regarded as the most Midwestern-appearing city in the Southwest due to its many Victorian-style homes that still grace the town.  It's a wonderful city with a very walkable downtown.  Named for historian William H. Prescott in 1864, it served as the capital of the AZ Territory until 1867, when the AZ Territory capital was moved to Tucson.  Tucson held the honor only until 1889, when the capital was finally moved to Phoenix. The town boasts 809 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places.  At an altitude of 5,400 feet, Pescott has a 4-season climate with mild winters. Pine and cedar trees abound all over town, which is a bit surprising c...

One thing you notice as soon as you start driving around Tucson is the many  beige-colored metal boxes  you see sitting on the roofs of houses all over town.   Some look pretty neglected and rusted out.   At first glance, you might mistake them for air conditioning units, and they are, sort of.   They are often referred to as “Swamp Boxes” by the locals.   A Swamp Box is what the heating and cooling industry calls an Evaporative Cooler.   It works much like a home humidifier.   The cooler contains a basin of water and a rotating drum with a foam pad.   Air is blown over the wet pad and into the house to produce cool moist air.   With an A/C unit, humidity is sucked out of the interior air in the cooling process, whereas with a swamp cooler humidity is blown into the interior air.   Since Tucson is a desert climate with very little humidity, for most of the warm season, an A/C unit is of little use.   The locals who have lived...

“The White Queen” is how Jim refers to my classic roadster; a 1986 Mercedes Benz 560SL white convertible.   It was one of my personal goals to acquire an SL convertible as my 50th birthday present to myself.  I had seen a butter yellow one with a tan ragtop in a movie back in the late 1970′s and made up my mind that I would own one someday.   While I didn’t find the car of my dreams for my 50th birthday, a very strange thing happened a few months after my 55th birthday. I was at my local auto body shop having my ten-year old Saab hatchback repaired following a minor fender bender, when I mentioned to Wayne, the owner, that I would soon be leaving NJ and moving to Tucson, AZ.  I explained that once I was settled in Tucson,  my plan was to sell my black Saab and replace it with my dream car; a butter yellow classic Mercedes Benz SL.  While I loved my Saab, it and I had not been a match made in Heaven.  On th...

Fred is Green for St Patrick’s Day « Copper Country Antiques  Check out Fred's holiday look!

Things to do in Tucson - Expedia

Sunglow Ranch A Unique getaway not far from Tucson.