Heading Out for the Summer

Being proactive, last Thursday we loaded up our Airstream and headed out of our lot in Gold Canyon.  We wanted to escape the 100+ degree days that are so common in southern Arizona. 

Our first stop was in Willcox in far southeastern Arizona.  Along the way, we saw the great rock formations in Texas Canyon along I-10.

Friday we toured the Rex Allen Museum in Willcox.

In case you don’t remember Rex, he was a country western singer and actor in the 1950s and 1960s.  He also provided the voice for numerous cartoon characters—including A Country Coyote Goes to Hollywood in 1965 and Poncho the Fastest Paw in the West in 1969.

This is painting of him and his  trust horse Koko.

 His favorite guitar.

Posters for some of the movies he starred in.

Aren’t these costumes amazing! Maybe this is where Liberace got his ideas?

John, standing with a cutout of Rex next to the buggy he drove in one of his movies, where he was a doctor.

The museum docent first met Rex in 1987 as the museum was being developed.  He said Rex often stopped in the museum.  One day, a woman asked why the museum didn’t have a recording of one of Rex’s songs.  The director had never heard of the song, but Rex happened to come in that day.  When told she was asking about the song, he proceeded to sing it—unaccompanied—just for her.

Saturday, we drove to nearby Chiricahua National Monument.  The native Chiricahua Apache called this the land of Standing Up Rocks.

We hiked a relatively strenuous Echo Canyon Trail from Massai point round trip to the parking lot—3 plus miles.

This is what I mean by relatively strenuous!  Lots of rocks and stair steps.  We were both very tired at the end of the day.  We spent the winter at an altitude of about 1700 feet.  The hike was at 6800 feet.  I guess we are getting in shape for our time in Colorado.

 

Our next destination is El Paso, Texas.