Spring Training Trip - Day 15

After breakfast, we loaded our Tucson city maps and a small cooler into the Green Machine and set out for some local shopping and sightseeing.  It was cloudy, cool and a little rainy, but it got warmer and clearer as the day went on.  We went on a short tour of the resort, since I hadn’t seen any of the buildings or activity rooms yesterday when Pat did all of the running around after we got here.  There are 118 “Scheduled Activities” listed alphabetically in the resort brochure, from AA meetings to Zumba classes.  There are also 30 or 40 “Services and Facilities” entries in the brochure, such as garbage pickup, propane delivery, etc.  The entry that caught my eye was “Defibrillator Stations” (3 available in the resort.)  There is a Health Center, but no Hospital, Mortuary, Crematorium or Graveyard – I guess they leave a few things for the outside world to deal with.

We drove to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base a short distance away got gas for the Green Machine and did some shopping at the BX.  It is a huge facility with furniture, appliances and even a gun shop in the main sales area.  (I guess Tucson is part of the Wild West.)

After our travels on base, we drove to the downtown area in search of “Old Tucson,” which we thought was an old Spanish section with a Presidio, art galleries, gift shops and restaurants.  We found a great Mexican restaurant for lunch, “El Charro,” but no Spanish/Mexican old town nearby.  Upon reading some tourist pamphlets, we discovered that the “Old Town” is actually an old Wild West town with cowboys and Indians – sort of a theme park in the middle of Tucson that charges admission.  We decided not to do that and went to visit the local mission instead.  One interesting sidelight:  in our drive around downtown Tucson, we passed or were passed by two other light green VW Bugs like ours.  We usually see one or two of them on our longer trips, but have never seen two others in the same place at almost the same time.

Mission San Xavier del Bac was founded in 1692 by Father Eusebio Kino – construction on the current church was begun in 1783.  It was built to serve the local Indians, the Tohono O’odham tribe, on its reservation, 5 miles south of Tucson.  The church is the oldest Spanish Colonial building still standing in the U.S. that is still being used for its original purpose.  It has been extensively restored, inside and out and is in a remote desert setting that gives you the feeling of being there hundreds of years ago.

The inside of the church was decorated in the Baroque style, very elaborately done.  This was not one of the plain, more primitively decorated missions we are used to in California.  It was amazing.  The courtyards and gardens around the church were filled with desert plants and cactuses, some in flower because of the recent rain in this area. 

We drove to a local Safeway for some groceries and then back to the RV for the evening.  Tomorrow is a long ride to Ft. Stockton, TX so it’s early to bed tonight.

Day 15 Pictures