On Hwy #80
I left from Silver City after lunching in
direction of the border of Mexico by Hwy
#80. The highlight of the area is the
village of Rodeo which counts a hundred
hearts. Indeed the bar, Rodeo Grocery and
Cafe, has a mural by Bob Waldmire and
unfinished. I spent the night on Community
Mall at the northern entry of the village.
Rodeo
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| Mural by Bob Waldmire |
Bisbee, AZ
For the first time since several weeks the
night temperature was not negative, of
course the altitude was only of 1400
meters high. As usual I have the privilege
of a magic sunset. I adore the sunsets
illuminating the mountain in low-angled
light, but the reduction of the weight of
the images for the Web cancels the
fairyhood of the colors. Road in Arizona is
obviously the same as in New Mexico,
rectilinear without much of traffic.
Landscapes are desert with mountains often
with jagged tops. On the way I made two
visits which did not fill with enthusiasm.
Bisbee is a mining city since the 19th
century and at the entrance an immense
“open pit” bursts the mountain. Main
Street is bordered with coloured houses.
It has a prestigious past.
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| Sunset at Rodeo |
Hwy in Arizona |
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| Bisbee, open pit |
A few kilometers further away the famous
lawless city, Tombstone, which was many
times represented by Hollywood movies of
which the very known Ok, Corral. The trip
was rather fast, not what to astonish. The
houses are entirely restored and are traps
for tourists. I went my way after a stop
to the library for a Wi-Fi access. I found
a bivouac at the road side after St David.
Hardly arrived one strikes at the door and
I have the great surprise to see an
American met in June 2011 by
travelling by a ferry boat at Juneau. What
the world is small! We
spoke lengthily, his son is always in
Alaska.
Mission San Xavier del Bac, but my truck
broke down
The target on December 5th was to visit
San Xavier Mission before going to Tucson.
Alas the goal was not reached. What I
feared since the last servicing of my
truck by MAN in Australia, more than two
years ago, had arrived. At the crossroads
between Hwy #10 and Valencia Rd for San
Xavier my truck broke down when traffic
light became green around 10:30. At
starting while pressing on the clutch
pedal it fixed and the clutch pedal became
hard. Impossible to pass a gear. The
engine turned, the brakes functioned. A
few days before a suspect noise had
appeared, while pressing on the clutch
pedal… Fortunately I was in the outer
suburbs of Tucson, Arizona, close to a
service station to call a towing truck
which towed my vehicle, after having
raised the front and having disconnected
the back driveshaft, to a Volvo workshop
at about 5.5 miles. Of course the service
of reception and the shop foreman remained
circumspect not knowing it. In the early
afternoon I sent an e-mail to Man-Bresse,
but the time lag is 8 hours in winter with
Paris. On December 6th around 2 a.m.,
Tucson time, I received a message from
MAN-Bresse announcing to me that my
problem was dealt with and was submit to
MAN-Evry and Munich. In the morning I
received some e-mails of which one of
MAN-Evry with the English technical
documentation of the clutch. At this
occasion I learned that the
"International" truck maker installed MAN
engines.The Volvo
workshop started to carry out the
diagnosis. Around 1 p.m. the verdict fell:
The shop foreman gave me five steel balls
by telling me that “the release bearing is
broken”. I understood with the technical
documentation what it was. At my request
he told me that I was not responsible. In
the afternoon, but out the schedules of
opening of MAN-Bresse, I returned the
technical documentation with the spare
parts to be dispatched at Volvo in Tucson.
Of course I spent the weekend at the
Windemere hotel waiting for their
reception.
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Tucson
On Friday morning I took my bicycle from
the truck to visit the city during the
weekend. In the early afternoon I left to
discovering it while looking for the post
office where I had asked Lewis & Lewis to
dispatch in poste restante the original of
the Mexican insurance policy. I discovered
that the information given by Lonely
Planet was erroneous. The term of poste
restante is not used in the USA but
“General Delivery” which always is at the
“Main Post Office” of the city concerned.
The mail thus expected me at the main post
office of Tucson. The town at the bottom
of mountains is built in flat valley,
thank you for my old legs. But as I often
said at the time of my bicycle
peregrinations, roughness, inequality and
degradation of the roadway of American
cities are very harmful for my back.
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| Gazebo in Plaza de Mesilla, La Placita |
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| Pima County Courthouse |
The downtown area is very small with high
buildings dominating carparks in silo. The
old city dating back to 1775 is reduced to
Presidio San Agustin del Tuson, made up
with adobe bricks, duly restored.
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| Presidio San AgustÍn del Tucson |
Arizona State Museum
At the program on Saturday 9th the visit
of two museums in the campus of the
university of Arizona in the north of
Tucson. Arizona State Museum, ASM, is one
of the largest anthropology museums in the
south-west of America and in the north of
Mexico. It is organized in two topics.
Basketry and pottery on the one hand, the
latter is one of largest in the world and,
on the other hand “The Paths of Life”
tells in dioramas the origins, the story
and the contemporary life of ten Native
Cultures. Paths is the most attaching
exhibit I have seen since back in the USA.
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| Rock art, pictograph of Hopi
migration |
The Paths of Life Logo |
University of
Arizona Museum of Art
The Museum of Art, UAMA, presents in
several rooms drawings by Dürer, Picasso
and well by others, the exhibit "Broken
Desert" of paintings by American artists,
paintings of the Samuel H. Kress donation
and a temporary exhibition of contemporary
German Op-Art ceramics.
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| Glenn Canyon Dam by McGinnis |
Open Pit by McGinnis |
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| The Birth of Day by Miró |
Red Canna by O'Keeffe |
The Presidio Trail
On Sunday morning I walked “The Presidio
Trail” from Cathedral St Augustine where I
have the privilege to attend a mass
accompanied by a set of mariachi of whose
I became acquainted. Then on streets I
discovered some aspects of the past,
present and future life of Tucson.
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| St Augustine Cathedral |
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| El Mariachi Tapatio
at St Augustine Cathedral |
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| Pima County Courthouse |
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| Legend of the
Old-West |
Tucson Museum of Art
After having lunch I plunged in Tucson
Museum of Art where it was prohibited to
take pictures. Of course I stole there
two, Head of Guanyin and Matisse. These
people forget that one finds photographs
of the exposed paintings on Internet as
both by Barbara Rogers. It was still an
enriching day and very sunny.
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| Barbara Rogers, The Imperative of Beauty |
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| Head of Guanyin, Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644) |
The Pasiphaé by Matisse-
"... Et se coucher chaque soir dans son malheur..."
"... And to bed every night in his misfortune..."
by Montherlant |
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| Eucalyptus by Nicolaï Fechin |
Eucalyptus Tree by Clark H. Hulings |
