TUCSON

December, 2018

Interstate 10 runs all the way from Jacksonville, Florida to Los Angeles, California.  There are other interstate routes that follow the east-west path across the U.S., but none more southerly than I-10.  We figured that following the path furthest south should mean warmer weather, and warmer weather is definitely one of our wintering goals.  We’ve written before that we’re on the way to the San Diego area.  Tucson is a metropolitan area along I-10.  And it’s December.  We planned on staying 6 weeks.

But where to set-up and camp in a snowbird’s winter haven?  We began by looking for possible RV parks recommended by the clubs to which we belong:  Good Sam, Passport America and Escapees.  Then time was well-spent checking and double checking the various RV park rating websites to narrow down the search.  Most importantly we read what other campers had to say about campgrounds, and to be sure to check the dates of the reviews.  Poor reviews in 2010 or even 2015 will reduce an overall rating even if everything other campers say about the Park in 2017-2018 is 5-star.  And staying a month or more results in a more favorable camping fee.

Tucson Meadows is a full-service 55 and older senior living community in which the majority of sites “up front” are occupied by “park models,” and “in the back” there are 100+ sites for RVs.  Park models are single-family retirement homes that are double-wide (or 2 connected double-wide) trailers, skirted and landscaped.  There’s a clubhouse with room for community-wide events such as a monthly pancake breakfast, donuts and coffee every Thursday; card/game room, line dance lessons, karaoke parties, sock hops, a well-stocked library, a full kitchen, aerobics and Zumba classes; sit-around-the-fireplace- and-schmooze space, staff office and a small workout room with a multi-station weight machine, dumbbells, 4 treadmills and weighted balls.  There’s a heated pool, competitive shuffleboard court, 2 hot tubs, and a ramada for smaller gatherings.  Streets are wide and easy to maneuver even for the largest diesel pusher.

While setting up, our neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves and to invite us to a nightly (weather permitting) happy hour.  Just bring your beverage of choice and a chair.  Turns out some of our neighbors have been coming to Tucson Meadows many, many years.  This is the kind of warm greeting we had hoped for and had not found in other parks, and we knew it would make for a wonderful stay.  Guess we have to hang out with people our own age?

There’s always so much to see and do wherever we have camped, and Barbara wonderfully puts together our list of possibilities.  It’s always a matter of how long we’ll be at any one location as to what on the list we take our time finding and exploring or if we exhaustively cram in the sites we shouldn’t miss.

Bet you thought we’d start the blogs about our time in Tucson with our outdoor hikes sojourning with cactus and other desert plants and animals?  Nah – take a look at Tucson weird with a couple of museums we couldn’t pass up,  spend a little time outdoors, and then spend a long minute with Judaism.

The Ignite Sign Art Museum is an eclectic assortment of signs that started as the personal collection of Jude Cook, who has spent his life in the design and sign industry.  Over the course of 40 years, Cook collected signs from across Arizona and the U.S., and he acquired a reputation as the person to call when you needed an old sign hauled off quickly.  After his collection grew too large to store, he decided to put it on display for everyone to enjoy.  There’s neon, electric, hand-painted, aluminum, and LED signs that run the gamut from historic neon to rescued commercial business signs.  His wife shares his love of all things signs, and as the museum’s docent, she is a wonderful guide through the museum.

Brian planned on being pretty bored by the exhibits housed in The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures.  Even the name seems to be somewhat boring, and it created  images for him of grown bespectacled creepy obese men and pinched women playing with dollhouses, their furnishings and wee dollies well into their elder years.  But, hear Brian clearly: “I was wrong!”

The museum displays the intricate work of well-skilled craftsmen and women whose life’s passion is the make-by-hand amazingly accurate miniature replicas of houses and roomboxes.  The collection was a lifelong hobby and devotion of Patricia Arnell whose home was filled with the miniatures on display.  The museum was founded in her memory by her children.  In all there are over 275 displays spanning a period of 250 years (that’s right – going back to the 18th century!).

Mat Bevel’s Museum of Kinetic Art is a fascinating world of sound, light, motion, thought, intrigue, and ingenious creativity – art and science intersect in strange and satisfying ways (so says the artist!).

We were fortunate to be able to attend the opening of the museum at its new location and to hear the artist describe his work.  The sculptures take shape over a number of years and each is composed of “found objects, always changing and always capable of being in motion.”  The artist admitted to having to buy “hardware” such as hinges, nuts and bolts, screws and occasionally wood to complete a piece, but all sculptures are composed of stuff you’d find on the roadside, in junk yards, or in landfills.  Absolutely fascinating!  And did I mention that everything moves?

Diamondback Bridge is a walkway that offers pedestrians a way across a busy highway in downtown Tucson.  Built in 2002 the structure was designed by a local artist who wanted to incorporate the local wildlife into his city project.  The bridge, while abstract, is also quite biologically accurate – the entrance to the bridge is shaped like the snake’s gaping maw, the long fangs presented as support beams below sinister reptilian eyes.  The bridge itself is covered by a metal mesh which forms the snake’s body which is painted in the exact hues and gradient of a real rattlesnake.  In addition, cars passing beneath the span can see the accurately spaced segments of the beast displayed on the belly. Coming out the… other… end of the snake, there is a tall statue shaped like a tail rattle that juts 30 feet out of the ground, also sculpted and painted biologically correct.

The Jewish History Museum/Holocaust History Center was once home to the first synagogue in the Arizona Territory: Temple Emanu-El (1910-1948).

Two buildings make up the Center: one that tells the story of the early Jews in Southern Arizona and the other the Gould Family Holocaust History Center.  Each used multiple mediums.   The Jewish History Museum occupies the renovated Temple building, and it is centered by a representation of the original synagogue.  There are stained glass windows highlighting Jewish icons, an altar (bima) with lectern, pews and an open Torah on display.  In the back are other holy scriptures such as a Passover Haggadah and a-turn- of-the-20th century prayer book.

After watching a short film, we moved to an “archive and listening station.” With headsets we listened to the voices of local Jews and non-Jews describing situations in which they experienced discrimination.  The recordings presented span both historical and contemporary situations at the individual, societal and institutional level.  The goal of this exhibit is “to illuminate both the connections and divergences that exist across systems of discrimination.”  There were testimonials by Tucson residents of discrimination, anti-semitism, exclusion and isolation.  We were invited to listen to recordings of Jewish music, played on old LPs, and we saw some beautiful and treasured artifacts on display throughout the museum.  There was also a genealogy montage featuring ancestral photos contrasted with contemporary family photos.

The Gould Family Holocaust History Center is stark, low lit and has an industrial feel that created an atmosphere of dread and seriousness.  We were astounded by the number of Holocaust survivors (260 from 18 nations) who came to live in Tucson after the war, and who courageously recorded their family stories of horror and survival in the ghettos and death camps in Europe during World War II.  The wall of remembrance pays honor to these courageous individuals, and it serves as a living memorial to those whose lives were forever changed.  A portion of the Holocaust History Center is committed to educating the public about people throughout the world who are today’s victims of “ethnic cleansing”, a polite word for genocide.  The Holocaust Center’s efforts this year are a collaboration with Jewish World Watch to educate and to tell the world about the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims.

The Museum is also an educational institute with the goal of examining the Holocaust through the lived experiences of survivors and through contemporary human rights issues.  Middle school and high school groups are encouraged to come to the Museum to hear first-hand what it was like to grow up in a country that isolated, vilified and murdered Jews, and to begin a dialogue with students about antisemitism today.

The Jewish Museum has also become a safe place for difficult conversations about many forms of oppression (antisemitism, heteronormativity, immigration, Islamophobia, privilege), and the Museum is recognized as a safe place for addressing and encouraging discussions about the interconnectedness of all forms of discrimination.

The docents were warm and welcoming and they were eager to make our visit memorable. They succeeded.

Barbara and Brian