Wild West Adventure - Cowboys and Canyons Day 10

[grantasmic]

Day 10, 3 October : Pima Air Museum, Free Afternoon and Farewell Dinner

Broke the record this morning! 0512! We had a leisurely buffet breakfast this morning, which although good, wasn’t as good as the one at the Scottsdale Doubletree Hotel. After a quick return to the room, we headed out to the coach for our visit to the Pima Air Museum. The four of us were going to the actual museum whereas most of the others were going out to the ‘Boneyard’ where there are several thousand aircraft parked at the Air Force Base. The museum houses an amazing display of aircraft and is similar to Fantasy of Flight in Polk County. So, here is a very weak link to WDW ...

'Jiminy Cricket'



'Buzz' off!



Most of the guides are retired Navy pilots and they weave their own stories into their talk on the museum’s display aircraft. The guide we had was called George Matias and he was a pilot whose speciality was ground attack, so he had several tales to tell. He was very knowledgeable and our tour lasted just over an hour.





We could have spent longer here, but we wanted to get a lift back to the hotel on the bus and arrange for our trip to WalMart. We ordered a taxi and it was only about a 15 minute drive and cost us $21 including tip. We also discovered the range of mountains that we can see from our hotel are the 'Catalinas'. Several carrier bags heavier and some $450 lighter, we shared a Diet Coke from the ‘Golden Arches’ while we waited for our taxi to return. Our driver this time was a young chap who’d come to the US 13 years ago from the Ukraine. He was very chatty and we were back at the hotel in no time.

Sending John in search of a Danish and coffee, I came back up to the room to start the horrible task of packing John returned carrying a take-out box but no coffees. He couldn’t find anywhere open, but when he asked at the restaurant where he could buy some of the lovely pastries that we’d had at breakfast, the girl came back out with 6 of them in a box and said not to tell anybody as this was with her compliments! Yum Yum! So, I brewed a coffee and we scoffed and packed! All done now bar the last minute things in the morning.

Wrote up some of today’s events and downloaded the photos we took this morning at the museum. Managed to doze for a while before meeting up with the rest of the 'gang' and setting off for our farewell dinner.

Before long we’d arrived at our destination – an old film set of a Wild West town!



Here we’d see a show and then have dinner. As we strolled through the town, we encountered a cowboy twirling his lasso. Bet you can’t guess who got roped in? (pun intended!) Yep, pardners, Pecos Pete! Good for him - he had a go and got a round of applause! The 'professional' made it look so easy!





The show here was very good with lots of comedy. The actors were all very funny and the stunts were well co-ordinated. The 'locals' loved it and really got into it! There was a lot of ' -taking' (sorry - couldn't help it, I shouldn't have mentioned WDW earlier on! ) as the actors picked on members of the audience, but it was great fun. Then it was on to dinner at Pikestaff Peak – the whole restaurant is full of Wild West memorabilia, including John Wayne’s costume from ‘Big Jake’.



There are posters and life-size cut-outs of various Westerns actors on display and all the pictures are scenes from the Old West. The ‘chandeliers’ have been made out of wagon wheels! Our group had been allocated two long tables and we were all mixed up together.

Dinner started with a salad and ranch dressing and lots of very thick-sliced bread. There was a choice of entrée – salmon, steak or chicken. We all chose the steak and this came with cowboy beans and a baked potato. Pudding was cheesecake or apple cobbler. Coffee finished the meal off.

It was getting late and I think we were all on the point of nodding off! Fortunately, somebody made the first move and we could all then follow suit and head back to the coach. We'd all had a really fun evening and Dana rounded the evening off with some rather 'grown-up' jokes! Back at the hotel, we said our goodnights and arranged to meet at 0830 for breakfast. Did a bit of packing, wrote up today’s trippie and so to bed …….

[Guest]

Fantastic photos

[highlander447]

A good day, big John Wayne fan here

[DIBBadmin]

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