Towpaths & Treats

On a gorgeously warm and sunny afternoon we took a lazy stroll along the towpath of the Shropshire Union Canal. Wildflowers and blossom proliferated along the hedge rows

along one particular section the scent of lilac blossom was absolutely heavenly.

At a very convenient seat we stopped for a while to enjoy the sunshine and take in the view.

Eventually we ambled back hoping that the farmer’s wife still had some of her delicious homemade goodies left.

Thankfully she did so we had homemade scones and jam for tea. Delish!!!!

Have fun, we are!

Should we go or should we stay"

That is a very good question. Over the past few months we have found that blogger has become increasingly awkward to use, things that used to be easy, now seem to take much longer. The shut down last week threw my design out, despite the template being correct, the only way round it was to delete the posts and re enter them, twice!

So the question is should we move to Wordpress or Trip Journal or should we stay with blogger?

At the moment we really don't know.

Have fun, we are

PS: Just writing this simple post, wasn't simple at all! Once published the formatting disappeared, so it was deleted and re-written again, so who knows what'll happen this time. We might just have to go so watch this space.

Welcome

We have two new followers, The Good Luck Duck and Thomas, welcome to our blog we hope you enjoy following our travels.

Have fun, we are!

Blue Moon but no Margaritas!

McGraw’s cantina sits on a hill overlooking Pantano wash not far from Rincon East as the crow flies in fact you can probably see it, if you remember to look.

After dinner on the terrace we sat for a while enjoying the view over the wash, the desert and the mountains.

A cheeky little roadrunner who apparently likes french fries was running around, but it turned it's little beak up at mine which were liberally doused in malt vinegar.

As my DB quite enjoys the draft Blue Moon at McGraw’s there were no margaritas for me this evening and I actually got to drive BT home! Amazing! I still haven’t recovered from the shock!

Have fun, we are!

Movie Days

Cue. Western type movie music.

Imagine. Dust swirling.

Imagine. Tall black hatted cowboys wearing long black duster coats walking slowly and purposefully straight towards you, loaded guns at the ready.

Imagine. Doc Holliday and the Earps coming face to face with the Clantons.

Imagine. Tombstone.

This is where the movie Tombstone was filmed.

Mescal, the desert set of Old Tucson is rarely open to the public. We know this because on numerous occasions over the years we’ve attempted to visit only to find when we arrived that it was closed for one reason or another. This year we finally got lucky.

Our tour guide, Frank, regaled us with lots of interesting facts and tidbits, I just hope I’ve remembered a few of them correctly!

The saloon has featured in many films, looks like an old brick building doesn’t it? No, it’s actually wood covered with some sort of plastic coating, ah the power of the silver screen.

The beam inside the saloon was where Sharon Stone shot through the hangmans rope in the movie the Quick and the Dead - obviously no movie props, or movie stars come to that, the day we visited.

A couple of other visitors really looked the part dressed in their Old West best.

What looks like a heap of old wood, (apologies for the poor photograph) actually turns out to be the inside of an old railway carriage and was used in the film Poker Alice starring Elizabeth Taylor.

This yellow building was built for the film Dirty Dingus McGee starring Frank Sinatra who apparently spent most of the film running around in long underwear.

The area below was used as the OK Corral in a documentary made by the BBC about the famous gunfight.

We were so glad we finally got to visit it was a really interesting tour. Mescal was open from February to the end of April this year, so we were in the right place at the right time.

The tour lasts an hour and if you get the chance Mescal is well worth visiting, Old Tucson website www.oldtucson.com has directions and opening times, but be warned, there really are no facilities out there and although the road from I10 is paved the road to the set is dirt and while passable by any vehicle does have a couple of rough bits to catch the unwary.

Have fun, we are!