Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Arizona

2024 Wickenburg Fly-in
and Classic Car Show

Damsel and I attended the 29th Annual Wickenburg Fly-in and Classic Car Show at the local airport. We have gone to this event just about every year since we moved here 13 years ago. This one, in spite of not much sunshine and under mostly cloudy skies, was the largest we have seen to date in fly-in aircraft, classic cars and attendees. We had traffic jams both coming in and going out of the airport.

Since the show was an order of magnitude bigger this year, we only can post a few highlights here. Below are some photos of a few of the classic cars . . .

1958 Chevrolet Convertible w/Continental Kit:

1958 Edsel:

1955 Hudson(!) Metropolitan:

There were hundreds more.

And for the aviation part of the show (again just a small sample) . . .

Classic Stearman biplane (Boeing) with Continental seven cylinder radial engine:

An Army Blackhawk Helicopter flew in:

And, finally, a MTOSPORT Gyroplane:

That’s it for this post. There were so many great classic cars and aircraft that we took photos of and may post about some of those later.

21 Jan 2024 by Arizona Aviation Classics Notions

Home Again!

We’re relaxing at home after the last leg of our vacation. Damsel and I saw a number of cool things on the return voyage. Here are some of the pix from the days collection of over 500 images in the Damsel Camera:

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson, AZ:

Picacho Peak near Eloy, AZ:

Casa Grande Native Ruins, Coolidge, AZ:

Now that we’re back, we have numerous things we need to attend to pertaining to our normal retirement routine, plus a couple of other business items that popped up. We’re prepared for all of that and we’re glad to be back home in our little desert paradise.

23 Oct 2023 by Arizona Notions Photography Travel Wanderlust

Camping Day 11 – Last Day Out

We’re still in South Tucson today, relaxing and dining. We had a delicious Chicken Pepper Casserole for late lunch today.

Since it is warm outside here (95°), we spent most of our day inside the RV. There was a power failure for about an hour but, luckily, we were able to run the 6KW generator to keep the A/C and other appliances going.

We will be heading for home tomorrow morning with a rest stop and visit at Casa Grande on the way. Our route takes us through Coolidge, AZ where the ruins are located. Then, its about two more hours to home.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our outing, particularly watching the eclipse on Saturday 10/14. We’re already thinking about another outing before the big trip to Waco, TX to watch another eclipse next April.

22 Oct 2023 by Arizona Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Camping Day 10 – South Tucson

Today’s travel was along I-10 from Deming, NM to our current location. We made a stop on our way out of Deming to take on provisions for the remainder of our trip.

The trip was uneventful except for some nice scenery. The lighting conditions were sub-optimal due to an overcast thanks to the upper atmosphere effects of Hurricane Norma which was approaching Cabo San Lucas on the Baja peninsula. Damsel did get a couple of good photos along the way seen below.

Scenic Mountain in SW New Mexico:

Roadside Rock Formations in SE Arizona:

Tomorrow, we expect to have yet another R&R day with an afternoon feast prepared by The Damsel. We’ll post about the feast tomorrow.

21 Oct 2023 by Arizona Travel Wanderlust

Camping Day 1 – Holbrook, AZ

Just a quick post to let y’all know we’re on the road headed for Albuquerque to witness the annular eclipse on Saturday 10/14/2023. We’re camped in Holbrook, AZ tonight and will head out tomorrow to the next stop at American RV Park.

We may post some pix from Painted Desert and/or Petrified Forest tomorrow night after the commute.

We saw these on or way here:

Saguaro Forest AZ on Hwy SR74

San Francisco Peaks approaching Flagstaff on I-17

UPDATE: We had a dramatic change in weather – the overnight low in Holbrook was 29°F!

12 Oct 2023 by Arizona Travel Wanderlust

Almost Cloudless
Plus an Irish Feast

The (clickable) satellite image above was taken the morning of August 4th showing the southwest and Arizona in particular having virtually no cloud cover. There are a few cumulus clouds forming over the mountains north of the Grand Canyon at the time this image was taken. We seem to be having a lack of our usual monsoon rains with a side effect of warmer than usual temperatures. Rest assured that there will eventually be a return to normal to come hopefully sooner than later. The global climate scammers are unnecessarily worrisome over normal weather deviations.

Now that we’re about halfway between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox it is again a Celtic Cross Quarter celebration of Lughnasadh which means (to us) that there must be a traditional Irish or Scottish meal to be consumed. So, Damsel is being creative and will offer a hybrid Western/Gaelic feast consisting of a Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado and Tomato Chicken Salad (western) served over Homemade Soda Bread (Irish). There may be a traditional Irish Cocktail involved.

We will be posting about our feast on our Food Website later this weekend. Meanwhile, everybody please enjoy your weekend with whatever you consider to be relaxing.

04 Aug 2023 by Arizona Environment Food & Dining Global Warming Notions

Amateur Radio Field Day

I took a break from our usual Saturday activities at home to visit with the Hassayampa Amateur Radio Klub at their Field Day site in the Garcia Schoolhouse near Old Downtown Wickenburg.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day is an annual event in which amateur radio clubs and individual amateurs can participate to demonstrate their emergency communications capabilities.

I took my camera and got a few shots of the operation; there were three stations working in the schoolhouse. The first station seen in the (clickable) image below is the CW station, or communications via Morse Code. I am surprised that having been off the air for a while that I could still copy the Morse callsigns and text in my head as I listened.

The next station seen below is a digital modes station; there are several digital modes available and they all work to transmit text or possibly images via a computer interface.

The third and final station is a voice mode station that probably is using a popular voice mode called Single Sideband (SSB).

All of the stations had a computer on the side to perform the logging necessary for the contacts made. Logs are submitted to the ARRL which issues awards to contest winners in the various categories.

I have to admit that I thought about getting back on the air, but some matters related to home repair will have to take precedence. More on that situation at another time.

24 Jun 2023 by Arizona Notions Technobabble

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