Tumacacori | Arizona | National Historical Park

This mission is located on Route 19 not far from the U.S./Mexican border at Nogales, Arizona.  I have passed it a few times, and wanted to visit - but not with my 5th wheel attached.  I had the opportunity to visit it with a friend last week - and I learned how to pronounce the name!  It's pronounced "Toom ah kahk ah ree" - my own phonetics.

The next two photos are close up of the bell tower and the front of the mission entrance, which you can see has been eroded through time and environmental pressures.  The bell tower itself was never finished.

Inside, the walls have also eroded, but they are very thick, as you will see in some of these photos.

The altar area has a domed ceiling, shown below, and you can see how thick the walls are by the windows in that area.

A food storage building is shown below, they had to be able to store food during the winter season for the residents.

The priests lived in the building shown in the photos below.

And my favorite bird, the roadrunner, is watching over things.

Although this sunset was not at the mission, there have been some very nice ones since I've been back in Arizona.

Moving Along

The past two days have been pleasant traveling through unpopulated areas and small communities. I've been traveling on a divided 4 lane highway that's been sometimes as straight to the horizon as Alligator Alley.

I did have a bit of panic yesterday morning when I realized that my brake controller wasn't working. I was leaving Holiday, Florida on Route 19 in heavy traffic and pulled over in an empty parking lot to assess the situation. I had checked everything that morning and it seemed to be working then. I took the power connector from the trailer to the truck and gave it a good squirt of Boeshield T9 - plugged it back in and wiggled it in an out a couple times. Then I tested the brake controller and - YES! - it's working again. I can only hope that all my future problems will be taken care of with a spray can of magic.

I spent last night parked in a WalMart parking lot, in the company of at least 4 other RVs and a couple tractor trailers. Tonight, I'm in another WalMart lot further up the road, with a couple more RVs. Nice of WalMart to let us come in and park for the night along the way. Of course, I ended up buying some good looking strawberries for breakfast tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll head to St Marks Lighthouse for the tour, photos and hikes along the trails. Then it's up to Marianna, Florida to see the caverns in one of the State parks. Florida is not known for caverns, except for the underwater variety, so this is unusual for this area.

After that, I'll head for the Panhandle coast and points west.