Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Left

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Right

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Blue Protrusion

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Photoblogging: Hallway

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Vendor Cart Hot Dog Photoblogging

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: What Are You Looking At (#2)

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: What Are You Looking At (#1)

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: White Stripe

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: I'm So Green

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Real Food: Electric Chicken

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Shadow

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Real Food: Lamb To The Slaughter

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Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging: Foul Ball

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Photoblogging: Hell Beast, Antique Mall, Bisbee

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Photoblogging: Coming Soon From Marvel™

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I wonder if his sidekick is Gutter Buddy?

Photoblogging: Figure in a Pink Landscape

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Aborted Travelogue: Trip to Arizona Part 2

OMG you guys, I don't know what it was, but I just could NOT finish the post below. I'd go back to it and be, like, "Ugh, that was weeks ago." And then I'd want to post something else, but I'd think, "No, I have to finish that post about my trip to Tucson."

So, finally, I'm just going to admit that I'll never finish this post, so here's as far as I got. Postus Interruptus, I guess. But if I don't just burn this one off now, this blog will be dead forever, so sorry about that:

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One thing which was funny was that I brought lovely, beautiful and tasteful gifts for my three sisters and my mother, and for my brother... the disturbing vintage plush toy seen above.

The weather was stunning the whole time I was there. Here is the view from my parents' backyard on a perfect Spring day:

Next up, a trip to Bisbee! First, though, a trip to famous BK Tacos for one of their justifiably celebrated "Sonora Style" hot dogs. This guy made sure you felt welcome:

Bisbee is a fair distance from Tucson, in the southeastern corner of Arizona. You pass through miles of scrubby valleys filled with joshua trees, ironwood, mesquite, creosote, etc.

The surrounding mountains are gorgeous (sorry, lousy shots from the car window):

 

Bisbee, Arizona is an old mining town which never completely died, but instead transitioned into an undeniably quaint yet almost unbearably cutesy tourist. Mid Atlantic residents will know what I mean when I say, "It's like Harper's Ferry meets Breaking Bad."

Anyway, that's it. I don't really have trenchant observations about Bisbee after all.

Onward!

Travelogue: Tucson Via Dallas With Bonus Bisbee, Part 1

I traveled back home to Tucson last week for a very special occasion: my father's 90th birthday party! A good time was had by all, and it was a gorgeous, perfect springtime in southern Arizona.

But first, I had a five-hour layover in the Dallas airport:

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I had a nice travel outfit, which always makes flying seem fancier to me. Remember when flying really seemed fancy? Now you have to make it fancy yourself:

(Gray jersey sport coat by Gant, white cotton shirt by Theory, vintage Hermès silk tie.)

I had hours and hours to kill in the Dallas airport, so I decided to "dine" at TGI Friday's, where I enjoyed a comically large novelty margarita and something which seemed to be chicken-like and suspended in a bubbling ooze of salty, viscous petroleum products. This would prove to be the saddest yet most conceptually successful eating experience of the trip.

(It's like a Slurpee, but kind of with booze, and certainly created in vats.)

Also available in the Dallas airport: makeup vending machines. This brought to mind endless "Walk on the Wild Side" possibilities for my journey back home:

Finally I got to Tucson and was picked up at the airport by good ol' Dad on the eve of his 90th birthday! Way to go, Dad! Hope it's the genes!

In the evening, we headed to a great Mexican restaurant where my mother and father and I were joined by my brother (whose contributions to this blog you may remember), my three sisters, my niece and two nephews. I was thrilled with my niece, who is a perfect tween, brimming with eye rolls and never less than a minute away from Snapchatting. So good. And I was astonished to discover that my nephews Thomas and James, 17 and 14, once irritating enough that I expected to tolerate them at best, have matured into healthily obsessive horror/exploitation movie fans! So we had LOTS to talk about ("I'll send you DVDs of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but DON'T watch them with your parents, OK?")

My photographic project this time around was "Arizona Kitsch", but that quickly fell by the wayside as I got subsumed into a family tornado. I did manage to get this shot at the restaurant, though, which basically says everything you need to know about Southwest design:



Next: trip to Bisbee!

Ugly Tour Bus Photoblogging 2015!

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It's a new season!

Photoblogging: Landscaping

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