Arizona - Day 4 - to Globe

Gila County RV Park, Globe

Saturday, 4 December 2021

today's route

I was heading about a third of the way up the state today, and Google said I had a choice of routes.  I chose to keep going west to Tucson (so as not to redrive about the same distance back over interstate I'd already been on) and then head north to the town of Globe.

On the road

Tucson (elev. 2,643') set its city limits sign 21 miles away from the actual town.  Planning for growth, no doubt.  I passed several places I might want to visit when I come back later in the month: Pima Air & Space Museum (one of the world's largest non-government funded aerospace museums), the Desert Museum, officially the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (one of the top 10 museums in the US, per TripAdvisor), Old Tucson (where movies and TV programs were filmed, closed indefinitely due to Covid).

We stopped at the Tucson Mall to stretch our legs, and I was surprised that at 9:00 on a Saturday, there was almost no one in the mall parking lot.

We passed a man who was picking up litter, an admirable activity, and he seemed to be on his own - not part of an organized clean-up program

Today was the day of the Tucson Marathon, I discovered the hard way.  I drove at least 10 miles of the race route (I checked the odometer), dodging runners sharing a road that suddenly narrowed from 2 lanes to 1 without any warning (other cars didn't want to let me merge).  It seemed like a long 10 miles.

I passed a turn for Biosphere 2, which I'd never heard of.  It's a large Earth science research facility that was originally privately funded but is now owned by the University of Arizona.  It's a 3+ acre structure that's an artificially closed ecological system and originally expected to help preserve human life in space, with varying degrees of success over the years.

I drove past miles and miles of saguaro cactus (I had to look it up to be sure that's what kind it was).

saguaro cactus

This is an internet photo, but it's also what I saw.  Sometimes it seemed like a forest of them, which isn't a word I usually connect with cactus.

I passed a turn labeled Copper Corridor East Scenic Road.  The Copper Corridor is a series of small historical mining towns just south of Arizona's "horizontal divide," according to a tourist organization.

The road wound along by the San Pedro River, which looked completely dry.  Later I came to Dripping Springs Wash, which apparently had stopped dripping because the wash was also dry.

sample of countryside

The road began a long climb with curves and s-curves, an elevation of 4,983' and an 8% grade to liven things up.

Globe

Then I came to Globe, elev. 3,544', est. 1876, with a population of 7,249 per the 2020 census.  It was only midday so we stopped in downtown to stretch for a bit before going on to the campground.

The town was first named Globe City honoring a chunk of silver discovered nearby that was 9" in diameter and resembled a globe.

Across the street from City Hall was the Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church, built 1916.

Holy Angels Catholic Church

The carvings on the outside are what intrigued me.

carvings at the 4 corners of the tower top

at the center front of the church

Apparently this church inside is nothing like its outside - the outside is in the Roman Romanesque style while the inside is more like Italian Renaissance.  If I'd been in town any longer, I'd have liked to see it.

In front of City Hall was a display of local history, which included the town's founding as a mining camp based on discoveries of silver and copper.  I remember noticing the name Big Nose Kate in stories about Tombstone's early days, so I was interested to see a photo of her here.

I don't think the size of her nose is too out of line.

I saw signs saying that the first Friday of each month is a Food Truck Roundup and Car Cruise.  It sounds like fun and I was sorry today was the first Saturday, so we missed it.

The county RV park was just across a short somewhat rickety bridge from City Hall.  It was in 2 parts: the old part, which I was in, that didn't have any amenities besides several batting cages; and the new part, which had new showers but was directly on US-70 (noisy) and had zero ambiance.  It was a weird little place, but I'd had a very hard time finding anywhere at all for us to stay in this area, so we dealt with the oddnesses.