Our last 12 days in Tucson went pretty fast.

For New Year’s Eve we went for a walk in the afternoon and stopped at Borderland Brewing. We sampled some beer and played some music on TouchTunes. On our way back, we stopped at the Good Oak Bar for a bump. That evening we watched the Marx Brothers in A Night in Casablanca and then Casablanca.

On Thursday, January 2, we went to Wooden Tooth Records for an in-store performance by the Geckøs.
The tickets said doors were at 7:00. I was not sure what then meant. It was a record store and I am pretty sure they were open most of the day. We took a $4.44 Uber and got there about 6:30. We went into Wooden Tooth Records and it was pretty quiet. There were chairs set up by a stage in the back. Two chairs on one side and three on the other with an isle in the middle. There were two people sitting in the chairs and a half dozen standing around the bar in the middle of the store. We stopped at the counter at the front of the store and ticked our names off the list and got wrist bands. We stopped at the bar and I got a beer out of the cooler and Karla got an NA Athletic beer. We didn’t have anything else to do so we went and took a couple chairs on the two chair side in the third row. Karla had noticed a couple singles for sale at the front of the store from the Geckøs that I had completely missed on the way in. I went back to the front and bought both for $25. We sat and talked and waited for the show. It was a small stage packed with equipment. We could see a trap set, a standup bass laying on its side, a small piano, a conga drum, a bunch of chairs and at least four guitars. The seats filled up. A little before 8:00, I was done with my beer. I went back and got another. By this time all the seats were full and there were a lot of people standing behind the seats, by the bar, and further back. I made it back to my seat and a little after 8, Howe Gelb came out to the stage. I could see the bill of a green ball cap and the rest of the cap was covered by a florescent orange knit winter hat. He sat down at the piano and played a couple tunes. It was an electric piano and it sounded like a Hammond home organ. So the songs were probably from his recent release Howard Allen . . . At the Lowery Organ. Matt Ward and Mark McKowski came to the stage. Also a stand up bass player (Thøger Lund?), two percussionists, a female (Beth Goodfellow?) who mostly played the set but also shook shakers and rang bells, and a male (Tommy Larkins?) who played the conga, tambourine and others, and took a couple songs on the trap set, and one more female player (Kiki?) who played a mini keyboard and sang. Everyone had a microphone and sang except for the bass player and the conga player. During the show, Howe sat at the piano with a guitar on his lap. He switched between the two and did some singing. Howe also had a light in his hat that he turned on when needed, because the stage was a little dark. Matt did most of the singing and there were several songs in Spanish. Mark did most of the lead guitar on a beautiful Epiphone. It looked like everyone was having a great time and the enthusiasm flowed over the attentive crowd. I did not recognize any of the songs (I did not expect to know any of the songs) except when they played a little Auld Lang Syne. The sound was great, the musicians were wonderful and it was a fun show. They were done a little after 9:00.

After the show we thought we would stop at the bar next door with 200+ bourbons and donuts called Batch. They were closed but their basement speakeasy Snake & Barrel was open so we stopped in for a bump and talked music.

On Saturday, January 4 we went to the west Saguaro National Park.

We drove the Bajada Loop and made a couple stops. We had a really nice hike on the Valley View Trail with some great views of the valley at the far end. After a tasty lunch at La Herradura Mexican Grill & Seafood in Tucson Estates we went for a tour in Old Tucson. We had a tour guide dressed up in old west gear and he lead us around. Interesting tour. There have been over 400 movies filled there and some being filmed right now. I am glad we got the tour and got to hear stories about the films and the stars. On our way back we made a quick stop at Mosaic Brewing before going back to the rental to watch some movies that were filmed at Old Tucson.

We went to Sierra Vista to do some more house-hunting. The first time we made a stop at Tombstone Brewing first to see our friends Paula and Ro. Then went to Sierra Vista to look at some open houses. One place was really nice but probably more than we need. The rest were not what we wanted.

We went to Sierra Vista again with our Realtor, Frankie and looked at six houses. They were better than the ones we saw at the open houses and there were a couple possibilities. We are still thinking about it.

We played more trivia. We played trivia at Barrio Brewing a couple times. We did pretty good, but the pop music questions were our downfall.

For our last trivia game at MotoSonora, we were doing pretty good but were in the middle of the pack. We got the final bonus question and ended in second place with at $5 gift card.

We also went to Voltron Brewing for trivia. They have been closed a lot while we were in Tucson, so I am glad we made it during our last week. It turns out there is no Voltron beer. Borderlands brew at Voltron and Crooked Tooth is getting ready to brew there. We had fun but finished trivia towards the bottom.

The weather turned cold and there were some really windy days. I am glad we had nice weather for most of our time in Tucson.

We left Tucson on January 11 and are now in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Watch this space for more updates.

I added some pictures to my Tucson album on Flickr.