10/17/2020 - Saturday

Got an early start heading for our first stop in Tucson, Arizona.  On the way we stopped in Yuma to visit Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park on recommendation of the Fitzmaurices.....it was a good suggestion.

The first sight was the prison guard tower and then after entering the museum we passed on through to the cell blocks.

Originally a platform was placed over the prison water tower and then the cover was added to create a sheltered watch tower seen at right and below.

The cell blocks housed 6 prisoners in a very small space with iron stacked bunk beds.  The prison went out of use in 1909 and the structure went through several iterations....one being the temporary housing of the Yuma High School while their school was being rebuilt after a fire.  From this the football team got the nickname "The Criminals" and they liked this so much that they adopted the name as the Crims to this day.

Thankful to not have had a life in this environment or known anyone that stayed here, we moved on from Yuma towards Tucson.  After settling into our Best Western in Tucson, we headed out to the Saguaro National Park where we saw many straight and branched saguaro cacti covering the mountain slopes and tops.  Some of the branchings took on fantastic twists and turns.

We ended our day with a nice dinner at El Charro Mexican Restaurant Established in 1922 by Tia Monica Flin.   El Charro Café is The Nation’s Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family.