Apache Junction, Arizona

Globe, Arizona
We had planned to stay two nights and check out the town.  With all the rain the RV spots were swamped and we were pretty sure we would get stuck.  The owner agreed to let us park on the asphalt at the dump station if we only stayed one night.  We will have to check out the town another time.

Apache Junction
This area has a lot of winter square dancing and our dance friends come from all over the U.S.

Great pizza at Red, White and Brew with Glenn and Char from Texas.

Dave joined the stain club

Arrived early for dinner

We won for ordering the best looking dinner.  The Big Bad Wolf Sandwich consisting of
rib meat, ham, pulled pork, slaw and cheddar cheese on Texas toast.

Good thing we got here early.  The line is just about out the door.

Liquid nitrogen ice cream made fresh to order for dessert.

After those sandwiches we shared an ice cream

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has Giving Machines in 10 locations across the world this Christmas season, further expanding its efforts to #LightTheWorld by encouraging people to perform instant acts of service that make a difference in others’ lives.

Tonight's show

Square dancer section

Beautiful theater

The name got us.
What the Hell Sports Bar & Restaurant

It's hard to drink all day if you don't start first thing in the morning.

Glenn wins for the best looking breakfast. The Breakfast Burger consisting of a
burger patty, sausage patty, bacon, egg and cheese.

Mesa Market Place
A vast outdoor marketplace with 1,500 vendors, a food court, live music & free admission.

More dancing

The Musical Instrument Museum opened in April 2010.  It is the largest museum of its type in the world. The collection of over 15,000 musical instruments and associated objects includes examples from nearly 200 countries and territories, representing every inhabited continent.

Made from an Armadillo shell

This museum may have been about musical instruments but it was also a geography lesson.

Gumboots
Prohibited from speaking, miners developed their own mode of communication by slapping their rubber boots.  "Playing the boots" with energetic steps and gestures become a vibrant musical form.

Ukulele
Rajao 1900                                                      Soprano 1898

Tortoise shell played with deer antlers

In a slum town where families survive by collecting and reselling garbage, visionary music teacher Favio Chavez was undaunted by a shortage of musical instruments.  In 2006, he gathered a small team to plunder the landfill for materials and construct an ensemble of "recycled" instruments.  In a few years, their innovation has led to a thriving music school in Cateura and a youth orchestra that performs internationally.

 Elkart, Indiana is a big motorhome manufacturing town.  We didn't know it was the band instrument capital of the world.

1934
The "frying pan" was the first solid body guitar and the first commercially successful electrified string instrument.  Both this guitar and its amplifier remain completely in original condition.

Ibanez triple-neck electric guitar and the one and only of its kind.  Owned and played by guitar virtuoso Steve Vai.

Signed harmonica collage dedicated to blues legends.

Martin Guitars

Mando-bass 1913
Possibly the only surviving example.  Interior label boasts "the greatest power of tone the world has ever heard".

These musical glasses were patented in 1825.  The glasses were blown to pitch and played by rubbing their rims with moistened fingers. The instrument was intended primarily for use by amateur musicians at home rather than in a concert hall.  Once a popular parlor instrument, musical glasses saw a decline around 1860 with rumors that playing the instrument, and the ethereal sounds it produced, caused madness.  Many players suffered nervous breakdowns.  At the time, it was thought that the vibrations resulted in nervous system decline, but it may be that touching the glasses and their painted rims, both of which contained lead, contributed to lead poisoning over time.

Primarily a guitarist, Glen Campbell also played the Highland bagpipes.

 If you want to see everything this museum has to offer you should get the two day pass.

Despite the name this place was very busy.

It's all good until it isn't.
We pulled out headed for California but didn't get very far before our Check Engine light came on.  We pulled off the road, retrieved the default code and made a few phone calls.  We first went to the closest Cummins Repair Shop.  They were a small shop and could not fit us in this week at all.  They called their sister shop in Avondale which was a much larger shop with RV hook ups.  We were able to get an appointment at 2:00 pm the next day for a diagnosis.

We were concerned this close to the holiday that their could be a delay but they got us 2 hours before our scheduled time.  They called us with the diagnosis and a price.  We gave them the approved and they said it would we done by 6:00 pm.  Which it was.  Since this shop works on Buses and Semi trucks they have mechanics working until midnight.

RV overnighting section