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Old Tucson Tour - 1/25/20
Links to additional stuff related to
this tour:
We’ll gather at the Love’s truck stop at
56th Street and Sundust Rd. at 08:15 and will depart at 08:30. To get to
Sundust Rd., you will want to exit I-10 at Exit 162 (which is also the
exit for Firebird Lake and Wild Horse Pass) Turn left (East) to get onto
Sundust. The truck stop will be on your right (South) side about a ¼
mile from the interchange.
We have one gas stop planned for about, a 320
mile trip. If everyone starts with a full tank, we should be fine.
However, get on the radio if your bladder is not cooperating with the
plan.
Exit the truck stop heading West on Sundust,
which will become Wild Horse Pass Rd. Just as we pass Firebird Lake, the
road will turn left and become Maricopa Rd. (Hwy 347), heading South.
Roughly 30 miles later, we will come to the Junction with Hwy. 84.
Turn left (East) onto Hwy 84 (Gila Bend
Hwy) for about 17 miles. We will be stopping at the Shell Station at
861 Gila Bend Hwy on the outskirts of Casa Grande for a restroom break,
and gas if you need it.
Leave the Shell headed West (back the way we
came) for about ¼ mile and turn left (South) onto Thornton Rd. In about
7 miles, we will be turning left (East) onto Hanna Rd. In another ¾ of a
mile you will come to Hwy 15 (Chuichu Rd.), turn right to go South. This
is the prettiest part of the drive. Two lanes but not much traffic, all
on Indian reservation land.
38 miles later we will come to a junction
with Hwy 86. Turn left, (East) towards Sells and Tucson. This road will
be a little narrower, but straight for long periods of time. We have
about 22 miles from the junction to Sells, AZ. You will notice an
increase in the activity of the Border Patrol in this popular
international transit area. The mountains you see off to the right are
in Mexico.
There is a Shell station on the right as
you come into Sells where we can take a break. We will depart Sells on
Hwy 86 (East again) headed toward Tucson.
In 51 miles (before we actually get to
Tucson), we will come to Kinney Rd. (There is a McDonald’s on the North
East corner of the intersection) It has a traffic light which we will
use to turn left (North) on to Kinney. This is a busy intersection and
we will probably only get a couple of cars at a time through the left
turn light. But it is only 5 miles up Kinney to get to the “Old Tucson
Studios” entrance on your right. We will wait for you in the parking
lot. There is a fee to get into the site.
Lunch, shopping, and sight seeing
commence. There is a nice museum, with information on the many Western
movies and TV shows that have been filmed here, starting clear back to
1939.
We are scheduled for lunch at Big Jake’s
BBQ at 12:30 MST. There is an ice cream shop on the property should you
need to top off that BBQ with something sweet & cool.
Feel free to depart whenever you feel like
it but please see note below about traveling with another club member.
The return Route
You can either go
back the same way we went down or navigate to Interstate 10 and take the
freeway home,
your choice.
Depart whenever you feel like it, we won’t
be caravanning home but pick another car or two returning on the same
route and leaving the studio at the same time, it’s always good to drive
with another club member for several reasons.
If you take the same route back it is
going to be pretty much the same as our route going down.
Except! When we go North on Hwy 15, we
will go straight through to Interstate 8. (bypassing the potty stop in
Casa Grande & the farm traffic). Go West on I-8 (about 22 miles) to exit
151, which will put you on Hwy 84 North headed back to Maricopa.
In only 6 miles, turn left onto Hwy 347 for the last leg of the trip.
There are lots of places to pull over for
a potty stop after the first 13 miles of Hwy 347, if you should get
uncomfortable just get on the radio
and let everyone know you would like a break and the first one we come
upon, we’ll stop.
Paul Ebeyer, President
Arizona BMW Z Series Club
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