I like to go to car and air shows mainly to get photos for future paintings. Also, when I have a chance, I go to motorcycle shows or bike week events. The people at the motorcycle shows are often as interesting as the bikes. It isn’t often I get out to these things so I try to be prepared with camera and film. These first few were taken in March of this year at Daytona Beach Bike Week in Florida.
This last weekend, I, along with my brother and his wife, went to the Wickenburg Air and Classic Car show. There were many more cars than planes out, however.
Here’s a bit of history of Wickenburg:
Wickenburg was named after Austrian born Henry Wickenburg. He hit pay dirt after discovering the Vulture Mine where over $30 Mil worth of gold was dug up. He, along with the ranchers and farmers along the Hassayampa River founded the town back in 1863. Later Jack Swilling carried out irrigation projects and helped in establishing the City of Phoenix. There were wars against the Yavapai Indians back then when about 1000 Yavapai Indians and 400 settlers died in different battles between 1860 and 1869.
It is interesting to note that if the entire area of Wickenburg were annexed it would surpass Phoenix in size, yet the current census has the population at a little over 6,000. It’s about 50 miles from Phoenix and is small, quiet, had very little traffic and is about ten/fifteen degrees cooler than Phoenix. I like it and wouldn’t mind moving there. I just don’t know about all the mines because many are not used anymore. There are no maps and the owners long ago have died. I guess I wouldn’t want to go hiking around much. Last year two young girls fell in an abandoned mine (not in Wickenburg) while riding dirt bikes off road and one of them killed. There are no signs or barricades to warn people. Of course these girls probably shouldn’t have been off the trail. I believe there is state legislation going on to fix the problem of abandoned mines. The mine owners needed to board the mines up or place barricades to keep people away. However, the state people are finding out that there are no owners. The state must take action but it will take years I am sure.
The Wickenburg Airport is quite small with one office building and several hangers for small planes. I didn’t notice if there was a control tower. There were a few planes out you could walk around and look at and the owner/pilot was there as well. This was the extent of the air show. A few took off or landed. Darko's airshow was much more exciting:
http://my.opera.com/gdare/blog/2008/10/20/belgrade-air-show-2008?cid=6251311
Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself in this relaxing excursion.
Two weekends before, we had brunch at the Deer Valley Airport. It is larger than the Wickenburg Airport that we went to last weekend. Before September 11, you were able to walk down and view the many parked planes. Now, there were hardly any and everything was barricaded. The brunch was quite good, however. They had quite a spread. I had my first strawberry crepes with blueberry preserves on top. Sausage and scrambled eggs too. Yummy! Sorry no pics of the food to whet your appetite. 
To see more photos: http://my.opera.com/PainterWoman/albums/show.dml?id=623729
thesnakeandiandthebutterfly 
A wonderful post Pam !!!! Nicely put together and very informative!I laugh by seeing the last group 😆 of course there is a sign that says Airport but by counting three men in this picture I think another VROOOOOOM 😆
As in hot air?:lol: That's my ex in the front, my sister off to the right, my brother is the big guy in the white shirt (his wife had to work that day), and my son and daughter in law on the left.
😆 Yes, hot air ! I was referring to your ex !!!I am glad to know all of them ,I didn't recognize your baby,as for the ex, my original thought just got a name …
enjoyed reading through PW … really great photos. :)You have a lovely looking family. 🙂 ''The mine owners needed to board the mines up or place barricades to keep people away. However, the state people are finding out that there are no owners. The state must take action but it will take years I am sure.''… that abandoned mine area sounds a bit of a worry. Does nobody have responsibility for it?
Shu: Thank you and yes those abandoned mine areas need to be taken care of. There are thousands all over Arizona and the owners have died long ago and no one claimed the mines. So, in a sense, they belong to the State of Arizona. It all came out after the young girls fell in and everyone scrambled to investigate. It was a large deep hole big enough for them to ride right in with their three wheelers. Angeliki: 😆 They would all give me hell for sure for posting their picture. I may remove it eventually.
:lol:I won't tell :p
That's quite an awesome-looking Chopper up on top. Of course, I see that in direct proportion to its awesomeness, it is equally hazardous. Day-Um! Look at all those Sharp Spikes everywhere! :insane: If you wipe out on this Bike, Man! This is a recipe for disaster more than what a typical wipe out would inflict. What was the name of that Bike? The Death Chopper? Spike In Skull Bike? Hazard on Wheels? :yikes: Nice Red in that 2nd Bike. Appears to be Powder Coating.Recalling my terminology from back when I had Cable and watched American Chopper.There's just something about airplanes and Air Shows that just generate / radiate excitement and thrills. I fantasized about being a pilot since I was a kid watching the Crop Sprayer Planes out on the farms.:no: Pam, it doesn't sound like it would be a good idea to go hiking out off the trail in BoobyTrapburg Wickenburg. :nervous:
Carlos, my brother used to have a pilots license and a small plane but gave it up and sold the plane. He's still in love with planes and has them hanging all over from the ceiling in one room along with other plane paraphenalia. Yeah, I wondered about that chopper with the spikes. I think it's probably just for show and slow ridin up and down the main street in Daytona all day. If the owner goes to any other states for bike week, I'll bet he hauls the bike in a trailer. Not much into hiking off trail. A sidewalk will do me just fine.
😆 Those smiling camels are funny. 😀 Thank you Ze. I just realized it is 1:30 in the morning…I better go to sleep.
Yes it's better you go! :up: sleep well my friend! :up:
What a nice exhibition you was! :up:My last experience was in Lisbon in Last Lisbon Dakar racing, january 2008 they are not for exbibition but ready to race to Dakar in Senegal! I have that photo to show you! :):) http://my.opera.com/365/albums/showpic.dml?album=185808&picture=2768503 :lol::lol: well those was just to advertising of the race! :):)
Very instructive post,Pat. There is a small part of Bonnie and Clyde in every American I presume. They do like adventure and danger,don't they? They surely will be the first on Mars. Will they find small green E.T's that you would certainly paint with relish. Haha.
Yet another entry in a well written weblog that makes me feel like traveling, all for free.I enjoy reading stuff like this – a window to another part of the world quite different from my own, with people very similar to myself. In other words, like traveling.Thank you for the journey 🙂
:lol::lol:
I slept quite well Ze. Only woke up once at 5 am to let the dogs out then went back to sleep three more hours. Pretty good for someone with insomnia.:zzz: Thank you Fif. I am sure painting with relish has been done. I saw an installation piece where a woman built a giant bicycle connected to a bunch of tubing. As she peddled the stationery bike, carrot juice would be pumped through the tubing. It was very strange to see. I don't remember what her artist statement said for the reasoning behind this.:confused: Thanks Allan. I love travelling for free. 😀
:lol::lol: sleep it's sooooo goooood! :):)
:up: I agree with the other comments – wonderfully put together piece of writing, Pam. 🙂
Thank you Cynthia.:happy:
Cool pics
Thank you Ehsan. You can see more here: http://my.opera.com/PainterWoman/albums/show.dml?id=623729
Very nice shots, I so agree motorcycle and Aircraft do make for wild ideas and like mixing and blending them for ideas. Anyway It is great post and i really enjoy the post
LoL, the trick to getting close to aircraft to make look good is distence closer you get the angel get bit messy. anyway need pass huh hmm yeah they thinking you going hijack one them planes fly to australia and kidnap this girl and bring her back get her tidy up studio for you all the time and now then give her crust bit of breed or soemething hehe i know your plan now
Thanks Melissa. Glad you enjoyed it. I wish I could have gotten closer to that one big gray airplane with the yellow tip on its wing. It looked old. The airport told me I'd have to go to another building, an aviation department, to get permission and a special pass. I'll have to do that another time. Pictures up close of the engines on anything and the nose of planes to me, it abstracts them. Not to mechanics or pilots though. Of course, I will exaggerate the colors and if they saw the paintings, they'd probably wonder "what was she thinking?".
Thank you for a nice pictures.I got a few blogs that might interest you;http://hasan-and-husin.blogspot.com/http://miamiteethwhitening.blogspot.com/http://garret-metal-detector.blogspot.com/http://themagneticjewelryclasp.blogspot.com/http://the–prostate–cancer.blogspot.com/http://murano-glass-beads.blogspot.com/Cheers
Hushas2008: Thank you for the interesting links and thank you for your visit to my blog. I'm glad you liked the pictures. I have always been curious about what I could find with a metal detector.Melissa: I certainly do need someone to help tidy up my studio because I am not very tidy. There is too much to do and no one to help. That is why it takes so long to do the hard labor stuff outside. What I need is another room for the rest of my paintings that are stacked in my livingroom. The area they are stacked in is where I could put a small table and chairs for eating. I don't mind the weird angles when getting up close, like in the photo of the nose cone of the blue plane. When taking the photo I didn't even notice that 'batman' image. I'd like to find out more about that old gray plane, like how old it is, what it was used for, stuff like that.
Deer Valley is now a part of North Phoenix. There's been so much development that they have now merged. Wickenburg is more separated by large areas of desert and just a little higher in elevation giving the slightly cooler temps. I don't know if there is any more gold in them hills but I'm sure there are still some prospectors searching. Phoenix now has 1.5 million people (I thought there was more) compared to Wickenburg's 6000 plus. I think when the Gold Rush was over everyone hitailed it to Phoenix. Unfortunately, there is only one house for sale in Wickenburg for about $140,000. It's a bit bigger than my house. There's lots of land for sale but I don't care to buy land and build. It keeps entering my mind to move to a smaller and cooler city. Just don't know if that will happen or not.
We went up to Carefree once, drove around and ate lunch. I laughed at the names of the streets — names like Sunny Lane (hey, that sounds like another stripper name), Mellow Avenue, etc. I think whoever named those streets was smokin a lot of weed.If I lived anywhere in Arizona again, it would be Prescott. Very nice town, and fewer space aliens and crystal healing salons than Sedona. 🙂
A couple of very nice trips. And I like that chopper. :up:Funny, I never visited Wickenburg or Deer Valley when I lived down there. Any chance of panning for gold down there? Cause I could really use the money. And I like mules and stuff.
I love Prescott. Nice and cozy town. My brother and his wife took me up there for lunch at the Peacock Lounge for my birthday. Just thought of one of the street names in Carefree: Why Worry Ln.There are some house in Carefree/Cave Creek that are built right into the mountains. Took a drive up and around them. Some of them are built up on giant boulders, one to the other, as if your house were a bridge. Kinda scary really.
Those are the ones we drove around, the ones sitting precariously up on the sides of the mountains. It used to be a lot of celebrities like Doc Severinson and Amanda Blake lived in that area.
So, Pam, what DO you know about them thar Arizona Lights of which I heard / read? Or is that in some other area of Arizona? I was reading about some supposed mysterious Lights and outright HUGE hovering aircraft and such. Some of it seemed farfetched since they made it sound like the mysterious aircraft were so big they pretty much covered half the sky over ….. I'm almost certain Phoenix was mentioned. Either way regardless of what town or city it was, if these giant aircraft covered areas of sky several football field lengths, how could the military / government just plain tell the people that there was nothing there? Something seemed ridiculous.
Ed, I think there are still some celebs living around there. They keep a pretty low profile. I go there a couple of times a year for art shows. Almost every weekend it's inundated with Harley riders. All the doctors,lawyers and other businessmen get out their Harleys and hang out at Harold's. Carlos, I've heard about the 'Phoenix lights' but have never seen them. When I see them, I'll believe it. As for the mysterious aircraft supposedly seen recently well, I didn't see it. My house seems to be in the flight pattern of everything and it didn't fly over my house. If I see something strange in the air and am not totally frozen in awe, I'll grab my camera and get a picture.
You'll grab your camera if they don't Zap you with a paralyzing ray and beam you up to study you for an hour or so. :insane: