The Rest of the Superior Home Show

This is the second and last part of the Superior Home Show. Although not homes, these three historic buildings along Main Street are very important to the history and restoration of the mining town.

Once again we stopped at the Magma Hotel because Jane & Terry had not seen it. We did get to see two different guest rooms on the first floor of the hotel. Rooms rent for $180 a night for a single and $200+ for a double. 

(photo from last year)

(photo from last year)

the dining room was open for breakfast and lunch

(last year's photo was better)

2019 Magma Hotel Superior 

modern bathroom with clawfoot tub and 

shower

bathrooms decorated in black & white

all have clawfoot tubs & showers

one of the two rooms we saw

queen beds in every room

the renovated hotel opened for business in March 2019

(we saw it in January 2019)

second Superior city jail

(first jail was built in 1903 at another location)

This jail was built in 1920 as the Pinal County Jail. The adobe addition housing judges offices has crumbled with time. According to local legend, Mexican Revolutionary General Pancho Villa was protected for a night in the jail in 1920 and supposedly hid out in a few homes along Sonora Street. This was also the courthouse until a new one was built in 1945.

The jail building was empty for a number of years after prisoners were moved to Florence, the Pinal County seat. In 1960 the building became a laundromat and in 2012 it was bought by the current owner of the Hotel Magma and returned to its former  purpose, a jail...

complete with permanent residents

the Barmacy was on the tour last year, 

but not yet open for business

it was this year

2019 Barmacy Superior Tour

our adult refreshments

(pear Ultra was delicious!)

one of the infamous Superior residents 

Mattie Earp & Historic Pinal Cemetery

Superior Home Show

It's the end of January and that must mean it is time for the Superior Home Show. On Saturday neighbors, Terry & Jane, joined us for a geocaching adventure in Globe in the morning followed by the Superior Home Tour in the afternoon.

The tour showcased 8 homes. We toured 7 of them as one was a new custom build. I'd rather see the historic homes. The first one we saw was my favorite.

The Adobe House records say it was built in 1924, but the family believes it may be older.

The house was originally built as a duplex of two rooms each with the outhouses in the back yard.(You can see the divider wall to the right of the current entrance.) The current owner's grandparents moved into one duplex and rented the other two rooms. Maybe because they raised six children, they opened the wall between the two and used all four rooms. The current owner, their grandson, along with help from friends and family has restored this nearly 100 year old home adding the conveniences needed today, but keeping the history of his family.

why use only 1 when 5 unique hanging lamps

make it so much more interesting

notice the ceiling

The room to the left of this original room, was added in the 1950s and is the laundry, utility and bathroom. The room to the left of this living room is the bedroom, and an original room of the other duplex.

notice the corrugated metal sheeting used as wainscoting

in the kitchen, the second original room of the first duplex

many family heirlooms were displayed

reuse, repurpose

patio fireplace from a large diesel fuel tank

A tree growing next to the old chicken coop, is now incorporated into the deck of what will be a guest house. Notice the lights in the tree. The current owners moved into the home in April 2019. The backyard is not done, but you can see their vision.

a little greenhouse in the backyard

of what I think was called the GreenHouse home

a bed of rocks the owner has collected

from AJ to Globe

loved the bed frame used as flowerbed decor

some brilliant yellow flowers in the backyard

front yard water feature at another home

and her lovely pink roses, also in the front yard

this three bedroom home has been completely

renovated to a 2 bedroom, 2 bath for $240K

originally 3 bedrooms, small rooms, all closed off

now open, modern, large bedrooms and large bathrooms

This last featured home is not a home, but a Peddler's Wagon, built from the ground up using repurposed items from all over the US. Although the owners have a home in Globe, John uses the wagon for sleeping quarters when he travels to art shows.

no bathroom, but many comforts of home

beautiful woodwork of 4 kinds of wood

mostly repurposed items

(stained glass windows from Holland)

king-size bed in the loft

complete kitchen with sink and cupboards

brightly painted to attract attention to his displayed art work

More from the Superior Home Tour in another post

2019 Private Homes Tour in Superior

2014 Superior Home Tour (first of three)

The First Half of January

January 1st started with a geocaching event we hosted at 9 in the morning serving donuts and orange juice to about 40 area geocachers who stopped by to start the new year. The event was held at Flatiron Community Park in Apache Junction.

four paneled wall mural near the picnic ramada

the reason geocachers will come out on a chilly morning

Our new wheels arrived on January 2nd. We have decided to rent a golf cart this winter rather than buy new bikes we'd rarely use. Many social events are in the newer part of the resort. A golf cart will make it easier to attend those events...and more fun!

rather spiffy for two old farts

Hubby started another 7 weeks of External Enhanced Counter Pulsation therapy sessions on January 2nd. We both feel EECP in 2018 made a difference in his circulation. Maybe there will be more improvement after these 35 one-hour sessions.

A highly creative and much loved local geocacher created and hid a geocache honoring and thanking the two us for our contributions to the AJ geocaching community . It was released on New Years Day and he, JFOW, thought we would rush right out after our morning event to get the newly placed cache. He doesn't know Hubby very well, does he? New Years Day is college football and has been for many, many years. Even the enticement of a cache in our honor and the opportunity to have a first to find honor did not sway Hubby. College football won out.

But on Saturday, we did head out to find that cache and several others along the way.

luckily, we did not have to look at EVERY shell casing 

to find the one with the log sheet

the remaining snow on Four Peaks one week later

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, its off to cache we go...

Terry, Jane, & Hubby

looking for minions in palo verde trees

cute little cache containers

 a golf ball hiding a log sheet

now there's a cameo geocache container!

rubber snake glued to a round tin container

we don't find them all

4 sets of eyes, 30 minutes of looking

and I looked later for another 15 minutes

FINALLY!!!

See & Sea or C 'n C - You Decide
found the ammo can and signed the log
thanks JFOW!



After all the geocaching excursions, I needed a change of pace. I and 129 other residents from the resort attended this play at the Hale Theater in Gilbert. A little culture.

I remember seeing the movie with Robert Redford and

Jane Fonda back in the late '60s

I laughed so hard during the play

reminded me of another 20 year-old bride

Writing Your Life Story classes have also started this month. I have 5 new writers in the first session and about 10 who are continuing to add to their life story in the second session on Monday afternoons. 

After a 5 year hiatus, I have also decided to join other Red Hat ladies in the resort for some social activities. We had lunch and saw the movie Bombshell. 

The resort bookclub discussed Where the Crawdads Sing in January. Twenty-seven women came to the discussion, the largest one to date. Such a good book to read and to discuss.

And on January 15th...

my January Meet & Greet geocaching event

the guys in blue are from Winnipeg & Grand Forks

about 50 cachers attended the January event

a group of 4 came from the Tucson area

 Sherry (waving) and Jon are from Globe

the sunset at the close of the January 15th event

The Rest of December

The last few days of December were focused on geocaching. There were a couple of events on different days and two nearby caching excursions on different days.

First was the Ugly Christmas Sweater event. Happy to wear the sweatshirt one more time before putting it away until next Christmas. The young kid on the far right won. He made it himself using an idea on Pinterest and materials from the dollar store. (click on the photo to see his sweater) The guy in red next to him works for geocaching.com and was in the area geocaching and came to the event.

the sunset as we left the event in Gilbert

This vehicle was in the next lane while at a stop light. This hay lift tractor/truck has two steering wheels. The operator is sitting behind the wheel on the left side of the cab, driving it down the road. The steering wheel on the right side of the cab operates the fork lift for bales. 

The snowstorm that hit the Midwest first came to AZ, covering Four Peaks and neighboring higher elevations in a blanket of white.

scaring a covey of quail while geocaching

new grass often grows in unusual patterns in the desert soil

I don't know why, but it often catches my eye

half dead-half live tree hiding a geocache

stump of a palm tree

no rings and it looks like many single fibers

also unusal & interesting

snow is disappearing on Four Peaks just one day 

after the above photo