Roots and Wings: Dillinger Days, Saturday, January 23, 2010

In an effort to not let myself pine away in my aunt Kathie's gorgeous Tucson casita, I joined Couchsurfing.org's Tucson group. In doing so I found an escape from my head and the casita and also a wonderful friend, Charish.

I had no idea who John Dillinger was before this celebratory day. Charish posted a last minute note to the group asking if anyone wanted to accompany her to Dillinger Days, downtown at Hotel Congress. The details of Public Enemy No. 1 would come out slowly over the day.

Slowly because there was a antique car show and a fair vibe that didn't seem to have anything to do with relating the history of the event.

Can you see why car trunks are called trunks? hee hee

I discovered a kindred spirit in Charish because she's just as much of a loose cannon as I am. We'll talk to anyone and stike up crazy friendships with random people, afterall, we'd just met ourselves and were already hitting it off.

I was taking a photo of all the people in 1930s period dress who were standing at the bar, when this gentleman told me that I should take a picture of him. Never being one to turn down the opportunity to take a portrait, I obliged. Charish and I got to talking to him and his cohort. The shit-kicking went on for a good 20 minutes, we were offered rides in their antique autos they had displayed.

On to our next stop: the Wells Fargo Museum,

where just for the day the actually Tommy Guns that were confiscated from the Dillinger gang were on display.

Then, being peckish, we meandered over to Barrio Anita for a very tasty burrito recommended by my cousin Shya.

YUM!

The walk back downtown was speckled with stops for "picture opportunities." Charish was just as into stopping as I was.

This was the back of a mailbox post, nothing like a little inspiration!

This is the Bike Church, constructed out of old rims and forks, spokes and frames. The sun shines thru the gels and casts colorful shadows around. I love public art.

Typical Tucson homefront.

Loosing track of time with all of our picture taking, Charish and I realize that we need to rush back to Hotel Congress to see the scheduled reenactment of the Dillinger Gang capture. We make it back just as it's starting but all the seats are taken and we're trying to see over heads and thru people. The acting was good and the staging was fun, but the not being able to see made the thought of a beer in the lounge much more appealing. So in we went. While sitting and people watching we were joined by a party of three next to us. We got to chatting, as we do, and missed our date with our antique car guys. Then we missed our date to see the movie Public Enemy. Then we got invited to dinner with our new friends and their family. Dinner was awesome, conversation tumbled from us all as we got to know one another.