Arizona State Park, Abuelo’s & Jet Yard

My first time seeing a car driven without a human driver, nope not for me!

This was the best Mexican food we have ever had. The service was fantastic too!

It was so colorful inside.


This was the appetizers and a delicious drink.

My happy husband.

They serve SO much food.

Next up is Arizona State Park.

Every day was blue skies. I don’t know how we picked the perfect time to go.

We were talking to the rangers and they said the rock formation above reminds them of a sleeping lion, I agree!

Do you see the bird on the cactus?


Birds like to make their home in the cactus. Inside the cactus keeps them warm when it gets cold outside and cool when it’s hot.

The gift shop greeter.

A metal cactus inside the restroom at the state park gift shop.

My husband bought one of these rocks in the gift shop for my daughter. I bought cactus honey and a fry bread mix. We both had a drumstick (ice cream) as we sat on a bench and enjoyed the view.

I saw this from the highway and had to see it up close. Jet Yard is where jets go when they are finished flying, a graveyard for jets. They take the dead jets and bring them back to life in several different ways. There are private and commercial jets here.

There were hundreds of jets.

If you go to www.jetyard.com you will see everything they do with these jets, such as using the front for flight simulators, I found their website fascinating. They used a drone so we could see everything they do.

In the bottom right corner you can see a worker.

They were working on the jet on the left as the door is open.
Next Wednesday I will share two more delicious restaurants and pictures from the Riverwalk in San Antonio Texas.
http://www.InDianesKitchen.com
Categories: Vacation

Ao much to take in
It really was a lot of traveling but we took it slow and enjoyed the ride.
You have found the most interesting places on this sojourn, including the jet yard for planes!
I saw the Jet Yard while my husband was driving on a main road. I said we have to see if we can get in to see it, no such luck. I had my husband drive up as close as we could get and still found it fascinating. What a great way to recycle!
Wow, this scenery is so awesome. Fascinating to see how the birds make their homes inside the cactus’ like that as well. That Fort looked amazing as well, the food portions looks so generous too. Made me feel hungry!
Thank you Paul, every stop we made was beautiful along with huge portions of food.
You had a great vacation! I’ve been to Arizona twice and loved it. Thanks for sharing your adventures.
We were definitely blessed, nothing but blue sky, great temperatures and no dust storms, floods or tornadoes. You’re welcome Georgetta!
I’m jealous for that big plate of Mexican food. Also did you get one of those weed eaters for your garden 🪴. Glad you guys are having fun!! 🤩
The food was as wonderful as the service. They just kept bringing food! No I didn’t get a weed eater for my garden, I’m married to my weed eater. 🤣
😂😜😂
Diane, this was an interesting post! Just yesterday, I saw a car driven without a human for the first time! My husband didn’t like it, but I disagree. I’d bet – overall – they are safer drivers than humans. No texting. No putting on make up. No drunk driving. No tired driving. No aggressive driving. I could go on and on. Next topic. 🙂 The state park was beautiful! And I have to wonder – how a bird can get inside a cactus! Very carefully, I’d say! The jet graveyard was interesting. I wonder if they do that with all RV’s, too! Thanks for your post, Diane, and I look forward to the next one!
If you would have seen how fast that car took off and started you may change your mind. That was the only reason it caught our attention. But I do see your point with texting, eating, makeup etc, it definitely would stop accidents. I wondered how the birds even sit on top of the cactus. I can’t believe the birds don’t kill the cactus with all those holes.
Where was the desert park you went to ? I grew up in AZ and never heard of it. I tried searching for it online and it didnt come up there either?
Great photos!
It was at Picacho Peak State Park Katelon. Thank you it was hard to take a bad picture with all the beautiful sites.
So many cactuses! (Cacti?) I love the little garden monsters.
I loved all the cactus Linda and it was so fun to finally walk in a desert. My daughter is a nurse practitioner and works 7 days a week (her choice). She has trouble keeping up with the weeds so the monster was meant as a joke.
How interesting to learn that birds can live inside a cactus! I could see the protection it provides!
Arizona State Park is wonderful. Such beautiful scenery. And Abuelos looked like a delicious visit!!
I learned so much about cactus on this trip. Everyone is different and I couldn’t believe how old they get. One more big stop at San Antonio’s Riverwalk!
Look forward to reading about it!
The Mexican food looked fantastic! I liked the cactuses and the information about the birds going into the holes of the cactus to weather the elements which was interesting too Diane. You have to wonder how those cacti can survive for so many years, with so little rain. Speaking of rain, you did pick a great time to go visit with blue skies the entire time! That’s fascinating about the jet graveyard – couldn’t they repurpose them for parts?
Yes the jet parts are repurposed, I thought using the front end for flight simulators was brilliant. We were so lucky that every restaurant was so delicious and we had perfect weather.
That’s good they repurpose the jet parts. You were lucky to have perfect weather for traveling the entire time and delicious food as well.
When we went to Alaska it was just as perfect weather. I get boat sick and it was so calm the entire time while cruising and I never felt sick once.
That’s good because you could have had some rough weather and that would have ruined some days of your trip.
I love the look on your husband’s face. No wonder he was so happy–his meal looked delicious!
That was a rare trip to a Mexican restaurant. There isn’t any near us that I like but he wanted to go and I said I will find something to eat. I ended up loving the food and was very happy we went there.
Yeah cars should be driven by someone in my opinion. Mexican food is my favorite. That looks so good. 🤤 That bird looked tiny compared to the cactus and that’s in a picture I could only imagine how much smaller it looked in person.
That picture was at the State Park and the cactuses were huge!
Ok, now I am really hungry for some reason…
I love the cactuses! They are magical and mysterious plants!
It was a fantastic restaurant, I wish we had one where we live. I agree about the cactus, there is more than 2,000 varieties!
I see why your hubby was happy! Great pictures of everything. I went to jet junk yard somewhere in California with my husband once. Very interesting!
I wish we could have gone inside the gates and talked to someone. I don’t know about using the parts on a different jet. Well I guess if I wasn’t flying in the used part jet it would be ok. 😉
I agree, I definitely would not want to be a passenger in a self-driving car! Your husband looks very happy with his plate of food (I would be too 😁). You were really lucky with the weather – perfect conditions to see all those beautiful cacti! Cactus honey? Do let us know how it tastes!
It was a perfect trip and the beautiful weather and delicious food had a lot to do with it. The honey is light and sweet with a fruit like taste and was very good! They say the pear cactus can be eaten as long as you scrape off the spines, I didn’t have the opportunity to try that.
You had great weather. I find the driverless cars kind of creepy lol what a wonderful trip you had.
Thank you Susan, it was so relaxing. We have never drove and not had any hotels booked. I’m sure this wouldn’t work on most vacations but this one was perfect for doing it. The weather was gorgeous, especially after seeing the dust storms, flooding and tornadoes that happened after we returned home.
Wow you went and got back home at the right time! We usually never make reservations either, we are usually pretty lucky
It sure took the pressure off of us. I wasn’t sure I could physically do everything we wanted to do so that’s why we didn’t book the hotels. God was looking over us on this trip as nothing went wrong.
The Weed Eater Garden Monsters are so cool-looking, Diane. I bet your daughter enjoyed her gift. The Cactus Honey sounds intriguing as well. Cars without human drivers…no, not ready for that yet! Loved the photos!
The Weed Eater Garden Monsters cracked my daughter up. Thank you for your nice comment Bruce!
The Arizona State Park is one place that I’ve not been. So many cacti. I had no idea that was a Jet Yard for retired jets. Fascinating.
The state park wasn’t very big and there was a campsite but not too many spots available. They were working on the campground and the bathrooms looked brand new. I was disappointed we couldn’t go inside the jet graveyard. So I made my husband stop on the road so I could take pictures.
It’s fascinating. You know I had to google it to read more. 🤷♀️
Did you take the drone tour through the yard? I think it was from a California graveyard, I thought that was fascinating.
I watched the video on their site, and read some other stuff on google.