Monday 20th February – Musical instrument Museum

Phoenix had never really been on our radar as a place we needed to visit but as the road to Tucson was taking us right through it we read up on the City in our AAA tourbook and found a place that was perfect for both of us – The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM).  It also helps when the AAA book describes an attraction as a ‘gem’.  As we have to pick and choose our sightseeing, we basically don’t give the time of day to anything that isn’t a gem anymore!

Checking out for 11am this morning, it was a one-and-a-half-hour drive into North Phoenix to the Museum.  It didn’t come in cheap, at $20 each, but you get a headset to wear, that automatically plays music from the exhibit you are standing in front of. The guide warned to allow at least two hours for a visit.  We were there for three and a half!  Name a random instrument from outer Mongolia that you think no one’s ever heard of…. And they'll have it!  In fact, they have over 15,000 instruments in total.  Having watched an introductory video in the Orientation gallery and seen some rare examples of instruments we climbed the stairs to find galleries filled with hundreds more instruments from every corner of the globe, along with footage and audio of them being played.

A harp guitar.... of course

See below... a favourite exhibit!

A Xylophone.... of sorts

An example of the lay-out of the museum, you can see why it may take a while to see and hear everything

This instrument is played by running the stick across the ridges along the tiger's back.  Very decorative.

Having taken a couple of hours to wend our way through all these exhibits we were surprised to find a dedicated ‘Artists gallery’ downstairs with even more for us to enjoy (see below).  Then we got to try our hand with some bizarre instruments in the ‘Experience gallery’.  That was the loud end of the building!  It is ‘Presidents Day’ in the US today, so most people are on a Bank Holiday long weekend.  That probably explains why it seemed quite busy here today.

1952 Les Paul - one of the first 50 ever made

1934 Rickenbacher lap steel guitar, with amp - the first commercially successful electrified string instrument

I just put this in to show that 3 day tickets to Woodstock were only $18!!

These are the remains of Keith Moon's 'pictures of lily' drum kit that he famously detonated in 1967 during a TV show, along with Roger Daltrey's stage suit

One of the kettle drums played in the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony

A guitar that Elvis played during his last ever concert on June 26th 1977

You get the idea... there was A LOT to see in this museum!

For a change, we left before we were shown out by security at closing time because we had planned to drive a further hour or so on to Picacho Peak State Park for the night.  As we were running late we rang ahead, to find that all the hook-up sites were full, but we could dry-camp in the overflow area for $15.  That suited us perfectly!

We stopped briefly to admire a sunset view as we drove south through the dessert.  The scenery had changed dramatically today.  I can’t even specify the exact point.  But, before we got to Phoenix, as our elevation decreased, suddenly the green fir trees and grey mountains were replaced by red rocks and giant cacti:

You know, the proper cacti from the Western movies! As well as the cacti in the rest area we stopped in, bizarrely, there was a very funky marching band practising alongside the car park!

We spotted Picacho peak in the distance but by the time we reached the park it was completely dark.  A camp host gave us a map and pointed out where we needed to park, we put $15 cash into a self-pay envelope and set ourselves up for the night.  The night sky was incredible.  We turned all of the lights off and it was difficult for us to remember ever seeing more stars above our heads.