Tucson - Part Two

 Now where were we? Finishing lunch at Beyond Bread.

Before I go any further, I need to tell you how stupid I can be. I had done a grocery pick up that included two 25 lb bags of water softener salt. I needed to get those out of the trunk of my car so there is room for suitcases. I foolishly thought I could move those bags even though a part of my brain said DO NOT. I got my two wheeled cart out of the shed and I wrangled one bag into the cart. My back wasn't happy but I got the bag over to the softener unit and when I tried picking it up out of the cart, I knew I had done something wrong. I must have twisted wrong when lifting but I don't know. All I knew was, I had done damage to my back. The other bag of salt went to Tucson with us. I truly thought I was going to be okay, but my body didn't agree with me. Because of the pain, I had trouble standing and walking. I found a place to sit everywhere we went. I am a little better now, but I have a therapeutic massage scheduled for tomorrow to see if we can get some of those muscles to let go. Okay, enough of my stupidity.

We really enjoyed lunch but when we went outside it was raining. So what do we do? It was already almost 2:00 and a couple of the places we wanted to see closed early. There were a couple of shrines that I wanted to see and Pat and Marilyn were kind of stuck to go with me since I'm driving. They are such good sports. They are up for just about anything. Even visiting shrines in the rain. 

 Sometimes shrines are difficult to find and these were no different. We eventually found the parking area for the first one and it was full of city trucks working on something across the street. So I parked illegally but nobody seemed to care.

Garden of Gethsemane 

This is a small sculpture park containing art by Felix Lucero. He created the statues from river debris (concrete, sand and other stuff) as a promise to God after surviving WWI.  

 

The work started in 1945 and it still stands today even though there are several signs of vandalism and weather damage.

 

There are statues of Christ with his disciples at the Last Supper, on the cross and with the Holy Family.  

The second shrine was also hard to find (we ended up circling the block at least three times). Parking was on the street. But this shrine has a very interesting past. 

El Tiradito Wishing Shrine

This grotto may be the United State's only Catholic shrine dedicated to the memory of a sinner instead of a saint. 

 

The story according to Atlas Obscura -  The legend goes back to Tucson's Barrio Viejo inits early years when a ranch hand named Juan Oliveras engaged in an affair with an older woman (his mother-in-law). Oliveras was caught in the act and allegedly axed to death on the spot by the husband of his paramour, his own father-in-law. 

Oliveras's disconsolate lover-in-law, unable to bury him in consecrated ground due to the nature of their win, is supposed to have buried him near where he fell. Eventually a shrine sprung up in Oliveras's memory. The legend of "El Tiradito" (the little castaway) was born.

The shrine has evolved into a wishing shrine. People leave candles and little slips of papers filled with hopes and heartbreak.  Legend says that if a candle burns through the night, the wish will be granted. 

By now we were a little wet and chilled so it was time to go back to the hotel and relax and warm up. Pat and Marilyn had to decide where we were going to dinner. We ended up at IHOP which was right next door. 

More museums tomorrow.