Simanaitis Says
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AN ARMCHAIR TOUR OF ARIZONA, THANKS TO THE COPPERSTATE 1000
A FRIEND who lives outside the U.S. asked me about the state of Arizona. She has never visited there, so I thought I would share some photos and memories of Wife Dottie and me on the Copperstate 1000 old car rally. You’re welcome to come along too. Most of these photos date from the mid-1990s, but the beautiful views are still there. And classic cars remain classics too.
Other Arizona topics at this website include “Morgan on the Copperstate” and “Copperstate Lore.”
The rallies benefit the Phoenix Art Museum, with start and finish in this Arizona city, usually in the month of April. A different route is followed each year, with Route Cards stamped at checkpoints along the way.
Grand Canyon, in north central Arizona, is a famous destination.
Sedona is known for its red sandstone formations. And, occasionally, dusty roads. That’s Wife Dottie admiring the scenery in the Morgan Plus Four Four-Passenger Family Tourer.
Parts of Arizona are cowboy country. Cows grow big there, but not this big. The car is a friend’s Lotus Elite. One of the towns in eastern Arizona is called Showlow, named after a cowboy card game, a variation of poker.
A southern route out of Phoenix has a lot of desert. We have a cactus like this in our California front yard. The mission of San Xavier del Bac, near Tucson, was established in 1692.
The Kitt Peak National Observatory, 56 miles southwest of Tucson, is perched high on a mountain. The air is very clear, which is great for viewing the stars.
Even in April, some parts of Arizona may still have snow. One year, traveling northeast of Phoenix, we had a lot. That’s our Morgan, with its side curtains in place to help us keep warm. (The Morgan has no heater.)
Some parts of Arizona are mountainous. Other parts are vast and open.
One year, the Copperstate 1000 traveled north to the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River. The dam forms Lake Powell. As an evening treat, everyone on the rally took a boat to a cove on Lake Powell and had dinner there.
We have traveled east, west, north and south of Phoenix on the Copperstate 1000, most often in our Morgan. The car even took us to Bagdad, this one known for its copper mining in west-central Arizona. It’s different from the Bagdad of the movie Bagdad Café; that one is in California’s Mojave Desert.
The first year of the Copperstate 1000, our friend Spence lent us his Morgan. Like other English cars, this one has right-hand drive. The picture was taken at Salt River Canyon, northeast of Phoenix.
Arizona offers amazing variety for touring. Wife Dottie’s nephew Davy and his wife just moved to Arizona. I trust they will visit some of these places soon. And I hope our friend who asked about Arizona gets to see these places too. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2015
Simanaitis Says 
Thank you for sharing this with us, Dennis! Amazing photos!
Many thanks for your kind words, Henry. Agreed, the scenery is amazing.
Nice article but I didn’t see any snow tires in your Morgan…..
Nor, you’ll note, a heater.
While our heater fan box is still installed, the rest is disconnected; less plumbling to leak. Find it odd that newer ‘Roadster’ had an a/c option. I thought that was putting the top down.