Friday Jan 12, 2024 - Gilbert Ray Campground day 2

We slept an embarrassing amount of hours (at least I did). The van is so comfy, this always happens. Breakfast at Dave and Deb’s with scrambled eggs and chorizo on tortillas. Today we had bought tickets to see the Van Gogh Immersion Experience, located just north of Tucson in Oro Valley. Deb N had already seen it in San Diego, so she opted to stay back at the campsite  with their two dogs, Benny and Cote. After a morning walk and lunch, the rest of us loaded into Dave’s truck and made the hour drive to Oro Valley. Dave knows the town pretty well being a local boy, and Google Maps filled in all the details.

The Van Gogh thing was pretty amazing. It’s in a big building with the first part explaining his background and details about his family. Like most famous artists, he enjoyed none of the success while he was alive. His siblings thought it was a neat hobby and one sister was a booster of his art after he died by suicide at 37. He was also color blind, which is why his paintings were unique. He was introduced along the way to some Japanese art which influenced his style. The highlight was a giant room with what must have been dozens of projectors all stitched together to show a moving Van Gogh art show. Hard to explain but pretty amazing. You sit in a deck chair and just get immersed in Van Gogh floor to ceiling, wall to wall. 

It was a sunny afternoon drive back to the campground, with more chatting around the fire. Deb N served us a delicious homemade vegetable beef soup and cornbread, which we ate around the table.