R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 52

Beretta Week — 21A “Bobcat” from 1986

Beretta Week Family Portrait

Time to move on to something considerably smaller than the .380 ACP/9mm kurz Beretta 84B Cheetah depicted above to the left. That brings us to the second of this week’s Beretta Week entries — the Beretta 21A “Bobcat.” The firearm you see here was manufactured in 1986 at Beretta’s former Accokeek, Maryland facility. As production of the Model 21A began in the U.S. in 1984, that would make this pistol a very early example. Today, the 21A Bobcat is made at Beretta’s ...

Beretta Week — 84B “Cheetah” from 1982

Beretta Family Portrait of this week’s subjects

Next week I start a new travel series, but in the meantime, this is Beretta Week. Can you guess from the image above what’s on tap today, Wednesday, and this week’s Fun Firearm Friday? Hint number one: Although it looks similar to the larger and much more famous Beretta 92, the firearm on the left is a smaller blowback pistol chambered in .380 ACP/9mm kurz. Give up? Well, then, the one on the left is a Beretta 84 Cheetah. Specifically, the fi...

Fun Photo Friday — Favorites from The Pink Store and local desert flowers

Two Day of the Dead Freddy Mercurys (bottom shelf)

Palomas, Mexico; More on The Pink Store

Pottery at The Pink Store

The last several times we’ve visited The Pink Store there is one particular sculpture that has really intrigued me, but we have no place large enough to display it. This sculpture is large, carved from wood, and meticulously painted in rich detail and color on both sides. It’s another depiction of Saint Michael:

Saint Michael statue (front) with scales and a sword Saint Michael statue (back)

Need a table that will attract as much attention as any art you might...

Palomas, Mexico; The Art of The Pink Store

You’ll recall that this series on The Pink Store will also feature some recent El Paso sunset and desert flowers. The above photo gets one of those two out of the way for today. I’ll feature later today a photo of a cactus in our front yard that blooms but once a year, and 25 April was this year’s date. But for now we’re looking at The Pink Store, and today’s focus will be on works of art you can find there. For instance, the photo below contains a carved wooden niche with a colorful depicti...

Fun Food Friday — Delightful Mexican lunch at The Pink Store

The Pink Store restaurant

The Pink Store is a place to go for arts and crafts, tequila, mescal, and a whole lot more. Want a drink? There’s a full-service bar with some of the best, and strongest, margaritas on the planet:

The Pink Store’s bar

On this visit, made on 19 April of this year, we brought along two cruise buddies whom, quite by accident, we found live right here in El Paso. We met on an Alaska cruise last year (Part 1 of cruising Alaska off-season here: Cruising in the Age of ...

Palomas, Mexico; Roaming The Pink Store

The Pink Store

Day of the Dead isn’t the only thing celebrated at The Pink Store. And not everything here is on the kitschy side. Far from it. Most of the merchandise here is high-end. Owners Ivonne and Sergio Romero make frequent trips deep into Mexico to search out quality items from some well-known artists and craftsmen. Here are examples of statuary and artisan pottery:

The Pink Store

Is furniture more to your liking? Well, then, take a look at this:

The Pink Store

More pottery,...

Palomas, Mexico; A Return to The Pink Store

The (new) Pink Store (2022) in Palomas, Mexico

I‘m going into coast mode over the next two weeks. That’s for several reasons. First, I just struggled to complete thirty-four articles in rapid order for prescheduled publication. Second, by the time you read this, I’ll have just returned from seventy-one days away, which is why I needed over ten weeks’ worth of blog articles. So, I’m also preparing this two-week series in advance so that I can recover. And, thirdly, it’s been nine years since I...

Seventy-One Days Away, But Now We’re Back

Our latest jaunt began April 27 with a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and it ended 71 days later with a flight from Los Angeles, California to El Paso, Texas. Along the way we took a transatlantic cruise to Spain, a back-to-back follow-on cruise in the Mediterranean to destinations in both France and Spain, a four-night stay in Germany, two nights in the Netherlands, and then three 12-night back-to-back cruises before flying back for a night in Los Angeles.

The Transatlantic adventure ab...

Fun Photo Friday — Southern Caribbean; Dominica Favorites 2

Grandeur Framed by Vendor Huts

This week’s Fun Photo Friday concludes both our visit to Dominica and this series on cruising the Southern Caribbean. Next week I’ll present something a bit closer to home, but which is a lot of fun.

Enjoy Dominica! Pelican Taking a Break Fishes Making Wishes? The “Grandeur” of a Dominica View

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)