December 15th
– December 17th 2013
It looks like most of the country is covered with snow –
I have to say it is nice to have high 60's and sun in the sky almost
all the time. We took scenic detour on the way from Phoenix to
Tucson. It is quite amazing how much space there is in Phoenix area.
The roads are wide and there are plenty of empty spaces. It is still
somewhat amazing how much greenery there is in here (I thought it is
desert). Sunday. The roads were pretty empty (nice and wide) and it was
going to be really nice day. Sun was up. We drove east some (towards
Globe) and then turned south to drive through the scenic copper
country. It was pretty nice and hilly drive. Nice nature. Really
trashy like trailer park settlements. Some nice house time to time.
In the area of town called Ray there was active copper mine (open
pit). It was very interesting look from the road, we also found their
dirt road to “visitor viewing area” and went there. It was huge
area of mining (according to posters it is about 1.5 miles long and 1
mile wide). Something different. Similar landscape. Biosphere 2 was
our next stop. It was a home to an experiment in 1991 and then became
research facility with different objectives. Currently it is owned by
University of Arizona. Isolated. Amazing architectural marvel. Tour.
We got there in time for 11:00 am tour. Short movie when
I realized that it was the experiment of 8 people being locked there
for two years that started this science endeavor. Rain forest. Ocean.
Desert. Basement with the technology stuff. “Lung” that
compensated for the air pressure fluctuation. Pretty cool. We also
saw the kitchen and some remaining places from the initial
experiment. Excellent visit. Continue along the road towards Tucson.
Mountains in the background. Newer “pop-up developments” in the
middle of nowhere. Big shopping malls. In a way strange area. Quick
drive through industrial area, ghetto area, and we ended up in the
downtown district where we looked for a parking for a while and
visited information center. So, so for usefulness. Walked to the 4th
street fair (apparently big one happening twice a year). Pleasant
walk, nothing special. 4th street – incredibly long line
of stands in the middle of the street. We walked most of it – art
and other trinkets, food, and a lot of sun. Pretty pleasant. A bit of
personal disagreement – took a while to get over that (life
happens, hopefully live and learn). Historic district – a bit
strange, older “Spanish style” houses but … hard to say. Back
to the car. We still had some daylight left so we drove to the
Sentinel Peak Mountain. Close to the town, a road to the top. Really
great view – we saw there is almost no downtown. Sprawl.
Surprisingly, again, a lot of greenery. And great views. Drive
towards the motel. Grocery store. Motel. End of the day.
It was somewhat breezy but sunny and nice. Monday
morning. We took city streets and left the populated area to visit
Mission San Xavier del Bac, lonely church plus some other buildings
on the side of the town. Next to it was the Indian nation building.
Nicely restored, interesting information, good visit. We saw quiet a
few areas of Tucson that are not so pretty. Sad. Back on interstate
19 and heading south (about 50 miles to Mexico). Very close to
freeway was our next stop – Titan Missile Museum. It used to be one
of 54 missile installations (1950s) housing Titan II nuclear bomb
missile. During Reagan's presidency all the complexes got destroyed
as a part of treaty between the US and the Soviet Union. Only this
one was left as a museum. We got private tour as there was no one
else wanting to tour this facility at 9.30 on Monday morning.
http://www.titanmissilemuseum.org
It was good place to visit, to see the test missile in the silo (over
100 feet long I think). They also described the destructive power of
the bomb (over 500 miles radius). Glad we stopped. More I-19. Funny
thing – the signs were in kilometers. Speed limit in miles. Along
the way we passed another funny thing (still on the freeway). There
was a structure (roof) and it was a border patrol check point. For
us, going south, there were about 6 cameras mounted on the rail next
the the road. Oh … security. Tubac – next stop. Smaller town and
state historic park. We walked through the park – pleasant weather,
interesting buildings, information, and displays. Few miles down the
road was Tumacacori National historic site. Remains of the mission.
In a way similar. http://azstateparks.com/Parks/TUPR/
In some way it is hard to describe all of that – one should see it.
Apparently (in Tubac) the number of visitors compared to last year is
really low (too bad). http://www.nps.gov/tuma/index.htm
Talking with the staff people (nice ones), we learned that there is
nothing to see in the borer town of Nogales so we did not drive
there. We made a loop and were heading back north towards Tucson. It
was pretty nice country (also pretty empty). There was few places
that we could do some more serious hiking (not really developed
areas) but we did not have either time nor desire to do that. We
stopped in town of Patagonia, small visitor center where we talked
with old lady who was working there (according to her it was cold and
she head a heater running). We had a lunch almost next door and it
was pretty good meal. The town looked a bit goofy and one would not
expect such a decent restaurant. Continue along the road. There was a
US border patrol checkpoint, we stopped (about 5 agents and one dog,
some cars, chairs, etc.) and were asked if we are citizens (answer
yes) and were let go. Somewhat earlier afternoon, we called Colossal
Cave Park and were told that we should be able to make it for a tour.
Drive. Park. Pay. Go. It was a guide and four of us (another older
couple). The caves were dormant (do not grow the rocks anymore) and
earlier people broke a lot of rock formations as a souvenirs.
Strange. It was pretty interesting, cool, and somewhat warm (71
degrees all the time). Great views when leaving. City of Tucson,
airplane “cemetery” (or more like storage field, apparently
housing over 4000 planes). The city is not the prettiest one. Short
walk in the park (were stiff and did not do much walking during the
day). Amazingly pretty pink sky. Nice end of the day.
Slow morning. I finally got better sleep. Breezy. Sunny. Some wind.
Another nice winter day in desert. Tuesday. (December
17th 2013). Side roads to the Arizona Sonora Desert
Museum. http://www.desertmuseum.org/
About 40 minutes drive. Outskirts of the city (not really pretty).
Scattered suburbs. Seems be a thing here – drive for a while from
the city and then built “pop-up” settlement (and probably drive
to the city to work). Saguaro forest – windy road in the desert. It
was pretty. The museum – we spent there almost four hours, desert
plants, some animals, raptors in the flight, birds, it was pretty
nice visit. There were too many children – it was noisy but again,
that might be life. Hard to describe all of it. We talked with one of
the volunteers about cacti. Very hard to get water from cactus to
drink. She (not born in Arizona) said that it gets hot and famous
“dry heat” is pretty much bull sh..t.
People are really nice and we got to talk to quite a few people on
our trips (and we have been here for less then three weeks). Short
drive to Saguaro National Park. We bought our annual parks pass and
drove part of the scenic loop. It was really scenic (and bumpy – it
was dirt road). There was saguaro as far as we could see – it was
great. We wanted to arrive “home” at reasonable time so we did
not do any walking this time. Continued along another dirt road and
later got to the interstate. Heading north to Phoenix. Pretty boring
drive. Quick stop at Costco (along the way). Some heavy traffic but
we could use commuter lane (2+) so it was not too bad. Home. Unpack.
Clean. Relax some. Pleasant evening.
