Steinfeld Mansion--old town Tucson

Some of the locals...

Tucson, AZ: Another beautiful, sunny morning. It starts getting light around 4:00 a.m. So we’ve been getting up way earlier than we usually do. I stripped the bed and took the sheets over to the laundry room here to wash them. And they have the neatest thing here. There’s a little walled courtyard just off the laundry room where you can hang your clothes out to dry. How retro! So I hung the sheets out to dry. And they were dry in about half an hour. Love this place! Mike made arrangements to have the fifth wheel washed. So we’ll have a nice clean RV for a while. Headed out to pick up prescriptions, get the truck washed and have lunch. Then back and relaxed outside reading for a while. Even though it was 99, it felt quite comfortable in the shade of the awning—and there was a brisk wind. We also checked out another RV park close by. This one was quite a bit bigger and they had some luxury pull-through sites which were really nice. And those luxury sites are $740 per month versus the Keys which is $1450 per month. But we’ll go to the Keys for as long as we can. We leave tomorrow for Sedona, AZ.

Beautiful desert bloom

The gila woodpecker builds nests in the saguaro...

Temps inside are 20 degrees cooler in summer and 20 deg warmer in winter

Beep beep...

Tucson, AZ: Another beautiful, sunny morning. We did the laundry in the morning and then did some shopping. Bought a new shower head for our shower and a couple of other things. Then came back and checked out their winter rates and availability. This would be a good place to winter when we’re no longer able to go to the Keys. Spent most of the morning trying to figure out the new digital TV. We’re not on cable here, so the switch to digital affected us greatly. Once we figured it out it was a great improvement. Now all the local channels we get come in as good as cable. A great improvement. Hot dogs, three-bean salad, and watermelon for dinner. Think it hit 95 today.

Titan Missile

Main Altar

Mission San Xavier

Tucson, AZ: This morning was bright and sunny again. Clouds formed in the afternoon but cleared off again. We’ve really lucked out here since the temperatures have been below average for this time of year. We decided to go see the Titan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, AZ. This is the only missile site where you can go inside. It was really quite interesting. There were three sites in the area and were active during the cold war. They all carried a nuclear warhead. We actually went through a firing sequence to see what it would have been like. We were so close to the Mexican border here (about 30 miles) at Nogales. This was where we planned to cross if and when we went into Mexico. I really wanted to go but our passports were back in the RV and we would have had to do the money exchange and get insurance, etc. So we didn’t. On the way back we stopped at the San Xavier Mission which is a treasure. It was founded by the Jesuit missionary Fr. Kino in 1692. Building started in 1783 and was completed in 1797. What a beautiful place! And it’s still a parish for the Tohono O’odham and still in use today. They’re in the process of a restoration. There were some people cooking in a crude little shelter and we both got what they called flat tacos. Nothing like any taco I’ve ever had. They fry this flat, round bread which fills a plate and then they put whatever you want on top—beans, chilies, tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese. The fried bread is more like a pastry. Really delicious. Back home—stopping at Walgreens on the way to get some prescriptions filled. Went up to about 95 today. 7% humidity. Life is good.

Tiny little hummingbird

Lobo of the Desert

Kestrel

On the Road over Gates Pass

Pima County Courthouse

Downtown Tucson

Downtown Tucson

Tucson, AZ: Was supposed to be cloudy for a few days, but this morning dawned bright and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. We decided to go to the Museum of the Desert today and set out around 10:30. It’s only about 10 miles up the road. This museum is an outside venue and very different. It’s a combination zoo, wilderness area with nature trails, and an arboretum. Very different. And we found out that Arizona has more species of rattlesnakes than any other state. The terrain here is perfect rattlesnake habitat. After the museum we drove over the Tucson Mountains on Gates Pass Road. It’s a beautiful drive through the mountains and into downtown Tucson. I really liked Tucson. It’s a small downtown area and very clean with varied architecture. We parked on Main Street in Old Tucson and walked around for a while. Then walked over to a pretty plaza around the Pima County Courthouse and bought a couple of hot dogs from a vendor. After lunch we drove back over the pass and back home. Donned our bathing suits and hit the pool. Felt really good. Salads for dinner tonight. Hit 95 today in down Tucson, but 90 where we are across the mountains.

Telegraph Station

Old Tucson Movie Studio

Rio Lobo River

Little train station

Tucson, AZ: High clouds this morning. Mike left early for the GMC dealer and I sat outside reading for a while. It actually started sprinkling and continued for an hour or so. The local news has been talking about the “monsoon season” which should start shortly. I thought—monsoon? We’re in the desert. But I guess the arroyos and washes and dried up creek beds will be full shortly. I think we leave before that and head north. When Mike came back we decided to go to “Old Tucson” which I thought was an old, historic part of Tucson, but it’s actually a movie set. It was built in 1939 for the movie “Arizona” and they wanted an authentic Tucson at about the mid-1800s. Hundreds of westerns have been made here since. All the Rio Lobo John Wayne movies, Judge Roy Bean, and the last two seasons of Little House on the Prairie were filmed here plus hundreds of others.. It’s in the middle of the desert—only about 10 miles from where we’re staying—and has beautiful mountains all around. After touring that we went and picked up a few groceries and put those away and sat outside enjoying the afternoon. The wind really picked up and blew pretty good for a while. It felt good and the clouds kept it cooler than normal. Think it hit 95 today. Very light dinner tonight since we both had ice cream cones at Old Tucson.

Saguaro National Park

Tucson, AZ

Close-up of saguaro bloom

Petroglyphs

(over 800 years old)

Tucson, AZ: Morning comes early here. We’re on the eastern edge of the Pacific Time Zone, so it was sunny and the birds were singing way early. We were up before 6:00 a.m. Smoothies for breakfast and then Mike was off to the GMC dealer to get the truck checked out. I sat outside and read for a while and then walked around and checked out some of the park models. A really cute place. Came back and washed out a few things and then started cutting up the strawberries we bought a few days ago when Mike returned. Said they hooked the truck up to the computer and there were a slew of error messages. Told him to return tomorrow around 8:00 and it would take a couple of hours to check out. Anyway, we decided to drive up to the Saguaro National Park which is only about 10 miles from where we’re staying. This area is in the Sonoran Desert. This is one of the hottest and driest places on the continent. Even though it is so hot, dry, and intimidating, it contains an enormous diversity of life. And the saguaro (soo-wah-ro) cacti are everywhere here. They don’t even start to get “arms” until they’re 75 years old. So, the large ones in the park are probably over 200 years old! And they are in bloom right now. We walked a couple of small desert trails and then drove a dirt road over the mountains and then back to the main road. Had to go back to town and fuel up since we were close to empty. Had a late lunch and then drove back to hike the little trail to check out the petroglyphs etched in the rocks by the ancient Hohokam people. It is believed these petroglyphs are over 800 years old. The sign at the beginning of the trail said to be careful for rattle snakes, scorpions, gila monsters, and tarantulas. Enjoy your hike. But it was 99 degrees when we did it so I’m sure they were all under ground. We didn’t stay out there long. Back home and relaxed the rest of the evening.

Texas Canyon

This cactus looks fuzzy, but they are 2" spines

Club House

(right across from our site)

Our Site

Sun, 6/7/09:

Silver City, NM, to Tucson, AZ: Left Silver City at 8:45 this morning. We wanted to get out of there before the wind picked up. The wind was horrible last night. I started driving. Took Rt. 90 to I10 through pretty desert foothills. Thought we’d stop for breakfast somewhere on I10 but nothing available until Benson. Not a whole lot of habitation out there. Vegetation is more plentiful which surprised us. And the cacti are different than what we saw in Silver City. And they’re just starting to bloom. We stopped at a rest area at beautiful Texas Canyon. This is an unusual boulder field where huge boulders are in unusual formations—looked like they were placed there, some of them teetering on the brink. The RV Park we’re staying at in Tucson is wonderful. It’s at the foot of the mountains and is a large community of mostly park models with a few RV sites. They have a beautiful rec hall and pool, a professional kitchen, a billiard room, game room, etc. A lot of people winter here. We got set up and then I did a thorough cleaning. Finished and walked around checking things out. We were told when walking at night to always have a flashlight. The rattlesnakes sometimes come out on the road at night. And scorpions. They remove the snakes—against the law to kill them. 88 and sunny in Tucson.