Tucson to Phoenix to Flagstaff

Karen and Dennis' nice pool!

Karen, Aunt Dorothy and Ken

On Wednesday, Karen, Ken and I visited Karen's mom, Dorothy. We saw her beautiful apartment complex and lovely apartment before heading to dinner. Ken enjoyed catching up with his aunt after so many years (probably 20!), and I really enjoyed meeting and chatting with her. After dinner, Karen, Ken and I did some grocery shopping before heading back to her house.

Allison and the kiddos

On Thursday morning we spent a couple of hours chatting with Karen and Dennis and Andy before we left. We also said our goodbyes to Allison and the kiddos, Noah, Lincoln and Liberty. What a great time we had enjoying their company and hospitality...we will certainly miss them and Karen and Emory as we continue our trip.

Ken, Karen and Dennis

We headed north out of Tucson on our way to Phoenix to visit Ken's nephew, Stephen and his wife, Cathy, as well as Stephen's mom, Norma. We spent a relaxing day and a half chatting with the three of them and petting their 4 adorable dogs. But we forgot to get pictures!

Woody Mountain Campground
security

On Saturday, after a fantastic breakfast with Stephen, Cathy and Norma, we headed out towards Flagstaff, where we set up camp at Woody Mountain Campground, a pretty place with very tall Ponderosa pine trees. Our neighbors, Joe and Yumi, welcomed us and we swapped stories with them about where we all had traveled from and what we enjoyed seeing along the way. They also gave us some tips about some of the sights north of Flagstaff (locally just called Flag), before Ken and I ventured into the little downtown area.

First, we found a great restaurant, Galaxy Diner, where we dined on a meatloaf sandwich and a turkey reuben. Yum. Double yum. The diner is perfectly located on Historic Route 66 and it offers traditional diner fare in a 50's themed setting. The walls were plastered with pictures of Marilyn, James Dean, Audrey Hepburn and others. It was very charming. We would have ordered an old-fashioned shake, but we were stuffed.

Flagstaff Visitor Center and Amtrak Station

We found the visitor center in the old train station and were immediately inundated with brochures and suggestions from Jenny, one of the friendliest and most helpful visitor center guides we've so far met. She pointed us first in the direction of the historic section of Flagstaff, and also gave us a mountain of information about sights to see within a two hour radius around the town. Jenny was also nice enough to give us a bunch of restaurant recommendations.

Mixed message protesters

We quickly found a parking spot in the historic section and began walking around, ducking into little shops here and there. As we came back toward the center of town, we encountered a civil protest march through the downtown streets complete with police escorts at the front and back of a several hundred person parade. The protesters were marching for an enormous variety of causes...human rights, civil rights, domestic violence, censorship, racial profiling, border issues, water conservation and on and on. Focus, people, focus. Since they were snaking their way through short blocks of the downtown, we were hamstrung several times trying to make our way out.

We retired to the coach for dinner and to plan our next several days of adventures.

Kitt Peak and the Tucson Padres!

Tohono O'odham Wheel at Kitt Peak

2.1M Telescope at Kitt Peak

On Tuesday, Ken and I drove out to Kitt Peak National Observatory, about an hour and a half from Tucson. Kitt Peak is at almost 7,000 feet in altitude, so the last 12 miles of the journey were up the side of the mountain. The Tohono O'odham Reservation includes Kitt Peak and an area around it roughly equal to the size of the state of Connecticut (about 3 million acres, of which Kitt Peak is only 200), but with only 25,000 or so residents.

When the observatory was first established in 1958, the Tohono O'odham elders agreed that it could be built on the mountain only under certain conditions: that no military presence be allowed, no commercial presence (other than the museum gift shop) be allowed, that the Indians be permitted to sell their traditional crafts in the gift shop, that the observatory purchase electricity from the reservation, and that they be given hiring preference for jobs there.

View of Kitt Peak from
4.0M Telescope Viewing Gallery

The national observatory selected this site due to its proximity to a medium-sized city (Tucson), its elevation, its distance from light pollution and the scarcity of residents living nearby. It is a beautiful mountain, held sacred by the Tohono O'odham Nation and the site is on perpetual lease so long as research facilities exist on it. It now serves universities and researchers from all over the country conducting projects either on site or, in some cases, remotely using several of the smaller telescopes.

Inside the Solar Telescope

Ken and I started with the 10am tour of the Solar Telescope, a 100 foot tall tower with a 500 foot long shaft pointing at celestial north (an imaginary point in space near the star, Polaris). The solar telescope allows researchers to closely study our sun and warn of potential communications disruptions caused by solar flares and storms. We were invited to look through two different small telescopes, one showing sun spots and the other showing protuberances around the edge of the sun. The guide mentioned that the protuberances were between 5,000 and 10,000 miles tall each, extending off the sun's surface. Fascinating!

4.0M Telescope at Kitt Peak

After that, we took the 11:30am tour of the 2.1M Telescope, a more traditional telescope (though very large) under a huge dome. We learned about some of the projects the telescope has been used for as well as how it rotates and leans to be pointed at a specific spot in the night sky.

After a picnic lunch where we were closely watched by three blue birds looking for snacks, we walked over to the 4.0M Telescope, an even larger version of the 2.1M one. The views from the viewing gallery of the telescope's tower were fantastic.

Once we got back to Dennis and Karen's house, Sumo insisted on standing on the different cacti around their property. He stood on the arm of a saguaro, in the middle of a century cactus and on two different barrel cacti. What a nut.

Sumo Trying Out for the Padres

Later on, we met Emory and Karen for dinner at Chopstix, a local restaurant offering several different Asian cuisines. It was very good!

We headed over to the Kino Sports Complex to watch the Tucson Padres take on the Salt Lake Bees in a AAA baseball game. The stadium, though not well populated, was very pretty and we enjoyed nice seats (for free!) along the first baseline. We had a great time chatting and watching the game with Emory and Karen until the middle of the 8th inning when we threw in the towel...the Padres were down by 10 runs. Still, we had a great time!

What a wonderful day!

Some art, some churches, some heartburn...

Entrance to the DeGrazia Studio

On Monday, Emory's wife, Karen, met us to go touring all day! We started with a famous art gallery Dennis recommended we see. Ettore 'Ted' DeGrazia, born in 1909, built his Gallery in the Sun on a 10 acre spot in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains northeast of Tucson. He opened the structure in 1965, built of adobe bricks crafted on-site. It is now a gallery to his artwork and includes thousands of his original oil paintings, watercolors, ceramics and sculptures. DeGrazia painted colorful pictures of native peoples from the Sonoran desert and many of his pieces feature children or animals. We walked around the gallery and took in six different collections of his work, each focused around a subject of particular interest to him.

Mission in the Sun
at the DeGrazia Studio

Outside the studio, the campus around the gallery offers picnic tables under traditional ramadas (a cross between a lean-to and a carport made of old sticks), as well as two other beautiful adobe buildings. One of them has been used for visiting artists' collections since his death in 1982, but was formerly DeGrazia's little gallery before he built the larger one. The other is the Mission in the Sun, built in 1952, in honor of Father Kino, a Jesuit priest who established 27 missions in present-day Arizona and northern Mexico beginning in 1692. Kino was loved by the Pima Indians of the region because he was a kind and caring man of peace who brought an uncommon humanity to them despite the harsh Spanish rule of the day. The little chapel has rock floors, an open ceiling and thick adobe walls adorned with DeGrazia's paintings.

Pat's Chili Dogs in Tucson

From there, we headed to lunch at another Tucson institution...Pat's Chili Dogs. This place is a bare-bones drive-in lunch counter, doing a swift cash-only business since 1967. They offer chili dogs and french fries and very little else. We ordered the family pack: 4 chili dogs and a box of fries the size of a shoebox (well, almost that big). The dogs were very tasty. Ken went for the two spicy ones and Karen and I each had a mild dog. Yum. The fresh-cut, skin-on fries were great for the first few inches, but as they cooled off, they congealed into a big lump. Heart attack in a bag...so good.

Dome ceiling of
Mission San Xavier

After lunch we drove down to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, established by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino, in honor of whom DeGrazia had built his little chapel. The San Xavier Mission (locally pronounced san-uh-VEER) was founded in 1692, though the current church wasn't built until 1783.

Mission San Xavier del Bac

The church continues to serve local parishioners and much of the church has been restored. It is absolutely beautiful and is also known as the White Dove of the Desert. The interior of the chapel is extremely ornate with elaborate carvings and sculptures in the three altar sections at the front.

Ruins of the Tumacacori Mission

We continued on to Tumacacori, another mission established by Father Kino, though we found this one in sad shape compared to the San Xavier Mission. Founded in 1691 and abandoned in 1848, Tumacacori saw years of difficulty and hardship. After frequent attacks by Apaches, relentless disease, encroaching settlers and lack of governmental support, only 100 Indians remained at the mission by 1786. By 1828, when Mexico ordered all Spanish-born residents to leave the country, the last resident Franciscan priest left. The remaining Indians and a few settlers hung on for 20 more years, but the harsh 1848 winter finally drove them out.

Old Mortuary Chapel in the graveyard of Tumacacori

Subsequently, Tumacacori's graveyard, once the site of over 500 graves with a mortuary chapel in the center, was used as a cattle pen. All the graves were destroyed. The mission's main chapel's wood-beamed ceiling was pilfered to build local homes, exposing the once beautifully painted interior to 60 years of weather and neglect until it was taken over by the National Park Service in 1916. The bell tower was never completed. We found the grounds of the church filled with workers and construction cones building sidewalks for visitors, and though there are no plans for restoration of any of the buildings, a roof was added to the chapel to prevent further weather damage.

After visiting the missions, we headed to the Desert Diamond Casino for some debauchery to round out our day at the churches. Just kidding. We met Dennis, Karen, Emory, and Dennis' dad, Andy, for dinner at the seafood buffet there. We all enjoyed the all-you-can-eat crab legs, a whole host of other seafood items and waaaay too much dessert. It was great!

What a fantastic day touring with Karen!

Biosphere 2...a tiny Planet Earth

On Sunday, the 22nd, we drove to Biosphere 2, north of Tucson. The Biosphere 2 is a gigantic environmental research facility, currently run by the University of Arizona. It is one of the largest living laboratories in the world, situated on more than 250 acres in the Sonoran Desert.

Water and Life Experiment Building

Between 1991 and 1993, eight researchers (4 men and 4 women) were locked in the Biosphere 2 facility to evaluate the sustainability of living in a completely self-contained environment. They were responsible for growing and harvesting all of their crops, maintaining all the equipment needed to run the 3.14 acre facility, caring for chickens, goats and sheep, and troubleshooting problems within the structure. Though they could consult with outside engineers by telephone and internet, no one came into the Biosphere 2 during the 2 year project for any reason.

At the end of the project, the only real issue was the inability of the researchers to meet their caloric needs considering the sheer volume of manual labor they did every day. They averaged over 60 work hours a week, and every one of them lost a significant amount of weight by the end of the project, though all were extremely healthy. Their diet was overwhelmingly vegetarian, with a small amount of meat only once a week, because they could only eat and drink what they could produce inside the Biosphere 2. (We heard they made banana wine, because grapes didn't grow very well.)

Fog Desert Biome with tour guide, Carol

We toured the 6 biomes of earth's 7 natural biomes inside of Biosphere 2...the Rainforest, the Ocean, the Desert, the Grasslands, the Thornscrub and the Mangrove Wetlands, with only the frozen tundra not represented here. By manually changing the temperature, wind (both speed and direction), 'rainfall', and other climactic elements, researchers can evaluate the impact that these changes have on the plants of each biome. For instance, they can produce a drought in the rainforest, an usually warm summer in the grasslands, or hurricane force winds in the wetlands.

Ocean Biome with Mangrove Wetlands beyond

Currently, scientists can make changes in one biome without impacting the others, but when the 8 researchers were locked into Biosphere 2 in the early 90's, all the biomes connected to one another, causing a cascading effect in the other biomes when one or more elements changed in one of them. Now there are thick plastic curtains to divide the biomes from each other so scientists can study the impacts more closely without inadvertently affecting other researchers' projects.

Falaj at Biosphere 2

Our friendly tour guide, Carol, took us through each of the sections of the building and explained some of the current research going on in each area. It was really interesting!

Once the tour led us outside, we saw a  new installation of desert roof gardens, the arid version of a common urban roof garden in more humid climates. We also saw a new falaj, an ancient method of water distribution used in the deserts of the Middle East for centuries. The falaj extracts water from a mountain and then channels it to a village in a certain priority based on use and need, with the drinking water as first priority, ceremonial use second, and so on. Besides being an ingenious method of distributing water, the falaj is architecturally pretty, too.

Biosphere 2

After the guided tour ended, we walked back to see where the eight researchers lived during the experiment in the early 90s. We saw the living area of one of their small apartment spaces and the large communal kitchen. We watched a short video on the division of kitchen labor and some of their comments about the successes of living in Biosphere 2 as well as some of the difficulties.

We had a great time touring the Biosphere 2 (the first biosphere is Planet Earth). We headed back to Dennis and Karen's house to relax by the pool and cool off from the oppressively hot day.

What a fun day!

Sonora Desert Museum...with prairie dogs!

Saguaro National Park

On Saturday, we met Buddy at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum on the outskirts of Tucson. We drove through Gates Pass, a particularly hilly and scenic area covered with saguaro cacti.

Prairie Dog

Though we arrived a bit early, the heat had already set in at about 100 degrees. Yikes. We chatted briefly with a volunteer about the Harris's hawk on his arm near the entrance until Buddy arrived. With tickets in hand, we walked around the grounds a little until the tour began. Our tour guide, Dave, was very informative and entertaining. He began with the geology of the area (half volcanic soil, half seismic soil), and then spent a great deal of time telling us about the plants and the climate of the Sonoran Desert. We learned about the saguaro cactus, barrel cactus, ocotillo, agave, prickly pear cactus, various types of cholla, organ pipe cactus, palo verde trees, and lots of others, as well as what each of them were used for by Native Americans.

Prairie Dog

Barrel cacti, column cacti, cholla, and an armless saguaro

As he led us through the park, he told us about the animals of the desert as well. The museum, like the desert, is home to a huge variety of plants, animals, insects, and reptiles. The animals were particularly silly and fun to watch. We saw a ground squirrel running around under the brush and between our feet. Later we found a colony of very animated prairie dogs running all over their habitat, diving in and out of their burrows.

Mountain Lion...rub my belly!

We saw a mountain lion up close and personal, some mule deer living with a couple of wild turkeys, a cinnamon-colored black bear, hummingbirds, a couple of Mexican wolves, some bobcats and a bunch of snakes. The most interesting desert creature (in my opinion) is the javelina, a spike-haired cartoonish looking pig/dog with huge teeth and a bad attitude. These things were clearly designed by someone with a sense of humor. We watched five of them laying like giant dogs in the shade under a walking bridge. They were HUGE but very cute!

Javelina snoozing under a bridge

Mule Deer

We continued walking through the park after a quick lunch at the museum's cafe, but the heat kept baking our brains. We ducked into the reptile/insect house to cool off and stare at creepy crawlers. None of them were nearly as funny looking as the javelinas, nor as entertaining as the prairie dogs, but still interesting.

Prairie Dog pup

We parted company with Buddy and headed back through the western side of the Saguaro National Park, an area with an amazing number of these silly-looking cacti waving at us as we drove by.

We lounged by the pool for a while then spent the rest of the evening chatting with Karen, as well as with Dennis, his sister, Bev, and their father, Andy. What a great day!

Tucson, Tombstone and Bisbee...Arizona!

Ken's 1st House

On Monday the 16th, we left New Mexico and headed to Tucson, Arizona, with a quick stop at yet another border patrol station. On our way into town, we stopped by Ken's first house and neighborhood. We navigated the RV through the nice wide streets and easily found his old house, though all the beautiful landscaping he labored to put in 40 years ago is, of course, gone.

Pam, Ken, Emory, Karen, Karen, and Dennis

Ken's cousin, Karen, and her husband, Dennis, offered to have us park our RV outside their house while we visit Tucson. After so much touring in New Mexico, we relished spending a few days lounging by their nice pool and chatting with them about all kinds of topics. On Wednesday evening, we 4 met Emory (Ken's other cousin) and his wife, Karen, for dinner at Zona 78, a fantastic local restaurant that has had a lot of success here. We shared a bunch of tasty (and large!) appetizers and beer for happy hour. Yum!

Sheila and Ken

On Thursday, we took the RV in for some service on the water system and used the downtime to do some shopping. In the afternoon, we visited an old friend of Ken's, Sheila, who Ken knew when he had lived in Tucson in the early 70's. We had a wonderful time catching up and carrying on with her about the last 40 years, though we were sorry not to be able to visit with her husband, Don, who passed two years ago. Ken and Sheila swapped cute stories about each of their oldest kids, who played together until Ken's family moved away. We really enjoyed seeing her!

On Friday, Emory and Karen joined us on a tour of Bisbee and Tombstone. Bisbee is an old mining town, first mined in the 1880s and now focused on art, coffee roasting and its 1000 Stair Climb. We wandered around the pretty little historic downtown section in the valley of the large mountains around the town. The streets are very narrow and windy, with switchbacks going up the side of the mountain.

Town of Bisbee

We ate lunch at Cafe Cornucopia, a delightful (and tiny) restaurant in the middle of a street lined with several antique shops and art galleries. The food was spectacular, especially the meatloaf sandwich. We stopped into a few shops and then headed up the street to see the longest stretch of stairs in the town. Since the houses are built literally on the side of the mountains, there are impossibly long sets of stairs to reach them. The 1000 Stair Climb is held in October and thousands of people come out to the tiny town to run up all the long staircases in the name of physical fitness.

We next headed to the Queen Mine Tour, where we dressed in slickers, hard hats and lanterns. We were taken on a small mine train into the old mine by a former employee, who told us all the difficulties of working in such a hostile environment. We learned about the mules that were used to cart wagons full of rock to the surface as well as the dangers of drilling dust and cave ins. This particular mine is a "drift mine", because the mine shaft is level with outside surface (instead of down). In any case, we were taken 1500 feet into the mine where more than 600,000 tons of rock were above our heads. This area was mined for copper, gold, silver, lead and many other minerals, like hematite, malachite, azurite and such. It was very interesting!

After the tour, we headed to the Old Bisbee Brewing Company for some brews and free popcorn. Yum! Great beer!

Lavender Open Pit Copper Mine

Bisbee is also home to an open pit copper mine, so called because it is literally a giant pit in the ground formed after what had been a mountain was stripped slowly away until it became a giant pit 900 feet deep. The Lavender Pit was closed as an active mining operation in 1975, but it continues to be a source of novelty to tourists and aesthetic irritation to residents. Apparently the waste rock from the mine was dumped near what is now a predominantly residential area.

Tombstone, Arizona

Nice.

We drove back to Tucson, but first stopped at Tombstone, a very touristy place famous for Doc Holliday, the Earps, the Clanton gang and the gunfight between them all at the OK Corral. Many of the participants of that gunfight were subsequently buried in Boot Hill Cemetery on the north side of town. We walked around the dusty main street and were approached by one enterprising cowboy who said if we were tired of walking and feeling half dead, the mortuary would be glad to bury us for only $24.95. We headed on back to Tucson before that became necessary. What a great afternoon with Emory and Karen!

Buddy and Ken

For dinner, we met Ken's childhood friend, Buddy, who he hadn't seen in 49 years. Yikes! We spent all of dinner (plus a couple of hours) catching up on almost half a century of life. We had a wonderful time chatting with him.

What a fantastic day!