Migration Report #17, Tucson, Arizona
Saturday, January 20, 2001 8:50 PM
Hi There, Migration Report Fans,
After leaving El Paso, we headed west on Interstate 10 towards Tucson. Just east of exit 135 on Interstate 10 in New Mexico, we saw another one of those very large roadrunners perched up upon a small hill about 100 feet or so to the south of the highway. At this time of the year one sees many RVs working their way along Interstate 10 in their search for warmth. Folks, it is cold in the south during this time of the year. One is usually somewhat safe from the freezing cold if they hover somewhere south of Interstate 10.
Never underestimate to power of a woman! Karen loves to watch ice skating: on the TV and especially in real. While we were in the Seattle area we would go down to the Key Arena at least ounce or twice a year to see live ice skating events. She gets flyers from the Stars on Ice Series and she realized that Scott Hamilton was doing his last season and she just had to see it. She was able to coordinate our migration travels to include one of his events in Tucson. This is the sole reason why we went to Tucson. We arrived there on Sunday, January 14, and decided to stay for one week in order to relax and to check out some of the things to do there. There are really a whole lot of interesting things to do in the Tucson area.
On Tuesday evening we did indeed attend the Stars on Ice performance at the Tucson Convention Center and it was really a great show. It was raining when we left the performance. Yes, it sometimes rains in Tucson.
On Wednesday evening we went to the Triple C Chuckwagon Suppers and Western Show and it was really great also. We were entertained by the Sons of the Pioneers. Likely not many of you young-uns know about the Sons of the Pioneers. Their theme song is "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and they sang their "Happy Trails" songs at the end -- does this help? In 1933 the group was started by three singing cowboys: Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan and Leonard Sly. A few years later, Leonard Sly joined the Hollywood movies as Roy Rogers (King of the Cowboys). Perhaps some of you are old enough to at least remember Roy Rogers, or at least his horse, Trigger, or maybe his wife, Dale Evans. At any rate the Sons of the Pioneers has over the years continued with changes in singers of course. Over the past 60 years or so they have written more than 3000 songs (mostly for the movies) and have made over 150 recordings. They still do a great job. They play at Branson, Missouri from mid April to mid December, and Tucson for the winter season. And Howard also had a second helping of their (the Triple C Chuckwagon) delicious beef barbecue.
On Thursday we drove up to and toured the Biosphere 2. It was very worthwhile trip and now is being used as a research facility where they are able to learn (in a closed system) the effects of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxides upon trees, coral reef structures and other plant life as found in the desert, cottonwood forest and rain forest environments. The elevation is about 3800 feet at the Biosphere 2 location and there was snow on the ground as we walked around the campus. It costs about $15,000 to send a student there for one semester. It is operated by Columbia University. Students from many other universities attend the programs at the Biosphere 2 project. We also took the "under the glass" tour which allowed us to see all of the mechanical systems that allowed it all to be a closed system. This was very interesting of course to a couple of old codger engineers.
On Friday evening we were able to visit past Eldecian, Jim Young and his lovely wife, Wendy and their three adorable children, Alexander, Katie and Matthew. We learned that Alexander is presently taking ballroom dancing lessons and is apparently pretty good at this -- he seems to be attracting swarms of young ladies. Howard now wishes that he had learned to dance too. Katie has a pair of pet Desert Tortoises -- one of them has only three feet and is named Lucky. Jim and Wendy have a very lovely (and large, too) home which Jim designed and helped construct. It has many high tech features and offers excellent insulation systems, a solar collection system and a very efficient fresh air exchange system. Nearly everything operates by a single remote via a computer system -- even the gas fire place.
We stayed at an RV park about eight miles out of Tucson on the west side. The park itself is not worth writing home to Mother about, but it is in a great location where the air is more clear than that in the Tucson area proper and it is also located on the desert and adjacent to the Saguaro National Park -- West Branch. On Saturday afternoon, with a very comfortable temperature of 65 degrees, we hiked perhaps three miles into the desert area and saw many different kinds of very attractive desert plants. Among these were many of the giant Saguaro (saw-war-roe) Cactus, lots of Prickly Pear, Ocotillo (oct-oh-tee-oh), and Cholla (choy-ya). This is really a beautiful area to visit. The RV parks offers perhaps ten miles of excellent desert hiking trails and we will probably come back in early to mid March. On the down side, the RV parking is really very tight here and we are really packed in at the location.
On Sunday (the 21st), tomorrow, we move on the Sierra Vista, Arizona, about 80 miles to the southeast of Tucson, for one week. It is located at about 4000 feet in elevation and we will probably freeze to death. It has been cold, especially at nights with temperatures going down to just around freezing or slightly below. After Sierra Vista then we plan to go northeast to Willcox, Arizona for eight days to hike in the Chiricahua National Monument area, then on to Why, about 150 miles west of Willcox, to hike in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument area, for four nights and then on to Palm Springs, California. Howard forgot to mention that we'll spend 2 or 3 days at Quartsite. That is the location of the world's largest RV flea market. We've heard there are thousand's of RV's, dry camping on the desert, and many hundreds of tents set up for the flea market. We'll let you know how it goes.
All for now (and Howard needs to be fed),
Howard and Karen