.Friday, September 29, 2017

In Tucson we have finally found the true desert!  This is like nothing we have seen before.  When we were in the red rock areas we thought we were in the desert, but this is the real deal. This morning we went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and it was amazing. We went early to beat the heat, but it was really hot by the time we left at noon.  You definitely need a hat, sunscreen, and water.  The museum is unusual because 85% of it is outside, a living museum.  There are about 2 miles of trails or pathways through the area.  It is beautifully laid out, though, with water and shade stations all along the trail. There are also many docents that share information and point out things that you might miss otherwise. In some of the enclosed areas we saw javelinas, coyotes, birds of prey, hummingbirds, and many other animals.  But the real stars of the show, in my opinion, were the plants.  When I was teaching third grade, we did a desert unit every year. One of the videos I always used was about this desert museum. It's fun to see the place in real life now.

After lunch we decided to take the scenic loop drive through Saquaro National Park (west side). The loop is 9 miles of paved road with many pull-outs/viewpoints.  The park is a desert wilderness with a "forest" of the saguaros.  But there are hundreds of other kinds of cacti as well. We were very lucky today to get to see the rare and unusual Crested (cristate) Saguaro cactus. This strange mutation only occurs once in every 200,000 saguaros and only in one portion of the Sonoran Desert.  It has a strange fan-like formation at the top and scientists are not sure why.  We took so many pictures out there that it will be difficult to decide which ones to put in the blog.

Thursday September 28, 2017

Today we took Jax to "doggy jail" and headed north to see Uncle Bill and Aunt Janie. We are camped in southwest Tucson and they live in North Tucson. It took us over an hour to get there, but we had a great visit. They live in a beautiful area with a view of the mountains from their back patio. Their house is lovely as well. We haven't seen them for several years so it was fun to catch up.  Lunch and hospitality was so nice that we spent the whole day. We thank them for the nice visit and hope we didn't wear them out. Unfortunately we have no pictures because BJ forgot the camera. We plan to visit again in March when we come back.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

We arrived in Tucson, AZ yesterday amid all the Saguaros.  This is really a desert here.  We parked at the Western Way RV Park.  This morning I took Jax out for his morning walk and watched a beautiful sunrise. The RV park is really nice, with only one exception.  We have to watch out for rattlesnakes!!!  Apparently 2 dogs got bitten last week, here in the park!  The park people said that if we decide to stay here for a month or more then we should take the dog to "snake school". It's a real thing.  They train the dogs to avoid snakes.  Crazy.  Oh, the are also wild Javelinas  and coyotes that sometimes wander into the park. Hmmmmm.

After breakfast today we went to a very nice shooting range.  Pops wanted to practice.  It was strange, shooting out there in the middle of the desert, with the tall Saguaros, and surrounded by the mountains in the distance.  Interesting place!

Monday, September 25, 2017

Sorry for some of the errors in previous posts. Pops published before I had a chance to edit.
Anyway, we arrived in Phoenix last Friday afternoon. I called Mike and Mary and we arranged to meet for supper.  I took my broken phone to the Apple Store to get worked on and had to leave it overnight. Mike and Mary came to pick us up and to tour our RV, then we went to supper. It was a nice evening. Saturday, we went back to get my phone, happy days!  That evening we went to Mike and Mary's for supper. They have a lovely house in a large gated community.  Mary made a delicious lasagna and we had another nice vist.
Today we left Jax in the RV and we went to the famous Heard Museum.  It is an amazing place!  It a collection of art, artifacts and history of the Indians of the Sonoran Desert.  It is the largest of its kind in the United States.  The docent said that the museum is dedicated to the advancement of American Indian Art. But it is more than that. Besides the art, the museum presents the history of these people, sometimes from a first-person perspective.  It had a whole gallery devoted to the history of the Indian Schools in the Southwest, the good and the bad (mostly bad).  That part was sad.  The Native Americans who served in the Armed Forces were honored, too, including 300 nurses in WWI and WWII .  Of course, the code talkers were represented as well.  All in all it is must see if you are ever in Phoenix.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Well, Sedona is every bit as spectacular as we had heard. We have seen many red rock formations in the last year, but this really stands out. The Chapel of the Holy Cross was beautiful, but very crowded.  It was difficult to park and to see the chapel because of so many people.  The views from there were incredible, though.  We hiked a little at Bell Rock and viewed Courthouse Butte.  We had lunch in town and wandered through Tlaquapaque (pretty shopping area), and saw the New Age shops.  We didn't get to the famous energy vortexes, though, because we ran out of time.  We had gotten a late start because of a dead battery on the truck. By the time we got a jump and then drove to the Ford place and got the battery tested and replaced, we didn't get to Sedona until noon. I definitely want to go back again.

Tuesday, September, 19 2017

We decided on just a short hike today because tomorrow we spend the whole day at Sedona. Hiking in the Verde Valley is quite a bit different than Flagstaff. I just picked a place at random and we ended up at the Copper Canyon hiking trail. It was desert hiking (watch out for rattlesnakes) but with some rolling hills and pretty views of the mountains in the desert.  Nice morning hike.

Monday, September 18, 2017

Jax had to go to doggy jail today so we could go do some things that were not dog friendly.  Our first stop was Tuzigoot National Monument. This one has the ruins of a pueblo on top of a mesa. It is about 800 years old. About 60% of it has been reconstructed and visitors can actually walk through some of the rooms.  Next to it is a marsh that the NPS is trying to bring back.  After the pueblo people were gone settlers drained much of it for farming.  The park service wants to restore it to its original state, another oasis in the desert.

Our next stop was Clarkdale and the Arizona Copper Museum. Clarkdale was the home to United Verde Copper Company in the early 1900s. It provided copper for over the world, especially during WWI. The copper was mined in Jerome, just 4 miles away, and brought to the smelting factory in Clarkdale.  The amazing museum features copper art from all over the world, with special emphasis from the 16th-20th centuries.  One of the most interesting rooms is the trench art room. Shell casings, mostly from WWI, were used to make pieces of art, mostly vases. It is unbelievable how they could turn such an ugly thing into a beautiful work of art.  The curator of the museum was full of information and stories of the town and the copper.  It was fascinating!  He also suggested that we go on up the mountain to Jerome.

Jerome is called the City in the Sky.  The houses literally cling to the hillside and have a spectacular view, a little scary though.  It was a mining town in its heyday with a population of 15,000 , then dropped to a "ghost town" of about 50 when the mines played out.  Now it has about 300 people and is on the National Historic Register.  The town survives mostly on tourist trade. There are little shops and galleries, as well as a few small hotels and restaurants. The whole town is only a few blocks long and all of the houses look like they will fall down the hillside at any moment.  From up on top you can look down on the remnants of the the old mine. It was another interesting place.