Tucson, AZ - Feb. 13 - Mar. 12, 2006
On February 13th we moved on to Tucson. If Susan could have danced all the way, she would have. As far as she was concerned, it was time to be back in a city environment. We were very pleased with the Tucson Meadows Mobile Home Park, our home for the next four weeks. Tucson Meadows is located on the east side of town near the Saguaro National Monument East, and about 8 miles from downtown Tucson. It is a large mobile home park with about 50 very large RV sites on its eastern edge.
The park is adjacent to fenced and gated Pantano Wash, one of three major Tucson washes designed to channel water during flashfloods. At night packs of coyotes roam the washes hunting and singing to other packs. The first night we thought it was sirens. The sound must have freaked the domestic dogs in the RV Park. Susan was captivated and would run out to listen whenever they sang.
Tucson is a great place to visit and an easy city to navigate. The city has great restaurants (Café Poca Cosa - fabulous!), shopping and interesting neighborhoods and museums. The surrounding mountains offer good hiking opportunities, it is very bicycle friendly and the people are amazingly warm and welcoming. There is so much to do and see we will only hit a few highlights here.
Our first outing was to the downtown Visitor's Center always a must, followed by a walking tour through the old Presidio. We made plans to attend the annual rodeo's "longest non-motorized parade" in the country and the "Cowboy Junkies" concert at the restored, historic Rialto Theater.
There are also numerous day-trip destinations around Tucson. On our first weekend we headed south to the city of Tubac and the old Tumacacori Mission. Tubac, the first European community in Arizona, was established around a presidio (fort) in the 18th Century, but was abandoned and re-occupied seven times over the years depending on who was in town - the military or the Apaches. Today it is a town of artists, artisan shops and studios. After shopping for artsy stuff in California, the cost of merchandise in Tubac really seemed reasonable. The galleries offered beautiful garden ironworks, sculptures and fountains, and unique furniture, plus quality paintings and photographs. We decided we needed to return to do some serious shopping when we have a home with wall and floor space.
Father Kino established Mission Tumacacori, just five miles south of Tubac, in 1690. It went into state of disuse when Mission San Xavier del Bac was completed a century later, but is now a national historic park.
We also visited the very impressive Mission San Xavier known as the White Dove of the Desert, just south of Tucson. The mission is being renovated and the efforts of the local and Vatican artisans are quite impressive. The mission, located on the Tohono O'odham Indian Reservation, is still in use and is the pride of the community.
We spent an afternoon at the Pima Air and Space Museum that exhibits planes and helicopters from early 20th Century to present. If you are interested, this website has great pictures of all of the displayed aircraft. The most interesting exhibits were the various aircraft of World War II, President Kennedy's Air Force-1, an educational space station mock-up, and the SR-71 Blackbird, a reconnaissance plane capable of flying at Mach-3. In 1990, this baby flew coast to coast in 68 minutes!
A "do not miss" is the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. The museum is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden dedicated to fostering an appreciation and understanding of the Sonoran desert. During our visit we enjoyed two exciting presentations, 1) Live and On the Loose featuring a Gila Monster and two very nervous Diamondback Rattlesnakes - on the loose, and 2) Raptors in Free Flight which included a family of five Harris Hawks hunting and protecting their territory - up-close and personal.
We rode our bikes into town and discovered two very interesting shopping areas near the University of Arizona campus. The Fourth Avenue neighborhood is reminiscent of Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue in the 70's - all Birkenstocks and funky-groovy. The Park Avenue "Lost Barrio" shopping area offers wonderful Mexican folk art, tiles, furniture and textiles, plus other interesting imports. Both are very colorful areas.
Winter arrived on March 9th, a little late but since Tucson had only received trace amounts of rainfall since October, the rain was welcomed. However, on March 12th we had reservations for the night sky program at the Mt. Kitt Observatory, which is a 6,900 ft. elevation. The program was cancelled due to a foot of snow on the mountain. Dang!
Tomorrow we are off to … well, we really don't know where, but it will be in southern Arizona. We need to be in Columbus, New Mexico on March 22nd to have an improved suspension system installed on our home. Until then, we are wandering.
