Out of Tucson
Trip Start
Oct 08, 2008
1
10
13
Trip End
Apr 2009
Huschuca City,
Arizona,
United States
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
We did have fun the 3 weeks we were in Tucson. The highlight was a toss up between the Saguaro National Park and the Casa Grande Ruins. The ruins were really amazing, The walls were 4 foot thick and it was 4 stories high and was completed before 1350. It became the nations first archaeological preserve in 1892. While nature has taken it's toll on the ruins you can walk through what is left and feel the history. Windows were aligned with the sun and moon cycles, reportedly to help the builders judge the times for planting, harvest and celebrations. The Hohokam people had a large system of canals for irrigation and were astute farmers.
The Saguaro National Park is really a forest of cactus
Saguaro National Park
. The largest, the Saguaro, don't send out arms until they are at least 75 years old. The resulting formations from the arms are as much fun to "see things in" as the clouds. It is amazing to think of something this big and green growing in the dry desert but they can reportedly store as much as 200 gallons of water so they really conserve what they can get. They bloom in the early spring and produce a fruit in June that was a major food source for the native people and is still made into jelly and candy. One of Dix's favorites was the Pima Air & Space Museum. With several hundred airplanes on site from the smallest ever flown to President Kennedy's Air Force One it was great. They had a lot of the planes he helped direct while in Viet Nam. They also had the plane that brought back the hostages from Iran, one of (the hostages) which was a good friend of Dix's in the AF.
Another great excursion was to the Mission San Xavier del Bac (Bac = Point of Water). The O'odham speaking Indians chose the site as a farming village. In 1691 the Santa Maria river (now the Santa Cruz River) was a slow meandering brook. Now it is dry most of the year except during summer or fall rains when it swellst into a roaring mass toward the Gila River. Construction of the original mission started in 1699
"Bumble Bee";smallest ever airplane
. It still has an active parish and a school. It has been added onto several times but the main chapel has been restored to appear very much as the original. Many of the carvings and paintings clearly show the native influence in style and content of their vision of the Jesuit's messages. Another of Dix's favorites was the Toy RR museum. Very far off the beaten path it took us an hour of driving in circles before we finally found it - only to find it was closed. Lucky for us there were some guys there working on the displays and they let us in for an unofficial look. A dozen fully dressed displays of several sizes of toy trains, may displays showing local historical places. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any running.
We did a lot of driving around seeing a lot of country that doesn't really have a special name but was interesting. Many of the old downtown buildings show the early architecture with mission looking churchs scattered throughout. There were parks and gardens that were amazing for desert climate.
Right now we are in Huachuca City, AZ. It is 20 miles from Mexico, I 10, Tomstone, Bisbee and the Kartchner Caverns. The wind is howling and snow is predicted for tomorrow. Hopefully we will get out to see a few things before we head for El Paso. We may have a break in the weather Wednesday otherwise it may be next Monday before we get the chance to leave. I doubt there will be much snow but I REALLY do not like driving in the wind so will wait it out.
