Start of the journey

  Tucson, Arizona, United States
Friday, November 17, 2006

We flew west out of Detroit (DTW) 6:30 AM and keep the morning behind us all the way to Denver. We changed planes there and were off again. Just as we're getting really tired of being in airplanes we finally landed in Tucson. We're stopping here to visit Jim and Sandy, old friends from Michigan who finally ended up here.

Sandy and Irina at Tucson airport

Sandy picked us up at the airport, and took us to their home in the Tucson suburb of Oro Valley. The population of Tucson reportedly grows by 500 people every day, and reached one million last week. Oro Valley has an average per captia income 50% higher than the national average. So we should be put up there in style.

After months of planning and preparation, which built to a nerve wrecking crescendo in the last few days before our departure, we really need to decompress with Jim and Sandy in their beautiful southwestern style home with splendid views of the Santa Catalina and Tortolita mountain ranges.

Great view from Sandy and Jim's pool

We really enjoyed the view from the swimming pool.

The icon of Arizona is the saguaro cactus.

Saguaro Cactus is Arizona

It seems particularly abundant here around Tucson. The cacti stand up from the dry and scraggly undergrowth like shapes from the Night of the Living Dead lumbering off the Sonoran desert into the valleys between the mountain ranges. Saguaro are estimated to take about 80 years to grow their first branches.

Cacti are us!

So these guys are really old.

Less than a hundred miles south is the Mexican boarder where illegal immigrants cross and risk death traveling through the desert to camp in the orroyos below Jim and Sandy's house. Although they haven't actually seen them down there. If they had they're the type of people who'd invite them up to the pool. They were great hosts to us for the five days and four nights we sponged off of them. Thanks guys.

On November 20th we fly out of Tucson to Los Angeles and then on to Fiji. We'll check in from there if we can.

Arvid's GPS says we are at N 32degrees 25.951' latitude and 110 degrees 58.861'longetude.