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Published: March 9th 2008
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Obfuscator writes: We got up at what I call “stupidly early,” since Onaxthiel apparently likes to beat the sun up. )(Onaxthiel adds: I don't like to beat up the sun. I think it would win the fight. I like to be doing things before it has time to react.) As I slowly roused myself and blinked a lot, he wandered about taking pictures of the county park at dawn. There were some pretty flowers in a few places, and we got our first good look at the Saguaro cactus that we had heard so much about. These weren't particularly large ones, but they must have all been at least 12 feet tall.
We started toward Phoenix, but got derailed by the Ben Avery Shooting Range. This massive facility is the largest outdoor range in the world, and they will let you stay on the range and shoot to your heart's content for only $5. You do have to jump through some rather annoying hoops, and watch a little safety video, but it's a small price to pay for fine facilities, and most of the silliness was pretty understandable when you consider how large the range is. We popped off some
Onaxthiel thinks this chair embobies everything wrong with america.
a single plastic joint broke, so it was thrown down a hill instead of being properly disposed of. It's made in China, and it's cheaper to buy a new one than fix. rounds there for a while and enjoyed it, before going to check out a Cowboy Action Shooting Event we had heard was going on in a different part of the sprawling complex.
They wanted $5 for parking, and we were literally down to our last $1 in cash, so we were about to turn around and head out when the guy at the gate decided to let us in for free. Sometimes Onaxthiel's being a veteran pays off. We found ourselves in quite the strange place. As sort of a laid-back fun variety of the Combat Action Shooting sport, Cowboy Action Shooting features a ton of people dressed up as cowboys, lawmen, and saloon gals of the old west. There's more six shooters and leather than you can shake a stick at, and they've got all sorts of shooting competitions with lever action rifles, shotguns, and revolvers. We wandered through the booths and found lots of guns and knives for sale, of course, as well as nifty souvenir things for the spectators who aren't actually participating. We also watched a lot of the competitions, which were quite entertaining. Seeing a guy or a gal blaze away with two pistols,
Onaxthiel pokes a cactus
The cactus poked him back run to another station and unload a lever-action rifles, and then to another where they have to shoot a few things with a double barreled shotgun in the short time they do these things, and with the accuracy they have, is pretty impressive.
When we had seen most of what there was to see there, we headed on to Phoenix proper. We stopped at Taliesin West, where the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture is located. We got out and found that the tour was no cheaper than $30 a head, and decided that we weren't THAT interested in Taliesin. We saw what we could without taking a tour, talked to some friendly folks from Oregon, and continued on our way.
On our way to the downtown, we dropped by the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We had been told that their logo was exactly like the one used by the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars. What we found was similar to the Rebel's, but not exactly the same. Clearly, either the city of Phoenix has changed its emblem, or we have been mislead. From there, we eventually wound our way to the Phoenix city center, and the State
Capitol.
The Capitol is a complex of buildings, no one of which looks too much like the stereotypical statehouse. Tucked away in the back of the executive tower, there is in fact a neat old building, and depending on which side you approach from, I suppose you'd find it quickly, though we didn't. It's got a lovely little rotunda, and historic chambers for the house and the senate. Neither are still in use, but we got a nice tour from a lady dressed in period attire, and got to see quite a bit of the old building. They have the entire silver service from the U.S.S. Arizona, which was pretty amusing since the state refused to pay for it, and the funds had to be raised from private donors. It's a beautiful service though. They also have a piece of the hull of the Arizona in their museum. Outside, they have a large park with tons of memorials to various servicemen and police officers. There's also a couple more battleship Arizona memorials.
When we were done looking around the capitol, we got onto the interstate and headed toward Tucson. Unfortunately, we did so around rush hour, and so
we didn't get to Tucson until it was getting dark. The first campground we tried for was full, but we eventually managed to find a spot in a campground across the city near Saguaro National Park. For tent camping, it was only $10, which was a pretty sweet deal, though it didn't have any special amenities.
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