Blogs from Tucson, Arizona, United States, North America

We are packed and anticipating heading to PHX by 9:00am tomorrow. Our flight does not depart until 2:30pm from PHX and so we plan to meet up with our "old" neighbors Rowena and Doug for an early lunch and to catch up! I have been battling a "head cold" (or so I thought) and decided to head to UrgentCare this afternoon. The verdict?? I have Sinusitis and have a cadre of drugs to help me great better. More to follow tomorrow!... read more

We spent the day relaxing, grocery shopping, doing laundry and walking the dogs. We also introduced Jon and Joyce to Eegee's. Yum...... read more

It was a little chilly when we got up this morning in Las Cruces, but it quickly warmed up by the time we hit the road around 8. We had just hit the road after stopping for gas when Jon & Joyce called out on the radio that their tire monitor system alarm had gone off. Yep, the tire that replaced the one that blew was quickly going down... Jon and Joe are now experts at changing an RV tire. Joyce and I are thinking about hiring them out along the way to make extra money for the trip... LOL Needless to say once we arrived in Tucson, Jon went to Discount tire and had 4 new tires put on their rig. The sad part is the tires they had on their rig had only 3,000 ... read more

Have you ever wanted to do something spontaneous? One evening, I packed my bags. I looked online for any last minute airplane flights. I took a taxi to O'Hare airport. And I flew to Pheonix, Arizona. I did not have a plan at all. It was 2:00am when I was at O'Hare airport. I was upgraded to first class and went to sleep on the airplane. At 7:00am, I woke up in Pheonix, Arizona, rented a car, and drove 2 hours to Tucson, Arizona. Then, I met a friend at the air force base, climbed Mountain A, and felt the 90 degree weather blazing my face. Then, the next day, I climbed Tucson Mountains. By 2pm, I flew back to Chicago. It was an epic day of travel.... read more

JOHN CAMPBELL GREENWAY Each of the 50 states is allowed two entries in the Hall of Statuary in the US Capitol. The notables selected for that distinction from the State of Arizona are the Jesuit priest Father Eusebio Kino, and John Campbell Greenway. Padre Kino would probably be surprised at such an honor because he was not in Arizona very long. Just long enough to leave footprints for other missionaries to follow before he died at Magdalena in 1711. Missionaries who came later brought the church to our heathens and introduced European style agricultural techniques that flourished along the Santa Cruz River Valley. Kino’s influence on those improvements was huge and the native inhabitants along the river flourished. Sadly enough John Greenway has about drifted into historical obscurity. He was born in Huntsville, Alabama ... read more

The Saguaro National Park is a great park. It is actually divided into 2 different section, East and West, with Tucson in between. The name for the park comes from the Saguaro cactus, the AZ state plant. No matter how many times I would walk the trails of the park (either one), I never got tired of seeing those huge and very old cacti. I couold get to Saguaro East in about 15 or 20 minutes from our apartment. My favorite time to walk there was early in the day, or just before sunset. The plants and animals were always rewarding one way or another and the silence I found there is never to be forgotten. I will never forget my many walks there in desert hills.... read more

FAT DRUNK ON A HORSE The artistic community of Mexico commissioned a very nice bronze statue and sent it to Arizona in the spirit of cultural exchange. It was to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Arizona statehood. Their counterparts up in the state’s capital, upon seeing the lovely piece of artwork, were proud to accept the generous gift in the spirit of international goodwill. In an act of further generosity the minions in Phoenix decided that, ummm….the perfect place for such a statue to be displayed would be at a park in Tucson. Civic leaders in Tucson had a parcel of land downtown that was no good for commercial development but would be a fine location for a nice little park. The site is where Congress Street and Broadway converge west of Church ... read more