Arizona! October 27 and 28, 2011

Tucson is such a beautiful place!  This morning was clear and cool with lots of blue sky.  Dennis and I went for a walk and then I went for a combination run/walk after that to make sure I got my whole workout.  We lounged around in the morning and did laundry – it is great staying with my brother and sister-in-law. 

In the afternoon we went to the Titan II Missile Museum.  It is just south of Tucson.  It was so interesting and scary and thought-provoking.  I remember from a child’s point of view the Cold War and all of the discussion of nuclear weapons.  I remember thinking that it did not make sense to amass weapons as a way to reach peace.

Our tour guide talked about Mutual Assured Destruction (yes, MAD) and how that eventually lead to disarmament.  This museum houses the only remaining Titan II missile in its silo.  The rest were all destroyed, but this one was disarmed and preserved for history.  I sat in the captain’s chair and “turned the key” for the mock firing of the missile.  From the time the rocket was launched it took only minutes for the payload to explode over or on the target destroying a city and its environs for a 30 mile radius.

Although I know those weapons no longer exist, our guide mentioned the many missiles on nuclear submarines.  I think the bigger issue now is the risk posed by terrorists who can get their hands on nuclear weapons.  It left us with a lot to think about.

We love Tucson so much that it will be hard to leave.  Despite the many beautiful places we have seen, this is the only place in which we are at risk of saying “good-by” to Michigan.  I keep reminding myself that they have no water and that I would miss living on a lake and having lakes rivers and streams within five miles of any location.

It is great to catch up with Tom and Betty and stay in their lovely home.  As Dennis has mentioned, we like seeing the planes taking off from the runway behind the house.  The neighborhood consists of seven-acre lots with houses and hangars surrounding a small airport.  Homeowners are required to keep the desert landscape.  Here are a few pictures.  Note the many different types of cacti.  Most of these are protected species except for the prickly pear which grows like a weed.  There are no acres of grass to mow here!

Joshua Tree and Beyond, October 25, 2011

As it turns out, Twentynine Palms is home to a military base.  So we saw lots of very fit young men dressed in camo as we were driving around, and at dinner, and at the hotel.  We found a very tasty restaurant, Edchada’s, and had a delicious and filling dinner.  They also had really good margaritas for a really reasonable price.  We waddled back to the hotel and planned for our second day at Joshua Tree.  This morning we used the fitness room for a good workout.  Dennis understands how to work the various pieces of the resistance/weight lifting equipment so he helped me get set up.  I could almost hear Susan’s voice in the back of my head: “Check your body position, tighten your abs, work slowly both lifting and lowering…”  Thanks Susan!

We put gasoline in the car ($3.63 per gallon, cheap compared to Malibu) and drove to Joshua Tree National Park.  It was so beautiful.  It looked completely different in the morning light.  I am really enjoying mornings in the desert.  The light is clear and the mountains are hazy blue in the distance.  The desert plants cast long shadows.

We drove to the Cholla Garden first.  We read the caution about not touching or brushing against the cacti, but we did get close enough to take lots of pictures.  It amazes me how plants adapt to survive in this arid environment.  Here are a few pictures of the cholla – they look all fuzzy and nice, but don’t let that fool you!  We also captured a picture of one of the denizens of the desert – it looks like a chipmunk, but we think it is a ground squirrel.  

We also drove to the Ocotillo Patch.  There were some huge ocotillo cacti (see the picture).  I think the patch might be larger, but the road is closed at that point because part of the road was washed out in the spring floods.  We retraced our steps to find and photograph Arch Rock.

Arch Rock can be viewed on a short nature trail loop.  It is located inside of one of the campgrounds in the park – the White Tank campground.  We drove into the campground, it does not have a lot of campsites, and found campsite #9 to find the trail.  We found the trail with no trouble and discovered that the path is not always strictly marked and we could wander a little farther to get a good picture.  Arch Rock is in a section of those huge rocks like the ones we saw yesterday.  We had to take many pictures of the rocks, not just the Arch Rock!  While we were on the trail, we met two men who were also walking the trail, but they had brought beer with them.  Dennis was jealous!  We also saw two women who were following their own trail through the rocks.  They were fit and tan from the sun and having a good time.  The Arch Rock was beautiful, but I liked the “hand” rock too.  It looked like a large hand emerging from the earth.

After we followed the path, we checked out the campsites.  Hey, camper friends, this is a place we should definitely visit!  The sites are fairly private, very flat and always warm.  The tricky part is that campers have to bring in their water – this is not Michigan!  It would take some planning but this is a beautiful place.

After a few hours at Joshua Tree we headed out toward Arizona.  It was my turn to drive and I loved the drive through miles and miles of desert.  We were planning to stay in Quartzsite AZ, but there really was no place to stay or to eat, so we swapped drivers and headed further into AZ.  We finally saw enough hotel signs to give us a choice and stopped in Goodyear – a glorified suburb of Phoenix.  Tomorrow we will go to Tucson and spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law, Tom and Betty.  We are really looking forward to visiting with them.  I told Tom that I was cooking and would not hear of anyone else doing it!  I can’t wait to get into their awesome, well-appointed kitchen to fix a meal.  I have to admit that it is especially great to visit Tom and Betty and not have to fly.  This drive is totally do-able after the cross-country trip we have already taken.