Observatories and Special Cactus

Tucson and Wye, Arizona

(sightseeing)

January 3, 2017 -  January 6, 2017

Having been to Tucson many times to visit my mom, we've seen many, but not all, of the places tourists usually visit.  We decided to go and see two places we missed: Kitt Peak National Observatory and Organ Pipe National Monument.

Kitt Peak is located at almost 6900 feet in the Quinlan mountains, 56 miles SW of Tucson.  There are 24 different telescopes on the site and the astronomers who use them study a wide variety of different astronomical phenomenons.

This picture is directly off the Kitt Peak website.
It shows how extensive the area is along with some of their many telescopes.

 We chose to go to one of their nighttime programs, hoping the weather would be clear so we could actually look through a telescope and see something wonderful.  Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate so we weren't able to do that but we were able to visit and talk to two astronomers about the scientific work they were doing.

Two of the many telescopes as seen when we drove up to the evening program.
Due to the clouds, the second one is barely visible in the distance to the right of the first one.  

This is the mirror of a telescope we visited.
The scientist using it trying to determine how starts are born.
The scientist at the other telescope we visited was using it to
track near earth asteroids which might possibly hit the earth.

This is the back of the same telescope.
The many 'canisters' you see are used to compensate for temperature
changes which cause the mirror to change slightly in curvature.
The idea that someone designed and built these huge and very complicated
instruments boggles my mine. 

Next we took a 3 day trip over to Organ Pipe National Monument.  It's been on my list of places to see for a long time but it's so far from anything that we just could never make it work.  Now, with the motorhome, we were finally able to drive over and stay in their lovely campground.  If you get a chance to visit Organ Pipe - take it.  It's worth the drive.

View toward Mexico from Organ Pipe NM.
This is a beautiful, virtually unspoiled portion of the Sonoran desert.

There was lots of evidence of border patrol agents all along the route - along with signs warning of illegal immigrant activity in the area.  It's hard to imagine anyone trying to cross this hot, dry, prickly and unforgiving area.  I'm sure many die in the effort to have a better life.

Oregon Pipe Cactus - so called because early settlers thought the
skeletons of the cactus resembled organ pipes.
You can also see saguaro cactus on the right and left of the picture.

This is a rare formation on the top of a saguaro cactus.
It's called a crested saguaro and it's still not know what causes it.

The beauty of the Sonoran desert.
Cholla cactus in the foreground and middle of the picture.
Saguaro cactus in the middle and Oregon Pipe in the middle to the back. 

Organ Pipe cactus is rare in the U S but is found in abundance in Organ Pipe Nation Monument, making it a very special place.

For me the cycle of life is very apparent in the desert.  Maybe because the landscape is so harsh and rocky.

The ribs of a saguaro.  They were used in many ways by
Native Americans and early explorers in the area.

A fallen giant.

A partially dead Organ Pipe Cactus

The remains of a dead Organ Pipe cactus.

The internal framework of a Cholla cactus.

Here's a bit of information for you.  Perhaps like myself, some of you saw an old western movie that showed people surviving in the desert by cutting out chunks of cactus and sucking the water out of it. I was curious to know if that was true or not so I googled it.  You've got to love the internet when it comes to getting your questions answered almost immediately.  In truth, the ONLY cactus you'd want to use in such a situation is the fish hook barrel cactus. The others might kill you or make you so sick you'll wish you were dead!  There will be a quiz on this later!

Christmas in the sun!

Oro Valley (Tucson), Arizona

(seeing relatives and friends)

December 18, 2016 - January 2, 2016

From the Phoenix area we headed to the Tucson area so we could celebrate Christmas with my mom who lives in Oro Valley, a community on the NW border of Tucson. Although she turned 92 last August she had the house pretty much all decorated for the holidays.  We helped with some outdoor lights but that was about all.  Before we knew it, Christmas day was upon us.

Great Blue Heron statues decked out for the holidays!

Mom had invited two friends for Christmas dinner and arranged through Safeway to get the entire dinner - all we had to do was go pick it up. In my mind I pictured picking up a hot roasted turkey and all the trimmings (ready to eat potatoes, dressing, and gravy along with cranberry sauce, etc.).  Our first indication that something was wrong was when they couldn't find my mom's name on their list and suggested that perhaps someone had already picked up the food!  No, we explained - that couldn't have happened.  I looked through the list of orders and found mom's name on it but it had a question mark in front of it and had been crossed off in heavy black marker.  I'm now thinking - what the heck are we going to do? We have guests coming! The lady behind the counter didn't miss a beat however, saying she would fix us up.  She went back to the area behind the deli and soon appeared with a big shrink wrapped turkey which she placed on the counter with a THUMP!  I thought she was giving us a frozen turkey but it turned out to be a cold but fully cooked turkey - just add heat.  Next she came out from behind the counter and went to the nearby deli island where she grabbed 2 packages each of Reisers mashed potatoes, Reisers corn meal stuffing, Reisers prepared gravy, Reisers broccoli au gratin and one package of Reisers cranberry sauce.  I'm sort of stunned at this point - quietly saying to my mom "We could have done this ourselves without Safeway's help!"  With everything placed in a large bag we headed for the checkout stand - trying to keep from laughing at the difference between our expectations and the reality of our Christmas dinner.  When we got home we heated everything up and with a little doctoring from Laura the dinner passed muster.  Even our guests had a laugh about it. We still don't know if everyone else who ordered Christmas dinner from Safeway got the same food we did or if this was truly a fall back back position, cleverly handled by the deli worker.

A terrible picture of our Christmas dinner guests!
Nobody tell them I posted this,

One of my mom's friends could only be described as a Christmas fanatic.  She decorates her apartment to the max and loves to have people come by to see it. I think you can see from the pictures below that she has an amazing collection.  Every single room has something to see and I believe she has well over 300 Santa Claus's throughout the collection.

Lots of lighted buildings in her collection.
Her grandson fixed it up so she can turn everything on with one switch!

Some of her many Santa's on the floor in the living room.

Mom and I in her living room.

While in the Oro Valley area we've stayed at several places.  The nicest being Catalina State Park where the views of the north side of the Santa Catalina mountains are fantastic.

Saguaro cactus are plentiful in the park - and these two are huge.

Barrel cacti are also plentiful.

We saw several coyotes in the park.
They don't seem to be spooked by the RV's or the people.
There are lot's of jack rabbits and cottontail rabbits around so I think they eat pretty well.
This one certainly looks quite healthy. 

Sunset on the Catalina mountains as the moon rises.

Late afternoon light on the Catalina's.

The subtle colors of sunset.

Beautiful clouds over the Catalina mountains.

Catalina State Park is so popular, it gets booked up quickly when the snowbirds start arriving - making it difficult to get a spot for more than one day.  You could probably move to a different spot everyday and manage to stay for quite awhile but that gets frustrating so we moved up to the town of Catalina and stayed at the Wishing Well RV Park.  It's a bit run down but the people are very friendly and nice.  

The "Wishing Well"

On Friday nights we went with mom to play Mexican Train with "the girls."
The stakes were a bit high - $.25 for the whole night and the lucky winner gets about $1.50!

On Tuesday nights we played BINGO with a big group of people.
There the stakes are even higher.  $1.00 per card!
If you win a game you might take home $3.00!

Splendido (where my mom lives) furnishes cookies, water and lemonade for these types of functions.

Hello Sunshine

Heading for the Phoenix Arizona Area, 

(seeing friends)

December 13, 2016 - December 18, 2016

Wow - I'm really behind on this blog.  We've been in the Tucson area for 9 weeks now and the time has flown by.  But I digress.  Before we headed for Tucson we drove from Salt Lake City to Phoenix, stopping overnight in Leeds, UT and Wickenburg, AZ before we made it to Sun City West where our friend Dolores and her mom Wanda live.  We visited them last back in May as we were heading north to get out of the heat.  This time we were looking for some sun and heat to warm us after our chilly stay in Salt Lake City.

On a side note - we traveled down I15 through St. George, UT and the most northwestern corner of Arizona as we headed to Las Vegas.   It's the first time we'd been on that stretch of highway and I was astounded how rugged the mountains were in that area and again marveled at the skill of the folks who build our roads. Talk about hard work!

Back to Sun City West and Delores.  We had a wonderful Thai lunch with her and got caught up on all the latest news. We all worked together back in the early 80's (oh so long ago!) at Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone.  She and her mom do the snowbird thing between Juanita, WA and Sun City West - really a nice way to enjoy wonderful weather.

From there we headed across Phoenix to Apache Junction to see our friends Joni and Nell.  Although they live in beautiful Sedona, AZ, they spend a good deal of time in Apache Junction (AJ).  We were able to camp very close to their rig and we spent 2 nights there.  They took us out to Tortilla Flats in the Superstition mountains just west of AJ. It's quite a place and fun to visit.  The drive alone is worth it.

Tortilla Flats consists of just a few wooden buildings -
a restaurant, ice cream parlor and a small historical "museum."

Nice example of the innards of a saguaro cactus on the boardwalk.

Womens rest room in the restaurant! Lots of picture opportunities here!
We laughed ourselves silly taking them.

This is the best picture we took.
Joni's head - perfectly aligned with the painting on the cubicle door.

This one is pretty good as well although Laura's head seems a bit small for the body.

The doors on some of the cubicles are quite low.  Too bad
I wasn't wearing something black so my shoulders wouldn't show!
You can see from my face that the corset is too tight!

Either the door is too high or Nell is too short?

Every square inch of the walls and ceiling of the restaurant were covered with dollar bills.

John Wayne guards the place so no one is tempted to steal the money.

Panorama of Canyon Lake in the Superstition Mountains.

Joni and Laura taking a "selfie" at the rest stop.

The next day we headed back across Phoenix to Tempe where Laura's friend Marianne and her husband Marc live.  They've known each other since 1976!!!!  They had lunch together and Laura got updated on M&M's kids and grand kids.  No doubt about it, they are loving the role of grandparents!

Marianne