cjsmith: (cjre joe2)
cjsmith ([personal profile] cjsmith) wrote2003-04-21 06:17 pm

Tucson

The mystery destination was Tucson, Arizona! Highlights from the trip:

1) Honest to goodness, we had a tailwind both ways.
2) I hate supplemental oxygen. It makes my nose run so badly that I have to breathe through my mouth. This drastically reduces the utility of a nasal cannula.
3) Sabino Canyon is really beautiful. Lots of stuff is in bloom.
4) I can now name a handful of cacti: prickly pear, three kinds of cholla, saguaro, hedgehog, barrel, organ pipe, and (I know this isn't a cactus but) ocotillo.
5) Sleeping bobcats are reeeeeally cute. I know, I know. But they are.
6) I don't like prickly-pear-fruit candy very much.

[identity profile] datagoddess.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Sounds like it was a lot of fun :-)

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
It was terrific! :-) Yay! :-)

[identity profile] quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad you apparently had a good time!! :-)

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 10:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I sure did, thanks! :-)

[identity profile] wcg.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
I knew you'd been to Tucson when I saw your later entry (closer to the top of my friends page) that said your hotel was at Speedway and Stone, and you'd run to Broadway. I can't begin to guess how many times I've walked, driven, or ridden my bicycle over that stretch of road. I'm glad you liked it.

Tucson has grown amazingly since I first saw it. (23,000 people in December of 1959) But it's still a beautiful oasis in the desert. I'm smiling, typing this and thinking of the old pueblo.

[identity profile] cjsmith.livejournal.com 2003-04-21 10:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Its continued growth is readily apparent today -- houses going up all over the outskirts of town, rental complexes offering "We'll Pay the Movers"... the place screams "possibilities" all over it. (Well, that and golf courses. I wonder how Tucson, still on an aquifer that's rapidly sinking, will deal with its growing water usage.)

[identity profile] wcg.livejournal.com 2003-04-22 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
Water has been a problem there for as long as I've been going to/living in Tucson. The way people used to deal with it was by water conservation. But some of those golf courses don't seem to understand that idea, and the population has also grown by quite a lot. I don't have any idea what the long-term plan is for water.

[identity profile] harpwolf.livejournal.com 2003-04-23 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
No kidding! I was just in Tucson last Thursday. Passing through driving from Texas to home, I really was determined to visit the Pima Air Museum and tour the AMARC facility where they store over 4000 military jets, some for reflight, others for scrap. Very very cool, though the sight of all the doomed planes might make you sad.