science day

Yesterday was a quiet day around the RV, trying to keep out of the heat.  Sometimes you rent a movie for a rainy day, but this was the first time we rented a couple of movies on a sunny day. A HOT sunny day.

Today we left our tour of Biosphere 2 for a hot windy day. The tourist information office in downtown Tucson was selling Tucson Passport booklets at a cost of $15.  In the passport was a 2 for 1 deal on entrance fees for the Biosphere.  Since the entrance and tour was $20 each, we saved $5 by using the passport. We both felt that $40 for 2 was high for what the tour was.

Lower Habitat

You have to take the tour in order to have access to most of the facility, and the tour does not lend itself to anyone with special needs like wheelchairs or strollers.  The University of Arizona is presently managing the facility under a lease agreement with the private owner.  They operate the tours and of course have their own science experiments ongoing,  as do visiting schools and scientists.  It was opened to the public in 1990. There were two periods in the early 1990's of isolation habitation by scientists in the Biosphere - one time for a 2 year period, and another about 6 months.  The interesting fact to us, was that just shortly after the 2 year period began, there was not enough oxygen to sustain the inhabitants.  They had realized that the massive amounts of concrete used for the buildings and 'rocks' inside had not fully cured and was using up some of the oxygen. A sustainable normal amount of o2 is 21%, and they were at 14% when it was decided that oxygen from the outside needed to be added.  Donald and I are not scientists, but having built a house and other things, we do know that concrete takes time to cure, and in that time, it needs certain conditions and will use air.  So, our little theory is that they were rushed in the initial building of the facility and rushing the 2 year Experiment, and as such, made an error.  However, errors are also interesting and a learning thing.

The ocean dome

It was good to do something different other than a desert museum or activity of the 'southwest'.  There were neat new experiments that we found interesting to us, one of which was solar. There were different solar panels up and running, and by covering part of the panels, you could see how efficient they were, based on their type of manufacture.  Turns out our own solar panels are fairly efficient!

So, now on the agenda is some time for a couple of personal decisions we have to make and tomorrow, we hope to meet fellow bloggers Jim and Gayle.
They are hopefully moving back to Catalina State Park in the morning - yes there are spots here!!!!

4th Avenue Street Fair of Tucson

Man it was a hot one today!  An early start to the day with taking on the Catalina Farmers Market nearby and then heading off to downtown for a walkabout and then the Street Fair on 4th Avenue.  There is a Visitors Bureau downtown and we thought it would be a good idea to ask a couple of questions ( namely parking for the fair ).  The Tourist Information Centre is in a beautiful little square, but hard to find with poor parking - good thing we didn't have the rig with us.  While Don went for a coffee in a shop next to it, I sat under a tree in the square.  While waiting a young woman came up to me, with big expensive cameras, and showed credentials that she was a photographer with National Geographic. She asked if she could take my picture - what mine???? She ended up taking about 25 pictures.

On our walkabout, we found a little museum of the early settlers and natives of Tucson, right in the midst of new modern downtown office buildings. How cool was that? Well, wish it was 'cooler' as the temperatures were climbing to 96F!!!

We thought Quartzsite was a crazy big street fair event, but The Tucson 4th Avenue Fair is huge, with about 6 city blocks closed down and two rows of booths down the middle of the street.  There were the stores, art galleries and restaurants open on each side of 4th Avenue and then an additional 400 vendors as well as music stages and more food vendors.   We quite enjoyed it, but with the temperatures that high, no breeze - where is that howling wind when you need it?- and walking on blacktop streets, whoo weee it was quitting time by 3 pm.  An iced coffee sure hit the spot before we made our way back to the shuttle.  Sky Bar, on 4th, is entirely run on Solar power with big screens on the wall inside showing their current watt input and some other data.  Again, cool stuff with cool coffee!

Tomorrow is to be equally as warm ----

Where Legends Walked

The day started off with a plan to go to Camping World for some X Chock braces for the 5th wheel tires (done) and then a driving tour around Saguaro East National Park.  We drove up the Gates Pass Road where no RV's or vehicles over 20K lbs are allowed and it was beautiful.  At the bottom of the road was Old Tucson Studios and we decided to stop there for lunch before heading off to the Park.  Well, we had no idea that this place was simply remarkable and FUN! We spent all day till about 5:30 just there. If you go to Tucson, this is a must do. Without a doubt. Over 300 movies, television and music videos have been shot here. The whole attraction is very professional, and extremely well done. So much for stopping just for lunch.

Billy the Kid forms an outlaw alliance with Dirty Dave Rudabaugh

We saw a number of 'shows' throughout the day and they were all timed so that you could go onto the next show without rushing and be very relaxed.  There is a hesitation to talk too much about it, as it might spoil your visit!  We laughed, we sang, we cheered, we were scared ( Haunted Mine Tour) and there was even a walk up Margaritas to go window!  Good on a hot day.

I took a short video clip of part of the Wild Wild West Show - if you have mifi or limited usage, best give 'er a miss, pardner! It's just a shortie, but this show was based on Secret Agent Jim West and Artemis Gordon and their enemy.  

There was not one show today that we did not enjoy, and each one was so very different.  My favorite was The Secret of Santa Maria which was a comedy  in front of the Mission Movie Set. Hilarious.

If you had a day doing 'old west' activities in southern Arizona, my advice would be to miss Tombstone and do the Studios.  I think tomorrow we may have to rest up!

Wilderness in the City

It feels like we are way out in the desert here at Catalina State Park, and yet, out the entrance of the park is In and Out Burger and Walmart.  There is not really any highway noise, either.  Pretty perfect for a city stay.

catalina state park, tucson, arizona

Since it was a short drive day, we got set up and then headed off to Sabino Canyon, a National Forest Park.  It is beautiful there, and you can take a tram in a couple of directions to hiking stops, small beaches on the river and other sights.  We got to use our Annual Access Pass once again, so we are very pleased with the decision to spend the $80 for a years' pass.

Tomorrow we have a couple of ideas of places to see, but we'll decide in the morning.  And here's today's bird photos:

Mr. Cardinal hanging out at Sabino Canyon Bird Identification Display, Yep.. he's on there!

Thanks Kevin and Ruth!

Kevin and Ruth did some more research for us, and have found out why we were refused.  ( Thanks, guys! )Yes, we did not know it was on an active military base, however, we were encouraged to visit the museum, bowling alley, cafe, etc on the Yuma base so thought this would be no problem. Our mistake.  We were encouraged by the brochures and tourist offices to visit the Fort.  End result: we perhaps should have been informed by the tourist information places that we would not be able to visit and also, there should be some sort of information at the bottom of the many pamphlets about the Fort about who is eligible to visit.  Enough said, no worries.  ( it also would have been helpful if the main gate attendant had not said "welcome, please pull up ahead to get your day pass"). It was the second guard who stopped us, and was annoyed at the first one. Well, it was interesting for sure.

We have looked ahead and there are wind warnings of 55 mph gusts for New Mexico for the next few days.  We have amended our travel plans, which are flexible anyway, to travel to Catalina State Park in Arizona to enjoy some further things around the Tucson area.  Looking forward to that.

I also finally go around to registering for the Boomer group of Escapees.  I can't understand why I have no time to do these things!!!!(ha)