Author: Tony
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Tucson Botanical Gardens
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Given Lisa’s love of plants, we had to make a stop at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. This one was really unique and did a nice job of showing off the flora of the Southwest. It was small, but very tidy and well laid out. Highlights for me were the area integrated with working model trains…
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Sights and Sounds Around Tucson
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Snowbirding this year led us to Tucson for the entire month of January, soaking up its unique charm; e.g., hiking blisters and cactus thorns. The Crazy Horse RV Park on the south side was our base camp, where the camp sites were packed in tighter than a jar of pickles. But don’t worry, we hit…
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Tucson Gemstone and Mineral Shows
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Unbeknownst to us before we arrived, Tucson is home to the most prestigious gemstone and mineral shows in the US. They run for 2+ weeks across a number of venues. We spent a few hours today at the Kino Gem and Mineral Show. We chose this one because of the size and the fact that…
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Saguaro National Park – A Hiking Paradise
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After Meeting the Saguaro at Saguaro National Park, we returned a few more times for additional hikes. The park is divided into a west area and east area (with Tucson in the middle). The west side is the Tucson Mountain District, and the east side is the Rincon Mountain District. Lisa and I can attest…
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Biosphere 2 Revisited
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About an hour north of our base camp in Tucson is the home to Biosphere 2. Originally built in in the early 1980s as a closed-system experiment, it is now owned by the University of Arizona for the purpose of research and education. Lisa and I first toured the facility in 2017 and it is…
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Titan Missile Visit and a Special Dinner Out
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Back in June of 2023, Lisa and I paid a visit to the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site in South Dakota. While there, we toured the Launch Control Site, which included a trip underground to the see the Launch Control Center that was responsible for 10 or so Minutemen Launch Sites (aka missile silos) in the area. It…
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Goodbye 2025, Hello 2026
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Hello Tucson! We had an easy drive from the state park and found a laundromat near the University of Arizona stadium. Laundry day again, ugh. It was nice to drive through the area; not a game day so traffic was light. Fry’s is a nearby grocery store that gives discounts to students on Tuesdays. Nice…
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Day Trip to Tombstone
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The historic town of Tombstone, Arizona is a 30-minute drive from our site at Kertchner Caverns so we took a day trip to see what all the hype was about. Tombstone The town of Tombstone provides lots of free parking to visit their blocked off western-themed main street. Parking was plentiful when we arrived midmorning…
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Rockhound State Park
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When Rockhound State Park opened in 1966, it was the first US park to allow collection of rocks and minerals for personal use. It still does today. Visitors are allowed to keep 15 pounds each. Lisa found a few interesting rocks yesterday along the trail. We saw a more serious rockhound quite a ways off…
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From Alamogordo to Rockhound
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We said goodbye to Alamogordo this morning, but not before helping the KOA staff gather up some of the 900+ luminary sacks they had put out for Christmas Eve. It was a nice morning and we wanted to stretch our legs some before our relatively short drive (134 miles) to Rockhound State Park south of…