As agreed, I was to accompany Dar to a photo exhibit of John Gutmann’s work at the Center for Creative Photography, as she had visited Biosphere 2 with me a day earlier. After seeing Gutmann’s fine work, we were going to split up. I dropped her off at the Tucson Museum of Art, where an Ansel Adams exhibit was showing, while I drove the 30 miles south to Sahuarita, Arizona to experience the Titan Missile Museum. First however, the Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson, awaited our arrival.

Hotel Congress

I’d been to the Hotel Congress once before, but hadn’t truly appreciated its place in US history.

Located in downtown Tucson at the corner where Congress Street, Toole Avenue and Fourth Avenue all converge, Hotel Congress was built in 1919 and is located directly across from the former Tucson train station. Club Congress, a venue in the hotel, started in 1985 as a place for local artists to showcase their art and today has been dubbed “One of the ten best rock clubs in the United States”. I vaguely recall having a drink in the adjoining “Tap Room” when I first visited the hotel back in 2006.

Dillinger

It was January 22, 1934 when the Hotel Congress entered the history books after a fire led to the capture of John Dillinger and gang. Dillinger used Tucson, and the hotel, to lay low for awhile after a robbery in a nearby town, but a fire forced them out of their third story rooms via an outside ladder. Firemen were offered $50 to retrieve the “well dressed easterners” suitcases, which were later found to contain more than $23,000 in cash. The fireman recognized the men from a True Detective magazine and notified authorities. Within 5 hours, they were captured by the local authorities without firing a single shot. All Dillinger had to say was “I’ll be damned!”

Hotel Congress is home to a very neat little coffee bar called The Cup, featuring some great home made pies (huge home made pies actually) and a very unique floor. In keeping with the theme of the Copper Hall dining room, The Cup coffee bar’s floor is made up of thousands of copper pennies. A new addition to the hotel only recently, off the coffee bar entrance towards the former train station (now Maynard’s Market) is a huge outdoor patio.

As Dar took photos in The Cup coffee shop, one fellow left the room and headed out to the patio. A few minutes later, after visiting the restroom facilities (a throwback to 1919), we went outside and Dar continued to photograph. The same fellow from before, now got up and took his coffee back inside. I guess he simply didn’t want to be in the background of any photos.

A-10 Warthogs

I’m not a fan of war at all, but the technology of it all fascinates me. Our first RV park in Great Falls Montana was built on the edge of an Air Force base and we woke to the sounds of F-15′s taking off. In Phoenix, we were within 5 miles of Luke Air Force Base where we had groups of five F-15’s doing maneuvers all day long from as early as 9 am. I spent one afternoon at the end of the runway watching them take off and land. One day, two Apache helicopters flew directly over my head while in the RV park and here in Tucson, it was to be A-10 Warthogs. They seemed to be taking off and landing in a constant stream overhead. It was brilliant to see. At one point, I’m sure I saw a Hercules overhead as well. Amazing machines.

Center for Creative Photography

It was a short drive from downtown Tucson to the University of Arizona campus where the Center for Creative Photography is located. It began in 1975, and with a budget of only $75,000, purchased the archives of Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, and Frederick Sommer. It’s quickly been expanded to include more, but on this day, we were here to see the exhibit of John Gutmann.

John Gutmann Photographer

John Gutmann Self Portrait in San Fransisco 1934

Gutmann was born in Germany and became a talented painter, exhibiting his work around Germany in the late 1920’s and early 30’s. He moved to Berlin, continued to paint and began teaching art. In 1933, he purchased his first camera and then fled Nazi Germany for the US. Within his first few months of owning a camera, he signed a contract as photojournalist with Presse-Foto, Berlin because they were looking for photos of American life.

His first base of operations was San Francisco where he joined a camera club in order to use their darkroom facilities and to meet other photographers. He began traveling through the US shooting depression era United States and attempting to sell them to magazines in Europe with little, but some luck. From what I remember from details at the exhibit, German magazines did not expect Americans to be enjoying themselves so much during the depression and Gutmann’s photos were not depicting the Americas the way they wanted to spin their stories.

It was interesting to see such great photography from the era and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Not knowing at the time that Ansel Adams had his archives located here, we heard there was some of his photos on display as well, on the second floor. We went up stairs to find a total of nine portrait photos. That was it. Short and sweet. We found out later than we could ask to see more if we wanted, but they would have to get them out and bring them to a viewing area for us.

Since his passing in 1998, John Gutmann’s archives are kept at the Center for Creative Photography along with many others since its original five. Please visit John Gutmann’s Official Website for an example of the photos we saw in the exhibit. For a complete understanding of the Center for Creative Photography, visit their website.

Before going our separate ways for the day, we decided on sushi for lunch. We had heard of a place called On A Roll Sushi just 2 blocks down the street from Hotel Congress and Dar really loves sushi, so we went back.  Dar has said on many occasions that if she were only allowed to eat one food for the remainder of her life, it would be sushi.

On A Roll Sushi was awesome. It was very quiet inside because we got there just past 1:00 so got very quick service. The portions were very large and the prices very low. An odd combination, but we were pleased.

As we sat enjoying our lunch, we noticed a “Guide to Tucson” in the front entrance way. I grabbed it and leafed through. On the back cover was an ad for The Grill at Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort where they were advertising Free Wine Tastings and Jazz Piano. “Fantastic” we thought and agreed that if we had time tonight, we might pop in for some wine. Tastings were clearly labeled as taking place from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.

We’re finding local city guides very useful. We learn about places and history that we’d not have known about otherwise. I tend to Google things myself, but do so after the fact. Dar likes the guides and leafs through them before we go. I think her approach is better suited to our discovery process. However, I find out much more about the places we’ve been after we go too. Both have their benefits. One clear benefit is the listing of current events and coupons for said events. We’ve saved a ton of money by using coupons and linked offers (ie: come to our exhibit and save $2 on a neighbor exhibit or food).

We split up after lunch and I dropped Dar off at the Tucson Museum of Art before going my own way.

Tucson Museum of Art

The Museum of Art is also located downtown Tucson, something I’ve come to appreciate about the city. It’s kind of like being in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, or an even smaller city. An Ansel Adams exhibit was on display and Dar’s reason for going. She spent hours walking around and looking at his work as well as sitting in on 15 minutes worth of an Ansel Adams documentary before heading out and a few blocks over to the Old Town Artisans village where I met her after my trip south to the Titan Missile Museum.

Visit their website to learn more about the Tucson Museum of Art.

Titan Missile Museum

Yesterday we drove 30 minutes north to the Biosphere 2 and today I was to go 30 minutes south to Sahuarita, Arizona. The Titan Missile Museum is located just off the I-19 that heads towards Nogales, the town on the Arizona / Mexico border. So far, at 43 miles, this is closest I have been to Mexico on this trip, but not in our RV.

(Photo Disclaimer: The Missile Museum photos are all taken on my Blackberry Bold 9000 2 Megapixel camera. I do what I can with 2 MP lol.)

As I turned off the highway, I drove past a Safeway on my left to the museum entrance. When it was built, the Missile silo was one of three in the area, and was in the middle of nowhere. There was nothing to show for it except for the 700+ ton door laid on top (I’m looking for the correct figure. If you know, please leave a comment.)

The “Top to Bottom Tour” is a 4.5 hour tour limited to 6 people, and done by reservation only. It’s on specific days and runs from 8:30 am till 1 pm and costs $70. They take you everywhere in the place including the sleeping quarters and directly beneath the missile. I had not booked a reservation and wasn’t wanting to spend the $70, so I opted for the one hour tour for $9.50.

The silo doors were fixed in place half open with the other half covered by glass that you could look down through. We entered the facility, descended the 55 stairs, through the security doors and were shown exactly what type of security the facility had when it was in operation. We entered the control center, where two operators of the four man team ran the controls and learned that certain areas of the facility were not to be entered without your “security buddy”. They were paranoid about everyone and everything. Nobody was to be alone in certain areas so that a rogue member couldn’t do any damage or sabotage the missile.

6000 pound blast door to Silo 571-7 The Copper Penny

The missile itself was kept in a refrigerator at 60F for its entire history at the location. Higher or lower temperatures could cause problems or cause an explosion of its liquid fuels.

We walked a long tunnel towards the missile silo. The walkway was suspended within the tunnel and designed to move both up / down and back and forth in case of a direct hit by enemy forces. The guts of the whole place was mounted on springs and would barely move if the earth around it did. No longer refrigerated, the door to the missile silo was open and while we couldn’t go out onto the “things”, we could look through it.

The huge springs that keep the control room stable during a direct hit

For nine and a half dollars, the hour long tour of the facility was fantastic.  I highly recommend it if you’re interested or in the area and see their website for more info.

Quite fascinating.

I drove back to Tucson to meet Dar. She had texted me that she was at the …

Old Town Artisans

Located in the El Presidio Historic District  of Tucson, is a little 150 year old building with shops and galleries in it. Dar found me outside in the courtyard and then brought me back inside one of the shops. As we moved through the shop to the back, we entered out into another shop. Various art, sculpture, jewelry and the like were in the buildings. At one point I realized we had entered four shops, but had not left the building. I asked one shopkeeper who directed me to the next shop over as the owner had been there the longest, 21 years.

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

We learned that the building we were in was actually the stables area of a fort built in 1775 to stake claim to the northern frontier of New Spain. The north wall of the Artisans shops is the location of the fort’s north wall from which Apache attacks were repelled.

Later, in 1888, the actual shop we were standing in, learning about its history, was used as a distillery.

We walked out and across the street to where the fort was but even though we were not able to enter, the building offered many great shots from the outside.

Another short walk south of the Artisans and we ended up at the Pima Consolidated Justice Courts building, a beautiful building itself.

It was just after 5 PM and we remembered the wine tasting at the Hacienda Del Sol from the Tucson magazine we had read. We bolted for the car.

Hacienda Del Sol

We drove through a beautiful part of upper Tucson, through what looked like wine country and multi million dollar homes. Up a short road to a wonderful piece of property, a valet met us in the parking lot. We chose to self park.

A valet! Wow, where were we?

We walked over and asked about the wine tasting. He directed us inside as they’d know more about it. Passing a fountain, and a pool down overlooking Tucson in the distance, we entered The Grill.

“Yes, we have tastings every Tuesday night from 5:30 till 7:00″

Great I thought

“Where do we start?”

“It’s Wednesday” she said, “the wine tasting was yesterday!”

Oh…. That’s the part I missed from the magazine. Tastings are on Tuesdays.

Darlene here: I thought afterward that I had read that it was on Tuesday, but just didn’t realize what day it was any more.  I thought that it was indeed Tuesday.  We do that more and more on this trip.

From the Hacienda Del Sol website:

A Tucson Landmark Since 1929

In 1929, John and Helen Murphey created Hacienda Del Sol, a desert retreat and “home away from home” ranch school for girls. The prestigious school’s roster boasted some of the country’s most elite families: Vanderbilt, Pillsbury, Maxwell, Westinghouse, and Campbell, to name a few. In 1948, Hacienda Del Sol was converted into a guest ranch that immediately attracted the Silver Screen’s most notable stars, among them John Wayne and Clark Gable. Legend has it that Hacienda’s Casita Grande was the favorite hideaway of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

Awards

Voted Top 30 Favorite Inns of the U.S., Travel and Leisure
One of the West’s Best Inns, Sunset Magazine

An amazing place to say the least. We looked around and took photos. I imagined how I would incorporate most of the layout of the Hacienda Del Sol into the plans for the home Dar and I would one day build in Canada’s wine country, the Okanagan.

This was one of at least 4 fire places like this that we counted

a photo I took for a friend from Belgium, Soledad Garcia

The Grill restaurant was built a little over 10 years ago and has won Wine Spectator’s “Best of” Award of Excellence every year since. We decided to skip our return to Fourth Avenue and instead have a glass of wine and an appetizer.

We were waited on by no less than five people, one of which was a young man named Sirius whom I got into a discussion with about the significance of his name and how it related to the pyramids and The Sphinx. We were even asked if we preferred lemon, lime or cucumber in our water.

Seriously under dressed, we kept our coats on to cover our t-shirts, but enjoyed the food and service. We would return here on our next stay in Tucson for a full meal and an entire bottle of wine. We left the Hacienda and headed back to Whispering Palms RV Park but dreaded another night of trains and little sleep.

Darlene here: Rob fails to mention that two glasses of wine, and two appetizers ran us over $60 with tax and tip!  But the experience was so worth it!

After one evening and two complete days, our adventure in Tucson would be coming to a close. We saw the Biosphere 2, the Desert Museum and the Saguaro National Park. Then the Hotel Congress, some Ansel Adams and John Gutmann photography, the Titan Missile Museum and then had the fantastic accident of visiting the Hacienda Del Sol. Words fail me in describing how that architecture and property layout will eventually be duplicated in our own home when we build it. One more night of a constant barrage of train whistles next to our RV park and then we’re off to Tombstone!

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Related posts:

1. Day 42 – Moved Out of Phoenix and Into Tucson
2. Day 43 – First Day in Tucson
3. Places Visited
4. Day 19 – Route 88 The Apache Trail

Darlene and I made a deal.  She would come with me to visit the Biosphere 2 if I would go to the Center for Creative Photography the next day with her.  So we drove north of Tucson for 31 miles to Oracle Arizona and walked into the place where 8 humans locked themselves inside a hermetically sealed environment for 2 years and 20 minutes back in 1991.

Biosphere 2

3.15 acres lies beneath a complex set of 6500 panels making up 7,200,000 cubic feet of  glass and sits on top of a 500 ton stainless steel liner.  Sealed on top, sealed below, the Biospherians would be breathing the same air and drinking the same water that they started with, for two complete years.

They had to live on what they could grow inside the structure and use nature, sealed with them, to create their oxygen and manage their CO2.

After paying $20 each to enter, half of which is tax deductible because it’s a donation to a University, we entered Biosphere 2 human habitat.  The kitchen was directly opposite the entrance door and to its right, the human living quarters.  Each Biospherian had a 2 story apartment like structure with a front room on the lower floor and a bedroom above.  A bathroom between units was shared by two people.

Inside the Biosphere 2 rain forest overlooking the 1 million gallon ocean

I knew Biosphere 2 had a rain forest and Savannah grassland, but did not know there was an ocean with coral reef within its walls.  We started in the rain forest, overlooked the ocean and then walked through to Mangrove wetlands and then the grassland a little lower.  Next was the Fog desert before passing by the Ocean.  A small ocean it was, compared to Biosphere 1 (planet Earth), but a bigger ocean than you’d expect inside a sealed environment. The ocean inside Biosphere 2 contained 1 million gallons of water. A million gallons! We were told that for fun, the Biospherians would climb the steps to the ledge and cliff dive into the ocean.

Biosphere 2 Ocean and cliff running up its side

Biosphere 2 Lungs

A friend on Facebook had shared with me his experience of the Biosphere 2 lungs.  I had a completely different picture in mind.  I thought the lungs would be some sort of accordion like device to pump and move oxygen like they did while digging the tunnels out of the prisoner of war camp from the movie The Great Escape. I was not prepared for what we were shown.

After walking down a very narrow passage, sloping downward away from the main complex, we entered a very large room.  In the center of the ceiling above was a 16 ton steel plate connected to the walls by a rubber type material that expanded and contracted with the pressures inside Biosphere 2.  The rubber material was similar to say a car tire, but obviously much larger to be able to support 16 tons of metal.  This room is massive to say the least.  The lungs were designed because of air pressure changes that took place over the course of a day within the sealed environment.

Biosphere 2 needed something like a bellows, a lung!

Biosphere 2 would heat up like a greenhouse and cool during the night and during cold, cloudy days. The expansion and contraction would subject the rigid steel and glass structure to enormous pressures as the air inside expanded and contracted. On a hot day, pressure would push out. On a really cold day, Biosphere 2 might implode.

Bill Dempster, Director of Engineering Systems, had an inspired solution, and in time Biosphere 2 got a pair of lungs, or “variable expansion chambers”. The two lungs took the form of graceful hemispheric white domes which protected the liner from wear and tear of the Sun. Both domes, 150 feet away from Biosphere 2 had underground air tunnels connecting them to the main structure. Inside each tank and connected to each tunnel, a gargantuan synthetic rubber membrane with a circular metal top moved freely up and down on a cushion of air.

As air inside Biosphere 2 expanded from the Sun’s heat, it flowed through the tunnels and into the lung, raising its top. As air cooled, the lungs deflated.

Excellent photos of the Biosphere 2 lungs and their construction are here .

We experienced the effect of this lung as a door to the outside was opened and the air was let out.  We were not in a sealed environment, so our Biosphere guide could show us how they worked.  When the door was opened, the steel plate began to descend.  He closed the door and it inflated again.  Something you have to experience to fully understand.  I had a new appreciation for the technology of this place.

So… just to be clear… that 16 ton plate in the variable ceiling above us (as seen in the picture) was being held aloft by air. If the windows in the environment above were all suddenly smashed, that 16 tons would come crashing down almost instantly!

Biosphere 2 had a second lung on the other side of the complex, but the one we were in served a second purpose.  At its bottom lay a water condensation capture tank that could also be used for fire suppression if needed.  As water condensed inside Biosphere, it made its way to the bottoms of everything (of course) and was then gathered at the lowest point, down here in the lung.  In case of a fire, they could turn on the pumps and use this water to put them out.  I’m pretty sure that’s how it all goes.

In the first two photos on this page, of the Biosphere and of Dar and I outside it, you can see one of the lungs at the far right hand side of the photographs.

My Biosphere 2 disclaimer: I am not an expert in the Biosphere 2. I saw it on TV when they were going in, I’ve always wanted to go there, have done so, am reading Jane Poynters book The Human Experiment and simply want to share my experience. I may very well have already messed up the order in which the biodomes appear on the tour, and that’s the way it shall be.  End disclaimer.

By the way, Jane Poynters book The Human Experiment, detailing her time before, during and after her time inside Biosphere 2 is excellent if you want to know more.  She lives in Tucson and is now married to one of the other Biospherians, Taber MacCallum.

We didn’t actually make it into the agriculture biodome where they grew their food, but we could see it.  It has since been emptied of earth, but can be seen from the human habitat.

Biosphere 2 Gym

I wanted to check out their gym and asked our guide a lot of questions about how many steps they may have walked in a given day around the Biosphere. I saw places in which they’d be able to get in a jog with a few sets of stairs in between.  I made a point of seeing where the gym was and asked what type of equipment they had access to.

I was told that they simply did not use the gym and the explanation made sense.  More so now that I’ve read The Human Experiment.

They almost ran out of oxygen, and simply did not have the energy to exercise above the work they were doing.  They were up at 6 am and went to bed shortly after their supper meal.

What happened was that they did not account for the effect the cement would have on oxygen and over the course of the first few months, lost 7 TONS of oxygen.  In what we were told was a conversation in passing, they realized it was the cement absorbing oxygen.  Our guide told us that they were talking with an expert by telephone about the problem and he said, “I don’t know of anything that would remove oxygen except for ____, ____ and cement”.  They were surrounded by cement.  All they had to do was seal it up and they stopped the oxygen loss.

Their oxygen level began at 21% when they went in and got as low as 14.2%.  Oxygen that low is similar to being at the same altitude as Mt Everest Base camp.  When I climbed to Base Camp back in 2008, I had intended to do push ups on various days during the climb, but based on oxygen levels (and resulting energy levels), didn’t.  I know exactly how they felt after putting in a day’s work.

Biosphere 2 Technosphere

Technosphere is a term the Biospherians came up with themselves.  It describes all the technology underneath the biodomes.  All the pipes, wires, tanks and everything else that’s not seen by anyone looking in, that keeps the place running.   Jane Poynter describes the technosphere of Biosphere 2 as the only place they could go to get any privacy.  Being inside a glass bubble, anyone curious to see what was happening inside, could and did make their way to the edge and look in.  The Technosphere was where they could get away from the cameras.

We ended our tour where we started, in the human habitat.

I made note of the design of the kitchen as I’d like to model some of its pieces into my own kitchen and then walked through the rest of the space.  We didn’t have access to their apartments, but a window has been put into one for us to look into.  The bathrooms as I said earlier, were available for tourists and I used one.  Had to, didn’t I.  Wouldn’t You?

I purchased The Human Experiment in the gift shop on the way out and have since learned more about the experiment, how it came to be and what they’ve learned from it.

Biosphere 2 was surrounded by so much secrecy and bad press at the time it took place.  So many people thought they were hiding things and were not play fair.  I did not follow it when it happened, but I knew the project was going on.  I’m so glad to have been there now, and seen it for myself.  I highly encourage you to check it out next time you’re in Tucson.

Arizona Desert Museum

I’d been to the Desert Museum before, and wanted to take Dar.  We were heading to the Saguaro National Park, and the museum was IN the park, so stopped for a walk around.

We saw Otters, beavers and a raccoon.  We saw bob cats, big horn sheep, mountain lions and a black bear (the new guy in the museum).  We walked into a hummingbird aviary and saw javelinas  (7 of them, sleeping).

There are at least 4 Javelinas snuggled up next to each other in this photo from the Arizona Desert Museum in Tucson

Wild quail that happened to fly in

Aside from the mammals, the Arizona Desert Museum takes care of over 40,000 plants representing 1400 different kinds. It’s a zoo and a botanical garden all in one place. Today was the day for Dar to photograph cactus, so when we passed by Cat Canyon, we had to do the loop into the Cactus Gardens.

bird on cactus

We rushed through the museum, I must admit.  Being married to a professional photographer, I’ve come to realize that you’re “always chasing the light” and we had to get set up in the park so Dar could get her shots of the Saguaros at sunset.

I was the one watching the clock and rushing her through as she photographed the animals and cactus, and finally the time came when we had to leave.

We moved on to…

Saguaro National Park

This saguaro is synonymous with the American west, but the plant is only found in select areas of the United States and Mexico.  Saguaro National Park, located just outside the city of Tucson, was created to protect some of these giant beasts. They have a long life span of over 150 years, and the arms themselves can take 75 years to grow. The saguaro blossom is the state flower of Arizona, and in Arizona, by state law, it is illegal to harm a saguaro in any manner.

Dar wanted to shoot an HDR photo of the Saguaro cactus in the setting sun.  I drove (slowly) down the road as she was looking for the right cactus and the right angle.  When we finally found our spot, we set up tripod and waited for the light.  And waited for the light.  And waited

When the day was done, we headed back to Tucson and decided to visit Fourth Avenue again and have some Guatemalan food.

Maya Quetzal Restaurant on Fourth Avenue

Dar had the chicken mole and I had some other sort of chicken.  Both dishes served with black beans and rice and is probably in our top 5 meals eaten on our trip so far.  We like clean whole food and Maya Quetzal provided just that for around $10 each.  If you’re looking for great vegetarian food in Tucson, this is certainly a place for you to check out.

When we left, our plan was to return the next day for another taste of items on their menu.

Spending time inside Biosphere 2 was amazing and something I’d encourage anyone to do when they’re in Tucson. The trip back to the Desert Museum was worth the time and the road leading out of Tucson to the Saguaro National Park is a fantastic drive to make as well. For Dar to have finally gotten the sunset cactus shots she wanted made me happy. Tomorrow, our last day in Tucson would be equally filled with adventure and a happy accident.

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Related posts:

1. Day 42 – Moved Out of Phoenix and Into Tucson
2. Day 44 – Hotel Congress, Titan Missile Museum and Hacienda Del Sol
3. Day 47 – Bisbee and Queen Mine Tour
4. Day 11 – Xmas in Phoenix

After 30 days at Destiny RV park in Goodyear Arizona, we said good bye to our neighbors Bob and Joanna, packed up and began the short 2 hour trip to Tucson Arizona. One quick stop along the way at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch to feed the Ostrich, deer, goats, mules and Lorikeets before pulling into the Whispering Palms RV Park, just off the I-10 and Prince Road.

Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch

Just south of Eloy Arizona, which is about half way to Tucson from Phoenix, and on a road running parallel to the I-10 we found a place Dar really wanted to go to, the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch.

We paid the $5 each for a cup of animal food which included a little cup of nectar for the Lorikeets and walked straight up to the Ostrich. I’d seem them from a distance when I was on safari in Africa, but this would be the first time I’d touched or fed one.

Dar wanted to get some ostrich photographs, so I distracted them with the little food pellets as she snapped away.

It was bound to happen, and I finally got bit. One big bugger decided that he wanted my whole hand and grabbed onto my finger. They’ve got no real teeth to speak of that I can tell, but their entire beaks clamp down and drag your skin off. My finger and thumb took the brunt of his “kiss”.

We noticed sore spots on their necks from where they were leaning their necks over the top of the fence and it was kinda sad to see.

Next to feed were the deer.

After feeding a few of them, Dar noticed that their hooves were curling up and way too long for their feet. I’d never seen that before either and we both stopped for a moment to consider what it was that we were doing. We believe that we “vote” on things by how we spend our money. We buy pasture raised chickens and organic foods, knowing that our choices in the food we eat are actually voting for a methodology. One BIG reason we do not eat fast food is because for every burger eaten, it has to be replaced and in replacing it, another animal suffers.

As we stood there feeding the deer, noticing their hooves, we both got a little sick.

As we turned to the goats and the donkeys, here too we began to feel more like we were making sure the animals got enough to eat rather than enjoying our time with them.

Lastly, we entered the Lorikeets aviary where we watched the birds play follow the leader. That was pretty cool.

Overall, I’d say not to visit the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, unless you feel strongly about feeding what seems to be some poorly fed animals.

Tucson Arizona

We pulled into Tucson and had a quick look at a couple of RV Parks just off the I-10 on Prince Road. We had nothing booked and were just flying by the seat of our pants here. Wanting a campsite for only 3 nights, we found that the rock and gem show was moving into town and the RV’ers had reserved all the spots.

We crossed under the I-10 to another area a few blocks away loaded with RV parks and found one able to accommodate us, called Whispering Palms RV Park.

We parked, got leveled, hooked up and then heard the train.

It was roughly 5:00 Monday night, so we thought we’d go for a drive downtown to scout out what we were going to be seeing over the next couple of days. The idea was that Darlene wanted to see museums and photo exhibits while I wanted to see the Biosphere 2 and Titan Missile Museum. Her sights were downtown Tucson, while mine were 30 minutes away in opposite directions.

Fourth Avenue Tucson

Stumbling upon fourth avenue in downtown Tucson was not an accident (see Fourth Avenue website for more info). We compared it to Whyte Ave on Edmonton’s south side or fourth avenue in Vancouver’s Kitsilano district in that it was a collection of whole food restaurants, head shops, alternative music and book stores and a very cool organic food co-op called “Food Conspiracy” where we stocked up on goods for the coming week.   We immediately felt at home.

Fantastic Organic Food Co-op on Fourth Avenue in Downtown Tucson

We noted a few possible places to eat and one Guatemalan restaurant stood out above the rest. We popped our head into a couple of the shops while walking up and down both sides of the avenue and then headed back to our RV for the night.

Just as we closed the RV door behind us, we heard the second of many more trains go by. Not sure where the “Whispering” in “whispering palms” comes from exactly.

Images in this post are available for purchase on the Her View Photography online gallery at Zenfolio.com.

Related posts:

1. Day 43 – First Day in Tucson
2. Days 12-18 – Destiny RV Park Phoenix
3. Day 11 – Xmas in Phoenix
4. Day 44 – Hotel Congress, Titan Missile Museum and Hacienda Del Sol