New bird , shades fixed, beautiful sunset

I have to start today's entry with a shot I took last night of the Moon and Venus. I think the photo is beautiful and dramatic. A short time later, we checked the sky and the Moon was no where to be found. Wonder where it went?

When I was heading back to the rig after showering, I heard this beautiful song and looked up and saw a gorgeous bird sitting in the tree tops. After a few minutes of listening and watching, I decided I better get back to the rig and grab the camera. This bird was too beautiful not to get a picture. I went down the road and just listened until I heard the beautiful song and I found my bird. After taking a few pictures, I headed home. A couple of volunteers commented on my taking pictures and asked to see the pictures. The bird is a male Vermilion Flycatcher. Oh, joy!!!! I was thrilled to learn of its identity because next to a Northern Cardinal, I really wanted to see this bird. I guess I have a thing for red birds.

When I got back to the rig, I showed John the pictures and then we set out to see if we could find him again. Once again, his song drew me to him. John had to agree that this was a banner find and how spectacular his color is in person.

After breakfast, we decided to tackle the re-stringing of our day/night shade that broke a while back. We were tired of not being able to look out that window. Actually, working together, the process was painless and took less than an hour. Now, we can look out all of our windows again. Ah, the simple pleasures.

The afternoon was quite warm at 87 degrees so we just enjoyed sitting outside the rig watching the birds and the antics of the hummingbirds. The warm day brought out John's desire for ice cream so we headed off to Dairy Queen to share a Blizzard. The place was very busy so I guess it wasn't a very original thought.

John has been in pursuit of getting a picture of the Kestrel that hangs around here but once again, couldn't get close enough for a good picture. There is always tomorrow.

I thought I would share two pictures with you of the beautiful coloring of the evening sky that happens most evenings at sunset.

Hope your day was glorious like ours was.

Sabino Canyon Recreational Area

After a late start this morning, we decided to take the drive to Sabino Canyon Recreation Area. Sabino Canyon is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains and is about 12 miles from downtown Tucson. A paved road runs 3.8 miles up into the canyon and crosses over 9 very narrow bridges like the one shown below.

There are shuttles that runs up and down the canyon every half-hour and costs $8 per person. You can get on and off at any of the nine stops. You can also walk up the canyon (almost all uphill) or take any of the trails with only paying your $5 park admission. We decided that takng the shuttle up and then walking down was more appealing. We also were treated to some of the history, legends, flora, and fauna of the park. Our shuttle broke down just past Stop 3. We had to wait about 15 minutes before a replacement shuttle came to the rescue and then we were off again.

The white tree to the right of the bridge is an Arizona Sycamore. The cottonwoods are a bright green and we were told they consume about 200 gallons of water a day.

Winding through the canyon, you are greeted with magnificent views of the meandering creek, riparian vegetation, saguaros growing out of the canyon walls, and towering rock formations.

At each of the nine stops, there are picnic areas and some with nice beach access. Different hiking trails are also easily accessed from some of the stops. The NPS (National Park Service) was making sure to advise everyone that there has been some Mountain Lion activity that they are concerned over and handed out information as to what not to do if you encounter one and whom to notify. Good reason not to venture to far off the main road in my opinion. The locals come up to Sabino Canyon in the summer to enjoy cooler temperatures. We read that the canyon can be 10-15 degrees cooler than Tucson in the summer.

This is the first Prickly Pear that I have seen with fruit.

Look at all the greenery that is visible on the mountainside. I'm sure it won't be this green in a few months time.

We thought these wild flowers look like California Poppy's ... no idea if that is what they are.

We rode the shuttle up to the last drop-off area and walked the 3.8 miles down. It was very interesting to see a desert environment but hear the sounds of rushing water.

No cars are allowed and the only transportation in the canyon is the park's shuttle. Bicycles can ride the road only before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. everyday except Wednesday and Saturday. It was very nice to be able to walk down the road without having to worry about cars and since you heard the shuttles coming, it was easy to get out of their way.

Pretty little butterfly enjoying the nectar from the little yellow wild flowers.

We were almost back to the Visitor's Center when John spotted this saguaro and noticed something odd about it. The large hole on the left arm appears to have something in it. In enlarging the photo, you can see that an owl (we believe a Great Horned Owl) is resting inside. Pretty neat, we only wish we had our binoculars with us (we left them in the car, go figure).

Thankfully, it wasn't as warm as it had been a few days ago or the walk down the canyon would have been hot, hot, hot. The hats, sunscreen, and water all made the walk pleasant as 99 percent of the trip down was in the sun.

I wouldn't hesitate to take in the canyon again; it is definitely worth the trip to see. One word of warning is that the parking lot is quite small. We had to tour the parking lot a bit before finally finding a spot. The earlier in the day, the better for getting a parking spot. Also, there is another shuttle trip to Bear Canyon (part of Sabino Canyon) that we did not take. Darn, wish we had. This park is open 24 hours a day. Many people will hike up to the creek near dusk to view animals as they come to the water to drink. The shuttle driver said that it was rather spooky walking out of the canyon at dark imagining that you are under the watchful eye of something. I'm sure you would be!

We got home and chilled the rest of the evening. John took so many pictures that it took some time to go through them and to select the ones I wanted to post to the blog. Hope you enjoyed them.

Scouting rv parks

We decided to head out to check out a couple of RV parks on the southwest side of Tucson. The first RV park left something to be desired for us. However, right next door is a one-year old park that had a nice vibe. We spoke with one of the owners and we will be able to get a site that looks out onto the desert when we have to leave here on the 4th. We will have a multitude of trails to hike from our site. Pictures to follow next week. We will also be close to the Tucson Studios, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, and the western part of the Saguaro National Park. This will be another short move but will give us a totally different view of Tucson.

We headed home and as I was a couple of days behind on posting to the blog, it took me several hours to get caught up. That's what I get for being busy for the past couple of days.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Don and Sue headed out this morning to Yuma so we said our say goodbyes and wished them safe travels. We will miss their company and hope our paths will cross again.

I'm not a great botanical gardens fan but when I read that the gardens was having a Butterfly Exhibit, I told John I wanted to go. Luckily, with our Tucson Passport, we were able to save $$ as the Butterfly Exhibit itself was $11 per person. This month, all the butterflies are from North and South America. We walked in to a 90 degree humid room with hundreds of butterflies flying around. It took the warmth of a blow dryer in the exhibit to get our camera defogged. I made up this collage of the different butterflies. Some were just too difficult to get a picture of as they were always flying around and when they landed, they would close their beautiful wings. I was lucky enough to have one land on my leg and hang out with me for several minutes.

John heard that about 40 a day emerge and 40 a day die. You could stand outside another building and watch them come out of their chrysalis. Due to glare, we couldn't get any good photos.

After the main event, we strolled through the gardens. There are 16 specialty gardens within 5 1/2 acres. There were some unusual cacti and we've included photos of the ones most interesting.

Here is a Mexican Old Man
Pincushion
Medicinal Aloe
Another type of Aloe
And another type of Aloe
Beautiful bloom of some unknown type of cactus
Bristly Pear

John had been told by another camper that they had seen a Great Horned Owl in the same place two nights in a row. So we headed off just before dusk to see if we would have any luck ourselves. Nope but we were given a beautiful sunset over the Catalina Mountains.

PIMA Air & Space Museum

John loves airplanes especially WWII planes so we had to visit PIMA Air & Space Museum. With your Museum Admission included is a walking tour with a docent or you can go it alone. We opted to take the walking tour which turned out to be a mistake for us. The docent was an ex-pilot and knew his planes but he went on and on and on. After two hours and only 3 hangars, my brain was fried. I told John that I would happily wait outside to enjoy the afternoon and to go ahead and enjoy. While I waited, I decided to walk through the small Presidential airplane that transported President's Kennedy and Johnson. It was rather interesting but compared to current pictures of Air Force One, it was very spartan. Then again, it was probably pretty high class for the 1960's. John shortly joined me as he also had enough. Besides, he was hungry. I mentioned that we could return after lunch because our hand was stamped but he said he wasn't interested. He was a little disappointed with what he saw. When we return to Tucson next year, we will return to PIMA but this time, we'll take the tram tour , the 309th AMARG Tour (plane boneyard), and use our own feet.

Here is a shot of the Visitor Center and Hangar #1 and the Spirit of Freedom Hangar.

In the background is an exact replica of the Wright brothers plane. We got a fairly detailed description of how the plane was made and flown as well as the events at Kittyhawk. The white plane at the top is the type of plane that John Denver flew on his ill fated flight over Monterey Bay, CA.

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Martin Seaplane
SR-71 Blackbird
B-18
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Planes, planes everywhere!
General Eisenhower's plane - Lockheed Constellation.
WACO trainer
B-25
Hawker Hurricane
One of the Presidential Aircraft on display. This is not the one I walked through.

After PIMA, we found a place for lunch that was close to the airbase. We were pleasantly surprised as we had a very good lunch and cheap lunch. Then we were off to Camping World trying to look for string to re-string one of our day/night shades that broke and a light bulb for our outside light. We were partially successful as we got a replacement bulb. We then stopped at another RV store but they didn't have any either as they usually send their clients shades out for restringing. We stopped at Home Depot and picked up some string that we hope will do the trick. Right now, we have to wait for a "good day" before we tackle what looks like a frustrating job.

After dinner, Don and Sue came over and we played a couple of games of Wizard. We sure had a good time playing the game as well as socializing with them. Don and Sue are lots of fun to be around. Laughter and an occasional moan abounded around the table all evening. Being card game challenged (never played card games as a kid), the game isn't difficult to learn but it requires strategy and luck and sometimes one blows the other out of the water. It is a great card game.

Stayed home

John has been biting at the bit to get out on his bike to try the big bike lanes around here. He headed up Highway 77 while I went for a two mile walk. John said he spent an hour going uphill and a half-hour going downhill back to the park. I guess it was some ride.

After lunch, I spent an hour and a half working on yesterday's blog until the frustration got to me. I was having problems with downloading pictures, I finally had to join John outside to enjoy the afternoon to get away from the irritation. After a while, I came back in and gave the blog another try. FINALLY everything worked the way it should.

We settled in for the night after dinner to watch some Academy Awards . . . nope, we haven't seen any of them.

Oracle SP, Biosphere2, and cards

This morning we had a Gila Woodpecker that was in the tree being very vocal. The bad John thought it would be funny to play the Gila Woodpecker bird call from inside the trailer. Before along, we had a Gila Woodpecker hanging on the Hummingbird feeder looking inside the rig. She flew off once she saw our movement. We then went about our business and when I went by the window, she was once again hanging on the Hummingbird feeder but it looked like she was trying to put her beak in to one of the flowers. Well, we at least know that the bird call is a good one.

We decided to do some exploring of the area north of us so we set out for Oracle State Park. The map we had looked like it was along Highway 77. It wasn't, so we overshot it by several miles. We backtracked to the town of Oracle and found the state park. It has a number of hiking trails but the terrain was nothing that called to us.

We then headed south and decided to stop at Biosphere2. If you allow your mind to wander back to 1990, you will likely recall this experiment. First a little history, a venture that was backed by billionaire, Edward P Bass, began construction of the current facility in 1986 for the purpose of research and development of self-sustaining space colonization technology. In 1991, there was a mission where there were eight people sealed inside the glass enclosure for two years. Another mission in 1993 had a total of seven Biospherians sealed inside the closure. Their missions were to measure survivability while at the same time, develop useful research to help to further better ecological understanding. The University of Arizona now has the stewardship of Biosphere 2 and will use the facilities to support research and perform key experiments at quantifying some of the consequences of global climate change.

Before the tour started, we sat in on a presentation by Edward Beshore, Senior Staff Scientist, of the LPL/Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona. The presentation was on "The Search of Near Earth Objects". Actually, it was quite interesting.

Once the presentation was over, we were off for the tour. As you walk toward the main complex, you see the huge glass building that houses the rain forest.

Here is a picture of the habitat. The tall building houses the library. The only way up is 120 steps and offers an outside view of the whole complex. With all the glass and a direct view downward, we were told that it can cause anxiety attacks so they don't allow the public to go up.

This is a shot of one of the desert climates in the Biosphere...there are three different climates.

A scientist was doing a study on Pinon trees to see why they are dying at such a rampant pace. Some say it is due to a particular beetle but the scientist says it is due to the prolonged drought which has weakened the trees to where the beetle is destroying them. The question is why is this drought different from what the trees have experienced forever. His results are to be available on Biosphere2 website sometime in April.

John was most interested when we got to go in the basement and got to see the equipment that temperature controls everything in the Biosphere.

The Biosphere even has an ocean with fish.

The Biosphere has a beautiful rain forest. I like this shot which shows the filtered sun through the mist of the rain forest.

Another shot of the rain forest.
This large, long tunnel lead in to the South Lung.
Here is a picture of the interior of the South Lung.

This is an outside shot of the angled tunnel that we had to walk through to get to the South Lung.

A shot of the West Lung.
These buildings are part of the Habitat and is being prepared to grow who knows what.
Threw in this shot of the cactus on the grounds with the beautiful purple color.

We got back home and settled outside for a while. Later in the evening our neighbors, Don and Sue, came over to teach us to play the card game Wizard. We had a good time and will hopefully get a chance to play again before they leave on the 23rd.