In and around Tucson

I grew to like the Tucson area when son Eric went to the University of Arizona here. I've spent the past few days poking around.

San Xavier del Bac Mission

Jesuit missionaries built the first church at the Tohono O'odham Indian settlement of Bac in the year 1700. The present mission was built from 1783 to 1797 by the Franciscan Fathers Juan Bautista Velderrain and Juan Bautista Llorenz. It is believed that the Tohono O'odham people supplied the labor for the building. One of the towers was never finished. No one knows why.



The adobe exterior is a stark white that seems to glow against the blue sky.







And inside ...









Gilbert Ray Campground, Tucson Mountain Park

So this was what I was forced to look at out my back window at this place ...


























Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

This wonderful, mostly outdoor museum lies within Tucson Mountain Park. It seeks to foster an understanding and appreciation of the Sonoran Desert which covers over 120,000 square miles of Arizona, California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. The museum is a combination zoo, botanical garden, and natural history museum.

The museum deserved more than the hour or so that I gave it, but I got these shots, including dim ones of a mountain lion and a Mexican wolf.








University of Arizona

You can see why Eric chose to go to school here when you see the palms swaying and ripe oranges hanging from trees. He did well here, while admitting that at times he felt he was on vacation at a resort.






















Catalina State Park

This is a nice park and campground just north of Tucson. Tracey and I stayed here last year when we came out west. I made it my base of operations for a couple of days. State parks are great because they are usually in remote, natural settings, are very quiet, and have huge campsites.












That roadrunner was nice enough to sit still for a photo, but too shy to face the camera. I didn't see Wile E. Coyote around.

Theo and Sabine

While at Catalina, I met my neighbors Theo and Sabine from Germany. After traveling all over Europe in a camper, they sold their restaurant last year and embarked on a world tour. They had their German-made, Ford-powered RV shipped to Nova Scotia and have been touring Canada and the U.S. Next they go to Mexico and then plan to ship the RV to Australia. When I asked Theo if they planned to settle down again in one spot, he replied "Maybe in about ten years."

My hat is off to them.