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| the city of Tucon from Sentinel Peak, at dusk |
From everything we heard, city size, climate during winter
months, and other criteria (please see
http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2012/01/wow-slowing-down-taming-our-bucket-list.html),
Tucson was in fact getting to be at the top of our list. Excited, we went to inspect
6 RV Resorts and chose 3 finalists (Voyager RV Resort, Far Horizons RV Resort,
and Western RV Resort) for an interim settling period called snowbirding. In
the next three years we plan to keep our RV for visiting family and friends
and places we want to go back to (July to September), staying in a winter haven
RV resort during the cold months (October to March), and making trips to Europe
and Asia (April to June).
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| Tucson Mountains |
Tucson (city population more than half a million, SMSA
almost 1 million) is a modern metropolis already with the demographics of what
the US will be in 2050 (non-Hispanic whites as minority). Sentinel Peak is an easy to access vantage
point for an aerial view of the city. Two districts of the Saguaro National
Park conserve fine tracts of the Sonoran Desert, including ranges of
significant hills, the Tucson Mountains in the west and the Rincon Mountains in
the east. The park gets its name from the large cactus of that name which is
native to the region, the largest of which grew to 75 feet tall and 10 feet
wide! For American Indians it represents a man reaching out to the sky! Much
like the Joshua trees of California.
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| the flistening Biosphere 2 |
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| Bill at the South Lung of Biosphere 2 |
With the University of Arizona located in Tucson, the state
now has the only Biosphere2 in the planet, designed to mimic Biosphere 1 (the
earth). It is an amazing venture started in the late 1980s by the Texan
billionaire Edward Bass who put in $250M to create this infrastructure with five
different ecological systems: tropical rainforest, savannah, marshland, ocean, and
desert. In the early 1990s, 8 Biospherians (4 women and 4 men) lived there for
2 years and learned much about human ecology. The University of Arizona has
recently expanded it to include LEO (Landscape Evolution Observatory). The main
thrust today is to study the conservation of water on earth, one of the key
ingredients to life.
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| LEO: Landscape Evolution Laboratory |
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| Mission San Javier del Bac |
The influence of the Spanish and American Indians is very
evident in many places in Tucson. The Mission San Javier del Bac is a beautiful
white adobe church, one of two notable churches in honor of St. Francis Xavier.
It was founded in 1692 and internationally recognized as the finest example of
Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States, much evident in the rough
but gilded altars and saints. We heard mass there on his Feast Day, Dec. 2 and
witnessed men happily lighting ground fireworks, like when it’s New Year in
Manila. And what a delicious lunch we had that day, with all the Mexican/Indian tiendas
selling hot local frybread with carne de seca!
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| the Mission at Tucumcari |
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| Chapel de San Pedro |
Other fine churches are the Cathedral of St. Augustine,
completed in 1868, housing the Diocese. Another charming chapel, the Chapel of
San Pedro, belonging to the Old Fort Lowell Neighborhood Association, is
frequently used for weddings and belongs to the National Register of Historic
Places. South of Tucson is the Tucumcari Mission built in 1691. There the trail
of missions started on to California by the Spanish Anza. We also visited Barrio
Historico which featured so many old colorful adobe homes with many cacti
growing around their perimeters.
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| the lights were best at Elvira's |
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| molcajete with side beans and guacamole |
Tucson is also a base for some interesting towns, notably
Tombstone where the Battle of the OK Corral happened and is still regularly
played out every day for tourists. We visited the town three years ago enroute
to Mexico, only 60 miles from Tucson (please see
http://rvcruisinglifestyle.blogspot.com/2010/11/exploring-southwest-part-2.html
). We also went to Tubac, famous for its fine furniture and craft making and
where thousands of lights mark its Iluminaria Night on Dec. 7 & 8 every year. At Elvira's, Mexican restaurant since 1927 we had molcajete with flank steak and cactus that kept on boiling in a volcanic bowl until we finished it! It tasted MUCH better than it looked! Bisbee,
the setting of several mystery novels Bill has read was a real magnet, too!
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| another one of those stairs in mysterious Bisbee! |
Base number two, Tucson, is definitely a contender. It is a
big enough city, the winter weather is fine, there are good hospitals and
educational institutions, there is LA Fitness (which has bought Ballys) where
we can use our lifetime fitness membership, cheap Mexican goods are easily
available, taxes are low (thus a Redbox movie rents for only $1.10 whereas
other cities do so at $1.30!) But we will suspend our decision until we can
finish the three other bases in Arizona -- Phoenix, Yuma, and Bullhead City, and
the bases we will find in southern California next year! Home-hunting is
exciting!
