Touring the Grand Canyon State
(A word of advice about the photos on the next several web pages: if you click once on the small thumbnail, a larger version of the photo will appear. If you move your cursor off the larger version, then back onto it, an icon will appear in the lower right of the photo. Clicking on the icon will expand the photo to the maximum size your monitor can accommodate. Several of the photos are worth the trouble, IMHO. -- Jim)
Reed was closing in on his induction date, April 1, so we decided to take one last fling together. I had two free airline tickets and some vacation time built up. Arizona beckoned. We responded, landing in Tucson March 12. Harold and Linda Legreid gave us some suggestions for things to see in southern Arizona including a trip through the Saguaro National Parks (East and West). (http://www.nps.gov/sagu/)
We rented a Ford Ranger and put on over 1,600 miles. Took lots of photos,
too, including several at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum ( http://www.desertmuseum.org
) which was really more of a zoo than a museum as there were many live animals
in natural habitats on site.
We were enamored of the many kinds of cacti in Arizona, all of which are painful
when you get too close to them. Kind of like some people I know. The
saguaro cactus is the most picturesque, in my opinion, both because of its size
and longevity. They say these cacti do not grow their first arms until
they are 20 years old, and many of the "old men" are nearly
centenarians.
We took photos in the west park in the afternoon, had supper, then drove to the
east park but didn't get to see much before the sun set. We crashed early
and got up at 6:00 a.m. so that we could be at the east park again when the sun
rose. Trouble was, there are mountains on the east side of the park and we
had to wait 45 minutes for the sun to peak over the crests. By then the
light wasn't as conducive to good photography as we had hoped.
We ate a good breakfast and headed south to Minuteman Missile
Museum. 