A Last Day in Tucson

We finally had our last day in Tucson. I know – you thought it would never happen. We’ve noticed that the number of views on our blog have decreased over the week. Apparently, we are staying too long in once place for you people!

Arlo and Jay, my parents’ friends from college (and our new ones), stopped by this morning for a look at the Airstream. We partook of a lovely breakfast of coffee, tea and shortbread while we visited. They are truly wonderful people and I could have talked to them all day long. We hope to see them again soon, although we’re not really sure how that’s possible, but as Elise says, “There’s always hope!”


Elise and I get ready to defend our fort. You can see our snowman in front of us.

Taking advantage of the snowfall in the Santa Catalina mountains above us, Elise, Emma, Bobby and I drove up to Mt. Lemmon for a snowball fight. Each team built a fort and a snowman holding a sword. As the “war” progressed, I was able to break through Bobby and Emma’s fort with my snowballs but Bobby did a pretty solid job decapitating our snowman. Not to be vanquished, Elise stood on his remaining torso and batted incoming snowballs away with her stick. Emma did a great job destroying my snowballs that were aimed at Bobby. She was double-fisted with her sticks, so my snowballs didn’t have much of a chance.



We have a few last minute errands to run tomorrow morning and then we will head west and south to Organ Pipe National Monument. Part of the reason we delayed our departure to tomorrow was to get our camera cleaned. We have had a dust spot on the sensor for more than a few months now. Bobby tried to fix it with some compressed air and instructions from our friend Ralph, but only managed to put two more spots on. So Bobby dropped it off at the camera shop this morning and will return tomorrow to retrieve it. The pictures from today are compliments of Elise’s camera.

Organ Pipe should be interesting. Part of the Sonoran Desert, it is on the border with Mexico and is a high traffic area for illegal immigrant crossings. All of the park websites and rangers tell you not to aid or engage with people who are crossing illegally. Unfortunately almost all of them are completely unprepared for the reality of the crossing. They dress in multiple layers since it is cold at night but then shed them during the day, many times leaving the extra clothes behind. Then the next night comes and they have nothing to keep them warm. The other issue is water. They never bring enough. How can they? The standard given for hiking in the desert is one gallon per person per day. I would be hard pressed to carry that much for just myself, let alone whoever else might be with me. Humanitarian stations with water and medical supplies have been set up in the desert by groups who want to help the immigrants. The park service overlooks these stations since they really aren’t supposed to be there, but they understand the basic kindness these groups are trying to provide. It is becoming an issue between groups who want to help, like No More Death, and groups who want the illegal immigrants to go away. You see signs and bumper stickers all over Tucson saying, “Humanitarian aid is never a crime”. It’s a tough topic and you can look at it in many, many ways. I think there is no easy answer.

There really is no way to thank Rich, Eleanor and Emma for their kindness and hospitality this week. They have cooked meals for us, folded our laundry, taken us to many cool and interesting places here in Tucson and Rich even played his ukulele for us! He and Bobby got busy on “The Galaxy Song” from Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” that was very entertaining. There’s a niche somewhere out there for those two, we just haven’t found it yet. So a big thanks to Rich, Eleanor and Emma for a great week. We hope to meet up with you in an actual campground next time!



We will have no hook-ups in Organ Pipe, which we’re pretty sure will mean we won’t have wifi. So you might not hear from us for a few days, but we promise not to forget you. We’ll post as soon as we can.