Today we elected to take a cruise into the desert surrounding Tucson, particularly Saguaro National Park’s western unit. Virtually all the plants in the desert have evolved various mechanisms to protect themselves from other life forms that want to chew on their leaves, stalks, fruit or fleshy surfaces. They also have developed amazing structures such that they can withstand freezing winter and broiling summer temperatures. Most of the defensive mechanisms involve spines. Typically, the plants are dull green or exhibit dormant phases that make them appear to be dead.
However, it is not freezing at night right now and it has recently rained so all the desert plants are flowering. There is now a riot of flower colors in this otherwise tough, challenging environment. In order to see the greatest variety of amazing colors, we decided to pull into Tucson’s Desert Museum. The Museum is not really a museum or a zoo but sort of a combination of the two. They have an extraordinary collection of animals that are distributed in attractive enclosures (most of them shady and well-ventilated) spread across a very scenic side hill covered with their stunning botanical collection. The animals are all indigenous but the plants have origins all over the world. It costs $20.50 per head to get in but, to us, the price seems more than fair.
After wandering around the site until we were pooped, we left the Museum and went to Costco in Tucson to re-stock our liquor supplies. We have finally arrived back in a state where liquor is easily acquired at a reasonable cost. Our recent forays through New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma have taught us that acquiring liquor in Arizona and California is much better than doing it in states with Baptist-like restrictions on commodity purchases.
Peggy had spotted a Chinese restaurant on the internet that offered sushi, Mongolian barbecue, Chinese food and strange desserts, all in one place. It is called New Town Buffet and, surprisingly, the food was pretty good. I may have lined up at the trough one time too many but the food was tasty despite making me feel as if I were going to pop. It costs $11 a head. I give it a B+.
We arrived back home way after dark and, after transporting our Costco loot into the trailer, I fell asleep and am unable to tell you anything more about today’s activities.
We did snap a few photos today on our foray through the desert. You can see some of them if you click here