Lazy Days KOA, Tucson, AZ - Part 1 - March/April 2015

Tucson

We arrived at the Lazy Days KOA RV Park on March 5, 2015. We came here for several reasons. There is a week-long Escapees RV Rally we wanted to attend and Mike also signed us up for a three-day “boot camp” so Sharon could learn more on the technical aspects of RVing.  Although Mike knows a great deal about the technical/mechanical aspects, he always learns something new! Escapees is an RV member organization, one of many that we belong to, that hosts rallies throughout the country.

Picknicking outside our RV with friends Steve & Joann

Tucson was centrally located and the Lazy Days KOA RV Park was a great home base to see all that the surrounding area had to offer. We were actually amazed at how quickly our activity schedule filled up. We arrived here on March 4 and stayed through April 22. And while we were here we stored the RV and Jeep for a two week trip to Sarasota.

Escapees 3-Day Boot Camp

The Escapees RVers’ Boot Camp was held from March 5 through March 7 just prior to the Rally. It was a wonderful way to increase our RV confidence to a whole new level! It was well worth it, especially for Sharon who learned so much more than she already knew! Plus we met our new RV friends Joann and Steve from Ft. Worth, Texas and Jeanne and John from Madison, Wisconsin.

Mike, Joann & Steve in Boot Camp Class

New Friends, Steve & Joann with the same RV we have

Mike stopping to see drone demo

Lunch & Beer with RV friends, Joann, Steve, Jeanne & John

Pima Hall - Most Boot Camp Classes held here

One of the most interesting classes was the fire safety class. The instructor stressed that we have 20 seconds to get out of the RV in the event of a fire. Although we are well equipped with fire extinguishers, the fire in an RV is too dangerous to try to extinguish.  Instead, he suggested we practice getting out of our RV fire exits. Depending on where the fire is, we could escape through the front door, or the fire exit windows in the bedroom or living room. We opened them to be sure they operated correctly and Mike has put a PVC pipe above the window to prop it open so that we can escape, feet first out the window. Now we need to practice our procedure, making sure the Jeep is equipped for a fast getaway and that we have an emergency bag with keys, phones, money, credit cards and other important information ready to grab and take with us!  

Escapade 2015 Rally

The Escapade Rally was held at the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson from March 8 through March 13 and RVers come from all over the country to participate. The emphasis is on RV education and how to improve your RV lifestyle and a great place to meet new friends.  It offered a huge variety of seminars and workshops, afternoon socials and evening entertainment. We took some classes together and some separately. The seminars ranged from RV Steering and Electrical Systems, Fire & Life Safety, Detailing the Outside of the RV, Organizing your RV, Emergency Preparedness, Your Android Camera, and Blogging. Sharon also had the opportunity to participate in the Craft Show to sell some of her jewelry and met several new jewelry RV friends!

Food trucks and Vendor Products

Red Cross Disaster Preparedness Class

Final Gathering of all attendees at the Rally

Sharon at her Craft Booth

One day we sat on a bench to watch people. A woman passed by with a funny shirt. As far as we can remember, the shirt said 'Careful or you'll end up in my next novel.'   So we said hello and talked with Judy Howard who is an author and RVer. After the death of her husband in 2004, Judy became inspired to pursue writing and traveling. Her first book, a memoir titled, “Coast to Coast with a Cat and a Ghost” is an inspirational and uplifting account of how to survive after the death of a loved one. She has several books and ranks in the top 10% of Amazon’s Author ranking with her books. You can find her at www.judyhowardpublishing.com or www.facebook.com/judy.howard.716.

After watching the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away, Judy created a life-sized doll like the Wilson (soccer ball) character in the movie. The doll represents her husband who would become her companion, along with her cat, Sportster! We hope to see Judy on the road again, somewhere, someday!

Author Judy Howard, her cat Sportster & her ghost husband

TUCSON

Tucson is the second largest city in the State of Arizona and is located just 60 miles north of the US-Mexico border.

Old Town Artisans

One day we took a drive downtown to see Old Town Artisans, a historic city block with whimsical gift shops, jewelry, fine art and native arts and crafts. Old Town Artisans is located on the site of El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson, the fort built by the Spanish in 1775 to stake claim to the northern frontier of New Spain. As we strolled through the shops we noticed original ceilings made of saguaro cactus ribs, packing crates, and whiskey barrel staves with remnants of imported wallpaper and gold-leaf moldings.

We ate at a local Mexican restaurant named El Charro Cafe where we enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Arizona State Museum

The Arizona State Museum is located on the campus of The University of Arizona. The day we visited there was an outdoor Native American Art Show going on with a lot of beautiful jewelry. The museum was founded in 1893 when Arizona was still a territory. It is the oldest and largest anthropology museum in the region, home of the world’s largest collection of Southwest American Indian pottery, and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Arnold and Doris Roland Wall of Pots showcases 150 choice specimens from the museum’s renowned 20,000 whole-vessel collection and tells the story of 2,000 years of pottery-making technology in the American Southwest and northern Mexico.

Photographer Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952) spent 30 years recording images of indigenous peoples west of the Mississippi River, an impressive collection of the     North American Indian. 

Tucson Botanical Gardens

One morning, before it got too hot, we toured the Tucson Botancal Gardens.  In addition to the variety of gardens, we especially enjoyed the Tropical Greenhouse which is home to an exotic tropical butterfly exhibit that spans eleven countries. The butterflies, including the blue morpho (which would never land long enough to get a photo), Priamus birdwing, atlas moth and owl butterfly, live among the blooming plants in the greenhouse, including orchids, hibiscus and bromeliads. We had to enter and exit the greenhouse through a secured two-door process so the butterflies did not escape. It would result in a $25,000 fine if any one butterfly were to escape. The butterflies are obtained from their countries of origin as chrysalis'. Each butterfly species has a unique host plant that is necessary to reproduce. Since the gardens does not have any host plants, the butterflies are guaranteed not to be able to reproduce. The greenhouse also featured some very colorful and elusive dart frogs!

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

This museum is a must see. It took us about four hours.  Bring a hat, water and comfortable walking shoes. The best time to go is in the morning when it is cooler and when the desert animals are most active. 

The Desert Museum is a 21-acre nature park located adjacent to the Saguaro National Park West.  It is part zoo, part natural history museum and part botanical garden brimming with the distinct fauna, flora and ecology that Southern Arizona is known for. We walked several looped trails through habitats of desert animals like chuckwallas, roadrunners, javelinas, koatis, pumas, and Mexican wolves. We saw animal presentations featuring desert mammals and birds and the desert’s distinctive venomous lizards and snakes. We also enjoyed the Raptor Free Flight demonstration where native birds-of-prey fly so close you can feel the brush of feathers as they whiz by! Here is just a sampling of the many things we saw during our visit.

Gunnison's Prairie Dog

Javalina

We especially enjoyed the hummingbird aviary which included other color birds as well. 

Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures

When Mike found information on this museum he was intrigued and when we visited we were pleasantly surprised at the huge permanent collection of over 300 miniature houses and roomboxes in three main galleries, spanning over 10,000 square-feet of exhibit space. There were tiny versions of everything you could imagine, from all over the world.

The galleries transport you to different lands and times through the history and stories presented by the artifacts in the collection.  The Enchanted Realm gallery is filled with fantasy themed miniatures and collectibles; The World Gallery showcases contemporary miniatures depicting life around the world; and The History Gallery offers a glimpse of daily life in the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th century.

Miniature 18th Century Violin Maker's Shop

The Collector

 

 Here is a collection of sterling silver miniatures.

 

 

 

The following are miniature figures with replicas of their jewels.

Mt. Lemmon

We took a scenic drive from the Sonoran Desert floor up to the alpine forest of Mt. Lemmon in the Coronado National Forest. It is located in the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The temperature dropped about 20-30 degrees as we reached the top at over 9,000 feet elevation. Bicyclists braved the traffic as they ascended and descended Mt. Lemmon.

Cool Car!

Look out for Bears!

Sabino Canyon

On a tram tour we learned that twelve thousand years ago, Columbian mammoth roamed in Sabino Canyon. About 1,200 A.D., irrigation dams were placed in the creek by Hohokam Indians. In the 1870s, pony soldiers from Fort Lowell enjoyed horseback excursions to the “ol’ swimmin’ hole” still in use today.  In the 1930s, 180 C.C.C. workers built bridges and 3.8 miles of road up into the Santa Catalina Mountains. Many varieties of birds, deer and other animals make their home here in the Coronado National Forest.

 

Saguaro National Park

We had never seen the towering multi-armed cactus that is seen in Western films, that grow only in Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico. So we took a hike in the Saguaro National Park-West in the Tucson Mountain District. 

Saguaros grow very slowly, mostly in spurts in the summer rainy season. By year’s end a seedling may measure only ¼ inch. After 15 years it may be barely 12 inches tall. At about 30 years saguaros begin to flower and produce fruit. The creamy-white, big, bold, and numerous flowers color the desert from late April through June. Each bloom opens after sunset in the cool of the night and then wilts and repeats itself night after night. By 50 years the saguaro can be as tall as seven feet. After 75 years it may sprout its first branches, or arms.  By 100 years the saguaro may reach 25 feet. Saguaros that live 150 years or more attain the grandest sizes, towering 50 feet and weighing 16,000 pounds or more, dwarfing every other living thing in the desert. These are the largest cacti in the United States. The saguaro has been called monarch of the Sonoran Desert.  Since 1933 this extraordinary giant cactus has been protected with Saguaro National Park.  We discovered that the desert plains, mountains and foothills are much more beautiful than we ever imagined.

Gambels Quail

Sharon wanted to see a beautiful sunset highlighting the Saguaro cactus, so one night we took a drive and found a cactus with the sun setting behind it. It was beautiful.

Sonoran Glass School

Mike's fascination with glass blowing brought us to the Sonoran Glass School where we found a student and instructor blowing some glass...always interesting to watch!

Since we stayed in Tucson for a month, this blog was split up into three parts. Be sure to see Part 2 on Southern Tucson and Part 3 on Phoenix.

Mike & Sharon