Tucson, Visiting Old Friends and Old Beginnings

We left Phoenix Tuesday morning after a visit to Jiffy Lube for an oil change and set out for Tucson 120 miles away. A familiar landmark on the way was Picacho Peak, were a Civil War incident took place.  The road is very flat between the two cities, but just like the road between Colorado Springs and Denver, the road was wider and busier than we remembered.

Picacho Peak

Cactus replace trees along the highway.

We landed in north Tucson Tuesday afternoon, found an rv park convenient to our friends, and headed for the pool for the first dip of the vacation.  It has been a fast paced tour till we arrived in Arizona.and it has been good to slow down and visit with friends. Now a soak in the pool cemented the fact that we were truly on vacation.

Jeannie and Tom Baxter: Elaine met Jeannie in her freshman year of high at Good Counsel in White Plains, New York.  They became quick friends.  When we moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona in 1974, Elaine found out that Jeanie also had just moved to Tucson to also attend UA. Old friendships were caught up and we spent the next four years sharing occasional pot luck dinners.  Jeannie met and married Tom and settled in  Tucson.  Jeannie and Tom have a beautiful patio home on the north side of Tucson with minimal outside upkeep(jealous am I!)  Jeannie prepared a wonderful lazgna dinner and we shared and caught up on our life stories.

Elaine, Tom, and Jeannie

When we first visited Tucson, Elaine was a research editor for Readers Digest in New York.  She paid for her trip by combining business with pleasure with an interview with the Director of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum.  A visit to Tucson is not complete without a visit to the Museum.  Just the trip out into the Sonoran desert to get to the museum is worth the trip.  We headed out through Gates Pass, surrounded by huge slopes covered with Saguaro Cactus, passing also the old movie studios at Old Tucson where John Wayne filmed his famous westerns.

At the Desert museum.

Advanced acoustic research in a cave in the museum.

Someone once told me that organizations are not static, they are either growing or shrinking.  The University of Arizona is definitely growing.  Old Main and the Mall were the same, as were the the Physics building.  But gone were the old Mechanical Engineering lab buildings where I changed my daughters diapers in my lab/office. The new Aerospace and Mechanical engineering building was awesome.

The U of A mall center of campus

Old Main, U of A campus

New Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering buildings

Elaine enjoying the mid-day heat.

A trip to Tucson is not complete without a picture of "A" mountain.  "A" mountain is a little hill west of downtown where the university students white wash a huge letter "A" and also hang glide off the hill.  Of course in these times the white wash has been replaced with red,white and blue colors.

"A" Mountain