Arizona - Tucson
March 25: Benson, AZ to Tucson, AZ
As the drive from Benson to Tucson is only about 45 minutes, we relaxed in the morning. We chose a campground about 10 miles west of Tucson. The owners of the campground have elaborate cactus gardens throughout the campground and we have an end spot right next to one of the gardens. The TV reception is terrible because there are mountains between us and Tucson, but the area is so pretty, we decide to stay anyway. We drove into Tucson and are surprised by how big the city is and how much it is growing. There are subdivisions going up everywhere. Beautiful mountains surround Tucson. We stopped at Camping World to pick up some RV supplies and made a brief stop at the visitor center to find out spring season baseball game ticket availability and other attractions. The giant saguaro cactus grow everywhere along the sides of the road – the area is really pretty.
March 26: Tucson, AZ
We were up early and drove the car down to Organ Pipe National Park, 150 miles one way. We spent the day hiking the trails and driving the 30 miles of scenic dirt roads in the park. The cactus is really fantastic and we took lots of pictures. The wildflowers are unusually abundant because of all the recent rain and some smaller cactus are in bloom, but the large organ pipe cactus doesn’t bloom until May. The organ pipe cactus grows only a couple inches a year and doesn’t bloom until roughly six feet tall. We were stopped for an ID check by the border patrol because the road through the Park is a direct route into Mexico and a common illegal alien route.
March 27: Tucson, AZ
Happy Easter! We relaxed with the Sunday paper and then went to an Arizona Diamondback’s spring training game against Kansas City. The weather was fantastic – high 70’s, sunny and no wind for a change. Arizona slaughtered Kansas City. Back to the RV for a nice Easter ham dinner.
March 28: Tucson, AZ
Jack played golf at the municipal golf course and I didn’t feel like playing, so I just rode in the cart. It was a beautiful day, but on hole #10, we would have had to wait an hour to start the back 9, so Jack got a refund for 9 holes. We stopped at Camping World again to get valve extenders so we can check the inside dual back tires and the other tires without having to remove the hubcap each time. We walked around downtown Tucson a little and visited an artisan center. Back to the RV to do errands – laundry for me and odds and ends around the RV for Jack.
March 29: Tucson, AZ 
Visited Old Tucson Studios where many western movies and TV shows were filmed. We enjoyed a couple of shows, and took a guided tour. Again, we thought this would be a quick hour stop, but we spent all morning and half the afternoon.
Afterwards, we drove out to Saguaro Park – West and drove the six-mile scenic loop through the park. 
Saguaro Cactus don’t produce arms until they are roughly 75 years old. Wrens, woodpeckers and elf owls often live in the cactus. The fruit ripens and are harvested by Tohono O’Odham Indians who use the fruit to make a jelly and a sweet drink. We hiked a 3½ mile trail that was mostly deep sandy wash – really tough walking and we were exhausted when we finally got back to the RV for dinner. 
March 30: Tucson, AZ
We spent the entire day at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, which is a combination zoo and horticultural center. We first took a 1 1/2 hour guided tour and learned a lot about local plants, geology and animals. We then walked around seeing the exhibits and watched the Harris Hawk free flight program where trained hawks fly out over the desert. It was spectacular to see these elegant and dramatic birds.
March 31:
Tucson, AZ
Today we drove up to the Biosphere 2 after running errands at Camping World and the UPS store. Biosphere is the closed environment where people lived for two years (1991-93) to see if they could sustain themselves. It failed because they could not generate enough oxygen, and now the place is essentially closed except for us tourists and we were told it is for sale.
It consisted of giant greenhouses that were divided into rainforest, savannah and desert areas with an artificial ocean between them. Some of the exhibits weren’t functioning and others were outdated. The story of the biosphere and building tours were interesting and a nice change of pace from the outdoor hiking we’ve been doing. 
April 1: Tucson, AZ
Happy Anniversary to us!
We visited the Titan Museum where the ICBM is in the silo. We toured inside the silo where we saw the monitoring station. This is the last ICBM in a silo as all the rest were destroyed as part of the Russian-American nuclear reduction program.
We made the scenic drive through the east side of Saguaro National Park, but it isn’t nearly as impressive as the west side. We went to an Italian restaurant on the east side of Tucson to celebrate our anniversary. Jack gave me a stylized Saguaro cactus to commemorate our trip and anniversary.
April 2: Tucson, AZ
Today we returned to Saguaro West and hiked the trail recommended by the ranger for a lot of wildflowers. It was a great hike and the day was beautiful.
