Monday, November 20, 2006

Campo di iDoc (Arizona, day deux)

Morning, sunshine! How was your night?


Temperatures went down below 10C last night, and the sleeping bag mostly did its job. By "mostly" I mean that most of my body was very comfortable, except for my feet, which were mostly numb. By "mostly" I mean that I couldn't move them or feel anything but pain because it they were SO DAMN COLD.

Home sweet home. I ended up spending three nights in this park.


Woke up a little after 8:00, when it started to get hot inside the tent. Oddly enough, it was still cold outside. The desert is funny that way. It's now 9:30, and it's pretty hot in the sun, but nice and chilly in the shade. Took morning shower, made some tea, and set things up in the car so I have a comfortable seating position in the back, where I can type this poetry and people-watch through the open "liftgate" which is what the car's dashboard calls the fifth door. Like this:


Look! It's my toes!


Wildlife was not the highlight of this trip. Besides two rabbits and a snake I ran over when I drove into the park the previous night (sorry about that), I don't remember seeing anything more exciting than a few of these at Catalina, but I was pretty excited to see this guy. Yep, the bird guide I brought with me confirmed it (you're not really surprised I brought a bird guide, right?): it's a real life roadrunner! I took plenty of pictures and chased it all over the place taking videos. It did not go "beep beep". Just my luck - a broken roadrunner.


But enough oddly silent bird. Today is cactus day! And this is just the parking at the park exit. Check out that beautiful Cherokee and that way, way big cacti. I love saying cacti.



The days are short and I wasted a lot of time every morning with my relax-with-some-tea-and-cookies routine, plus my get-lost-in-Tuscon-because-I-don't-have-a-map trick, so I had just enough daylight for a drive through Saguaru National Park. Please hold for lots and lots of cactus pictures.

My God, it's full of cacti!


Artsy.


I'm a cactus too! This would be a good time to tell you that almost every picture of me on this blog was taken with a time and a mini-tripod, so in most of them I'm actually breathing heavily from running back and forth between the camera and my spot. Press the button, listen for the beeping, RUN, hit your mark, turn around, pose, run back to the camera, check the result, mentally mark a spot 2 feet to the left, repeat. 3-4 times.


Where does he get all these wonderful cacti? Don't mind these Batman references, they're for my amusement only.


Wow, Henry. It's just so big!


If there's a huge rock, I must climb it. If there's also a nice easy path going up and shade at the top, that is. My expression is saying "The car thermometer says it's 90 Fahrenheit, and I have no idea why I'm still in these stupid jeans."
They stank so thoroughly at the end of that day. Check out that beautiful silver Jeep by that pansy white truck.


There are about 50 more where these came from. CACTI!

Time to look at the Let's Go and see where I'll go tomorrow. WHAT?! Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is RIGHT HERE IN TUCSON? I gotta go see! The nice park ranger let me know that while the base isn't very accessible, they've opened a museum since my 1998 Let's Go was published. It closed 15 minutes ago, but you can see some of the base through the fence. I'm there!

10 minutes later, a quite literal squeal is heard in our Jeep. Muh-muh-muh my God, it's, it's full of

PLAAANES!!!

Thousands upon bajillions of them! AIYEEEEE!!!!
If airplanes were Indjuns , this place would be the sacred Crow burial grounds, and I would get Jeremiah Johnsoned.
Go on. Click those two pictures and count the tail fins. You know you want to.

Orions!


Crusaders! And that lone Viking! And there in the background, are those...


Yes, rows and rows of Starlifters.


And a broken F-111


And SLUFs


I sneaked (not "snuck" - I looked it up) closer to the active part of the base and found this B-1 waiting for me. Yummy.


But I was running out of daylight, and it was time to drive back to Catalina. And to overdo the sunset pictures again.



Aren't we the coolest?


Back in Catalina. Got me some gas for the lantern, cooked myself a nice warm dinner and hit the sack.


And I wasn't quite as cold as the night before.

No comments: