Cacti & Canyons Mar/April 2015 - Day 1 Biosphere and Tuscon

[katiebaz]

Thanks to our old friend jet-lag, we were all awake hideously early. I was awake from about 3.30am trying to get back to sleep, but at about 4am I noticed Daniel stirring and asking what time it was. I tried to shush him but soon Steve was awake too, so we amused ourselves watching US news and having a cup of tea or 3. We love American news and weather, especially they are all so happy and cheerful. Well I suppose when the forecast is hot and sunny, you are bound to be cheery!

Bang on 7am when breakfast opened at the hotel, we were there ready and waiting. The "free" breakfast at Country Inn & Suites is one of the better of the US motel chains with lots of fresh fruit as well as the usual bagels, toast, muffins etc. They also do hot items and Steve got very excited when he could see chicken gravy, potatoes and biscuits were available!

That morning we were heading to Tucson in southern Arizona and decided to visit the Biosphere 2 on the way. The Biosphere is the remnants of an fascinating project where a group of people were sealed in these domes with different habitats inside for up to two years to see if they could survive by growing their own food and creating their own oxygen etc. The idea being could the human race survive on another planet? The domes are now used by the University of Arizona to study the effects and changes in different habitats and were also the inspiration for the TV show Big Brother. We drove to the Biosphere along a road known as the Cactus highway and each side of the road were millions of cowboy cacti for miles in each direction. They looked just like the ones in cartoons or western films and were so beautiful as they were flowering against the clear blue sky.



We had a tour of the Biosphere which was interesting although our guide was a bit waffly and it was over 90F which made concentrating on the tour a bit difficult at times! We were intrigued and a little wary when upon leaving one of the domes our guide went first to bang her stick on the ground in case of rattle snakes!



After our tour we headed off to get lunch and were all starting to feel really tired. The 4 am start was starting to take its toll. As we drove through small desert towns, we struggled to find anywhere to eat and ended up in a MacDonalds in Walmart not far from Tucson. We had planned to visit Tucson studios where many famous films such as Young Guns were made, but tiredness got the better of us and Daniel wanted a swim, so we decided to head to our hotel to have a nap and cool off in the pool.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites and were checked in by a really friendly receptionist, who was interested to find out where we were from and gave some great suggestions for dinner that night. We took her advice and went to eat at a local restaurant called Rustys which looked like somewhere out of "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" i.e. nothing from the outside but superb food. Steve and I had delicious brisket of beef whilst Daniel stuck with his favourite, Grilled Cheese and the bill came to just $30. After that we headed back to the hotel, indulged in the warm free cookies and soon all fell asleep.

[CrispyA]

Sounds like a good day - love the cowboy cacti in Arizona!

[Cloverlady]

Great day!

I just love cacti!
Joshua trees and cholla were my faves on our trip.

Do you mean by cowboy cactus the tall ones with like an arm coming off it? Saguaro?

If so I'm gutted we never saw ONE of these on our trip!
We saw plenty of other ones including the other most popular seen ones, the prickly pear ones, but no saguaro .