Southwest Tour, September 2008

Just as it started to cool down for Fall in Michigan, I arrived in Tucson, AZ, where it was sunny and hot, hot, hot! Actually I arrived during the monsoon and had to wear my rain gear, the only time I used it in the entire trip. Here is one of the Art Deco buildings in the Old Town historic district.

There are quite a few murals on the 6th Ave. commercial strip near the university.

It is not difficult to see the anti-Anglo sentiment, I wonder if these murals were painted after the construction of the border fence began.

Unfortunately, I was not able to make it down to South Tucson, said to closely resemble Nogales, Mexico (which is less than an hour drive south).

Here is the Hotel Congress, where John Dillinger and his gang of Chicago mobsters were arrested.

In the mid-19th Century, a group of Mormons wanted to trek from Missouri to California. They asked the federal government for assistance with their move, and in response the feds enrolled the men in the army to patrol the area during the Mexican War. It was an arduous trek through the mostly vacant desert, and when the Mormons actually met up with Mexican soldiers and civilians in Tucson, they ended up trading with them for food.

Another colorful mural on 6th Ave. I doubt that Frank Zappa would consider himself a hippie.

Here is Old Main, the oldest building on the University of Arizona’s campus.

Apparently the market demographic is quite different from Ann Arbor.

When the grad students found out that it was my birthday, they took me out to this colorful place called The Meat Rack. It looked like a pawn shop from the outside and was kind of like a biker bar version of Chuck E. Cheese. The proprietor is a real character and you can have 50 cents off drinks for life by getting a hot iron brand of his face in caricature.

Egged on by his colleagues and ethyl alcohol, one of the grad students gets his discount pass.

I, however, got a free bottle of champagne with the owner’s face on the label.(You didn’t really think that was ME in that other picture, did you?)

The Coronado National Forest, just north of town. Saguaro Cacti abound. Soon there will be more microchips here than at the Apple store, as the forest officials crack down on Cacti rustlers.

Rugged landscape.

We bushwhacked down the hill and climbed over the rocks to get to this little stream. Fresh running water is quite a rarity in these parched parts.

Old wood bleached by the desert sun.

These sights are just 20 minutes drive from town.

Here is the view outside my hotel window, I saw them water the golf course late at night.

Those living in northern Tucson have the best views of the mountains.

Grand Canyon

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