tucson.

as i drove into tucson, i put on a desert rat cd "trickle in the canyon." the music is all about his time living in tucson and things that took place in tucson...probably in the mid-90's. it is some pretty good music and i dont listen to it enough. i wish that i had more of his albums on cd.

anyway. this is my second day here, i came in and called my friend steev who i am staying with. he was working when i called so i went and checked out the botanical garden. i have become pretty good at sneaking into botanical gardens. three for three.

and it was pretty amazing there. the various fruits that can grow in this climate is amazing. grapefruit, oranges, pomegranite, figs, and more i am sure. they also had mulberry trees, and a vegetable garden with squash, tomato, tomatillo, beans, and other things. it gave me some hope for living in the desert. something i have been toying with, and will extrapolate on later.

then i went downtown and walked around a bit. then steev called me and i went over to his house and we chatted for a bit. i dont know steev that well, we met around 2003 in portland and were friendly toward each other, but never really hung out. so far it has been pretty nice catching up with him and his partner, greta.

later we rode bikes! it was the first time i had been on a bike for quite awhile, and i was riding an extracycle. apparently they were created here. it was also a cruiser, and it was nice. we rode to a mexican fo place where we got some burritos and chatted more. then he and greta had things to do, so i went to the hip area and had some beers at the sultry wench.

this morning steev and i went hiking in the sonora desert. i like hiking, it is something i will try to do in many places. we left around 7am, to beat the heat (it was already around 80), and got to the trail head around 7:30. then we just hiked up through this wash (a wash is a dry river bed that floods during the monsoons) called kings canyon trail. we saw lizards, and deer, and ground squirrels. we heard locusts.

near the top of the trail we saw and went up to an abandoned mine shaft. apparently they are all around this place, but it was sealed off rather well and we couldnt get in it. oh how i wish we could have. we had been out an hour by that time, so we turned back on a different trail.

the trails and the desert are odd things. it isnt like a forest. there are a number of different cacti (some growing up to 30 feet tall and living for an average of 150-200 years) the names of which escape me. and there are some small trees and other bushes, but it is rather sparse. you can blaze your own paths very easily because most things grow low to the ground so you can see far in front of you. but the wash was like walking on the beach, and that isnt the easiest thing.

cacti are really amazing things. something i didnt know is that the saguaro cactus (the typical cactus that you think of) produces fruit. and people eat it! they make syrup and wine, and apparently they are very good. there is a bunch of stuff around the desert that i never knew about things that are living and producing, the things that people lived off of still exist. it was really amazing to see that. (unfortunately i forgot to take my camera today...)

anyway. i am learning alot about this part of the world and the desert in general. i still dont think i could live here, but it is nice to learn that it is possible. then we came back to the city and had some iced coffee's at revolutionary grounds, a neat little coffee shop. and then steev went to work and i went off to explore on my own. unfortunately it was too hot to do very much, i walked around downtown for a bit. and then sat in a park for awhile knotting cord.

now i am chilling out indoors for the heat of the day, wiling away the hours. i am planning on leaving tomorrow, headed for phoenix. i probably wont stay there long...