June 29, 2012 Home to Yuma, AZ to Tucson AZ

4:15 am comes very early, but we both worked hard to get moving at that time of the night. (For Dick, he sometimes is still awake then with his night owl working habits, but rarely gets up early).  We officially hit the road at 5:30 in the morning and got through San Diego before rush hour traffic. 

We have been watching the weather map with dismay.  We are leaving the coolest place in the country into record heat nearly everywhere else. The weather report said it could be 108 today in Tucson.  Wow!  That is some change from our perfect summer weather of mid 70’s when we left home.  We can safely say, over 100 is really, really hot!

 Although we didn’t get the jumpstart on the trip on Thursday night, we still pulled into Tucson within a half hour of our originally planned time. The early afternoon brought us to Saguaro National Park. 

This was named for the famed giant cacti with the large arms raised up in the air. This park is filled with many thousands of these giants.  They can live to be a couple hundred years old, and are truly impressive, magnificent…who can describe them?  But they are fabulous and we are again so grateful for those who have over the years devoted their lives to preserving so many of these precious natural places.

In cooler weather, we would have done some hiking, but at nearly 110 degrees we had to be satisfied with only brief excursions from our air-conditioned car, with lots of photos, some shot through the car windows.  It really was hot, did we mention that?

The heat made looking for an indoor activity quite inviting, and we found our way to The Museum of the Horse Soldier.  This privately owned museum traced the use of mounted horsemen in the US Army from the mid 1850’s to the present.  The displays were very interesting, but the highlight was a private tour by the Assistant Director, Rae Whitley, www.Horsesoldiermuseum.com . He was so knowledgeable and quite an enthusiastic storyteller, willing to share his love of history with a couple of fellow history majors.  He responded so well to all of the questions that we had.  This will add another whole dimension to our visits to Civil War battlefields.  One of their claims to fame is that they have the only complete Rough Rider uniform and gear set that exists in the world (from a soldier who served with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish American War.) Dick really enjoyed watching a WWII Army training film on how to saddle a horse and mount and dismount.  Another hidden gem that Patti found in her searching on-line.

After a meal at an air-conditioned salad bar restaurant, we followed the recommendation from a ranger at the national park to camp up in the mountains overlooking Tucson, with great hope that it would be cooler.  She was right!  We climbed 4000 feet into lovely mountains and enjoyed the drop of temperature, and went to bed early.

A new driving game:  watching for the lowest gas prices.  At home we filled up at $3.59, the lowest it had been in a year.  We thought this was likely the highest price we would see in the country.  So far we have seen the lowest price at $3.17.  Hoping for even lower prices.