Also on our way out of Fort Davis, we drove by a modest building claiming to be "Home to the Largest Live Rattlesnake Exhibit in the World." We are not sure that is something they should be bragging about. Needless to say, we didn't stop.
We took a little shortcut through the Davis Mountains, some of the most beautiful countryside either of us have ever seen. I have personally never been to that part of the state before (yes, its that big) and was amazed at the seemingly endless green rolling hills and big sky. The most beautiful part of our drive so far. We did encounter one animal on the side of the road that we are unsure about. Any thoughts?
As we crossed the border into New Mexico, I was reminded of what it was like when I moved to D.C. and everyone asked me what Texas was like.....did I ride to school on a horse? did I live in the desert? were there cacti in my yard? did I have a tumbleweed as a pet? These were serious questions from some pretty serious people. The answer of course was NO, I grew up in Dallas which looks like New York City compared to ANY of the cities and towns we encountered in New Mexico and most of Arizona. I have never seen so many cacti in my life. And these were the BIG tall ones, not the ones you see in Texas that resemble something similar to weeds. These guys grew up to 20-30 feet high and were thicker than a man. But we will get back to that later....
We stopped in Las Cruces, NM for lunch which is only home to around 4,000 souls, God Bless them. It was hot, desolate and sand was blowing in the wind. There wasn't much around except for New Mexico State University. We drove around the campus looking for a good local place, but came up empty and had to make do with McDonalds. Yuck. While we were filling up with gas I took this pic of the Audi with all of our stuff in the back. Packed to the gills!
From there it was on to Arizona. Our first stop was in Tucson, the site of the Pima Air and Space Museum. Kevin was looking forward to hitting the airplane graveyard on the nearby Air Force Base, but unfortunately it was closed for the weekend. We raced to the museum thinking that it was closing at 5:00pm and that we would be arriving at 4:00pm, but when we raced into the front door, the teeny-bopper selling the tickets let us know that it was actually 3:00pm. Arizona doesn't recognize Daylight Savings Time. Great.
The Air and Space Museum was very cool though featuring many retired aircraft including a B-29 SuperFortress, the Air Force One used by President Nixon, a Clipper plane and old NASA Space Shuttles. Of course, the helicopter display was a big hit as was the kids area where we could take lots of obnoxious pictures while drawing sneers from moms with kids waiting their turn.
We even found an old HMX helicopter!
After melting outside in the 100+ degree heat, we headed north out of town towards Phoenix. Just outside the city limit was a National Park completely dedicated to the famous aforementioned cactus, the Saguaro. We decided it was worth a look. We had to drive about 13 miles off the interstate to get to the park which was partially located on an Indian Reservation. It was a pretty amazing sight. The giant cactus dominated the skyline as far as the eye could see. They thick and taller than we had ever seen. It looked like a giant cactus forest. We tried to blend in.
They even had pink cactus!
After we got back to the interstate, we drove another 2 hours north to Phoenix. We were staying at my Aunt and Uncle's place in Scottsdale, just north of town. It is their winter home, so we had the place all to ourselves. It was about 7:00pm, but still over 100 degrees so we jumped into the pool to cool off. After a quick dinner, we passed out from heat and exhaustion!
Miles traveled: 700
Strangest sight: Pink Cactus
Stops: Fort Davis, Las Cruces, Tucson, Phoenix
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