The following day, we drove through New Mexico and got into Tucson and Beaudry RV Resort. What a pleasant surprise! In addition to the service center (Lazy Day’s major competitor), where we had a scheduled appointment on Monday AM, the RV park was gorgeous- large concrete pads with a concrete patio with furniture and lots of space between the sites.
We set about exploring Tucson. At 7 AM on Saturday morning, we were at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. With shades of our Australia desert museum experience (and having learned from that experience that a desert museum is best experienced in the early morning-rather than mid-day), we headed off with our tour guide. A good idea- since temperatures were in the 100’s and the sky was cloudless. The museum had over 300 native animals and 1300 plant species. 90% of the exhibits and enclosures are constructed of artificial rock. We walked the two miles of trails- seeing prairie dogs, coyotes, coatimundis and hundreds of varieties of birds (including a hummingbird aviary). 
Everywhere was the flowering Saguaro cactus. These cacti are very slow growing- by the end of a year, the seedling only measures ¼ inch. After 15 years, they are barely a foot tall. At about 30 years, they begin to flower and produce fruit. By 50 years, they can be as tall as 7 feet. At about 75 years, they spout their first “arms”. By 100 years, they can reach 25 feet. They may live as long as 150 years and can tower as high as 50 feet. They are the largest cacti in the US. We took a drive through the Saguaro National Park to see the cacti in bloom.
On Sunday, we drove north to see the Biosphere. The structure was built and completely sealed off from the "Biosphere 1" (the earth). It's a 3 acre glassed dome that has five different "biomes"- a rainforest, desert, savanna, marsh and ocean. In 1991, eight 'bionauts' entered for a 2 year tour of duty. They were physically cut off from the outside world- and had to grow all of their own food. It was a bit of a disaster (the dome leaked gases)....and really never had a clear purpose. It was operated by Columbia University for a few years- and they bailed out. Now it appears that it's going to be sold to land developers and dismantled. It's too bad—it was really a fascinating place.
When we returned, we were having a glass of wine when we heard a loud booming noise. Always curious, we headed out with our wine (along with all the rest of our neighbors). As we walked across the street, we walked were stunned to see E.J. come around the corner of his motorhome! E.J. and Sharon were only a few motorhomes away from us – and the sound of his airbag exploding brought us together. Time for wine!
On Monday, after dropping off our motorhome to the service center, we went to the Tucson Missile Musum. It was a little bit of the Cold War preserved for generations to come (of course, most of them haven't a clue that there ever was a Cold War). We actually got to see the nuclear warhead- and go down to the underground launch site.
It was a very "Dr Strangelove" moment.... 
Our last day in Tucson and John wanted to take in the Pima Air and Space Museum. I knew I was in trouble when I saw 4 huge hangars and what looked like 1000’s of aircraft-old planes, helicopters, bombers, cargo planes, seaplanes- parked outside. We had to be back at Beaudry by noon, so we could only take the outdoor aircraft tour – a 45 minute tour in an open trolley car. The guide, an helicopter pilot who was in Vietnam, was extremely knowledgable – but after 30 minutes of driving VERY slowly in 100 degree heat in an un-airconditioned trolley -past every aircraft – complete with a description of almost every one of the 160+ planes, I was at the end of my rope. I handed a note to John saying, “you owe me”.
Dinner with E.J. and Sharon – margaritas (too many of them) at el Charro Café in downtown Tucson –excellent food…excellent company!
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