File under "Day 5, April 6 morning." I forgot to add this: we kept the window open in the hotel that night, even though most other guests used their air conditioners. I like the feel of natural air, and since we were on the 2nd floor and no one could see in, I also kept the drapes open. I woke up in the middle of the night and looked out at the sky, and again i saw the strange circular formation of stars that I saw in Montrose, CO this past fall. I have no idea what this phenomenon is. Is there really some strange formation in the sky? I think the window in the motel faced east, but in Montrose it faced south. Is it my eyes playing tricks on me? I vote for that one, except wouldn't they play tricks at me at home when I wake up and stare into darkness? It only happens with open windows. Stan says it has something to do with the spirit world getting in touch with me. I don't know.

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Sunday: In the morning we went to Colossal Cave which was a little tourist area southeast of Tucson. We got there bright and early to first do some touristy sluicing before an onslaught of brats got there. I'm sure the little packets of rocks you buy are all pre-measured with a good amount of quartz and bits of sodalite and aventurine all pre-planned to make the unknowing think they might get a precious emerald or sapphire. After that, we took the cave tour. This was the first cave where I sweated! All the caves I've seen--Crystal Cave in South Dakota's Badlands, Manitou Cave near Colorado Springs, Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, Glenwood Cavern in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and Cave of the Mounds in my own backyard, have all been living caves, the stalagtites and stalagmites still in a state of formation, moist with water. They have been cool, 60 degrees or less and have left me with a cold nose. This cave is a dry cave and was a constant 70 degrees, the warmest cave I've ever been in.

After that, we took a drive through Saguaro National Forest on the southeast side of Tucson. Still with some time left in the day, we decided to take a chance on finding the Mineral Museum at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After all, it was a Sunday, Easter, so it might be closed. We were in luck! It was open (but closed on Monday and Tuesday, so this was our only chance!) plus we got to see an interesting Planetarium exhibit as well, although the mineralogical displays were more than worth the price of admission just by themselves. So many beautiful minerals, you could look for days and each time through see something different. But the one thing that will stick in my mind is a gem-cut piece of Calcite. I don't know how many karats, but it was about an inch wide. The remarkable thing about this gem was the way it sparkled. If you've seen iridescent Aurora Borealis coated Cubic Zirconias it was something like that, but it was not man-made. It was Calcite, common but flawless, clear white rainbow Calcite. The way it sparkled was more pastel, but still very rainbow, pinks and greens and purples and yellows. Gorgeous. Why haven't I found any for sale anywhere?

Since it was Easter, the only place to eat was...Denny's. I had a salad. Stan had the cholesterol special.

Monday: Went to Tombstone in the morning. Not much was open, so we got a bite to eat at a local cafe. It said "family restaurant" so I assumed it was a tourist spot, but in fact it was more a locals spot. It was scary. We got stared at. I could only order coffee because I didn't feel like eating under these circumstances, but somehow Stan managed to wolf down his second cholesterol special. While we were getting ready to leave, a tour bus with Oriental calligraphy on the window pulled up to the corner and unloaded Asian tourists. This was one of the oddest sights, all these tourists on a chartered tour from a country far away snapping photos of this rough western town with a facade preserved for tourists. So as a tourist myself, I shot a picture of the tourists shooting pictures. The rock shop we went to Tombstone for was very small, and very closed. So we went on down to Bisbee. The mineral shop we wanted to see, although supposedly open, was also very closed, but I was able to find a couple beautiful and quite inexpensive rings (turquoise and azurite-malachite) at a different rock/jewelry shop. No luck with finding beads with which to *make* jewelry, however, which is really what I wanted to find. We did happen upon a store in a basement of an old town mall which sold beautiful Chinese antiques. Way beyond our price range, of course, and very beautiful.

We had an embarrassing lost tourist moment when we accidentally got on the road to enter Fort Huachuca. It was not clearly marked that civilians could not enter, I mean, after all, the brown highway department signs pointing to Fort Huachuca could be signs pointing to some old historical fort from centuries ago, one of those tourist points of interest, and there was no place to turn around once we realized we were headed the wrong direction. We stopped at the entrance where we had to present our ID for clearance, and when we told them we were lost and wanted to get back on the highway, they stopped traffic the other way for us to turn around and exit and I heard them say "We got a turnaround". They probably get several of those every day. We headed back to Tucson to see the Botanical Gardens. It was not scorching heat, maybe high seventies/low eighties with a partly cloudy sky, so I was able to tolerate being outside to look at all the pretties. Lots of lizards running across the sandy footpaths, and one gave us the time to shoot him, even offering us different poses. But when some nattering chattering clattering older women came by, he quickly knew he was not in friendly territory anymore and skirted under a bush. We ate a good mini lunch at the Gardens' cafe (Stan helped undo his cholesterol madness with a salad), and we stopped at some greenhouses on our way back to Benson. For dinner we actually manage to locate the Beijing Cafe that we couldn't find the previous day and had a small meal (Stan ordered more veggies this time, further reducing the damage of his two previous Heart Attack Special meals).

Tomorrow we leave Arizona for New Mexico for a day or two, and then back home.

Labels: Route-66-Part1, Vacation