On Thursday morning we drove to Oracle, AZ to tour Biosphere2 ; a facility created to better understand how natural environments create habitable conditions for human sustainability. It contains recreations of five of Earth’s biomes, plus a human habitat and a large ecological experiment facility.  It is currently managed by the University of Arizona.    Tom and Steev even helped with the Green Roof experiment.

After returning to Tucson, we went back to our motel where we swam and sat by the pool (in the shade).  Steev and Greta prepared us another great meal that evening.  Because we were getting up early the morning to depart, we said our ‘good byes’ to all three.

After leaving Tucson, we drove another 1165 miles through two time zones to Bella Vista, Arkansas where we spent three nights with our friends, Joyce & George Sheldon.  We arrived back home on Tuesday, March 22, after driving a total of 3240 miles.  A good way to ‘break’ our new truck in!  It was a great trip with lots of beautiful scenery, history, good food, great conversations, and fantastic weather.

After a walk up the canyon on Wednesday Steev, Tom, and I went to breakfast before taking the Queen Mine tour at 10:30; however, it was sold out by the time we arrived so we decided to take in the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum instead.  Before we went to the museum, Steev drove us to the border where we were able to see the wall that has been constructed to keep the illegal immigrants out of the country. 

After the museum, we gathered up Greta and Josie, said our good byes to Peter, and headed back to Tucson.  That evening we went to Chars Thai Restaurant for dinner.

After eating a breakfast prepared by Steev but included Greta’s fabulous scones,  we packed up the car and headed to Bisbee.  On the way, we stopped at Tombstone which is an old mining camp that has  preserved many of the original 1880’s buildings .  It definitely had tourist overload; we lasted for about 40 minutes.

We arrived in Bisbee  in time for lunch.  We walked around Bisbee with Greta’s good friend, Peter, an artist who has been a resident of the town for over 37 years; he served as tour guide and gave us much insight as to the history of the town/area.  Peter also provided a tour of the local radio station where he has a program every week. Tom and I stayed at the historic Copper Queen Hotel where our room has been known to be visited by the ghost of a young boy who drowned in the San Pedro River; it’s believed that his spirit found its way to the hotel because a relative was employed there at the time.  After we settled in, we met up with everyone and went to the Screaming Banshee for pizza .  This was an old gas station that was turned into a very successful pizza business.

On Friday, March 13th, Tom and I packed our new truck and headed to Tucson, Arizona where we were visiting son Steev, his partner Greta, and the family ‘cutie’ Josie. After traveling close to 1700 miles, we arrived in Tucson early Sunday afternoon. Steev and Greta have moved into a different house since the last time we had visited so we were given a tour of their digs.    Just around the corner from their home is the Best Western Royal Sun Inn & Suites where we had reserved a room. That evening we went to eat at Barrio Brewery.

After we had breakfast Tuesday, we took a leisurely walk down to the 4th Avenue Shopping District; unfortunately for me and fortunately for Tom, it was too early for the shops to be opened .  Around noon, we walked over to Steev, Greta, and Josie’s place for lunch.  Greta had work to do in the afternoon so Steev took us on a walk of the El Presidio Historic District whose development started in the latter 1700’s . We ended up at the Old Town Artisans, a 150 year old abode building with shops and galleries.  While I shopped, Tom and Steev enjoyed some liquid refreshments in the shaded courtyard and Josie took a nap at home.  We ate a very delicious evening meal prepared by Greta.  Tomorrow we will be leaving for an overnight visit to Bisbee; an old mining town about 90 miles southeast of Tucson.