Road Trip--Day Two

We got a good night sleep in Phoenix, in a hotel not a tent much to Skye's dismay. And the Iphone was fully charged and functioning as if nothing had ever happened but still I thought it best to keep the appointment at the Apple store in Tuscon at 10 just to be safe. Well after a couple hours of driving, we pulled into what seemed to be a pretty busy little local cafe with the hopes of getting a tasty breakfast. The parking lot was full as was the cafe, but the food was a bit disappointing. I know there is good food to be had in Tuscon, but unfortunately not for us that morning. More disappointment ensued when at the Apple store. A perfectly love tech helped us but she could find absolutely nothing wrong. She ran a diagnosis that showed all of the history of the phone(a little scary with its detail as far as any kind of Big Brother phobias may go), but like that little noise that goes away when you take the car to the mechanic, my Iphone was in perfect condition.

OK, now we are near noon and only to Tuscon and a full iteniery to boot.

We head off to the Biosphere. Now I have been fascinated with the project for many years, 8 people being sealed off for two years time with everything to exist needing to be generated within the confines of the Airtight structure they were in. That is more than fascinating, but what we toured (It is now open to the public, no one is living there any longer) the actual stucture was at this point a bit run down, in obvious need of more funding which was obvious with the prices for the tour and in the gift shop.




This room served as the "Lung" for the Biosphere, dealing with the enormous shifts in daily airpressure to keep the structure from literally exploding. That entire discs rises and falls according to the air pressure in the main unit. It is incredibly science fiction looking but very science fact.






The pipe works were fascinating and made me really excited to get my aquaponics system going.

Oh well off and running to the Ostrich farm before it closed.

The Rooster Cogburn Ostrich farm experience was pretty much polar opposite to that of the Biosphere. Instead of having to trek way off in the middle of nowhere(which was quite a lovely trip), the farm was a tourist friendly 30 second hop off the Interstate. It was the opposite of pretensious and relatively cheap. But it was a heck of a lot of fun.





We started out slow by feeding the apparently very hungry deer. They were beautiful and of course more than tame. I feed them by hand but Skye was a little more cautious.




Nothing like truth in advertising. I didn't attempt to feed these guys by hand or even get that close to them but it was fun watching those who did.





Again can't say they didn't warn you. These signs were everywhere and for good reason.






Feeding the Ostrich was freaky, exhilarating and kind of yucky in that exploitative kind of way.




The donkeys were quite cute and ranged incredibly in there levels of pushiness. Skye found a little one to pet.





And finally a trip to an Ostrich farm wouldn't be truly complete without a visit to the Lorakeet
enclosure to hand feed the colorful birds.






After feeding them I figured it was only fair that they feed us. But really I had been hoping for something a bit more adventuresome, maybe Ostrich steak or burger or at least Ostrich eggs. In fact this Jerky wasn't even local, check out the bottom Berren Springs Missouri.

Wow!!! Ok the Ostrich farm was a bit tawdry and politically incorrect but cheap and fun.

Now off in search of a camp ground.

We drove through the Saguaro National Park. The north part of it. I didn't realize it was divided up in the way it was. We finally found the southern portion of the park where the camping was just as the sun was going down. It was beautiful to say the least and it was dark within 15 minutes of us being there. We drove through the now very dark desert only to find out that the camping was hike-to camping a few miles from the parking lot.

We then headed towards another camp ground only to find that they close the gates at dusk.



On the way to said camp we came along this lovely tarantula making his way across the road. With that we decided to ditch camping again and to get as close to El Paso as possible. We ended up in a roadside hotel that ended up charging a lot more than there sign said, but it was late and it was still relatively cheap and we were exhausted so Motel 8 it was.