Lovely Linda

 

When Mark and I met in college, the only common album we shared was Paul McCartney’s “Band on the Run.” Coming of age in the 70’s, we loved the Beatles but realized that they belonged to an older generation. After the Beatles break up, when McCartney pursued a solo career with his new band, Wings, we felt like the new music they created was ours. Paul’s solo career was a huge success and his wife Linda played a big role in that.

I didn’t realize, until we stumbled onto the North American premiere of “The Linda McCartney Retrospective”(hosted by the University of Arizona’s  Center of Creative Photography) the important role Tucson played in the McCartney family’s life.

Linda actually went to school at the University of Arizona and studied photography while majoring in art history. Before she met Paul, she was a barrier breaker of the times becoming the first female photographer to have work featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine; a photo of Eric Clapton. After meeting and marrying Paul, the McCartneys purchased a ranch in Tucson that Paul still owns today. While battling breast cancer, Linda chose to spend her final days on the ranch, with Paul and her children, and when she died, her ashes were spread across the property.

The exhibition of over 200 photos, ranging from pictures of the dynamic music scene of the 1960’s to images of Linda’s home life with Paul are incredible. A favorite photo of mine has always been one of Paul and daughter Mary used for the album cover “McCartney” over 52 years ago. How fitting that father and daughter, in partnership with The Center for Creative Photography, curated this premiere event in Linda’s beloved Tucson.

Biosphere 2

 

In the 1980’s, Space Biospheres Ventures constructed a $150 million facility, outside Tucson, to research self-sustaining space colonization. The mostly glass terrarium they constructed, in the middle of the Sonoran desert, came to be known as Biosphere 2 (since earth is considered Biosphere 1).

The Biosphere 2 launch, in 1991, was staged much like a space mission. The media descended on the facility in Arizona and there were speeches and fireworks as eight jumpsuited volunteers (4 women, 4 men) sealed themselves inside the Biosphere for a two year journey into the unknown.

During their mission the biospherians were completely self sustained growing and harvesting their own food from the half acre farm they tended. Their diet consisted of mostly beans, rice, wheat, sweet potatoes, beet root and peanuts. The low calorie diet resulted in the participants losing 25% of their body fat. They also didn’t realize the soil in the Biosphere was too rich in organic matter and it’s thriving bacteria gobbled up too much oxygen, thus after about a year they ended up starving, gasping for air and at each other’s throats while the world’s media looked on. The project was eventually dismissed as non-science and trendy ecological entertainment.

In 2011, ownership of Biosphere 2 was transferred to the University of Arizona where they opened it to the public for tours. On the tour you can see the living quarters of the biospherians as well as the different ecosystems that remain intact; a desert, rainforest and even a small ocean. Ongoing research is being conducted by the University, within the facility, especially in regards to climate change.

Even though the original experiment was deemed a failure the former participants came away understanding the interconnectedness of everything and have  cautioned future generation’s to take heed….in their words “for one thing to exist, everything else also needs to exist.”

Favorite Place

 

Mark and I are often asked, “where is the most favorite place you’ve visited in your travels? It’s a difficult question considering the complexity of what makes an area your “favorite” but after six years of camping, in all 48 of the continuous states, I can confidently say Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert, is a favorite place for me.

This is our third extended visit to the region and we continue to add to our list of things we love about this area. Of course, this is the home of the giant Saguaro; the universal symbol of the American west. These majestic plants are protected by Saguaro National Park on the east and west of Tucson and there’s something so peaceful about being surrounded by them as well as the Catalina and Rincon mountains. But it’s not just love of nature that makes this area special. The modern, mid-sized city of Tucson is accessible, vibrant and loads of fun too. When I picked up a local newspaper, after we arrived, there were so many things to do in the area, I regretted we hadn’t planned to stay longer. 

The University of Arizona, and its downtown campus, seems to be a major contributor to the variety of activities available and the positive energy of the city, but whatever the reason for the great vibe, we love it here! My next two posts will highlight just a sampling of what we’ve gotten to see and do the last few days in this “favorite place”. 

We are currently camping at Miro Vista Resort where we are enjoying nature with fellow naturists as well as the occasional visit from curious javelinas.

The Borderlands

 

From Carlsbad to El Paso, through the pecan groves and dairy farms of Las Cruces, we are camping in the foothills of the beautiful Florida Mountains for our last week in New Mexico. We’ve enjoyed the interfused cultures and all the new discoveries we’ve made in the borderlands of Texas and New Mexico.

The roadrunner is the official state bird of New Mexico, which helps explain why artist Olin Calk built a 20 foot roadrunner, from recycled materials, in 1993. Back then it stood at the city landfill in Las Cruces to call attention to “consumption, recycling and just looking at stuff we throw away.” In 2001, the roadrunner was moved to a rest area along interstate 10. We were glad we got to see this unusual piece of art.

Mark and I aren’t foodies but we do enjoy discovering regional cuisine as we travel. A New Mexican regional treasure is the Hatch Chile; a Chile that can only be grown in the Hatch Valley just north of where we are camping.

New Mexican green chilies are thought of much like grapes are in different wine making regions around the country. Some argue that there isn’t a Southwestern cuisine without New Mexico’s green chilies. The folks who live here seem to think they make everything taste better: from the expected green chiles stews and enchiladas to the less expected green chilies pizza or burgers and perhaps completely unexpected green chilies donuts and milkshakes. Thank goodness all the local grocery stores stock this versatile pepper for the traveler just passing through.

Top to Bottom

 

After over a month on the road we’ve made it to New Mexico, but just barely. We are camping between two of the least visited National Parks in the continuous 48 states and they’re only 35 miles from each other; Carlsbad Caverns NP, in New Mexico and Guadalupe Mountains NP, in Texas. 

It’s been a week of literal ups and downs. At Guadalupe Mountains NP, I had the opportunity to hike to the top of the highest peak in Texas; Guadalupe Peak. The next day Mark and I descended 754 feet, below the ground, into the largest cave chamber (by volume) in North America; Carlsbad Caverns Big Room. You could fit over six American football fields inside this one chamber. When Will Rogers visited, years ago, he referred to this fascinating place as “the Grand Canyon with a roof over it.”

We’ve been really surprised at how few people are actually here. The thought occurred to me that because we are camping in February that might explain the low crowds. It was still kind of a shock to bag the highest peak in Texas, without a soul around, and to experience an epic cave, practically alone, on our self guided tour.

Today, however, we find ourselves huddled in our camper, hitched to the truck with our sway bars in place, in a wind storm of 45mph sustained winds and 75mph gusts. The great mystery of why no one is camping, during this areas high wind season, may have been solved!

History and Headlines

 

The title of this blog was inspired/copied from author, John Steinbeck’s book, “Travels With Charley”; an account of a road trip, across the United States, taken by Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, in the 1960’s. At the outset of the book, Steinbeck writes that his motivation for the odyssey is to “know my own country,” having realized that after a quarter century settled in New York he knew the country “only from books and newspapers.”

In similar fashion to Steinbeck’s “urge to be someplace else,”Mark and I wander around the United States, with our little dog, to try and know and understand our country a little better, too. Ironically, we use books and newspapers all the time as we travel. We try to pick up a local newspaper, in every big or small town we pass through, to know what’s going on around us. We also travel with a few volumes of the old WPA “Guides to the States” books Steinbeck  referenced on his 1960 road trip. In his words, “these books comprise the most comprehensive account and history of the United States ever gotten together.” The WPA (Works Progress Administration) was a project from the 1930’s that tried to capture the country in print while putting unemployed writers, editors and photographers to work during the depression. 

We’ve been in San Angelo, Texas, for the week and without the help of Google, but referencing a book from the 1930’s, I can tell you that the first cattlemen in this region had to drive bison from the range to make room for sheep, goats and cattle. When the Texas & Pacific Railway built south from Abilene in the 1880’s, the settlement of San Angelo became permanent and would later become the “Wool Capital of the World.”  

According to the Standard-Times newspaper, the State of Texas Longhorn Exhibit Herd resides in San Angelo State Park, where we are camped. Also, a local teen made history last week when her champion steer was sold for a record breaking $440,000 at the 2023 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo! 

Maybe it’s just me but I feel like history and headlines can combine to show us who Americans used to be and still partly are.

“Ice Ice Baby”

 

Mark and I have camped through our first historic ice storm, in a small aluminum trailer, and we’ve learned some things about thermal dynamics and each other.

First of all, freezing rain likes metal so our trailer has become a virtual igloo the last few days but we have managed to stay warm inside. Little did I realize how much I’d have Mark to thank for that.

In the movie The Matrix, intelligent machines are exploiting humans as a power source harvesting their thermal energy and converting it to electricity. One of the main characters, Morpheus, tells Neo that human beings produce 25,000 BTU’s (British Thermal Units) of body heat an hour. Humans actually only produce about 356 BTU’s. If 356 BTU’s  are converted into watts the number is about 120 watts. That’s quite a lot when you realize a small electric heater only puts out about 750 watts. It seems the larger the human and the more calories they consume, the more heat they produce.

After almost forty years of marriage, public displays of affection are almost nonexistent for Mark and me but three days in an “igloo” have made me appreciate cozying up to my much larger power unit!