I did end up staying in Tucson from November to the middle of May, so I did do some scouting around and one thing I was going to do was to visit the Desert Museum, which is several miles west of John’s property. This isn’t a NP so it would have cost me $22 for a ticket. Problem was when I arrived, it was decidedly too hot to take the 2 mile walking tour of the desert part of the setup. There is a museum building, but I thought the walking tour would be too interesting to miss just to stay cool so I decided to come back and do both the walking tour and museum when it was a cool cloudy day. Unfortunately, I never made it back. But here is a set of teaser photos if you’re ever in the area.
And just walking around it felt like the temp must have gone up several degrees. Well, I’ll do the entire tour next time. 
And then I headed back east towards Tucson using a different, slightly northerly route. Quite the desert scenery around here.
So I’m driving back on back roads and run into this International Wildlife Museum. Cost was $7. Didn’t know it existed, just happened to drive by it on the way back to Tucson proper.
Some of the giants that used to live in this area, and many that didn’t…long before it became a desert.
It is a large museum, but I didn’t stay long. It’s ‘International’ so there are lots of animals from other parts of the world. Not from around here. Maybe there weren’t enough locals.
And then with that tour over, headed into north Tucson, stopping at the Dragoon Brewery for their excellent IPA.
A couple weeks later, John and I decided to head to this Mexican restaurant, the Agustin Kitchen. That mist is cooling water, not smoke. It was up in the 80’s this day and the mist does help. The meal was just excellent.
So that was well worth the visit. And a few days after that, I decided to go visit the VFW way out west of Tucson as the in town VFW’s didn’t seem to be very active. This one had food and seemed to be open most of the time according to the internet. So I drive all the way out there, 20 miles, and find this ridiculous display of Roman torture.
I did go inside to visit and there’s another giant Xian display of a soldier kneeling before a cross as a silhouette sculpture on the wall, and another empty table for POW/MIA’s with a place setting, a rose, and of course a buybull on it but that was sort of hidden by a notification board. Anyway, very off putting. Enough so that I contacted the national headquarters for the VFW and they sent my complaint to this post. I was really unhappy that they ONLY displayed xian nonsense, not any other nonsense like Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, all of which ARE represented in our military. Or any of the other 3597 silly religion’s icons. And of course no big Atheist signs anywhere. I did come back that weekend to try out their breakfast and that was acceptably good. Not the greatest, but good. Then I headed south on the road the VFW was on and eventually reached a border guard building and the guy told me I couldn’t get over to Amado from there so turned around and headed home. Even though these are wide open spaces, easy to see for miles, I can still get lost. Heh.
And here is the Korner Cafe that I ate at numerous times. Pretty good food. Economical too. The waitress that was normally there has a toddler that she brings to work. Very unsanitary but I’m not saying anything about it to anyone.
I know, the above is rather boring. Added it so I’d remember where to eat if I come back to the area, or where to do my clothes or find a screw…
And that’s it for this time. Next time will be the wrap up of my long visit to Tucson. Only long because of a torn retina. Now that it is healed enough I can drive, I am now in Pahrump, and soon I’ll be heading to Rosamond to help my brother move up to Lynnwood, WA. I’ll be driving the moving truck, probably.
Thanks for reading!
Jim