Fudge Pucker

What a great experience! Camping out in the middle of a secluded desert in beautiful Saguaro National Park just outside of Tucson. Leslie didn't like it much, but I really felt in tune with the earth and nature. You can call me a tree hugger for that comment, but there weren't any trees around, just cacti. I tried hugging one, but it hurt me. What a prick! But I got the point.

Well, once the novelty of "roughing" it wore off, we walked to the bathrooms a few feet a way and brushed our teeth and I took a shower under a water spiggot. That was...interesting. Leslie decided to go extreme outdoorsy and not shower at all. She loves the rugged lifestyle of living off the land. She's already talking about selling the rest of what little belongings we have and finding ourselves in the mountains, eating berries and squirrels and extracting water out of bear dung.

Anyway, today we went to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum where they had many exhibits about the inhabitants of the Sonora Desert which spreads from Arizona to California and Mehico. There were birds, fish, insects, mountain lions and a lot more.

Next, we made it to Tombstone, the fake city built to replicate the awesome movie of the same name. Or maybe the town came before the movie. We're not sure, but it's not important. What is important are these two things:

1. In every post I write, I intend on making some sort of Kurt Russell connection

2. There was a wonderful shop in Tombstone that sold homemade fugde called Grandma Fudge Puckers

The town was actually pretty cool, even with the heavy tourist-catered gift shops. There was a building called the "Bird Cage" which was once a brothel and it is largely untouched from how it was in the late 1800s. There are still bullets in the wall from that time period. After eating lunch and having a local beer (Nimbus) at Big Nose Kate's Saloon we went to the main event - the O.K. Corral shootout. As time grew closer to high two (it wasn't at noon), dark clouds formed overhead, portending of the chaos that would ensue. It really was movie-esque, but then it actually rained and the gunfight was delayed. I'm not sure how accurate a rain delay in a gunfight is, but we went with it. Once we finally saw the academy award winning performance, we learned that Wyatt Earp seemed to be a little bit of a bully and that most of the outlaws killed were unarmed. But it was still fun even though it cost more than renting the movie.

Next (we did a lot this day), we traversed the winding Arizona roads to Chiricahua National Monument. Along the way we saw a pretty sweet hawk on the side of the road. This park was absolutely amazing. If there was one place I would most like to come back to so far, it's here. The rock formations are unbelievable and the drive to the mountain top is breathtaking. The wooded area at the base of the mountain is also beautiful. The pictures will not do it justice. Leslie could hardly enjoy it however, due to the steep drive up and down the mountain. (A side note from Leslie: I've really learned I have an aversion to driving on steep, winding roads on this trip. I think it's becoming a phobia.)

Finally, after several more hours of driving (in thunderstorms), we crossed into Texas and eventually set up camp in Las Cruces. By this time it is about 12am so we are tired and quickly fall asleep and our adventure continues into our dreams of making the next Kurt Russell reference. Will it be Overboard? Or maybe Captain Ron. Stay tuned to find out.

Picture time! Click here.