No image of America’s southwest is more recognizable than the Saguaro (sah-wah-ro) cactus. However, the large succulents are only found in the Sonoran desert in southern Arizona. Â To see these majestic beauties, I head south to Tucson, AZ, and the Saguaro National Park. I’m traveling south from Williams, AZ on I-17. I stop at that Sunset Point rest stop outside of Phoenix with no saguaros in sight. […]
For 9 days every October, Albuquerque hosts the world’s largest celebration of balloon flight. Billed as the most photographed event in the world, hundreds of balloons fill the autumn skies.
Pueblos, American Indian settlements, are found throughout the southwestern US. They consist of multistoried adobe houses built by the Pueblo people. Today I visit the Taos Pueblo. 35 people live within the Pueblo full time and 1,000 plus in the town nearby. […]
Like many age-old questions: Is there life after death, how were the pyramids built, where does the universe end, and what’s really in a Chicken McNugget? These are conundrums that philosophers and great minds of science have wrestled with for ions. In such, it’s not likely I’ll answer the Roswell question in my self-imposed 1000 word limit blog entry. […]
During this visit, there is large hail, 50 mile per hour winds, and rotating thunderstorms. For many local news stations, this would warrant wall-to-wall coverage of radar shots and dire prognostications. Here it’s a mention during commercial breaks with “no interruption to our scheduled programming” It’s a place where afternoon drives are met with increasingly ominous skies. A place where commercials for storm shelters are as common as car commercials. A place where even a budget campground has an underground bunker. Is this the twilight zone. No, it’s in the middle of Tornado Alley. […]
Oklahoma (from Okla Humma by the Chocktaw) becomes home to 5 “Civilized” Native American Nations in the 1830-40s as part of the Indian Removal Act. US Forces uproot the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee, and Seminole nations from the deep south. Forcing them to move to “Indian Territory” – land west of the Mississippi River. I, being in Southern Oklahoma – Chickasaw Country, seek to learn more about these indigenous people.