6/7/00
Tucson, AZ
Rest Day

After six hard days, especially the last one, a rest day meant a great deal. What a pleasure to stay in bed past 6:00 am. How pleasant to relax in conditioned air away from the oppressive 110 degree heat seeming to boil up from the roadway.

The morning was filled with TV news and radio interviews, calls to old friends, and pick up of packages mailed by my wife Jeanette and my teaching assistant, Brent Hutchinson.

As a professor, I enjoy visiting college and university campuses. Being in Tucson it was a good opportunity to walk around the University of Arizona. The TV station interviewer/video photographer let me come along in his car as he dropped off a tape at a local high school. That ride let me see a little of the city plus it was a good opportunity to interview him about what was going on. I also got a preview of the route out of town I will take tomorrow.

He dropped me near center campus. I found my way to the library where I could copy a few more maps of the highways in New Mexico. Universities are such huge storehouses of information. Not only that, they are portholes even worm holes to whatever you might want to find out. That's especially true of our land grant institutions. I'm surprised universities aren't on the travel circuit because they are such interesting places, but maybe only to an insider like me.

Like most thriving campuses today, construction was underway and an obstacle so I walked an around about way to the student center for lunch.

The State History Museum was open so I toured its exhibits briefly in the off chance that I could find some information on plants in the area. Not surprisingly that topic was not addressed.

I a few things to buy (sun screen, chapstick, Powerbars), nothing weighty, so I decided to walk back to the motel through Tucson proper. I saw a sign for haircuts and dropped in. A young woman agreed to a trim for a reduced price--I don't have much hair. She was an english major with an undergraduate degree who had been making her living cutting hair for the past eight years. I wondered about how she could be satisfied, but she said she was making good money and had no desire to shift careers at that time. I walked for a while but it was hot and I thought to myself that on a day off I should rest my legs so I caught a bus.

I met an old friend for dinner and caught up on her life. She warned me about leaving anything of value in my room so I took my Palm, keyboard, modem, and cash along to the restaurant. I was hungry for something other than Mexican and American food so we ate in a Greek place she liked.

I wanted to get going early the next morning. According to the map, the ride promised to be difficult with extensive climbs over 80 or so miles. The July monsoons have arrived early so dust storms and thunderstorms may be in order as well. I was hoping to get through the Southwest before needing to contend with much more than heat, but that may not be the case.