An ART (Active Release Technique) practitioner was located and an appointment was made for the following morning. With Chris’s assistance, and taking miniscule baby steps, Jay hobbled into the office and waited his turn. It was then that they discovered the ART practitioner was not a Chiropractor but a Physical Therapist. The tiny, but mighty young lady worked him over but did not adjust his whacked out skeleton and he left, not only poorer but in just as much pain has he had arrived and efforts to secure an appointment with a local Chiropractor were futile. Jay returned home went to bed and stayed there through the weekend. Occasional forays to the “facilities” were accomplished by slithering on his stomach until his feet, then his knees, touched the floor and crawling on all fours until he reached the vanity counter. With Chris’ assistance (which then caused strain on her back) he was able to push himself upright and, clinging to walls and door jams, shuffle into the bathroom and relieve himself. Chris would have videotaped the painful but comical effort to share with their readers, but thought some might be offended by his lack of attire.
Saturday morning came and Chris trundled up to the campground office, selected a site and moved the RV out of overflow. Jay felt so helpless lying in bed while Chris maneuvered Big Red and hooked up Sonny, raised the front and back stabilizing legs, secured the stairs and drove to their new digs. Fortunately it was a pull-through site and, with a neighbor’s assistance to make sure she didn’t hit vehicles and utilities, within moments she was in position, connecting electric, water and sewer, bumping out the slides and setting up the household comforts inside.
The weekend dragged as Chris searched the internet for treatments she could administer to her ailing spouse and attended to the nursing duties required to keep Jay fed, warm, cool, relieved, washed and entertained. Fortunately a Saturday night dinner invitation from her cousins Helen Nazzaro and Janet, Corey afforded a welcome break.
Helen was Chris’ mother’s first cousin and Janet is Helen’s daughter and visiting with them was the primary reason for stopping in Tucson. Janet has spent untold hours researching the Clark/Harmon genealogy for the last several decades and over Chris’ three week stay they shared generations of family photos (including tin types of relatives Chris had never heard of), military records, documents and letters. Chris left a legal sized accordion folder stuffed full of family records for Janet to digest over the next six months, since her attention would be on traveling and photographing and not on family research.
Janet (left) and Helen (right) after our dinner at the Country Club.
Helen and Janet referred Jay to a Chiropractor they used and after a few treatments he was ambulatory and eager to re-engage in life, albeit at a slower pace than normal. Janet chauffeured them to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum located over a mountain to the west of Tucson. The term museum to describe the attraction was a bit of a stretch for Chris and Jay to accept as they associate the term with brick and mortar structures. The museum is open desert covering 100 acres with broad paths winding throughout that take you past 1,200 kinds of plants and animal exhibits. Tucked into the hillsides are enclosures containing more than 300 animal species including mountain lions, bobcats, prairie dogs and Gila monsters. One of their favorite stops was the hummingbird house where dozens of the tiny birds zipped past their heads building nests and feeding their young.
A view of the Desert Museum terrain with valley and mountains in the distance.
An exciting event they attended was a Raptor Free Flight Demonstration of a family of Harris’ Hawks. That day the trainers released five birds and the audience learned that they live and hunt together as a family in groups of three to seven. They soared above then swooped so close that Chris felt the wind from the beat of a wing as one flew through the crowd then perched atop a Saguaro cactus.
A trainer with one of the hawks.
Another outing was to the Mission San Xavier del Bac , an active church constructed in the late 1700s by Franciscan missionaries with money borrowed from a local rancher. It is beautifully restored inside and out and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963. The intricate carvings, paintings, frescoes and statues in the alter areas must have been designed to wow the Indians whom the missionaries were there to convert.
A view from the back of the church of the ornately carved and painted altar
and frescos on the ceiling.
Janet insisted that a visit to Tucson wasn’t complete without lunch at the Tohono Chul Park Tea Room – one of her favorite places. Tohono Chul Park is recognized as one of the great botanical gardens of the world and is located on 37 acres in the northwestern section of Tucson. It is home to a plethora of reptiles, birds, and every kind of desert plant known to the area. The park is a popular location for weddings, art exhibits and talks of all types. After an enjoyable lunch Jay bought a zebra succulent plant from the greenhouse to replace one that died months before and he returned home, literally, a happy camper.
Chris and Jay at the Tohono Chul Park.
Jay is holding his new Zebra succulent plant that he bought to replace one that died.
The travelers didn’t do half of what they’d planned during their stay since every other morning was obligated to chiropractic appointments but in a way it was relaxing and forced them to slow their pace and “smell the cactus flowers” that were just beginning to bloom. A week-long stop in Phoenix was next on the itinerary and they knew that after that the main focus would be photographing for the rest of the summer beginning with Sedona, the Jewel of Arizona.
Some of the cactus that were blooming when they left Tucson.
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