On the way to Tucson

Arizona Territory

We got on the road this morning at about 9:30 after having a FaceTime chat with Maeda, Rowen and Junzo.  Thursday was Maeda's birthday and this was the first time we've had to talk to her since.

As you leave Las Cruces you have a period of climbing out of the Rio Grande river valley.  You next arrive in a "high plains" area.  Here are some pictures showing the grasses covering the ground.

After a while you realize that the grasses have disappeared and the yuccas have given way to what I would call a Chaparral type of environ.  Here's some pictures of it:

This area is in the "rain shadow" of the mountains you can see in the background of these two pictures.  The clouds dump most of their water on the FAR side of the mountains and there isn't much left over for this side of the mountain to get causing a drier climate.

As you continue on towards Tucson you get into that range of mountains.  These aren't the sandstone/limestone mountains I spoke about in yesterday's post.  These are basaltic/granite igneous rock mountains.  Here's a picture of one under the shade of a storm that was brewing in the picture below this one:

The rock formations below tell the story of the weather in the area:

These igneous (volcanic origin) rocks almost look like "giant bird seed" as our kids used to call them.  These cracks are caused by repeated rain/snow/ice freezing and thawing.  Once a crack starts the water "pools" in it and as it freezes it expands.  This causes hydraulic (literally meaning "water") pressure.  Water is one of the few molecules that actually expands and gets LIGHTER as it freezes.  That's why ice floats in your soda.  Hydraulic pressure exerts massive amounts of force causing a single large rock to crack and crack more and crack.  This causes a large megalith ("Large stone") to become a group of smaller stones still stacked on one another.  The wind then works on the corners rounding them off.  One day, given enough time the stones will fall off of one another and become the "Caution: Falling Rocks" you see signs about as you drive through this area.

Irene, Josh, Chris and I went to "Sushi Gardens" for dinner this evening.  It was some pretty good sushi.

When I got home I spent about 1 1/2 hours working on my Sojourner Presentation for Bible Class in the morning.  Irene vacuumed the rig and cleaning - except when she was saving my bacon by helping me find the cables I needed and the Sojourning DVD for the presentation!