What a Great Saturday!!!

I hope you all had as good a Saturday as we did today!

We started the day not expecting to do a whole heck of a lot. My day started at about 5AM. Leia apparently heard some rustling outside the rig that woke her up and of course soon after waking up she had to pee. I threw on Nancy's robe and my slippers and got her business done.

After getting her back inside, I decided to try to get a bit more snooze in... nothing doin'. Now Luke was awake and he made sure to get the kitties up too. Nancy and I got up and got the menagerie all squared away with pills, food and walks and threw on a pot of coffee.

We hung around, drinking our morning cups, reading a few blogs and started talking about what to do today. Nancy had some things to drop off at the post office, I wanted a book (Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom) and a magazine (Sunset, Living in the West) and we both wanted to drive by a few things to see how far they were and where they were.

The 300 year old San Xavier Mission was on the way to the post office so we decided to stop there first and check it out. When we arrived, there was a procession taking place down to the Mission. We were in the traffic behind the procession the entire way. I was able to snap a few photos of the cemetery beside the mission as the traffic was barely moving.

Upon reaching the parking area for the San Xavier Mission, the procession began to assemble in a circle around a large stone symbol in the ground.

The procession was clearly Native American and contained at least one Shaman and one Monk. 

This is the stone symbol that the procession gathered round before proceeding into the mission.

As soon as the ritual was over in the courtyard the procession headed into the mission for a service. Due to this service I was not allowed to get much information or take pictures, so I got shots of what I was allowed to and headed off with the intention of returning to finish the exploration.

After returning to the car Luke, Leia, Nancy and I headed off to the nearest postal annex. We arrived at the annex a few miles down the road only to find that they do not accept deliveries on Saturdays, and that they only accept deliveries between 9-11am Mon-Fri. Nancy needed this package to go out today so we decided to punch into the GPS the next nearest location as told to her by the post master at the annex.

The trip took us a few more miles into Tucson where we arrived at the post office. Once there Nancy took her package in to be delivered while I waited in the car with the dogs. It was a glorious morning! The sun shone brightly and was the perfect contrast to the still cool desert air. I had all the windows down so the dogs and I could enjoy this outdoor goodness! Off in the distance I heard a rumble... Then a roar... The distinct sound of fighter jets!

I looked around and spotted them a ways off in the distance. When Nancy got back to the car we were off in hot pursuit! We raced through the streets of South East Tucson until we arrived at an area where some cars had begun to line the road. This was the spot! We pulled over and parked among the gathering crowed. There we all were treated to an unexpected air show!

At first the planes were at a fair distance.

But they got closer...

Until eventually, they were flying directly over us!!!

Just Awesome!!!

I have one hundred some odd more pictures but there is no way I can post them all here on the blog. If you run into me on the road and you want to see more, ask me and I'll show you all of them (including a 15 shot sequence showing the F-22 Stealth going vertical, inverting and then completing a loop from an inverted dive!)

Man I love fighter jets!!!

I know all of the jets pictured above, I don't (yet) know all of the prop fighters. If you know all the jets and all the prop planes, post it in comments and show off how smart you are! I would love to know how many of you are as into these planes as I am and more!

Around 11:45am the planes took a break so we continued on. From there we took a nice scenic drive through North Tucson on our way out to find Biosphere 2. I was still a bit amped from our impromptu air show so I didn't think to take pictures.

Along the way we enjoyed lunch at a Panda Express (Nancy and My first), I had the fire (something) chicken with a chicken egg roll and fried rice. Nancy had the orange chicken with Beijing beef and chow mein. Hers was better. ;-)

On the way back home to Justin's Diamond we stopped at Borders and picked up the Sunset magazine and my Erich Fromm Escape From Freedom.

We topped off the day by again trying the Chicken Lazone this time over fettuccine, another winner!

What a great end to a great day!

I hope you all had as great a day as we did!

Noah