Sick but Level

(Tucson, AZ) On one of our last days in Tucson I (Mike) took a drive to the Kitt Peak Observatory, high on a mountain above the desert about 60 miles southwest of the city, on land leased from the Tohono O'odham Reservation. This location gives the observatory great conditions, with almost 300 clear nights a year high above the lights of the city and the dust of the desert. After a scenic 12-mile drive up the mountain you get to the observatory complex, which has twenty-four optical and two radio telescopes representing eight astronomical research institutions, more than any other observatory in the world.

I forgot to take a camera, but here are some pictures I "borrowed" from the web site.



They have a nice visitor center with a small museum, and guided tours of some of the facilities by volunteers. There is a self guided tour around the observatory also. Most of the telescopes are privately owned by groups of universities, but the larger telescopes are publicly owned and open to visitors. The largest and one of the first telescopes constructed on the mountain is the four meter reflector, which is housed in a towering building on a cliff on the summit.



You can go inside and see the workings of the telescope from a visitor gallery.



The funniest looking telescope is the solar observatory.



It works by using mirrors to reflect the sun's rays down that long tunnel to instruments in a room about 50 feet underground. When our tour went through the instrument room there were some scientists from Germany who explained how they were setting up the equipment for their research time with the telescope, which was to study the winds on Mars.

While Mike was gone, our plan was to take a few walks around the park, go to the off-leash dog area, do a little bit of training for rally, do some chores around the RV and play the dogs favorite game of “find it.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do any of that. About 30 minutes after Mike left I got sick. It is the weirdest kind of sick I think I’ve ever had. I didn’t really feel all that bad. But I had stomach cramps and had to spend quite a bit of the day in the bathroom. I definitely couldn’t leave the RV! I think I lost every bit of liquid or solid I'd put in my body the last few days. But I didn't feel nauseous at all. In fact, I ate both lunch and dinner. But I don't think I kept most of it in my body. Maybe I need to eat some pumpkin....it seems to work for the dogs!

I expected the big dogs to be good but wasn't sure how Boogie would do having to just stay in the RV all day. He was the perfect little angel. Thank goodness!

Mike got back early enough to take the dogs to the park for a quick walk before dark. He didn't think he could handle all four on leash by himself so little Boogie had to stay home. He's being so good today but I'm guessing he's going to have some stored up energy tomorrow!

By 8:00pm I started to feel better but I was really thirsty. So I had a drink of water. Within 15 minutes I was very sick again. What's up with that?! It was just water!

The best thing about today though is that the RV stayed level. Now that's good news. Level is where it's at.

Mike & Debbie
11/18/07