We started the morning by going over to a combination RV Park and Mfd Home Park just a short ways Southeast of Tucson Estates where Terry and Sharon are spending this month. Unbeknownst to any of us there is a delightful train operation set up there, operated by some of the residents of the Parks. We were fortunate to arrive at a time when it was running – never mind the other information we came to get . . . enjoy the trains.
After that we went out to the North-slightly-west side of town to Tohono Chul Tea Room for lunch and a look at their desert preserve. We had assumed, as most folks probably do, that this was somehow an enterprise of the Tohono o'Odham tribe (formerly known as Papagos) who live west of Tucson. However, as near as I can find out, it has nothing to do with them other than its name. Here is what one source had to say:
Tohono Chul -- meaning "desert corner" in the Tohono O'odham language -- is a 49-acre, non-profit desert preserve within the city of Tucson. The park was established in 1985 to enrich people's lives by providing them the opportunity to find peace and inspiration in a place of beauty, to experience the wonders of the Sonoran Desert and to gain knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage of this region.
The story, as near as I could determine, is that a couple named Richard and Jean Wilson, decided around 1968 to assemble some acreage and put it aside as a desert preserve, to be owned and operated by a non-profit foundation with both a preservationist and educational mission. Tohono Chul Park opened in 1985 as a park with the Johnson's elegant old Spanish Colonial residence remodeled as a Tea Room. Based on our experience in seeing the crowd of people there on a mid-week day and the fact that we waited half an hour to get a table, things are going quite well.
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