Day 7

So breakfast was amazing...as promised. While most of our group woke up at an unusually early hour, the two Ben's took advantage of our day off and slept in to a sweet 1045 local. We spent our morning playing frisbee and enjoyed another homemade lunch from Grandma Hanson.

A few of us spent some time with the Hanson's Neighbor across the street, Gene. All of the locals
refer to him as the "Cactus Man." His yard is a desert oasis... with every type and sort of desert plant that one could imagine on display. It is nearly impossible to imagine that there are so many different types and varieties of cactus! To say that the Cactus Man's yard is a work of art would only understate things. Stone walkways lead one through an amazing yard filled with aloe trees, tropical plants, and of course cactus. The birds also appear to appreciate the garden, songbirds filled the air with sweet soonds, and a hummingbird complete with a nest in progress is hidden and nearly impossible to spot! These nests are only the size of a thimble! The Cactus man also has a selling area, where he sells the plants that he pots. "My kids joke with me," He say, "they tell me that it's incredible to think that I sell Cactus in Arizona!"

The Cuctus man claims that gardening cactus isn't all that difficult. "You learn how to handle the plants and aviod the stickers." He grins. "You dig around them and grab them by the roots.... you stack them in bags, and move 'em slow. They are pretty tough plants, and you can be a bit rough with 'em and they will bounce back!"

With no time restrictions we took our time getting to the airport and were airborne around 2pm. Our flight to Pima, Arizona was supposed to be a pretty regular 2 hour leg. However about 2/3 of the way I was in the back of PTO looking through the binoculars at Rory's plane behind us and noticed two small dots behind him that were growing, and fast! Within 30seconds there were two A10-Warthogs within 700ft of our left wing. After climbing above us, they dipped just in front of us and rocked their wings as a freindly "hello". For most this would be nothing special, but seeing these high performance planes so close made all our day.


The rest of the flight was uneventful and we landed succesfully in Tuscon, driving the rest of the way to Pima. This was the low key day that we all desperately needed. Tomorrow morning we are heading to the Pima Air Museum to take in some more incredible aircrafts and an even closer range, and hopefully get to sit in a few as well. I guess the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow yet, and we forgot a key component to yesterdays blog so reading maybe take another read through that. Tune in again tomorrow for more exciting updates, thanks for your prayers and we will see you all in a short 5 days!