Confessions of a Tumbleweed: i don't know what i'm talking about

Monday, April 11, 2011

NASA, Copper and Dead Tumbleweeds

The Tumbleweeds are in the dust bowl of the southwest. There cannot be any dirt left between Arizona and New Mexico because it's all in our truck, my ears and the computer keyboard.

Why does the tumbleweed cross the road?

We couldn't see ten feet in front of us in some places, it was like a dust blizzard. It was so windy that hordes of tumbleweeds were being forced from their hiding places and swept across the road in front of us without warning. We may have killed one. Or twenty. If we are Tumbleweeds and we killed a tumbleweed is it homicide? Tumbleweedacide? Herbicide??

**News Flash**

We did not get murderlized or kidnapped on the Mexican border. Nothing exciting ever happens to us! We made it in and out of Nogales without so much as a dirty look.

Copper mine tailings south of Tucson.
I took this picture on I-19 from
the truck window.

Arizona Facts:

*Arizona is the top copper producer in the US.

*The star in the middle of the Arizona state flag is copper in honor of all that, well, copper.

*I-19 in Arizona goes from Tucson to Nogales at the Mexican border and uses the metric system on their signs. It's only a 63 mile (or 4,127 kilometer) stretch of road and the rest of the interstates in Arizona don't do this. Who says we aren't welcoming to immigrants?

*Arizona does not believe in Daylight Savings Time (making the time-zone challenged Tumbleweeds very confused when we have an appointment in this state).

*We saw a car dealership in Phoenix with a sign that read:

Buckle up! Make it harder for aliens to abduct you.

NASA took this picture of an open-pit copper
mine in southeast Arizona. From space.
Show offs.

<< See the copper star? The dirt we saw around the copper mine tailings was kind of turquoise-ish, like the Statue of Liberty. I'm sure there's some science behind that, but I'm kind of bored with Arizona now and my internet is spotty so no more facts for you!