I Wanna Yama!

Benson and Tucson AZ

Day 25

Beautiful sunshine and temperatures in the 80's today.  Finally.  We decided not to leave here just to travel less than hour down the road, so we stayed and drove the Jeep to Tucson for the day.  After considering several places that we would like to see, we chose two...one for me, one for him.  In other words, a girlie  thing and a guy thing.  ONE of us will be enjoying each place less than the other.  Like me having to endure a blood and guts movie after he falls asleep during a 'chick flick'.

Today, MY thing was Tucson Botanical Gardens  and HIS thing was the Pima Air and Space Museum. 

Just a few miles down the Interstate we passed a ranch with llamas, or alpacas...more than I'd ever seen before.  Maybe being joined at the hip for TWENTY FIVE days is making us both a little crazy, but the converstion went like this:

Me - Oh my gosh, look at all the llamas!, Maybe they're alpacas...
Him - Maybe it's pronounced 'yamas'
Me - No, it's not.
Him - Why not? A double 'l' is sounded as a 'y' in Spanish.
Me - Isn't that just in the middle of the word?
Him -  I forget.
Me - No, definitely llama...'l' sound
Him -  You're so sure?
Me - Yes! 
Him - Why?
Me - Because, who ever heard of  *Yoyds of London*?

Never, never spend 25 days in a 30 foot box with anyone!

A short time later we arrived at the Botanical Gardens.  It was a fairly small place, but done so well.  Located in an older neighborhood, provided it with mature trees that almost formed a canopy of welcome shade.  I always miss my irises and clematis blooming because we're always on RV trips, but I got my iris fix here with hundreds of irises in full bloom.  Beautiful.  It was a very relaxing experience, hearing the water trickling over decorative stones and just sitting and drinking in nature's beauty.  

Remember Clay Potter?

Clematis Vine...be still my heart!

Just trying the macro setting...

Will pose for food

A tree that blooms in sunflowers, how cool is that?

So many irises

More irises

And lastly, couldn't forget a rose

Chick thing done, we drove a few minutes down the highway to the guy thing.  The Pima Air and Space Museum is amazing in the sheer number of planes located there.  They have many inside and about a million or so outside...maybe it just seemed like a million.  We walked around a couple of hangers and then took a one hour tour on a trolley to learn about the ones outdoors.  The gentleman giving us the tour was remarkable.  He was a retired Air Force pilot, then flew for American Airlines.  He knew everything, and I mean everything that anyone would ever want to know about aircraft.  This guy lived and breathed aviation, if he couldn't be around aircraft he would die.

And I do NOT want to see any more old planes, jets, helicopters, or any freaking thing that can fly for a long, long time!  Psst...I must have forgotten to take any pictures of planes, oops.

On the return trip to the RV, we passed the llama/yama/alpaca ranch again.  Jim looked over at all the animals and said, "Yeah, they're not llamas, they're the other ones...pakles, they're smaller." 

I thought I'd fall out of the car door, "What?  What did you call them....PAKLES?  You mean, alpacas?"

Almost swallowed my tongue laughing....

Later, out of curiosity, I looked up the ranch on Google...I mean, how many llama/alpaca ranches are in a small town like Benson Az. and is located right on the side of the Interstate?  I discovered that this is the place Cienga Farms and my eyes popped like Ricky Ricardo's when I clicked on the cute little alpacas available for sale.  Holy mother of all that is furry...the cheapest one for sale was $10,000 and one was $50,000! 

Whoa...Jim's in the wrong line of work, we need to raise llamas and alpacas!  But first, we'd need to know exactly what they're called.  I can just see the ad now...

*FOR SALE  -  YAMAS AND PAKLES*

Tomorrow, heading toward Phoenix on the back roads maybe.