SCRR at Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ 

October 17 - 20, 2017

Catalina State Park is a beautiful location.  We had a lot of space between rigs.  Here we see
our host's rig and a stand of trees where we held our in-camp activities.



  
Our happy hours were spent in this circle of chairs between Win and Phyllis' rig and the trees.

Meals

The weather was perfect for our outdoor eating.  We used two of the park's tables to eat.


  
The food on this rally was great!

  
  
Here we are at our dinner out at the Harvest restaurant.  On the left are (L to R) Win, Phyllis, Mary, Norm, Michael, Linda and Marie.  On the right are (L to R)
are Hank, Shirley, Kate, Mike, Clarence, and Jeanne.  Dick is behind the camera.



We sat at tables in an enclosed area with large open windows.  The view of the mountains was spectacular!




  
The Tonoho Chul Park is a botanical garden showing many of the local flowers and cactus varieties.  There are also museums and gift shops.
One of the more spectacular and beautiful displays was this welded steel horse in a circle of cacti.



The Desert Rose was beautiful



Another location several of us went was the Biosphere-2
(this is a file photo)


  
The tour included many, many interesting areas, including the ocean area, different desert areas, rain forest areas, etc.  A couple of the more unusual are shown:
On the left is a portion of one of the "lungs" which were large circular buildings with a large plate in the center attached by a huge rubber diaphragm.  This plate
raised and lowered to keep the main building complexes at a constant pressure during the first two years when they were completely sealed.  This prevented
the buildings from shattering as the pressure and temperature changed.  The buildings are no longer sealed, so these are no longer used.

On the right is a multi-stage hydroponic method of efficiently growing plants.  All the nutrition is supplied by fish living it the upper tank.  Water is circulated
through this tank and overflows into the next compartment where plants are growing.  This overflows into the next tank and so forth.  After 4 or 5 steps, the water is
pumped back to the fish tank.  Using this technique, water usage is one ninth that used in conventional growing techniques.  The portion extending to the left
of the main group of tanks is the comparison.  It is growing the same plants in a conventional garden and uses 9 times the water.

Attendees

  
Clarence and Jeanne, Michael and Linda


  
Kate and Mike, Marie and Hank


  
Shirley and Dick, Win and Phyllis



Mary and Norm