Tuesday, April 05, 2005
How to Read Flat Stanley's Adventures
So, you happened upon my website. Well, before you continue to read any of the diary entries below, what you need to know is that my diary is backwards. It is like reading a book at the end first.
If you want to read about my adventures in the sequence they happened, I *highly* recommend reading from the bottom up. If you look at the
Archives in the lower left column of this website, you will see the date ranges. Start with the first day I arrived, which is Friday, 3.18.2005. Click on the link to the range of
3/13/2005-3/19/2005 and scroll to the bottom. Then start reading from the bottom (first diary entry) up! Or, you can click this
link and it will take you to that first week.
Please feel free to comment at the end of each diary entry. You can do that by clicking on the word
'comments' below each entry. A new window will appear. Go down and find '
Post a comment' again at the end of the thread post. Click on one more time. A box will appear on the right of the screen to type in your comment. Then, choose your identity or log in for a new one. You can even post as '
Anonymous'. It is fun. Give it a try.
Try clicking on the photos as you read about my adventures. Some of them will link to other sites. Some of them will enlarge giving you a better view of the picture. Especially the ones that I am in. :)
Thank you for reading about my adventures in Tucson, Arizona.
Sincerely,
Flat Stanley
Monday, April 04, 2005
Flat Stanley Goes Home to Ohio
Well, this is the end of my Tucson adventure. Tomorrow I will be going home via postal mail. I was supposed to go home last week, but my host forgot to mail me on time.
I am really looking forward to going home. I enjoyed my stay in Tucson and learning about the culture here, but I really miss Ana. It is time to say Adios! to the
Sonoran desert and Hola! to my Ohio family.
I am bringing home some things from my travels to give to Ana. I hope she enjoys reading about my adventures in Tucson. Maybe she will mail me to another state in a few months so I can have adventures all around the country!
Tonight as I say my 'goodbyes' to Rocky, we sit and watch the full moon while the clouds drift by. It was an incredible adventure!
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Sunny Sunday. Day 17
Daylight savings begins today, but not in Tucson! Tucson does not observe it, therefore, Tucsonans do not change their clock settings during the year. Sometimes they are on Pacific time like California, other times they are on Mountain time. I haven't been anywhere before where they did not change their clocks twice a year!
Tomorrow is my last day here. I am getting kind of tired, so it will be nice to go home to my own bed.
I saw something on the news tonight that was very interesting. It was called '
Icebreak on the Santa Cruz' contest. Huh? Do they get ice here, I asked?
Cheryl started laughing. She told me it is the first day of the year that the temperature reaches 100 degrees. The station, KVOA, has a contest that you can enter to predict when it will be. She said it is almost always in the month of May, and that in the past few years it has been in the early to mid part of May around noon.
They used to give out trips to Alaska but this year they are giving out a KIA car. I couldn't enter it because I am not old enough. Oh, well. I did get to drive Cheryl's car!
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh, My! Day 16
The Reid Park Zoo is this really neat zoo in the middle of Tucson with a pond with ducks in the park area. There are all kinds of animals there, including lions, tigers, and bears. You can see all the lovely and exotic birds.
They let you go on photo safaris while you learn about all the animals.
They even have a special place on their website just for
kids.I think the most unique animal is the Southern White Rhinoceros.
They also let you adopt animals. Here are some of the choices:
| Kookaburra
Mandrill Baboon
Aldabra Tortoise
Grevy's Zebra
Oriental Small-Clawed Otter
Chilean Flamingo | Lion-Tailed Macaque
South American Caiman
Llama
White-Handed Gibbon
Reticulated Giraffe
Giant Anteater |
I like this zoo very much!
Friday, April 01, 2005
Who's an April Fool? Day 15
We were going to think of some fun April Fool's jokes to play today, but somehow as the day progressed we got too caught up in doing other things.
I decided instead, I would show you another picture of our lovable fool, Rocky:
It's too bad he is such a temperamental brat who likes to ruin all Cheryl's stuff, because he sure is cute and she sure does like him otherwise.
Click on his picture to see him enlarged. Then if you get a little magnifying glass, click again and you can really get a big picture of him.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
What a Buck Buys: Day 14
Today I got to go on an adventure in shopping. It is called
'Dollaring'.
Everything is $.99 at Cheryl's favorite pastime. 'Dollaring' is going to a variety of stores around Tucson where everything in the store is one dollar or less. The challenge is to get nice and useful things, and not just junk. I was amazed at how many 'dollar' stores there are in Tucson. There are likely at least 100. Tucson has big malls, but almost every block is also a strip mall.
Tucson is also very spread out. The people who live up in the mountains get to have a great view of the entire city and stars. Closer to town it is more congested.
Cheryl lives inside the city limits, but on the edge enough to have nice views.
Dollaring is an adventure because you end up traveling quite a distance to get to all the stores. I couldn't figure out what I wanted so I bought some powder to absorb Rocky's urine that he seems to want to share with everyone...everywhere. :)
This is the store closest to us that has some good stuff to get. Cheryl let me ride in the cart and the staff liked me so much, they wanted to offer me a job!
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Biosphere: An Experiment in Ecosystems...Day 13
Today I learned about a place called 'Biosphere' just north of where I was staying. Here is some information we found on the web which will tell you all about it:
"Built in the late 1980s with $150 million in funding from Texas oil magnate Edward Bass, Biosphere 2 was designed as an airtight replica of Earth's environment (Biosphere 1). This 7,200,000-cubic-foot sealed glass and space-frame structure contains 5 biomes, including a 900,000-gallon ocean, a rain forest, a desert, agricultural areas and a human habitat.
Some of the early designers and managers were interested in space travel and the possibility of colonizing the Moon or Mars. By building Biosphere 2 and sealing people inside, they hoped to learn what problems would arise from living in a closed system. So it was that in 1991, a colony of 8 people set about to live inside Biosphere 2 for two years.
The people who were selected to be Biospherians and live inside Biosphere 2 during the two closure periods with humans came from 7 different countries. All spent several years in training to become more proficient in their own fields as well as gaining expertise in the skills of the others.
The first crew of Biospherians (4 women and 4 men) entered Biosphere 2 on September 26, 1991. The crew members remained inside for two years despite various problems, including limited agricultural productivity, and emerged on September 26, 1993. After a 6-month transition period, a second crew of 7 biospherians (5 men and 2 women) entered Biosphere 2. Unfortunately, after a number of physical and social problems developed, the project soon suffered scientific disdain and public ridicule before these experiments were suspended in 1994. Since then, there have been no resident crews living inside Biosphere 2, and no future human habitation is planned..."
Click here for more info.
