TRAVEL | NEW HOME

Airplane Graveyards, Curious Cacti and Marvelous Murals in Tucson

So many surprises in this southern Arizona community

Eddie at the Pima Air & Space Museum | Photo by author

Our journey to Tucson was a circuitous one full of curiosity and optimism.

The time had come. My partner Eddie and I were on the same page. We’d done the “living in LA” thing long enough. It was time to ponder a move, to find our next place of residence.

Thus began the months of flights and road trips to explore smaller, more affordable and still-nice-weather towns in the Western United States — many for the first time.

We took in Colorado Springs and Sacramento. Dropped into Reno, Nevada and had expectations upended — it’s so much more than a gambling town. Santa Fe intrigued, as did Albuquerque with its golden glow and sound stages for a growing entertainment industry presence.

But what of Arizona? Sedona was too monied and busy to live in full-time, and Phoenix, its baking sea of cement and vehicles, wasn’t for us. Cooler and greener Flagstaff had our attention first, and then we made the trek south for a visit to the land of curious cacti, stunning murals and a plane museum to knock your socks off — unique and quirky Tucson.