Tucson, here we come.

Back to Tucson today; this time we found a place. It's this bitchin' old, small, house on 2nd ave one block from the university. It's really close to downtown and all that great crap. I'm pretty sure we scored pretty well. The area we'll be in has character, but character as in dopesauce, not character as in who the hell is shooting outside in the alley?



Lindsey and I scored a babysit and drove down ourselves. After the house thing, we went to the Mission San Xavier del Bac because Lindsey hadn't ever been, and I didn't remember it. Awesome. I mean, it's kind of this evil fortress in the middle of a depressed rez. that's been there since 1692, dominating the valley by the river, and judging from the surrounding housing conditions, it doesn't seem like it (or the people in it) have done much to better the lives of those around it. I'm sure it is more than a little profane, but I couldn't help my amazement in seeing this stark white, huge, mission in the middle of this little valley, just totally dominating the landscape. It was beautiful in many ways. One thing that was also interesting, though, was this interactment between three cultures in the parking lot in front of the mission. Most of the tourists there today were Mexican Catholic a man-fact reading of the parking lot would suggest like 80%. There were a few euros around and there were of course the land owners there selling fry bread, or "popovers" if you like. It's just kind of weird to be on a reservation looking at this prototypical European landmark of... a lot of things, but you're there as this dude who lives on land that the people building this sort of crap took from all these tribes, and we're there looking at it saying, "oh, man, that's beautiful." I wonder what Pima people think of it still sitting there on their land. Especially as it is being restored and millions of dollars are being put into it while there are homes literally 100 yards away with bedsheets holy from sunrot making due as windows. I'm not placing blame or trying to make a sob story out of the trip, because it was actually a lot of fun. But, man, it really did feel like there were a few different worlds bumping into eachother in that parking lot. I didn't feel like I fit into any of them, but it was kind of wild.