The Dark History of Fangamer

These days, Fangamer is a nice company in which its employees are all friends with each other, we help each other out, we all get health, dental, and vision insurance, and we make enough to live fairly comfortably. None of us are starving, in other words. We still have a ways to go before we reach what Reid calls "acceptable living wages," but since most of us live in Tucson where the cost of living is very low, most of us are doing pretty alright.

However, this was not always the case. Fangamer had its act together by the time I came to Tucson, but I've heard stories of a Time Before, when life was difficult and every month was a struggle.

Desert vs. Desert

After spending the better part of two weeks away from home, I'm once again being reminded of why I like Tucson in the first place. On any trip it's common to start longing for home, but I do believe I appreciate Tucson itself. I've jokingly referred to this as Stockholm Syndrome, but I think that access to self-deprecating humor is part of the charm.

In particular, though, I want to discuss Tucson's status as a desert.

The Road to PAX: Tucson to Bakersfield

Yesterday I made the familiar drive from Tucson to Bakersfield, the first of a three-legged journey on the way to Seattle. I'm driving by myself, as usual, along with a van stuffed with merchandise.

I'm going to describe that trip here, in case you're interested in the visuals.

Tucson Parks

There's a bit I once saw on Family Guy in which Peter takes a helicopter tour of Tucson. "Oh look, it's a park that's been paved over!" he says as he looks down, bored, from the helicopter. A few seconds later he passes over the same "paved-over park" again.

Family Guy makes fun of Tucson a lot. I think it's because they've made fun of everywhere else, and all the other places got offended. Tucson, on the other hand, seems self-aware enough to know that it's a town in the middle of the desert, so it doesn't seem to have a terribly high opinion of itself. I'm sure the town isn't universally humble but, come on, it's Tucson.

That said, last week I started riding my bike from one park to another in town for research. In the end I discovered that, holy crap, Tucson's parks are kind of great. Peter doesn't know what he's talking about.

Pima Canyon to the Dam

That's Tucson. Yes, that's a city down there.

For this month's hike, Laura, Jack, Jenna, and I went to Pima Canyon to hike to something called "the dam." According to the description, the hike was supposed to take us through beautiful scenery along a stream, complete with waterfalls.

I'm here to tell you that the given description is not entirely accurate.

Hike #2: Seven Falls in Sabino Canyon

We tried to tackle this trail a few weeks ago, but naturally the one day in February it decided to rain in Tucson happened to be that day. So, we put it off until I came back from Rockage.

As a matter of fact, though, Laura and I conquered this hike a year and a half ago. We were utterly unprepared, with only one bottle of water between us, no food, and the summer sun above us. In short, I'm surprised we survived.

Hike #1: Ventana Canyon Trail

As per my resolution, yesterday I went on my monthly hike: this time to Tucson's Ventana Canyon Trail.

I expect most of my hiking accounts will be for trails in and around Tucson, so I assume these will mostly only be interesting to people who live in Tucson or who plan on visiting Tucson for its hiking opportunities. Or maybe you just like reading hiking stories. If so, read on.