Taliesin and Friends: Tucson pt 2
Feb 05, 2021
The casino was quite a downgrade from Catalina SP, that's for sure. It's by no means the worst park we've stayed in, not at all, but Catalina was so beautiful and so central that was a big change. It didn't help that on the day we were supposed to leave, the ranger came knocking to tell us that the wash between the campground and the park entrance was flooded, and we shouldn't expect to be leaving that day as the road was covered in water. Amazing! we thought. It's like a snow day! Play instead of travel! Let's make pancakes!
Well, halfway through the pancakes they came knocking again. Looks like the water is receding, and the wash is likely to be passable. Humpf. We better look for ourselves. So we hopped on the bikes and rode down there and sure enough, the water was on the road but quite low. I called the ranger to give it one last shot to try and stay, but no dice. It was time to pack up.
That made packing and readying for even such a short travel day (just 30 minutes across town) feel really off. We were in no mood to leave as it was, then to have the chance to stay another day dangled in front of us and pulled away really frosted our cookies, as the saying goes. But we made it without incident, and settled into our new, rather austere, surroundings.
The next day was a treat. For Christmas last year Kristin bought us tickets to tour Taliesin West in Scottsdale. We were originally to take the tour along with my parents the prior Sunday, but it was cancelled due to rain, so we pushed it back a week and went on our own on the 31st. Taliesin West was the winter home and "desert laboratory" of Frank Lloyd Wright, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's a seriously special place, and only my second Wright tour. (Our first was the Gordon House in Silverton, OR - a much humbler example)
Of course it's incredible. The house - well, compound really - is exceedingly well-preserved, and in fact some of Wright's apprentices still live there. Wright's ability to make a space speak with one voice, in a cohesive and complete design language, and yet be distinct among his other works is phenomenal. Since it was his own house, and had his own apprentices doing the work, it's a pure execution of his vision and experimentation. The organic feel of the landscape is so thoroughly expressed in the materials, the shape of the spaces, and the siting - just excellent.
Wright's weak spots of structural understanding and material durability are masked by the hard ground and dry air of the desert, giving him a forgiving landscape to work in (unlike Taliesin East, which is prone to sinking). His canvas roofing design, however, was simply too fragile to last on a site now preserved as an artifact, so it's been replaced with plexiglas with cotton ceiling covers.
The tour was delightful, led by an extremely knowledgeable and reverent guide. I got the sense both of her respect for Wright's genius and vision, and of her frank understanding that working for and living with Wright must have been truly awful at times. Like most geniuses the man was, plainly, unbalanced. One does not get that good at something without sacrificing other aspects of life, and it was clear that he could be ruthless about how things Must Be. Nowhere was this better displayed than in two of the windows in his residence.
When Taliesin West was built, it was modeled after a wood-and-canvas camp ("Ocatillo") that Wright lived in some years before to start work on a hotel project in Arizona. In that vein, the buildings were mostly wood, canvas and stone, with no glass windows or climate control. It was only occupied in the mild winters of Scottsdale, and Wright was a purist. So most of the wall spaces were designed to be beautiful and not necessarily easy to enclose.
Two shelves in the Wright residence held ancient Chinese pots of particular affection, displayed on the exterior wall. When the display shelves were built, there was no glass and the shelf proportions were designed accordingly. When the space was being glassed in, the apprentices doing the windows asked if the pot could be moved an inch or two to clear the glass. Don't you dare move my pots, replied Wright. So what did the students do?
If that doesn't exemplify the man's hubris, I don't know what does.
On our way back from the tour we stopped at the canal in old town Scottsdale for nachos, and then did the long drive back to Tucson in the dark.
The rest of our stay at Casino del Sol was uneventful, perhaps a little dull. We made the best of our new bikes, riding around the big empty parking lots. The highlight was the hot tub and the picnic shelter just across the road from our site. The weather was fine and I got to work outside, and we all enjoyed the hot tub. The place was mostly empty so it felt like we had it to ourselves.
I attended my specialist follow up and have been making good progress. Looks like yet another 10-day antibiotics course, but at half the dose. Want to be sure we get this licked before I get too far away. Going to be a lot of kimchi and kombucha in my future I guess.
Our parting experience in Tucson was the fabulous Desert Museum, which is nestled in between Tucson Mountain Park and the western half of Saguaro National Park. Equal parts zoo and museum, it was brimming with creative exhibits, fascinating creatures, and beautiful views. We had a fantastic time and easily have spent all day. For outsiders like us, these places which interpret the landscape so we can learn its names and stories and habits are invaluable. We see new places all the time. But our enjoyment of them is thin until we can know their stories and history. Why are the rocks like that? How do you survive in such heat? What are these plants named and how are they used?
One thing I especially liked at the Desert Museum was the integration of both scientific and traditional knowledge about the plants and animals. They would give the latin name and characteristics, then describe how the native peoples of the region would use the plant and what role it played in their traditions. I haven't seen that in such a setting before and it deepened my appreciation for each plant and creature. Real people depended on, loved, and cultivated these unfamiliar prickly things!
After the museum we headed over to see our friends the Dolans for s'mores and a campfire. Old friends we knew from Portland that moved back to Tucson some years ago, and we picked back up like it had only been a week. More experienced fulltimers talk about how after a year or two of seeing cool sights, what really brings you joy on the road is connecting with friends. I suspect they're absolutely right, especially now that COVID has suspended nearly all occasions to meet new people. It was a wonderful, heart-filling evening.
Tomorrow we light out for New Mexico, with two days of driving ahead as we aim for Alamogordo and White Sands NP. The prospect of sledding down big, beautiful white dunes put this park on the map a long time ago, and we're thrilled to finally see it!
