Heading towards Tucson, February 20-22

Joel and I arrived at the Arizona Casino in Scottsdale and checked in with security.  You can dry camp for three nights with a players club card and can stay longer if you accumulate more points by gambling.  We had planned on staying only one night so weren't worried about the points.  The lounge had a great band but played mostly "bump and grind" stuff.  It was fun listening to the music...for only so long, though.

The next morning we drove over to the Tempe Towne Lake and walked along the Salt River.  The "lake" is a portion of the river that has been dammed up with  giant rubber bladders.  If the water gets too high and threatens to flood the bladders can be deflated within 45 minutes to let the water flow in the dried up river bed.

The black pipe is really a huge rubber bladder.

This is what the lake side of the bladder looks like. 

The area is really modern with lots of office space and a beautiful art center.  It being a holiday, the crowds were scarce and the art center was closed.  .. darn!

The art center has  a very unique water feature.  That's water flowing over the wall making all different kinds of patterns.

Kind of reminds me of blowing bubbles.

This is a sculpture garden.

 How would you like to "work" (to some a dirty word) in an office with a view like this?

   and be able to eat lunch outside everyday with a view of the river?

The water looked really inviting, but the day was cold...we wore jackets most of the time.

We returned to the casino and set the GPS for Tucson, heading for the Casino del Sol which is not far from the VA hospital where Joel has to go for his final official checkup for the results of the Echo test he had earlier in the month. The tech had already told him everything looked good, but he still has to meet with the doc to confirm it.