I'm confused. Arizona is not supposed to be using Daylight Savings Time, but the clock at the Burger King (yuck, terrible way to break a fast) had the same time as my watch, and I didn't change it since crossing into Arizona. Need to figure that out. Either way, I'm starting to recognize street names from my research on Tucson, so I think I'm pretty much here!

Tucson city limits: 11:55am, mile 843, 12 hours 43 minutes of drive time. Turned on Tucson radio to hear what the airwaves sound like and I think I heard a new Blur song. I recognize Speedway Blvd., one of the main east-west thoroughfares, and I get off Rte. 10 at the Congress Avenue exit and start my exploration from downtown Tucson. I roll down the window and turn off the AC, which I had to turn on around Phoenix because it was getting way too hot. I've learned to hate artificially cooled air living in San Francisco which, as far as I'm concerned, never needs it. The air and the temperature in Tucson is hella nice! I almost gasped. It's really nice! Tucson Museum of Art, Convention Center, Chicago Music Store on 6th St. and Congress.

Tucson is much more spread out and sprawled than I imagined it. On the map, 3 miles is 3 miles is 3 miles. In practice, driving 3 miles in Tucson feels a lot longer than 3 miles. Go fig. The roads are flat and straight. I had plotted out a section of Tucson to check out first, but it turns out it's huge. Or at least it feels huge. May need to change my tack to improve the efficiency in scoping out the city. Tucson is a very low city. There are a few taller buildings downtown, but the rest of the city is low to the ground, palm tree height, nothing over two stories high.

Someone's comments on virtualtourist.com mentioned that Tucsonians are notorious red-light runners. I feel that I am now in a position to verify this. One example is that I was approaching a light that was turning yellow and I slowed down to stop. In the next lane over, two cars blow right through the yellow light . . . and then the car behind it blows through a clearly red light. And right there are two motorcycle cops who don't even glance twice about it. Well awright.

3:00pm: Parked the car and got on my bike to check out the University of Arizona area and the section directly east of it. The houses are very nice and quaint, I wonder if this is the proverbial "good" part of town. No grass lawns, either, no surprise. The lawns are manicured stone and cactus garden arrangements! Fascinating. Further east, in the section I was targeting to live in, you can tell it's not as nice. Instead of manicured stone and cactus, "lawns" are just dirt and stone with cactus and weeds growing willy-nilly. There's not a lot of shade in this town. I was lucky to find a tree under which to park my car, but I gather that's prime real estate for parking cars. Trees are short and sparse and building are short and don't provide shade.