April 8 & April 9: Tucson, Arizona - Part 1

Friday, April 8th: Agave Gulch FamCamp, Tucson

Today was an easy travel day, except for the winds again. We only went 233 miles to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base on the southwest side of Tucson. We broke camp in Deming, NM, at 9 AM and arrived at the campground around 1:00. So glad to get off the road and out of the headwinds. Fuel mileage dropped to 8 or 9 miles per gallon from a towing norm of 11 to 12.

This was our first stop this trip at a military campground. Our last military campgroung was at a Navy Base in Memphis. Agave Gulch Campground (FamCamp in Air Force lingo) is rated #1 in the west by the US Military Campgrounds Association. It is a really beautiful, well maintained campground with a friendly staff. Our campsite was $17 per night, a good deal.

After setting up camp, we headed over to the Commissary and PX to restock the camper. This Commissary is probably the biggest and nicest I've ever seen. They had practically everything and more.

By the time we put everything away (this is always a challenge in a small space and with a 2/3rd size refrig), we were done for the day. We headed off to El Sur restaurant for a little Mexican fare and $2.00 margaritas.

Saturday, April 9th : Biosphere 2 (Biosphere #1 is Earth)

At the campground office they offered a tour book for $15 with discounts on many of the local attractions. We've gotten really good at looking for deals and researching what the visiting town has to offer in terms of "must sees." Today's weather was cold and rainy, really our first bad day since we've been on the road. It was rather nice to see the rain in this dry, dry, dry part of the country.

As I read the travel pamphlets, I kept returning to the info about Biosphere 2 [B2]. If you recall, about twenty years ago 8 hippies (sometimes referred to as "scientists," but they weren't) locked themselves away for two years in a three acre greenhouse with the goal of surviving in a totally encapsulated environment. By the end of the 2 years and twenty minutes, they came out totally disliking each other, dropping 20% of their body weight (couldn't produce enough food) and the experiment was declared a failure. I was intrigued and Don agreed it could be a good place to visit on a miserable day.
 
We drove about an hour north and arrived in a snowstorm. It was 34 degrees! Later I said I could have stayed in Maine if I wanted snow, except Shana confirmed that it was 70 in Maine on this Saturday! No snow in Maine, but snowing outside of Tucson.

Notice the snow on the yucca!

Using a 2 for 1 coupon from our tour book, we only paid $20 to get in vs $40. You had to be part of a tour group to see B2 and our guide was fun and informative.

B2 was the brainchild of a Texas Billionaire, Ed Bass. The experiment was to try to create a self-sustaining space-like colony here on earth. B2's greenhouse building is composed of five arched segments or eco-systems: an ocean with a coral reef, Mangrove wetlands, a rain-forest, Savannah grasslands, and a fog desert. There are three towers which house the energy systems, eating and sleeping quarters, and offices for scientific research. In the basement of B2 there were 26 airhandlers, with 14 of the bigger units attending to heat, cooling, humidity levels and condensing water to produce rain and fog. We were impressed by the massive rubber bladder deep below which managed the air pressure in B2 by expanding or contracting on hot/cold days.

Don descending tunnel to bladder area below basement.

Rain-forest

Desert

Ocean

 Operating power costs, fuel and electric, were huge for B2. Water systems became polluted with too many nutrients. After 18 months, oxygen levels fell to a dangerous point for human existence, as carbon dioxide levels rose, and oxygen from the outside needed to be added. Many of the 26 animals/life forms inside died out, while others thrived and took over, especially the ants. The bees died and plant pollination ceased. Biospherians worked incredibly hard and used a lot of energy to take care of their environment and produce enough food for themselves. The lack of fat in their diets was a concern and added to their dramatic weight loss. With 66-hour work weeks, which included a lot of physical labor and being hungry, led to  a high-stress environment, constant tension and bickering among the eight confinees. The experiment was again replicated in 1994, but the results were not noteworthy.

Common eating area, where the B2'ers ate breakfast and lunch.

Food prep area - Each of the eight took turns cooking.

This 200 million dollar, earth-in-a-bottle experiment was reported in the news to be a failure, but a lot of really good scientific data came out of this failure. We've come a long way since 1991 - solar panels, wind turbines, computer and scientific advancements, etc. I could picture B3 built with today's standards and achieving more success with easier modes for self-subsistence. U of Arizona now has the contract for B2 (Columbia U had it for a number of years) and is trying to refurbish the facility and use it for scientific forums and conferences. There is a book, The Human Experiment, by Jane Poynter, which I hope to read when we get home. From the social standpoint, I am interested enough to want to know more - how these people selected from a commune came together, why would you want to do this, the individual challenges of being confined, and who was the driving force behind the project? Yes, this was a good tourist choice for a snowy/rainy day - a unique place, filled with brain-power and the human drive to realize a dream.

Area under reconstruction for soil/plant absorption experiments.