submaleinzona
Posts: 77
Joined: 2/23/2009
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Arizona. In land area, we're the sixth largest state in the United States. The Grand Canyon State. I haven't been to the Grand Canyon in a number of years, but they just built a new glass-bottomed bridge shaped like a horseshoe in which can look straight down into the Canyon. It must be great for curing those who have fear of heights. The northern part of the state is more mountainous and forested, and the climate is cooler than the southern and central part of the state which is more desert.
They used to tell us about the "Three C's" of Arizona: Copper, Cattle, and Cotton. There's also the Five C's, which includes Climate and Citrus in addition to the other three.
We get quite a number of "snowbirds" in Arizona. They obviously come out for the climate, which is rather nice and mild in the wintertime. In fact, the state has seen a great deal of population growth in the past couple of decades, leading some to wonder whether there will be enough water to sustain this much growth. Water (or the lack thereof) is one of the biggest issues facing the state. Right now, it's raining, but a lot of people (including myself) are usually quite happy when it rains, as it breaks of the monotony of constant warm and sunny days. And we really do need the water.
In the summer months, it gets hot and the sun can be pretty intense. During the summer rainy season (often referred to as "monsoon" season), the rains can provide a bit of a respite from the heat - although some years it can it turn out to be a bit of a disappointment.
We have a rather dysfunctional state government, as we're just a few months shy of the end of this fiscal year, and they still haven't been able to agree on a budget yet. Meanwhile, they just passed a bill encouraging Arizona to produce its own light bulbs so we can skirt Federal light bulb mandates. So, any visitors driving through Arizona, if you find some of the Rest Areas along the highway closed - it's because of the budget. They even had to sell our State Capitol building and lease it back in order to raise cash. Some of the roads are in pretty bad shape. A lot of potholes, and not enough money to fix them. There was one back road in the western part of the state somewhere between Parker and Quartzsite which was in horrible shape when I drove it a couple months ago. The Interstates are still mostly okay, but don't count on any Rest Areas being open - except for maybe one or two.
We have the University of Arizona in Tucson and Arizona State University in Tempe, a suburb of Phoenix. They've been arch-rivals for as long as I can remember. There seems to be some level of friction between Tucson and Phoenix. A lot of people from Tucson don't really seem to care much for Phoenix, and those from Phoenix don't really care much for Tucson. Tucson tends to vote more liberal and Democratic, but Phoenix is more conservative overall. With their population being so much larger than Tucson, they tend to control the state government. Tucsonans tend to bristle over that.
A few popular tourist attractions around here are Old Tucson and the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Tombstone is also worth a visit, as well as a visit to the Pima Air Museum and the Titan Missile Museum. There's also Saguaro National Park, if you're into cacti.
There's a lot of scenic beauty to the state. Check out Arizona Highways for some great photos.
I don't know if I plan to be here that much longer, but this is where I've been living most of my life.
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RE: Lady Angelika started it - a guide to different sta... - 
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