Some impressions of Tucson

I'm in Tucson, Arizona doing an errand of sorts. I've never been here before. It is about as different-looking from Philadelphia as you could possibly get. Thanks to Siri, I'm writing this as I'm driving along the road called Miracle Mile. I've been down this road several times in the last couple of days and I still have no idea what the miracle part of it is. The only miraculous thing I can think of is how many strip malls they've managed to cram into a mile of road. I have yet to get into downtown Tucson. During the day today I went hiking in the mountains, and then it started to rain so I was back at the hotel mostly writing report cards.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised because so much of the construction here is new, but almost everything I see here is a chain store of some sort, including all the restaurants. I had to drive quite a ways to get dinner at a place that was not a Red Lobster or Chili's or someplace else where I could've eaten at (according to Siri, easily kidnapped) in Philadelphia. I guess the stuff that's here is the stuff that peoples want it but just how many Target's do you need? I passed three between the airport and the hotel, and it's not that far.

Tonight I went for Mexican food. I drove all the way to South Tucson to this little family type restaurant. The specialty of the house is called the President's platter in honor of Bill Clinton who had this particular meal there about 10 years ago. My parents have met Bill Clinton, who rented house in  Martha's Vineyard not far from where their house is. I've not met him, but I know enough about him to know that if he ordered something for dinner that I wouldn't be able to finish it. And sure enough, it was a little bit like a tasting menu at a fancy restaurant, except that on the tasting menu they give you little bits of everything that they make. Here, they give you full size portions of everything that they make. It featured a tostada taco chili Reno a tamale and an enchilada. Fortunately, I was pretty hungry and I felt comfortable enough eating about half of it. It was good, just way way way too much food.