Wednesday, December 23, 2009

White Sands & Chiricahua

Tuesday, December 22
11:30 pm (Mountain)

I'm spending the night in Benson, Arizona, which is about an hour east of Tucson. Tomorrow I'll be visiting Saguaro National Park, which has two districts -- Rincon Mountain and Tucson Mountain. Then I have to rush to Phoenix for a Suns-Thunder game. Christmas Eve plans? Not sure -- maybe I'll visit Sedona again. I just know that I'm heading north towards the Grand Canyon.

Here's the trip route thus far:


I spent Monday, December 21 at White Sands National Monument. It's amazing how low the fighter jets (from nearby Holloman Air Force Base) fly over the park -- I couldn't identify them so I asked a park guide. It turns out that these were German planes (Tornado aircraft). The German Air Force trains pilots in New Mexico? Odd. Photos from White Sands below:



Today, I did some heavy duty hiking at Chiricahua National Monument. I went up to Inspiration Point, which must have been 7 miles round trip. I finished my hike right as the sun was setting and found that I was pretty much the last person in the parking lot. As I was making my way back to Willcox, Arizona and I-10 (about 40 miles from Chiricahua), I got pulled over by the Border Patrol! No joke. The officer was actually a pretty nice guy -- he said they have very little night traffic and he just wanted to check my plates, see what my purpose was in the area. I told him I had been at Chiricahua and he saw the telephoto lens in my back seat (and some other lenses) and got excited: "Are you a professional photographer?" Ha! Nope, sorry to let you down.
** Yes, I know I should have told the guy I was a coyote and that I smuggle drugs in a secret compartment **

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About Me

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I am a researcher, reporter and conference producer with experience spanning the aerospace & defense, biopharma, chemical, consumer electronics, energy, homeland security, human resources and IT markets.

In January I rejoined Worldwide Business Research, where I serve as program manager for Consumer Returns, SCMchem and the Digital Travel Summit.

I have an M.S. in science and medical journalism from Boston University (Dec 2008) and did my undergraduate work at Indiana University, majoring in journalism and political science (May 2001). After interning for the Chicago Tribune as a collegian, I landed my first real gig in the Windy City: I was a senior technology writer for I-Street magazine (Sept 2001-Feb 2003). I covered nanotech and biotech startups. From March-November 2003, I worked for a newsletter publisher (Exchange Monitor Publications) in DC, covering congressional hearings, the NRC & DHS.


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