In early January 2006, it occurred to me that I had never seen real cacti.  So I did some

research to find out where "real" cacti were, and it seemed they were called saguaro, and they

could be found in southern Arizona.  After looking at a map and seeing how far away southern

Arizona was from northern Utah, I decided that I would probably just never see real cacti.  But

then, as luck would have it, the very next week I was sent to Phoenix on trip for work.  So I

decided this would be a great opportunity to get to southern Arizona to see the saguaro

without actually having to pay for it.  So I drove down to the Bureau of Land Management's

Sonoran Desert National Monument and hiked in the North Maricopa Mountains Wilderness.  It

was really nice.  For starters, they were in a cold spell...and it was literally 40 degrees warmer

than it was in Salt Lake City.  So that was nice.  And then the desert was just really neat.  It

was different, and I really liked it, but I could certainly tell that if I lived there, it would probably

quickly become a lot like the swamps of South Carolina: cool at first, but after a while they just

all look the same.  But for a short trip in the winter, the Sonoran was really nice.  Incidentally,  I

called this my "Snorin' in the Sonoran" trip.  I stopped on the side of the trail and read a book

for awhile until I fell asleep.  Then I woke myself up with my snoring (I never snore).  And I just

started laughing out loud and said to myself, "I'm snorin' in the Sonoran!"  I'm sure you think

it's as funny as Tracy did...