Tucson trip

Back in 2005, when I had quit my day job in order to coach full-time, I went on a tour of the western part of the US, looking for somewhere to live (southern California being too expensive). I checked out Bend, Oregon (too cold, too small), Salt Lake City, Utah (too cold, not my culture), then Albuquerque, and next on my list was Tucson. Except I fell in love with Albuquerque and never made it to Tucson. Then about 10 years later, sometime after we moved to northern California, my brother-in-law and his family moved to Tucson, and once again I thought – “Huh. Tucson.”

We finally made plans to go out and visit them this weekend. Except it turned out they weren’t going to be there this weekend. We figured we’d go ahead and go to Tucson this weekend anyway – it’s not that far. We can go again later in the winter to see them.

I can’t believe I’ve never been to Tucson until now! Our trip was brief and informative. Informative because I discovered that I really like Tucson. Brief because – well, that was just lack of planning.

I had imagined that we were going to Tucson and “camping and hiking along the way.” We did camp halfway to Tucson, but it was cold and we didn’t really have time to hike. I also didn’t feel well. We had only planned to spend one night in Tucson, and spend the final night camping along the way back. But a storm was coming to New Mexico and we didn’t feel like camping in the cold again, so we drove straight home, and ended up home a day early. BIG MISTAKE. We should have stayed the second night in Tucson. It was balmy! 75 degrees! Beautiful!

Now I’m sitting in the house at Placitas, with the wind howling HOWLING HOWLING outside, and it’s 35 degrees and miserable, and I’m trying not to get grumpy because it’s no one’s fault. But why am I here? I took time off! It’s a holiday! I worked extra hours every day for 2 weeks in order to be able to take the extra day off. So why aren’t I still in Tucson? Why aren’t I at least in my own house? Why am I here?

Well, I can tell you why I’m not in Santa Fe. That’s because we came home in a wind-and-snow storm last night and the freeways looked like this. Santa Fe would be the red zig-zag above the second “q” in “Albuquerque”.

The wind was blowing the camper van around like you wouldn’t believe. And the snow started somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. So we only made it to Placitas last night. Next time I go to Tucson, I’m staying longer. Meanwhile, here’s pics from this first, brief-but-lovely trip.

On the way out, we stopped for green chili burgers at Sparky’s in Hatch, New Mexico. John got green chili lemonade and I got El Rojo, which was red chili mango lemonade. They sound like gimmicks for the tourists, but we loved them, mmmm, mmmm. Sweet and spicy!

We spent the first night van camping at City of Rocks State Park in New Mexico. It was cold, and in my opinion, too far out of the way.

Here’s our hotel in Tucson. It’s an older resort. It has pretty grounds, but the rooms are a bit shabby.

At first I was disappointed in our room because our front door was in a dark corner, below-grade.

That’s it way in the back beyond the utility closet.

But the room itself was large with a convenient back patio for dogs (not fenced though).

It worked out, but I wouldn’t stay there again. They also charged us an enormous extra amount for the dogs.

That night we went out for Ethiopian food, which was recommended by my boss’s boss. Here’s John demonstrating how you’re supposed to eat it with your fingers. Authentically, you’re not supposed to use silverware at all. You take a piece of the crepe-like bread and pinch a mouthful from the shared plate. However, I tended to use the inauthentic spoon to ladle it into a larger piece of crepe and fold it like a burrito. Either way, it was a big mess.

I took pictures a flowering cactus at the resort grounds the next morning while we were checking out.

The bees loved them.

Then we went to a botanical garden, which I always want to do, whenever we travel anywhere.

This section is inside the butterfly house. It was warm and humid in there.

See the green moth?

And a brown one.

This is the best fountain I’ve ever seen! I don’t like the “classical” fountains with cherubs and things. This one’s a flowering yucca. It’s done in copper, so it has weathered to a beautiful green. The lighting was poor, so the pictures don’t do it justice.

The rest of these photos are the outdoor gardens at the botanical garden – mostly cactus. The weather was in the mid-70’s.

Then we headed home into the storm.