Bright
and way too early (yes, I have pictures of the sunrise to prove it), we packed
up, hit Starbucks on our way out of town and headed down to Tucson.
Our good
friend Hobie has a little "casita" on the west side of Tucson where
he spends his winters far, far away from Washington's wet, rainy weather.
Here's a picture of his labyrinth which you can even see on satellite pics of
his place. Pretty darn cool!
Saguaro
National Park (west) is pretty much right next door. What an interesting drive
that was. The Bearded One and Spotted One weren't too crazy about the endless
miles of washboard road but the scenery was so worth it.
After the
saguaros the destination was Pima Air Museum. The Bearded One spent three hours
checking out the aircraft (yawn). The Spotted One & I made ourselves
comfortable in the bus and tried to do some reading.
Next up
was Mission San Xavier del Bac. This is a beautiful mission. I wish we had been
able to spend more time but, at this point the sun had decided to stay out and
we didn't want the Spotted One to get overheated in the bus.
There
were lots of photographic opportunities.
I was
fascinated with this cactus that looks like an artichoke.
And,
there was Indian fry bread! Yum!
Driving
in and out of Tucson were fields and fields with these huge tarp covered bales.
They were cotton. But not just any type of cotton, these were Pima cotton
fields. If you look closely you can see some little tufts of white left on the
plants here and there.
After 12
days in the bus, the dog that absolutely refuses to put his head down and sleep
while we are driving finally relented. It was about this time that we were also
able to pull into a gas station without him barking like crazy at everybody.
There is hope......
Would you believe -- 7 miles from home we get hit with a golf ball size rock, smack dab in the middle of the windshield? Oh that hurt. But, I guess when you consider everything, completing 3922 miles with just a broken windshield that's not so bad, right? We didn't spend any time in a repair shop like some people did, or sick for the entire trip like somebody else......
We came
home to the aftermath of a huge snow and ice storm. The Seattle area doesn't
get snow very often and even less rarely do we get ice storms. Especially
storms of this magnitude. Our neighbor said everything was coated in 3/4"
of ice. It is now a week later and we still have two huge piles of branches to
deal with. We will have to have a tree expert look at this poor tree. There are
so few branches left now....
