Tucson - Home On the Range

It’s good to be home and settling in after a long journey via Taiwan and Los Angeles, a total of about 30 hours door to door, I think...with all the time zone changes and still somewhat fuzzy brain thats too lazy to pin it down exactly- best guess.  In any case, pretty remarkable how we can travel half way around the world in such a short period of time considering that a hundred years ago it could take weeks and several hundred years ago months or even years depending on what befell you in route.

I arrived at our perfect time of year in the Sonoran Desert - the extreme heat over, milder daytime temperatures in the eighties but nights cooling into the fifties, mostly sunny and pleasant.  I won’t miss the heat and humidity of Bali although in time you adjust to that a little - still, not my preferred type of climate but makes me appreciate our Dry Heat in Arizona. 🥵

Soon, the Snowbirds arrive in Tucson, not the avian sort but what we call the winter visitors from the cold climates - Midwest, East Coasters and Canadians primarily who are already being hammered early in the winter season with arctic cold and snowstorms. Happy for them to come here and for local businesses but more congested streets for us but everyone just rolls with the punches.

The cultural shock of being back was not as much as arriving in Bali of course but there is still some adjustments, mostly easy and as of this writing four days home, I’M BACK.....good to be home and certainly not ready to travel again any time soon - well, we are going camping at Patagonia Lake State Park

https://azstateparks.com/patagonia-lake

for three nights in a weeks time but that’s only a two hour drive south near the Mexican border.  We’re taking our pull along Aliner pop up camper which is a big luxurious step up from the years of tent camping we did and reduces the groan factor quite a bit but we certainly have many fond memories of tenting - mostly prefer as memories at this stage in life. Hoping to take our god dog Sandy if her parents allow, they usually do, and catch up with hows she’s doing - always GOOD TO GO!  There’s rabbits, coyotes, javalena (wild boar), mountain lions, bears and birds - Oh My!  Let me have at ‘em.....

This morning we took a ride to Sabino Canyon in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains for a mile hike on a beautiful trail through the desert.  The early morning was peaceful and calm with temperatures in the mild sixties with a little cloud cover, something we never complain about in our part of the country where the sun rules the day.  On our walk we saw our state bird the roadrunner, many finches, doves, a very bright red vermillion flycatcher, pyrrhuloxia and a number of young deer and bucks crazing comfortably near us by the trail.

We were home from our walk before nine am with a full day ahead of us that ended with a nice dinner at Carols sister Marian’s home along with her husband Mark, Uncle Lenny who we picked up on way over, god doggie Sandy who wildly greeted me after a months absence wanting to know all about my travels which I promised I would fill her in on next week when we take her for the day and friend Dianne.  Mark made a really nice dinner starting off with home made French onion soup with toasted bread topping, meatloaf baked in an old cast iron skillet, string beans with bacon, baked sweet potatoes chunks, fresh rolls and ending on homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream 😋 for dessert - it was quite a feast that we are still savoring at home with belts loosened and feet up, done for the day, very satisfied and fulfilled. 🙏