Back to Tucson and Warm Weather!

Friday 12/30/11

Up early this AM and headed to Midway Airport. 35 degrees and raining, but at least it was not ice and snow. Traffic was light due to the holiday weekend, the check-in line was fast, the security line was short and they started boarding as we walked up to the gate. Dennis was the third or fourth person on and grabbed an exit row, so it could not have gone smoother

Arrived in Tucson a half hour early! 75 degrees and sunny. Stopped at In N’ Out Burger for lunch, dropped our luggage at the trailer and made a grocery run in the afternoon.

Saturday 12/31

Out for our morning walk in the desert this morning, ran a few errands and relaxed. Did a bit of maintenance, cleaned the shady side of the Volvo in the afternoon. Weather now is much more to our liking than it was in early December, sunny and mid-70’s.

The RV Park had a New Years Dinner and Dance this evening. We had paid for the dinner, but were not interested in the dance. Had a nice dinner, steak for Dennis, ribs for Nancy, with pleasant dinner companions, then back home and watched TV shows we had DVR’ed while we were away. Did not make it to Midnight!

Sunday 1/1/12

Happy New Year to all. Took our usual walk in the desert this morning, watched the Sun AM news shows and cleaned the other side of the truck this morning. Realized we left two of our Clean Bottles at the dinner Saturday night, checked in the Rec Hall, but not there. Afraid they got tossed - bummer! Have to order some more.

Sat outside in the shade and read most of the afternoon. Just relaxing and enjoying life. We are puzzled about the lack of humming birds since we returned. Our feeder was empty of course, and Nancy refilled both of the feeders as soon as we returned. Last month there were birds on the feeders very regularly, but we have not seen one hummer since we go back! At dusk though there were two owls sitting in the palm tree right behind our trailer and hooting to each other.

Monday 1/2

Regular Monday morning RV park meeting this morning, than we went up to the Desert Museum and took a nice walk around the desert habitat loop. The only coyotes and Javalinas we saw were sleeping. Stopped at the Saguaro National Forest visitors center and picked up the guided tour and walks schedule for January. Looks like a number of interesting things going on. Back home for lunch.

Watched some of the Winter Classic hockey game, then continued with our second time around watching the first Downton Abbey series in preparation for the second season starting next week.

Tuesday 1/3

We decided to skip the morning walk today and take a hike in Sabino Canyon, on the theory that it would be a good day to go up in the mountains considering the warm temperatures. Of course we had to drive clear across Tucson to get there since we are on the SW side and Sabino Canyon is to the NE. Arrived there about 10:30 AM, when I went to pay the $5 entrance fee the ranger asked my age and said I could get the senior pass - well duh! I already have one! So we saved five bucks.

Of course my pass did not cover the $8 each for the tram up the canyon, but it was well worth the price. The trip up the canyon was very pretty with spectacular cliffs on both sides. At the top we left the tram and hiked 1/2 mile up to the upper part of the canyon to the junction with the Sabino Canyon Trail and the Phoneline Trail. The Tram makes nine stops along the canyon and you can rejoin at any of the stops, so we decided to go a half mile down the Phoneline Trail and then 0.7 miles down to tram stop 7.

It turned out to be a bit tougher going than we expected! We left the tram at 11:45 and got back down to stop 7 in time to catch the down bound tram at 2 PM. The seven tenths of a mile down to the road was pretty steep and tough going for both of us. Of course there was also a family going along the trail that consisted of grandparents, parents, a young boy - oh, and the mom was carrying a baby! They passed us, we passed them, etc. Finished about together. We were exhausted.

The scenery however was spectacular and well worth the effort. We were much higher than we would have been able to climb on our own. Surprisingly looking down the canyon we could see out across the valley and the city of Tucson, over the Tucson Mountains, and, on the far horizon, all the way to Baboquivari Peak, 50 miles the other side of Tucson!

After the tram ride back to the visitors center we headed back to town for a late lunch at Beyond Bread. As usual the sandwiches were big enough to take half of each of them home for dinner.

Back home and relaxed, watched TV and just vegetated. As I write this there is an owl hoo, hooing away in the tree right outside our window.