We left the cold of northern Arizona and excitedly drove south for some much needed warmth. It was a surprise in several ways when we arrived in Tuscon. First of all, it was a bit of a shock to the system to all of a sudden not need our winter gear on – no toques (that’s Canadian for stocking hat), no winter jackets, no boots and wool socks – mmmmm, nice!!! That was the good shock. The not so good shock was how many people were already here! We had forgotten, in our colder days, that so many retired folks head south for the warmth of the southern states over the winter. It was a shock to arrive at a campground to find it full, then to move on to a government land management area where camping is free to find it equally full – oh man! This was a dilemma! We decided to pull of to the side of a road and decide our next move, which turned out to be a BIG mistake! As Jim turned the van, we felt one of the tire give out. I jumped out to find the front passenger tire completely flat. What the heck??? Looking around, I found the culprit
Well, this was not what we needed. The day was nearing a close and we now had a flat tire and nowhere to stay – wonderful! Thankfully, we have BCAA and so were able to call for a tow truck to come and take us to the nearest place to buy a new tire. Of course, we had to wait a bit, so we set up our chairs and had a little snack while we waited for our tow.
Our driver took us to a tire shop and it was just before closing time. Luckily, they had the tire we needed in stock and were willing to stay and do the job. As we waited for them to finish, we looked at our options for overnight. Camping was out, that was clear, so we checked out the local Walmarts on iOverlander and found one not too far away at a mall. I plugged the location into my phone and once the van was back in our possession, we headed there. Although it seemed like a busy part of the city, the location was actually pretty quiet. We parked and settled down for the night, thankful to have a place to sleep. The next day we discovered that our mall was pretty well equipped – there was a nice looking brew pub and a movie theatre. We decided that after our sight seeing this day we would treat ourselves to a night out at the movies – something we hadn’t done in a long time! We checked out the 4th Avenue shopping district, finding some little things to take home with us (we were running out of room, so only small stuff now!) before stopping for coffee at a neat little restaurant area made from cargo containers – very cool! Later, we walked along the riverfront, thinking it might be a good place to ride but only finding a dry river bed that, from the size of the trees growing there, had been dry for quite some time. Not the most attractive cycling, but a nice bike path. Maybe we would go for a ride here – we would wait and see. Finally, we made our way out to the Mission San Xavier del Bac, and old church in the south side of the city. It was a beautiful old structure and we loved both the architecture and artwork that went into creating it.
Later, we came back to “our” Walmart, heading to the brew pub for the promised burger and beer before going into the mall and heading to the theatre. What a weird experience! The entire mall, save for one or two smaller stores and the theatre, was closed. It was a ghost town!
We did enjoy our movie though, Jumanji: The Next Level. It was funny and so enjoyable to relax in the comfy theatre chairs for 2 hours. We probably could have sat through anything just for the experience, haha! But it was a fun movie and we totally recommend it!
The following day we set out for the Sonora Desert Museum. We had heard that this was a fantastic place to visit and well worth the cost of entry. Well, this place was absolutely amazing! Pretty much all outdoors, you can stroll through and learn about not only the many kinds of cactus that live in this area, but others as well. They also have some desert animals on display and a a very interesting underground exhibit explaining the mining that has occurred here as well. We spent pretty much our whole day out there. If you go, remember to bring sunscreen and water!
On our last day in Tuscon, we headed out to hike in the Saguaro National Park. We chose a fairly flat hike to do, thinking we’d get some great pics of the cactus out there but not wanting to do anything too strenuous due to the heat. Well, it started off well enough. We found the trail head and followed the trail pretty easily, stopping and taking pics as we went.
The trail we were taking was designated as Easy and should have been about 3 miles for the loop. However, at some point along the wash, we got off the trail and ended up doubling our hike! Ordinarily, hiking 6 miles would not be that big deal, but on a hot day it was a problem. We finally cut back through in the direction we thought we needed to go and came upon a street with mailboxes – civilization! Asking directions from a passing car, we finally came back out onto the highway and walked along it back to our parking spot. I ran out of water just as we came to the last curve before our parking lot – whew! That was just a little too close! Oh well, it makes for a good story. Next time, we will take our Garmin with us!
We really enjoyed our time in Tuscon. It was wonderful to be back in warm weather and the desert is just so breathtakingly beautiful. I can see why people come and spend their entire winter down here. For us, though, we had places to go and so, after another night at our Walmart, it was off towards Pheonix and an appointment with a certain baseball team – next up, Desert League baseball, so stay tuned!
