Ridiculous Road Trip #1, Part 8 - Tuscon

Back to Part 7.

**For those folks who have read the previous blogs for this trip, I fixed the non-working videos in the last few posts. The ones of us sledding down the sand dunes are probably worth going back to.**

May 11

Last night at the Hot Well Dunes Campground in Arizona, Doug decided to sleep outside in the hammock. He mentioned that as squirmed around getting comfortable in his sleeping bag, zipped up into the bugnet around the hammock, that he felt like he felt a bit exposed to any big animal roaming around. A big, tasty, Doug Burrito. The night passed without any snacking. However, as we took an early morning walk through the dunes, sure enough, there were some big prints in the sand. Mostly rabbit, lizard, quail, snake...and a BIG CAT. 

As we drove the gravel roads back out to the interstate, we saw lots of rabbits, lots of hawks, and I glimpsed a road runner.

If you've ever driven Interstate 10 through Arizona, you must have seen the billboards for THE THING? For a piddly $1, you can see THE THING! We, of course, stopped for THE THING?.

We don't want to ruin the surprise for you. 

We arrived in Tuscon to start our lovely visit with my cousins, Bob and Joanne. They were kind enough to put up with us for a few days, even though we were a little ripe from two weeks of camping. After availing ourselves of a lovely hot showers, we lunched and planned out our time in Tuscon, with their help. We started out at the Franklin Auto Museum. Although I'm not much of a car person, this place was pretty cool. First of all, the four of us were the only visitors, so we had a personal tour from the docent. And the cars were gorgeous.

Then Bob and Joanne took us out to El Charo, "The Nation's Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family." All the food (and margaritas) was tasty, but Doug ordered the special "carne seca", strips of beef steak sun-dried (on the roof of the restaurant!), shredded and then reconstituted with chilies, tomatoes and onions. Yum. Then we headed back to their gorgeous house, to visit some more, to do some much needed laundry, and to sleep in a glorious non-camper bed.

May 12
The morning started out with sad news from my sister, Erin. Her father-in-law, Dan McGrath, had passed away. Although Mr. McGrath had been very ill for several months, it was especially sad to lose another father in our family.

Despite the sad news, we still decided to head out for an early hike at Sabino Canyon in the Coronado National Forest. As we hiked through the desert, I was thinking a lot about my dad, and realizing how very much I miss him.

We took the tram up to the top of the canyon, waded in some cool water, came back down, and Doug, being a fantastic husband, realized that I needed to escape reality for a while. So we went to see "Guardians of the Galaxy II". It was an excellent escape.

We had another lovely dinner out with Joanne and Bob, then took a tour of the gorgeous desert garden around their house, as we watched sunset fall over the desert.

Up next, Part 9.