Blog Boy
After a night of measurable rain, we awoke to fog on the hillside, a desert personality we've not seen before, not that we've seen everything. We've never seen a wild javelina, a free range rattle snake, a sun baked gila monster, or the desert bloomed in full color. We have seen roadrunners, ground rodents, jack rabbits, plenty of birds, and a plethora of sightseers like ourselves. We've warmed ourselves in the sunlight; we've inhaled fully the fresh air, and we've thoroughly enjoyed picking our way over jagged rocks, less so sloshing through soft wash sand, but in the last ten days, we've taken a full joyful measure of the Saguaro National Park. We've concluded that the place is worthy. Today, we saved one of the very short, highly traveled, and appropriately popular trails called the Desert View, for our last hike. We walked a mere three miles total, but the top of the ridge rewarded us with a panoramic view of the entire valley Southwest of Tucson. Unlike the other trails, this trail has clear signage indicating the names of the plants. The broad stair like trail glides gently upward to the viewpoint. It's not quite wheel chair friendly, but any ambulatory person could manage the hike, even young children. After lunch, we readied ourselves for the trip home. The casita has a washer/dryer, so laundry was in order. It's always preferable to return home with bags full of clean clothes. We buffed a few scratches from the rental car that we incurred when we overshot the casita in the first place, dropping our poor little Corolla into a deep saddle shaped wash bordered thickly by a grove of palo verde trees the willingly slashed the sides of the car with their thorns. I don't think we'll be charged for damages now, and thankfully the Corolla didn't spring a leak when I scraped her underside over the unforgiving granite boulders. We check out tomorrow at 10. As is our usual procedure, we'll leave the place nearly clean. The owners like to take care of cleaning towels, sheets, etc. Other than that, we'll leave them with very little to do. Our plane leaves at 5:30, so we'll spend the day once again with our friends, the Kral's. God willing we'll land in Spokane around 9:30 where the temperature will be shivering just above 20 degrees. I'll immediately ask myself why I'm there, and I'll probably dream about cacti for a few weeks. Mostly I'll be grateful I got to get away with my Bunny, and the bottom line as always will be that life is good, especially today.
Not quite the stairway to heaven, but a view of God's work at the top for sure.
Glad to see that you are both well and enjoying the warmth in the desert. Good days to you. Judy and Yoshiki
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