Over the President's Day Weekend, Kat and I got out of town to see our good friends Terri and Derek over in Tucson.
This was a weekend of firsts for us - First camping trip together, first road trip to leave the state of California together (It's a REALY big state), and first chance to see a desert monsoon... More on that in a minute.
We left on Friday, and drove out to Yuma, AZ, along with 10-gazillion of our fellow SoCal brethren. Kinda slow going, and my misguided decision to pull off the freeway in El Cajon led to twilight-zoneish drama as we struggled for what felt like 30 minutes to get back on the freeway at rush hour. Still, we got to the rather plush though thin-walled Holiday Inn, Yuma, and our spirits were significantly revived by our discovery of a Barbecue place that was actually open at 10 pm when we were looking for dinner.
Saturday woke up sunny and nice. We enjoyed a great, albeit fattening, start at the Cracker Barrel (Mmmmm... Oh, heavenly realm of grits, pecan pancakes, and gravy... where have you been for so long???) and then headed off to Tucson to see Terri and Derek. Crystal clear skies and a pretty good book on CD called Prep, by Curtis Sittenfield, and we were there before we knew it!
Amazing advances in the art of talking plastic animals at the Cracker Barrel gift shop
Dateland Arizona - Famous for dates... and the most ridden plastic pony in 3 counties
Saturday night and Sunday we were with Terri and Derek in Tucson. They have a great property on the edge of Tucson, out in the desert. We hiked around, admired the cows that are on the open range, and met an eccentric neighbor who is an heir to the Procter and Gamble fortune... He has the company logo tatooed on his shoulder! He showed us...
On sunday we headed east again to the Painted Petrogylphs state park for some tent camping. Its a pretty cool area where teenage deviants since 4000 BC have been leaving graffitti... I guess after a certain amount of time it becomes art, but I'm sure at the time that these prehistoric taggers were considered a menace.
We camped one night in said tents, though everybody else in the park was in a comfy RV. The wind HOWLED that night, but thankfully the rain held off until Monday afternoon as we were driving out. It was great to see the rain pound down in the desert as we drove out.
All in all, a great weekend, and hopefully the first of many such adventures... Now, where to next?
5 comments:
Sounds like fun!! We tried to eat at said Cracker Barrel when we went through there but it was over an hour wait. Broke my little southern heart! Next time through!!
Ahhh... Cracker Barrel without a wait is blasphemous! We had to put 40 minutes in, but it was worth EVERY second!!!
What, no photo of the logo tattoo? I'm disappointed.
And if you're looking for suggestions, I know where you could visit next. . . .
The pictures of you skiing almost broke my spirit. And now this trip? Thanks a lot.
GRINS, Micah! I do my best - Hope we see you in May to really rub it in!!!
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