We're back

Back from our little road trip. Actually it wasn't very little, I guess - about 3200 miles and over 50 hours of driving. I have fanny fatigue.

It actually rained in Tucson while we were there - and when we left. A desert rain is a wonderful thing and I'm glad we got to see it. Actually, I'm mostly glad we got to smell it.

We hiked in Redington Pass, shopped and lunched in Tubac, took a few pictures of Mission San Xavier del Bac, looked at stars at Catalina State Park and generally ate our way through various old favorites in town (steaks at Pinnacle Peak and chicken at Lucky Wishbone and fries and milkshakes at In 'N Out Burger - actually a holdover from our years in California - as well as a sundae at Swenson's and the lobster queso dip at Firebirds... good grief, we really DID eat our way through town!)

Daisy the dog loved visiting Frik and Maddie the cats - confined as they were to the guest room, they had to be visited periodically when someone opened the door and let Daisy in. Somehow Daisy just knows that you find cats under beds, and in spite of them sitting right on top of the bed when the door opened, she looked right past them and stuck her nose under the bed every time. Where are they?

For their part, Frik and Maddie didn't fully appreciate the trip although by the end they were being brave enough to come out of their carriers and shed hair all over the car.

We drove down via California and ran into so many aggressively stupid drivers that we returned via Utah/Idaho. That made for an interesting trip because of the snow.

Incidentally, if you want to drive over Hoover Dam in Northern Arizona, you better do it quickly. They are building a bridge over the dam and rerouting traffic entirely. By the 'security' details there they seem to think it at risk of a terrorist attack. (I put 'security' in quotes because it was the sort of security that responds to the popular political notion that Americans want to 'feel' safe, rather than than to the perhaps more accurate concept that Americans - and everyone else - want to actually BE safe. 'Being' safe is probably not an attainable goal but with a whole lot of trampling on our rights 'feeling' safe is a good substitute with obvious 'up' sides for the ruling elite. But I digress.)

So, while I collect my thoughts about various things I thought I'd write about, there are pictures to post, of course!