Counting down

Remembering

This strange time has given us plenty of time to reminisce about places we have visited over the years. As Jim Croce starts singing, memories start flooding back.  Like having Sunday brunch overlooking the Potomac River and Watergate Hotel in Washington DC or taking ferries to Alaska or in Italy. One memory leads to another as the I Heart Radio playlist cranks out songs from the 60s and 70s with the words that are still in our brains. The best memories are time spent with family like skiing with grandsons, Tyler and Kyle. We are also made us hopeful to return to new adventures again.

 

The Loop

Our slower than usual travel over the past 9 months has given us the opportunity to take hiking and cycling trails we have previously missed in Colorado and Tucson awaiting the vaccine. These are some of the places we enjoyed while in Tucson. 

The 54 mile trail around Tucson is pretty flat and has another 50 miles of trails to ride or walk. The streets are rough and congested to ride on, making the trail even more desirable.

We woke to snow on the Catalina Mountains.

Lost Dutchman

During a visit to Mesa for our final repairs on our trailer, a bobcat made a brief visit. Fortunately, I happened to have the camera sitting on the table as we watch the Superstition Mountains change with the sunset as he made a quick stop.

Agua Caliente Park

Agua Caliente, Spanish for hot water, is a unique 101-acre park with a perennial warm spring and pond and evidence of human habitation dating back about 5,500 years. In 1873, a ranch and health resort was developed and is now a city park.

The renovated 1870s Ranch House Visitor Center and Art Gallery were closed and the weekly birding tours on hold until after COVID. We enjoyed the shade of mature palm trees and native mesquite trees as we walked around the park checking out the ranch and bunch house.  The desert has been very dry this year and this was a the perfect place to watch birds as they snacked on bugs over the water.

Sabino Canyon's Phoneline Trail

We took the shuttle 4 miles to the end of the canyon's road and hiked the scenic 5 miles back to the visitor's center. 

Phoneline Trail runs along the eastern slope of Sabino Canyon created to carry supplies up to Summerhaven on Mt. Lemmon. The first phone line from Tucson to Mt. Lemmon ran along the trail. 

The 1/2 mile trail of switchbacks up to the Phoneline trail.

We could see both Blackett's Ridge and Thimble Peak from the trail which is relatively flat with plenty of rock obstacles to avoid. We would stop to look around rather than stumble over the edge. I was glad to have my hiking pole with me.

We are armchair travelers for a while with so many good memories and a few that were stressful. The time I was too cheap to pay for a private vehicle to take us to the airport in Paris. We had train passes to use and save the 60 euros. After all, we had just spent two weeks traveling from Switzerland and found our way just fine. Well, sort of, with the help of a few kind people. We made it to the airport but had no idea how to find out gate or even an entrance. Finally, an English speaking lady who was also looking for British Air and took pity on us. Once we were shuttled to our plane and settled into our seats, the pilot announced "Congratulations, you survived Charles De Galle". 

As we listen to The Grass Roots, we are enjoying the memories but also planning for the future. Thank goodness for the intelligent scientists mixing their magic brews into vaccines.

Tucson, Arizona

Getting a feel for the area

Before retiring, I had contracts to work in Tucson at Tucson Medical Center (loved it) and University Hospital )not so much). The city continues to draw us back and has grown along with the traffic. I can't imagine how it would be with Canadian snowbirds. Far Horizons RV Park is less than 1/3 full for this winter season.

Celebrating Dia de Los Muertos

The Heirloom Farmers markets in different locations several days of the week  have many farm to table offerings that keep us returning. We found such a diverse choice of foods to choose.  Many restaurants have closed but have a good turnout at the markets to keep them going and us returning.

Salvadoran pupuzas were a tasty grilled corn masa filled with seasoned meat, vegetables and cheese served with a cabbage slaw and a dressing. 

Tucson is an interesting and diverse sanctuary city. It is the only place in the United States designated a City of Gastronomy by UNESCO. A half-dozen years ago, the international agency began including food as a part of cultural heritage worth protecting, recognizing the importance of things like Armenian 

lavash, the Mediterranean diet and the gastronomic meals of the French.

It all starts with the deep and multicultural food history with so much innovation in all parts of the food system, including sustainable agriculture and ranching, plus the development of an urban agriculture scene. Tucson recently amended the land use code to make it easier to do agriculture within city limits and to sell those products.

Tucson snagged the UNESCO designation because of the wealth of food-related accomplishments, from the ancient O’odham mountainside settlement to the many local organizations striving to help battle hunger, like the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and Iskashitaa Refugee Network ( a refuge agency). And then there’s the food itself: The city is packed with restaurateurs, chefs, farmers and ranchers who nurture a vibrant food scene.

This swath of Sonoran Desert has one of the longest food heritages on the continent, nestled at the base of the Tucson Mountains is where the O'odham people settled, planting crops of maize, tepary beans and other produce amid a landscape with prickly pear cacti and sagebrush. The towering Saguaro is native to Arizona's Sonoran Desert and its juicy red fruit, which locals use to make jams and syrups, ripens in June. 

Local restaurants incorporate local ingredients like tepary beans, a drought-resistant legume native to the American Southwest, into dishes like a Cholla bud meat dish served alongside a green bean and 

tepary bean salad and drizzled with a jalapeño-orange vinaigrette or pickling some Cholla buds or add some purslane into a dish, since it grows wild in Tucson’s dry riverbeds,

Turkish flatbread with stuffing or just olive oil and sesame seeds.

II will have to try the Green Chile Lemonade next time we visit.

We were lured in by the French lady's "oui oui" and indulged in her pastries.

The freezer is full of roasted green chile.

Hiking in Sabino Canyon

At the base of the Catalina Mountains lies Sabino Canyon not far from the RV park. The canyon between steep rock cliffs has been closed to traffic since 1978 making a great place for walking the 30 miles trails or up the road. Or take the tram the 4 miles up and walk back or meet the next tram at one of the nine stops on the return.

The trails give the quads a work out.

This confused saguaro must be confused. They usually bloom in May. 

Cycling The Loop

Loving "The Loop" bike path.

Resort living

Loving the food.

It is good to spend time with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

BICAS, Adios mi amiga

We like to donate our bikes so someone else can get some use and enjoyment from them when  we move on to a new model. We heard about BICAS at the shop that I purchased my new mountain bike from. When we arrived at the shop, there were already several people waiting to volunteer so they could have credit towards a bike or parts.

 

 I didn't think that leaving my bike  would make me nostalgic. But after 15 years of adventures all over the US including and Canada, it made me pause and think back.

 

The shop motto: “We don’t fix your bike for you” (a temporary solution), “we teach you how to do it” (an empowering opportunity). This has enabled BICAS to become much more than just another bike shop and allowed them to remain true to our educational mission.

For community members who don’t have much money, they also offer a unique Work Trade Program where they can earn credit, which they may use to pay for shop time, or our Earn-a-Bike Program.

BICAS welcomes people of all ages and all walks of life to learn DIY bicycle maintenance skills at the shop. Community Tools is a resource for some of the most vulnerable members of the Tucson community, including the homeless, veterans, immigrants, refugees and  youth. Many of these people rely on their bikes as their sole method of transportation, and rely on BICAS to help them keep it rolling week after week!

The people in the shop were looking for a new shock or fork before we walked out the door.

Many bike parts are made in to metalwork art sold to support this effort.

 

Bikes Not Bombs movement was originally dedicated to providing sustainable, human-powered transportation to communities in developing countries by setting up, in those countries, local community bicycle maintenance spaces and training local bike mechanics, the key idea being the establishment of local self-reliance; but similar needs were soon identified within the U.S. itself, particularly in the inner cities.

Road and mountain biking in Tucson

Pima County has more that 100 miles of bike trails and lanes. A huge effort has been made to get grants to pay for them. We have met several cyclist from Canada and the US that return to Tucson every year to ride them. 

Since we had ended our last long bike ride at Julian Wash, why not start there and see where we ended up.

 The clouds were appreciated since it has been so warm here in Tucson this winter.

 After riding 18 miles, we ended up at Saguaro National Park on the east which has an eight mile loop with a few kickers to keep you awake. Then we headed a different way back to where we started.

Love these smooth paths. Some are chip seal but this was smooth as ice.

The bike path has all sorts of interesting art along the way.

We found the mountain biking area that we had heard about along the path and decided to return the next day.

Looking at this trail map, we thought no problem. It looked like each loop came back to the middle. Boy, were we wrong. We know better than heading out without a map or GPS in a new area. Many of the trails did not have directions posted and we found ourselves going the wrong way a few times. Good thing is was a Saturday with a few people there to set us straight.

I was glad to see these chairs which meant we were almost back to the truck.

My new bike handled the washes and dips so much better without jolting my head. Sometimes on my old bike, I would feel like I was going to knock a tooth out. I guess I should have listened to Mike and gotten a new mountain bike sooner. Looks like I might be as hard headed as he is.

Many of the flowers are blooming and we look forward to seeing the cactus in bloom before we leave in April.

The Mercado is a public market a couple of blocks off the Santa Cruz bike path and there is a constant flow of cyclists stopping here. The line to Seis where we decided to have tacos was a constant 8-10 people long. It was fun to watch the kids play in the middle and flow of cyclist visiting while they ate something from one of the shops.

Tucson is such a dichotomy in so many aspects as you go from one section, street or building. It keeps things interesting.