The Front Range

View of Denver and the Rockies to the west of Cherry Creek Reservoir

Our second Colorado state park was Cherry Creek which we chose for its proximity to Aurora where Chris’ college friend, “Tommy D” lives. He came to our campsite at Cherry Creek for dinner and shared an awesome salad and pie. He also charmed Lily with his deep voice and playful games.

Dinner at our campsite with Tommy D

Denver was a surprise to me because I have idealized Colorado as a foothills “main street” community (probably similar to my “NJ is the armpit of America” childhood stereotype) rather than another sprawling city with gigantic single-family home suburbs and prolific pavement. Through NPR news I learned about the suffering schools in Colorado and the abundant non-native residents with degrees. In other words, the state is a haven for educated, affluent transplants and does not invest a lot in the education of its locals. As unexpected as this revelation was, I did expect to be awed by the geography and that certainly was the case when Tommy D took us to Red Rocks Park. 

The top row and southern shiprock of Red Rocks Amphitheater

What an incredible feat of design and construction. Between two huge ship rocks of red layered sediment, is an impressive amphitheater that can seat 20,000! It overlooks the city and miles of prairie beyond. We learned from Tom that Denver used to be desert prairie the same way Phoenix used to be just desert. The majority of the trees (except those along rivers) in Denver were planted and wouldn’t exist there but for humans. Wouldn’t it be great if it were stylish in Colorado to have a prairie grass lawn? We also learned about Denver’s system of “stealing” water from the western slope of the Rockies…a common theme out here where we want to live in areas that do not have the water to support our habits. We enjoyed a great lunch out with Tommy D then said goodbye, much to Lily's disappointment, as she just loved meeting him!

Chris takes our picture from outside the camper...Lily looks huge in the sling now!

Lily is getting heavy. I have no gauge except my surprise each morning upon picking her up. I love how she wakes up in a different fashion every day, sometimes tugging on the sheets and rousing me, sometimes yawning and squeaking, sometimes grunting for some nummy-nums as Nana calls it (milk). She is amazing in the way her natural curiosity makes her want to touch and taste everything she sees. It’s a real challenge to prevent a temptation to grab something like…paper or a tea mug and it’s also fun to let her try out the potato masher and whisk. She can now drink from her sippy cup although holding it and drinking have not occurred simultaneously yet. She nearly leaps from our arms trying to grab things and she bounces her legs and flails her arms when she gets excited. She waves back at people when they say hi and smiles as usual. We have also noticed a recent trend toward whining or crying when she can’t have what she’d like. All we can do is encourage her to use her sign language for ‘please’ and to be ‘gentle’ when she grabs at our face or my hair.

Our Cherry Creek campsite

Somehow we reserved, online, one of the nicest sites at Cherry Creek. Nestled into a corner of one of the loops, we had woods nearly all around us. The most awesome benefit of this locale revealed itself the evening that Tommy D came over for dinner. He saw a large bird land on a tree limb not far from the camper. After a close look I was sure it was an owl. Over the next three days we saw our Great Horned neighbor on several occasions the closest of which was on a rainy evening at dusk. He/She perched on a teeny branch off a tree about twenty feet from our bedroom window for about twenty minutes. 

Tough to spot, look just to the left of the big tree trunk

We also saw Red Shouldered Hawks, Mule Deer and Magpies along with White Pelicans on the reservoir. Lily and I took about a five-mile walk on some of the paved paths in the park one day. We were passed at high speed by several road bikes that use the path for transport, training, and recreation. I was definitely in the minority being on foot. I did chat with a man in a recumbent tricycle who was all too happy to share about his love for his vehicle. I was curious whether he got a sore neck given the reclined position…he had adjusted it to be comfy for him and so did not get sore.

Lily naps in the stroller as the bikes whizz by

It has been refreshing to be in the rain. I say this mainly because of the weather we’re used to in April which is cloudy, rainy, windy and cold. Believe it or not, Jersey family and friends, I missed the rain. I appreciate it all the more now since being in places where it rains nearly never. It may seem odd but I’m grateful that my family (parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc) lived in areas where water is not as much of an issue. So many people are subject to the choices their parents make and even feel they have to escape that life to make their own. We are blessed to have been given solid ground and safe surroundings in which to grow up and grow out of if we choose. What a gift.

Additions

After writing the last entry I realized I had forgotten a couple thoughts and stories from our trip between Arizona and Colorado…I write these down so you can read but also so we can remember.

Upon arriving in our Flagstaff campsite, I noticed a note on the ground near the trashcan. “Have your wife drive this thing until you learn how in a parking lot”. One can only assume this was from a disgruntled neighbor to the previous inhabitant of our site.

While staying in Gallup, New Mexico we hoped to visit one of Chris’ former Arizona colleagues, Sister Christie, who now lives at a retreat house and teaches within or very near a large reservation in that area. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see her but we did get to experience some serious wind. This was not as bad as the wind at Catalina in Tucson (where the wind actually pushed our slideout bed back in about four inches!) but we did not go outside at that campground until we left in the morning.

We also missed out on meeting old family friends whom I’ve never met. The Weavers are friends with my dad’s parents and live in Grants, New Mexico. Mom and Dad went cross-country in a Mustang and a tent camper for their honeymoon and visited the Weavers who, I learned on the phone, are incredibly nice. Mom suggested I call them and meet up if possible. Given the timing of some appointments our paths didn’t cross but I really enjoyed speaking with both Hope and Harry on the phone.

While staying in Santa Fe we woke up one morning, had breakfast and looked out the window to see what looked like a stray dog. No collar, no tags, no leash, no owner in sight. It came back through our campsite and I noticed an impressive set of teats! I then assumed she must be a wild dog looking for some chow for her pups. Needless to say we stayed inside until she headed out. We later learned that she actually belonged to the house across the main road and came to the campground on frequent scavenging trips. We were reminded that we’re in the “wild west” where for the most part you can do what you want with your property. If you want to run your fencing retail store out of your garage which is next to your crowded paddock of horses which are napping amongst numerous rusting old tractors, suit yourself!

A momentous event occurred while we were in Santa Fe: Milo Blankenmaus was born! Nick and Sharon are friends we met while living down the street from them in the farmhouse. We swapped garden tools along with many meals and have really grown along with them in the couple years of our friendship. We are so happy for them and it was so hard to contain my excitement when Sharon called from the hospital to say she had birthed Milo on the 14^th!

The handsome Milo

One last Santa Fe tale:

A warning to anyone who thinks it might be a good idea to try tossing your trash out from the car on the way out of a campground. A couple tried this and cut it a bit short causing their fifth-wheel trailer to get hung up on the dumpster. Chris witnessed nearly the entire staff rallying to help the shortcutter get out of his predicament.

Chris has been reading the works of Franciscan priest, Richard Rohr, for many years now and has been reading Rohr’s Lenten work called Wondrous Encounters during this Lent. Rohr stresses throughout his works the importance of accepting and embracing the “both and” mentality. Rather than “this or that” “either or” he explains we need to love, for example, both our strengths and our weaknesses. This has been relevant to my views on the way our country has designed its infrastructure for energy, travel, and “waste”. We are BOTH reaping the benefits of the system AND disappointed in it and that’s okay. A good reminder for so many facets of life. Don’t throw out the whole thing because part of it stinks. This has also been especially relevant as I learn more about our political system and its partisan nature. I hope we can work toward more of a ‘both and’ mentality instead of black and white thinking which limits and often hurts so many.

We saw antelope along the highway in northern New Mexico. It seems like they’re the whitetail deer of the desert plains.

I-25 is dotted with signs for elk, bear, antelope, and dust storms. We're not in New Jersey anymore.

The Climb to Colorado

Much of this drive was desert prairie along old route 66

After a week-long delay for weather we left Tempe, Arizona and instead of hopping back on I-10 West we headed north for Flagstaff and began the long, slow journey home. It had been dangerously windy and snowing in northern Arizona and western New Mexico so we held out in sunny Tempe until Monday April 11.

Lookout after rising out of Phoenix

This part of the trip was the reverse of how we started…when we left New Jersey, we fast forwarded the seasons to what felt like spring in Florida. Now it feels as though we rewound from summer back to spring again! Climbing out of the Phoenix area was refreshing to say the least. We left behind the city sprawl and at the peak of the climb we leveled out on high grassland. I never would have guessed that just above the cactus-filled desert would be mountain prairie! We saw our first snowcapped mountains on the approach to Flagstaff and actually saw some roadside snow and runoff which was uplifting after seeing so little natural water for so long.

Lily enjoying Daddy's drawstring for breakfast

Our Flagstaff campground was thick with pine trees and there were iris greens working their way up from the dirt. The campground sat at the base of an incredibly steep mountain covered in coniferous trees and huge rock faces with a meadow at the base. I’m continually shocked to see elements of our current energy system at work and Flagstaff was no exception. Seemingly right in the middle of town was a small mountain being mined (or ripped apart as it appeared). It made me wonder who decided it was a good idea to flatten one of the most beautiful elements of the town. The answer that keeps coming to me when I ask these kinds of questions is more often than not: people who want to make money. We saw power plants in the middle of the desert with water being piped in from who knows where, coal trains with fifty or more cars, and endless miles of power lines and high tension wires crisscrossing the landscape. It is sad to me to hear on NPR that we have been pumping carcinogenic liquid into the earth in order to extract natural gas…again, who ever thought that would be a good idea?

Approaching Flagstaff...snow!

Chris and I are implicit in the use of fossil fuels, especially during these few months of travel. But, we have been lit up with a renewed gratitude for the ability and desire to really do it differently. We are grateful that New Jersey doesn’t have the water rights issues that Santa Fe and Denver have. People can’t even set up a rainwater collection system in their own yard because they don’t “own” the water. We are grateful we can probably afford to use solar on our future home. We are grateful for the incredibly fertile soil in Hunterdon County that allows us to garden and compost so readily. We are grateful for the tall trees that shelter us from the winds and the smoothed over hills that provide great runoff to streams and rivers. These things don’t exist everywhere and it’s so easy to take them for granted.

Flagstaff campground scenery

We spent one night each in Flagstaff, AZ and Gallup, NM (didn’t see much there but the wind) and settled in for four nights just eight miles east of Santa Fe, NM. Here we stayed in a woodsy hillside campground shaded by junipers and other evergreens. The roads were dust though which made it hard to walk around if it was windy. Chris took the truck to a local place for service and learned that Santa Fe is really a progressive little city in many ways. There was no question when he asked the mechanic about restaurants that serve local and organic. He shared a few options and we learned about a co-op grocery where Chris picked up some necessities and was enlivened by the sincere efforts of the people to value local business, food and sustainable practices. There is no “downtown” Santa Fe with high-rises and a business district…which was also refreshing. We ended up having lunch at Vinaigrette and two dinners at Real Food Nation. We took a short walk around the historic district and its narrow streets and center plaza area. Native Americans from nearby reservations (I assume) had their jewelry and trinkets laid out for sale on blankets along the sidewalk of the Palace of the Governors.

A Painted Desert rock formation

We drove through a few reservations on our way to Colorado and were so struck by the apparent poverty and sadness in those areas. They are peppered with trailer homes and broken down cars along with roadside trading posts touting ‘free petrified wood’ and ‘authentic Indian blankets and pottery’.  I was also so struck by the landscape of the Painted Desert and the Rocky Mountains. There are endless awesome rock formations ranging from choppy black ground level rock deposits to enormous liquid-like red mountain rocks with pits carved out by the wind and natural caves below where native people lived at one time. How incredible that people could survive with “so little” and now we feel we need so much (myself included). Emerging from Raton Pass at 7, 800 feet we got our first glimpse of the Rockies and it was breathtaking. We chose two state parks for our time in Colorado and the first was Lathrop. We got a campsite and arranged the camper so our bedroom window faced the two Spanish Peaks which rise to twelve and thirteen thousand feet. It’s been a month since Catalina so the moon is rounding out again and we enjoyed a night with our blinds up because we had no nearby neighbors! We would have enjoyed exploring the park more but planned on one night so headed north toward Denver and its impressive mountains. More on that in the next entry!

The Spanish Peaks from Lathrop SP

Another beautiful full moon rise...this time at Lathrop

Especially with Easter approaching and given our usual family celebration of the holy day, we are feeling ready to be home: still enjoying all we see and learn, of course, but missing family and east coast springtime. All the best of Holy Week to all of you.

Usery & Tempe

Wildflowers, Our Usery Campsite & Pass Mountain

We moved about 1 ½ hours west to another first-come-first-serve campground in Mesa, AZ called Usery Mountain Regional Park. This was another amazing desert experience. It is so cool that the Sonoran Desert is so diverse and that we have seen so much of the life it supports. The three of us took another great hike, this time on Usery’s Wind Cave Trail that leads up to mountainside caves carved out by the wind. We made it about ¾  of the mile and a half trek up with Lily then spun around to avoid overdoing the sun and sling time. I went alone the next day all the way to the top and a little beyond which was really neat. It felt so good to feel a little burn in my legs.  I’m also developing a rockin’ sock tan.

Looking out to the Superstition Mountains

My birthday was a most excellent one. I awoke to Chris tossing a bunch of Lily’s flannel washcloths telling me to imagine they were balloons and singing “Happy Birthday” to me in bed. He presented me with a couple cards from family and one from him and Lily.  I got up and out to a yoga class at the nature center and upon returning was greeted by a lemon—my favorite—cake in the oven! I was not allowed to do dishes that day and we took a hike on one of the shorter vista trails that afternoon. We had a campfire, hotdogs, tinfoil potatoes and salad for dinner and I even enjoyed a beer fireside. We got a welcome phone call from the Donofry family (all of them at once I think!) which was awesome as we can always hear the excitement and love coming right through the phone with them. Elizabeth and Jacob had questions about Lily and we all expressed excitement about our upcoming summer plans in Ocean City, NJ. Chris and I have taken to celebrating our “birthday week” and so this was the pinnacle of a week of ‘do what you want’ treatment.

Birthday Sunset

After a week at Usery we moved west to an RV park in Tempe…no more cacti, sunset views or secluded campsite…but we had internet. This location allowed us to catch up on laundry, email, and to be closer to Whole Foods for grocery runs. We had great neighbors who lived full time in the park and were more than happy to lend a ladder or hose nozzle. We also met some pretty cool fellow full-timers from Indiana: Adam, Courtney, and their three year old girl, Milligan (Milli). Their RV was covered in a sponsor wrap and was pretty hard to ignore given its bright yellow color scheme. We enjoyed a meal at their site and joined them for their meetup picnic at a nearby park. Check out their blogs at www.nomadbaby.com and www.manvsdebt.com to learn more about their lifestyle and work on the road!

Lily Munches on Crinkle while Chris Does Sabbatical Reading

The new light rail had a stop right at our RV park so we took advantage on a number of occasions. Our first weekend, we got to see Ted again! He had a state swim meet in Mesa so we reorganized the camper to make him a bed and went to watch him one day. The three of us took the light rail a couple of stops up to Mill Avenue in the Arizona State University section of Tempe. We had dinner at a restaurant which uses local, sustainably harvested food as much as possible; then we hunted down some dessert but ended up with a disappointing frozen yogurt result. It was so great to see Ted again for this unexpected weekend visit. We also took the light rail to church one Sunday and Lily and I rode it up to Central Avenue in Phoenix one day to give Chris some quiet time at home.

Ted swims!

My reflections while living within the Phoenix sprawl are pretty judgmental and maybe a little too realistic or idealistic. I am as implicit as anyone else in these criticisms.

I took a shopping trip with Lily one day for groceries and to see about some flip flops. We were introduced to the Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Scottsdale, etc culture on our drive. This seems to be a very new city area; it is laid out in a very purposeful grid and the highways are manicured with gravel and landscaping. New huge shopping centers and malls are peppered throughout. Developments in many areas have ornately landscaped entrances and tall walls around them. This is in fairly stark contrast with Tucson…I feel like, in general, Tucson is a hardworking creative kindergarten teacher who goes with the flow, and Phoenix is a high maintenance fashion model who needs everything her way.

It's hot in the desert!

First of all, humans are able to live in the desert because we have robbed others of their water, run high-tension wires hundreds of miles, and dug trenches through mountains to pipe in natural gas. We are so stuck on the automobile that we construct extensive overpasses and highways and parking lots. In the Northeast, we do many of these things and more but I’ve never looked at it this way before. It doesn’t have to be like this and after this trip, I hope to never fly in an airplane ever again. I hope to be blessed to be able to use solar power to heat my home and water. I hope to conserve water and not flush it down the toilet into a tank below ground. I hope to view my surroundings as enough and not constantly want more for myself. I hope to get back to gardening and away from the convenience foods we’ve been snacking on on the road.

Ocotillo Sunset Meal for Lily while I contemplate life in the desert

Secondly, there is not supposed to be “lawn” in the desert. But, in Phoenix, there are parks of it, development landscaping, grassy cemeteries, man-made lakes lined by lawn, and the worst offender are the seven or more golf courses. This has made me think again about why we love cold-climate grass so much; is it a status symbol? Why move to the desert if you don’t love the desert life and can’t handle dust storms? It’s spring here and beautiful desert flowers are blooming but you really don’t get to appreciate that in Phoenix because it is landscaped with many non-native species. Chris and I are still tossing around ideas about a non-lawn of myrtle or pachysandra, a large garden, and a small lawn that fends for itself against dandelions, grubs, and sun in the hottest months. Bare feet enjoy a chemical-free playplace; we don’t pollute ground water and runoff with excess nitrogen fertilizer and herbicide; we save water and time mowing! If landscaping requires chemicals and daily water, we’ve got to let it go and make room for what belongs, even if it is “ugly”!

Lily is seven months old now and can sit up (click for video) in the Boppy pillow, grab whatever is within reach, stand holding our fingers, and you name it she can chew on it. Aside from a bout of fever for Lily, and a head cold for Christopher, we’re doing great. We were delayed a week by snowy/windy weather in northern Arizona but are currently heading north and east back toward home as June is quickly approaching. We are so looking forward to visiting so many friends and family on our way back.

p.s. we joined Families on the Road!

Catalina

We spent two weeks at Catalina State Park, the maximum stay allowed, and loved every minute of it. About fifteen miles north of Tucson, the campground is set in the flats at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The park also includes miles of hiking trails, picnic areas, and a small riding stable. We traded laundry facilities, internet, and sewer hookup for awe-inspiring views and luxurious space between sites (rarely the case at RV parks).

Lily continues learning and growing. I have no idea what she weighs but it’s somewhere between thirteen and eighteen pounds I would guess. She reaches for and grabs onto anything within reach. Her teething makes for much drool and desire for something in her mouth most of the time. She loves when we read to her and lets us know with squeals, screams, and smiles. No rolling over, crawling, sitting alone, teeth, or words yet but much progress in all areas. We love hearing her laugh and make new noises in her attempts to copy us. She remains the best travel buddy and causes smiles on the faces of everyone who sees her.

We were able to take many walks within the park and saw some new wildlife. We watched a falcon chase down a bird in flight and saw millions of red ants busily working. We saw tiny lizards, vibrantly colored birds, ground squirrels and huge yellow wasps.  On one hike with Ted we think we saw a gila (HEE-la) monster, a large orange and black venomous lizard. There was a colony of prairie dogs just next to our campsite too! We heard coyotes as we curled up in bed. The best sighting hands down was on our last day when we witnessed jackrabbit love—huge ears and very fast, period.

Whenever we left the park and returned at night we were struck by the darkness. We humans make so much light that the stars are faint nearer to cities and it’s a shame because the night sky is an incredible gift. Both Chris and I marveled at the repeated opportunities to watch both the sunset and the moonrise. It’s so hard to recognize their relationship at home mainly because of tall trees and small valleys. The moon rises about ten minutes later each day which causes its shape to be affected by Earth’s shadow. I never cared to wonder about this because I’ve never had such a clear, prolonged view of the sun and moon. Lily has been an incredibly reliable rooster lately which has allowed us to watch almost every sunrise as well. The mountains prevented the sun from hitting our little valley until it was well-risen but this made for spectacular streaks of light across the highest rock faces and a subtle, gradual beaming of light into the camper and over the mesquite trees of the campground. Often there would be a mist over the mountains in the morning that made it easier to appreciate their depth. The most distant and highest “layer” of the pass was the most misty and each subsequent layer was slightly clearer. There were about eight layers of mountain in Romero Pass so it made almost a series of V’s growing gradually smaller toward the campground. The same effect could be seen at sunset, to a lesser degree, because of the shadows created.

Plant life in the desert is vastly different than what we’re used to back East and has a lot to teach us about appreciating our own landscape. The saguaro (sa-WA-ro) cactus is the typical one you think of with a tall, thick, ribbed truck and arms that curl upward. These grow just one inch per year and they only begin growing arms after about seventy years. When they die, their wooden, skeletal insides are gradually revealed. We saw some that must have been many hundreds of years old. The palo verde trees have green bark so they can harvest sunlight even without leaves. Prickly pear cacti have flat, round “pads” and are partly edible (the javelinas love them). Mesquite trees grow wildly crooked limbs low to the ground and shed bean pods that feed all sorts of animals including coyotes.

We were blessed to eat two more dinners with Chris’ former supervisor, Rachel Moreno: a very special barbeque at her house with a whole bunch of current ACE XVI and XVII teachers from Phoenix and Tucson, and another at our campsite with Ted and his brother, Mike and sister-in-law, Rachel with whom we also loved spending time. Dr. Moreno gave Lily a small duck carved out of ironwood and we named him Pato.

Ted pitched a tent on our site one night and unfortunately froze but eventually thawed out on our hike the next day. Ted accompanied me on a hike up to the Romero Pools. Chris was the loving husband he always is and agreed to stay home with Lily. We had attempted this climb with “sling-along-Lily” and Chris but wisely turned around about halfway up. What an awesome birthday gift this was from Ted. The hike took about half as long as with Lily attached; it was a great workout even without her. We left the trailhead around 8 a.m. and spent a little over an hour at the pools. Most of the Catalina mountain rock is jagged and reddish but these pools are cradled by enormous, grey rock surfaces worn down over thousands of years. They are smooth and carved out in many places much like sand by the waves. We ate some snacks then mustered up our courage and jumped about twenty feet into one of the deepest pools of chillingly cold water. I was struck again by the feeling I had while birthing Lily: in the water and laboring “I never want to do this again” but once looking back at the cliff and holding Lily in my arms “I’d do it again right now!” which is a really interesting connection for me.

We visited the Tohono Chul Tea Room for a farewell lunch with Ted and his parents. Chris, Lily and I walked through the demonstration gardens after lunch and learned a lot about how humans get water in the desert (huge canals of diverted river water) and how we can do a better job of harvesting local rainwater and conserving what we have.

Our departure from Catalina was delayed one day by some wicked wind that shook the camper and brought along a teeny bit of rain. I am grateful to have been able to smell the scent of desert rain and to watch the clouds burn off the mountains.

We’re not nearly done with this trip but Catalina was a real highpoint for us.

Between the Mountains

As you approach Tucson on I-10 west, the desert slowly turns to pavement. It is almost bizarre that we humans are capable of sustaining life out here. Tucson is set between two mountain ranges and sprawls in all directions. The downtown is modest (compared to most cities) and has some pretty neat areas including 4^th Avenue and The University of Arizona. And as everyone will tell you: Tucson is the place to be during these months; it has been sunny and warm since we arrived.

Mountains in distance at our Tucson RV park

Our main draw to Tucson was none other than Tucson Ted! Chris met Ted when he taught in Phoenix for Notre Dame’s ACE program. Ted was also an ACE teacher and decided to move here and continue his service to the school. He eventually swapped his regular elementary classroom for art and music. Ted has brought music and art to children who would have seen very little of it otherwise. He revived the theater program and now makes possible two or three student plays each year. He gives incredible gifts to his students each day. We. Love. Ted. He is an amazing example of selflessness. How could we not spend time here with him?

We arrived on a Saturday and learned that Ted took Monday and Tuesday off from work! Our first day was sort of a whirlwind. Chris and I went out intending to just get some groceries at the Co-Op on 4^th Ave. We ended up picking up Ted, grocery shopping, and hanging out at his house until later that evening. The only snag was that we forgot Lily’s diaper bag so had to improvise…we had ordered some cloth inserts for her “g” diapers and had them shipped to Ted’s house so we washed and used them.  We took a second grocery run to the 17^th Street Market and Ted made us a great dinner and even had some homemade ice cream ready for us afterward.

Sunday we attended mass where Ted was cantor along with his guitar. This was a real treat as Ted is quite talented and really enriched the mass.  Back to Ted’s for yummy lunch leftovers. This was forecast to be the chilliest day so we stayed inside; Chris worked on his sabbatical and Lily and I helped Ted make cinnamon bread, pecan sticky buns, and waffles for dinner! It was a baking kind of day.

Monday we all drove out to the east side for lunch at Eclectic Pizza. This was no ordinary meal… “Yucatan Yum” and Thai Curry pizza… I accidentally introduced my mouth to raw jalapeño and we tried some tasty organic beer.  Next we headed to Sabino Canyon which is in the Coronado National Forest. Ranger Ted taught us about ancient Saguaro cacti, Pallo Verde, and Teddy Bear cacti. He led us about two miles out on the eight-mile paved road that descends into the canyon. This inspired me to feel teeny-tiny. The scale of the canyon walls is hard to grasp until you see people hiking on a trail what seems to be a mile above you and they are teeny-tiny too! Chris got a kick out of a couple signs like the bridge cautions with a bicyclist going head over heels off the bridge. On our way back we wanted to take some group photos so we stepped off the road and through some huge smooth rocks to a sandy beach area. After snapping a few with the self-timer on Ted’s camera, I fed Lily on a rock and the boys soaked their toes in the icy stream. Lily and I joined them on a large flat rock in the middle of the stream and I realized that there was a very deep swimming hole just off the rock. I was tempted to swim but Ted suggested it and took the first leap. Whew! Chilly! I couldn’t help but follow so Chris held Lily and, after getting down to shorts and shirt, I announced that this might be the third most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done…I said to Chris “Marrying you! Birthing Lily! And Swimming in a Canyon!” as I dove off the rock into the shockingly cold water. This was enough for me but Ted took two more dives and Chris also couldn’t resist so I swapped back to my dry shirt and took Lily while he stripped to his skivvies and jumped in. The walk back was a bit damp but totally worth it for the swim. We all went back to the camper for a taco dinner and the day had taken its toll on Lily as she was ready for sleep upon our return.

 Tuesday we crossed over Gates Pass to get to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum. Ted assured us that this was no ordinary museum and he was right. Aside from the entry fee, overpriced snack bar, and a couple indoor tank exhibits, the museum is quite atypical. Each exhibit demonstrates a different habitat of the desert areas: caves, mountains, rocks, riparian (water), desert, and air. We were lucky to arrive just before the raptor free-flight show and so got to see a great-horned owl, Chihuahuan raven, Ferriginous falcon, and gray hawk in flight. Check out Ted’s website for pictures. Other sightings included a mountain lion, parrots, extremely rare wolves, otter, beaver, coyotes, a bobcat, big-horned sheep, hummingbirds, lizards, snakes and spiders! I think my favorite was the javelina (HAHV-a-LEE-nah). They are not pigs but look very similar to a warthog type animal. I favor this one mostly because of its affectionate nickname, Javvy, and how it is used like on signs pointing to viewing areas that say “Javvy hot spot”. We also saw two wild ones cross the road on our way to the museum which Ted said is pretty rare. We left the museum for a late lunch at a very cool new restaurant downtown called Hub. I had a Grilled veggie chiabatta and tried out their own ice cream in crazy flavors. I had Honey Ginger and Oatmeal Cookie Dough. Mmmmmm what a day!

The rest of the week gave Ted a little break from host/ranger/chef/tour guide duty and we spent time at our campground doing laundry, swimming in the pool, and taking Lily for walks. Chris discovered a hilarious sign on the rear park exit fence: Poop your dog across the street.

Friday night was a treat. We went for a tequila sunset toast at a fancy Marriott on the west side. Lily and I did not partake in the tequila but it was a beautiful view of the city and the best part was we got to meet Ted’s brother, Mike, and their parents! We had dinner at a nearby fancy BBQ restaurant where we dined at the same time as the Oregon State basketball team (tall!). We went to bed only to wake up early Saturday to meet Ted for an American Cancer Society walk that led us three miles up Sentinel Peak a.k.a “A” Mountain. There is a huge red, white, and blue striped A at the peak. Lily slept for most of the ride up and the three of us shared pushing duty. It was neat experiencing how walking with such a huge group of people can shorten a walk…the way home seemed to take twice as long! Saturday evening we were treated to dinner with Ted at Dr. Rachel Moreno’s home. Rachel was Chris’ supervisor while he taught in Phoenix. She was an incredible mentor and is an incredibly hospitable hostess. I was blessed to meet Rachel when she joined us in Connecticut for our wedding in 2007 and this time we visited her with the gift of meeting Lily! The homemade tamales, beans and rice were delicious and Lily enjoyed meeting her “Mexican Grandmother” and hearing a bit of Spanish beautifully spoken. While Chris and Rachel washed dishes, Lily and I got to watch the video of Ted’s kids’ recent play: Cinderella. Even though Lily can't partake in the local cuisine, she has ventured into the world of bananas, avocado, and rice cereal!

We sought out another church for mass this Sunday and found St. Pius X on the east side. This was the neatest celebration I’ve been a part of…it began with a parishioner with a wireless microphone walking through the rows asking who was visiting and where they were from; we heard NY, MI, Kenya, and Afghanistan. The music was contemporary Christian which created a more vibrant atmosphere. The mass was then celebrated with lectors really pausing with purpose, a simple homily, and the entire congregation joining hands for the Lord’s Prayer.  Lily drew much attention, as usual, with her squeaks and smiles. We had lunch at Eclectic Pizza again and paid another visit to Sabino Canyon to check out the Music in the Canyon event. We watched some Navajo dancers and learned a bit about ‘scat’ (animal poop).

Monday was a laundry and cleaning day as we prepared for our next move which would take us out of the Tucson city limits away from internet, laundry, and crowded RV park living. Yesssss.

Whew! What a week!

Topsail To Tucson

Valentine’s Day put us "on the road again" and headed 240 miles west to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. We left Topsail with bittersweet feelings and took the scenic route 98 to Pensacola before hopping on I-10 for what would be a twelve-day trek ultimately to Tucson, Arizona. The drive through FL, AL, and MS was generally uneventful aside from crossing the Mississippi River.

Our second day sent us over an enormous swamp which was possible because there was an incredibly long bridge traversing it (something like 40 miles). We spent two nights at a campground in Westlake, Louisiana after first stopping at the local grocery store: Market Basket. This was a challenging shop; we found some organic mixed greens, oranges, and a $5.69 half gallon of organic milk. Lily got to wear shorts for the first time in her life and we put out the awning and our chairs to soak in the beautiful evening sun.

Thursday was a windy drive into Texas. I was driving when we passed through Houston (A.K.A Huge-ston) and we saw a number of chemical plants in Eastern Texas along with much ranch land. A quick one-night stay in Columbus, TX was plenty for us. We stopped at the H-E-B grocery store, another slim-pickins experience for us as we try to support local and organic produce and products. This was our tightest campsite ever; Chris actually didn’t believe the host when he pointed to where we should pull in (between two huge motor homes with about 5 feet on either side). However uncomfortable this campground felt, it was all made a little better by the sign Chris discovered in the laundry room:

Do NOT

SPIT anywhere,

including

this trashcan 

It was hung above said trashcan. The pool was empty and the neighborhood showed clear signs of economic stress.

We scooted out of Columbus nice and early and arrived in San Antonio ready for the three night stay we planned as a little respite from the road. This drive included more ranch land and many live oak trees. We often have a pick of many campgrounds when we research towns and San Antonio was no exception. We passed a couple on the way in that we were glad to not be staying at. The host at the campground we chose actually joked that when you check into some places, if you don’t have your own knife or gun, they issue you one. The big rodeo was going on so interestingly many people were camping in their RV/Horse trailers. We learned there was a Whole Foods nearby and ventured there one afternoon and spent the evening doing a big food shop. Saturday we took the public bus into the city (about a 15 minute ride) and strolled along the Riverwalk. It’s a loop off of the main river, below street level, that has shops and restaurants all along it and boat tours through it. The drizzly morning burned off to a beautiful afternoon. We were glad we decided on the sling rather than the stroller as the Riverwalk is not easily accessible at all. I have a new appreciation for good wheelchair access design and really feel for people who have to weave around places just to get up or down somewhere. We ate at a place called Café Ole and enjoyed some live mariachi music…paid for by other customers as the schpiel went like this: “Hello folks, would you like a song? (sure!) Ok, something traditional? romantic? funny?  (romantic!) Great! Sir there’s a $10 fee for the song is that ok? (uh, sure.)” Chris learned from the table prior to ours and so declined the song altogether. I learned that if I want Mexican food, we need to search out an authentic place rather than settle for yellow cheddar, canned beans, and rice from a box. After lunch, we headed over to see the Alamo and learned some Texas history. You could never learn it all in just one visit so we felt encouraged to learn more about the places we’d visit before we actually go to them.

Riverwalk...Lily woke up for the photo op

The Alamo

I have to admit, I was nervous leaving San Antonio and heading further west. El Paso does not have a good reputation being so close to the most violent city in the world (Juarez) and western Texas is very rural with minimal services on I-10. We planned gas stops and made use of the state rest areas which turned out to be quite nice. This drive was amazing because it moved us into the “hill country”. Mesa views, oil rigs, wind farms, miles-long ranches and desert scrub bushes made this a vastly different terrain. I gazed with awe at places where humans had flattened and cut through mountains to make the road bed more passable. The striated rock layers were beautiful and the mountain slices are truly works of art (these feelings conflict with those of distaste for the busting up of beautiful hills of course). We passed through Segovia (not much there but a truck stop) and stopped in Ozona where we found our first empty gas station (luckily there was another around the corner). The highway is dotted with exits to places literally 20 miles away with nothing in between and we had very few comrades on the road this day. Fort Stockton was our 315 mile goal and aside from overshooting our exit (bad Google directions) that was a fun stay. 

We ate dinner outside for the first time and met some really nice campers who came from where we were going and calmed our fears. 

One night’s rest had us back on the road for another long day of 285 miles to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Mountains! Beautiful views as we followed I-10 along the border with Mexico. This trip introduced me to what a border patrol inspection station and border wall look like. The desert grows a beautiful soft yellow grass that covers large swaths and tumbleweeds line fences where they get caught. We approached El Paso eventually and noticed a smog cloud over the city. In some ways it is like any other city I’ve seen but bars over windows and Mexican slums just on the other side of the highway made it a new sight for me. As Chris drove, I struggled to read the huge white lettering inscribed on a mountain overlooking Juarez and El Paso : “CD Juarez, La Biblia es la verdad. Leela.” I being a non-spanish speaker looked this up and found “City of Juarez, The Bible is the truth. Read it.” 

internet pic of the inscription...I was busy trying to read it as we passed.

Just outside of El Paso were  a whole bunch of dairy farms right on the highway. We were reminded of why we support local, organic, grass-fed practices whenever possible. It is so important that we know where our food comes from.   

Arriving in Las Cruces was comforting especially given that it was a beautifully maintained campground with mountain views. Las Cruces is famous for its Old Mesilla section which was the stomping grounds of “Billy the Kid”. We enjoyed the city and its wider selection of services such as the Mountain View Food Co-Op. It is home to New Mexico State University as well. We decided to spend three nights here instead of two to give us a break and allow for a trip to see White Sands National Monument.

We rested for one day then spent our second day on a trip to the monument which is about an hour and a quarter north of Las Cruces and on the other side of the mountains I mentioned. The monument is a 275 square mile surface-level deposit of gypsum (commonly known for the product made of it: sheetrock). It is bright white and makes spectacular dunes. Having just been on the gulf coast, it seemed as though the ocean should have been right over the next ridge but there was no sound from the waves and no birds to be seen. Chris and I took turns comforting Lily in the car while the other sledded down the dunes in a saucer! Given more time we agreed it would be a really special place to wander and spend more time just soaking in the tranquility.

Lily getting good at sitting now

After one more night on the road spent in Lordsburg, New Mexico we were ready to be in Tucson…

Lordsburg is a town mainly because it has gas stations I think. The campground we stayed in had the tell-tale empty pool along with a manager who was as bewildered by our English as we were with his! The welcome pamphlet explained rules such as “Pools is open 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm” “Dump Porta-Potties in Dump Station Only” “Kamp fire with permission only” “If having slide out do not go near the tree.” “No Mechanical works and oil changing allowed” (we saw an employee with his truck up on lifts near the office). And the best laugh we got was from the description of the place. Among other points, “Mostly Shady Sites.” The only shade in this desert campground was cast by the RV’s parked in it, seriously. We wondered it he meant it as a pun because of the neighborhood.

We left around 6 am for Tucson mainly because of a forecast windstorm. We learned that the weather pattern tends to include building winds through the day. So we watched the sunrise in our rearview mirrors and were affirmed in our early departure by signs on I-10 that read, “Dust Storms May Exist Next 30 Miles…Use Extreme Caution…Do Not Stop in Travel Lanes…0% Visibility Possible”. A roadrunner actually crossed the road in front of us. We saw many Chihuahuan Ravens and a few different hawks or falcons hunting along the highway. The railway runs along the highway for much of I-10 so we witnessed trains transporting cargo including anywhere from 20 to 60 freight cars carrying lumber, cars, tankers of some kind, and hundreds of shipping crates. We made it the last 160 miles to Tucson in one piece and backed into our spot to stay for ten nights: a welcome rest from the expanses southern Texas through which we drove.