AZ!

I took a long road trip to Arizona with Don and Faith, which started the morning of March 19th and kept going and going and going until about 7:30am on March 20th.  We saw some nice scenery, experienced some...complete lack of anything that could be called scenery, and covered a LOT of road in the 23 hours it took.  I got my first glimpse of Las Vegas...!...?... 

My abstract impression:

We arrived at Faith's daughter's home on Saturday morning, completely worn out from the travels!  Don went right to bed while the rest of us went over to "the house" to have the grand tour of where Don and Faith will live half the year when they're all retired and enjoying the good life!  It'll be a great place to visit when our house is buried in snow!

Charity let me use her shower while she and Faith made me a fabulous breakfast.  Then I tried to learn to play Super Mario on the Wii with smart little Josiah, and lost multiple times before curling up on the couch for a nap.  I woke up, completely delirious, to a text message from Colleen, saying she was almost there to pick me up!  Let the fun continue!

Two of my closest friends from my first years at the U of I live near Phoenix now, and visiting them was top priority now.  Todd answered the phone first, so I dropped Colleen off to play around the town with her friend and stopped in to see Todd and Kristi and their adorable little family.

The twins weren't even born the last time I saw these guys!  It was so fun to meet them.  The older kids talked me into a game of Life.

They made sure to explain to me right away that if you choose to go to college instead of start a career, you go right in debt!  But...I didn't listen to their advice and went to college instead.  And, look where I ended up!

It was nice to catch up with Todd about the changes at the school here and what's happened since we parted ways.  Kristi was juicing fresh lemons that smelled sweeter than any I'd ever had, and she made the best lemonade I have ever tasted.  I'm still raving about it!  Sweet little Evi said I could be her sister and move right in!  But...I had another stop to make.

I hadn't seen Jenn for 3 years, and we were nearly inseparable in those early years of college!

We spent many late nights doing homework until we were either completely hyper or nearly sleep walking.  And, when I was sick of being a grown-up, I always knew I could escape the pressure and just be a kid with her crazy little family. 

Boy, have I missed them! (The littlest kiddo was a newborn when they moved away, can you believe it?)

I got to catch up on lost years with Jenn while the kids played outside, and then we devoured pizza and the kids brought their energy inside.  Natalie shocked me at least 3 times with how grown up she is now; I got a makeover from Lexus and Jax, and played a little Super Mario with Chris (with some improvement from earlier that morning!)  Time to go came waaay too soon, and I was really tempted to accept Lexus' invitation to stay in her bed that night and let her sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor.

But...it was time to rescue Colleen and Donald.  They were wonderful to wait patiently for me - passing the time with a movie, bowling, and dinner! 

 Sunday morning in Tucson dawned warm and sunny.  Ahhh...welcome to Arizona...  We went out (without coats!) for a big breakfast, and then decided the pool in Colleen's complex looked tempting.  So...off we went to go swimming!  In an outdoor pool....in March.  I made it in almost waist deep before running for the hot tub.  But, it was too warm outside to be soaking in a hot tub, so a little game of Icy Hot ensued.  Colleen and I were thawing in the hot tub for probably the third time when a friendly fellow came over to show off his new pet rabbit.  The little wiggly-nose creatures used to be my favorite animal, back when it was necessary to have a favorite of everything.  So, we said hi to the bunny and then our new stranger-friend invited us to his birthday party that coming Tuesday!!  We couldn't make it though, since Colleen would be dropping me off at the airport that day...sorry Birthday Boy!

Once we tired of jumping from pool to hot tub, we headed out to Sabino Canyon with Donald for a rather interesting little hike.  The "trail" was a paved road occupied by trams, bikes, and pedestrians.  You could ride along and listen to a tour guide, or get your exercise and take it slower. 

 We voted to walk, of course - it being a hike and all.

The trail crossed seven bridges, most of which had water flowing right over the top of them!

 Signs along the way almost convinced us that we were risking our lives every step of the way!

But, no need to fear!  We were prepared!

Speaking of prepared...you have to see the shoes my hiking buddies were wearing!

They feel like gloves on your feet and work pretty well for wading through shin-deep water every 1/4 mile or so!  Hooray for cooling off your feet while hiking!

Everywhere the water was the color of rust,

and we found a one-eyed face!

I spent most of the hike captivated by all the funky desert plants.

We were also keeping an eye out for the wildlife the sign said we might see:

And, we did see wildlife!...of a less wild variety...

We finished off the lovely day with...

Yum!

Monday morning, Colleen cooked me breakfast.  You know, that's a true sign that someone likes you! Then, we thought about how to spend our day, and would you believe that we decided on another hike?  Perhaps we were inspired by Colleen's new bumper sticker:

This time, we decided on a real hike - the kind where you have to wear real shoes the whole time and make sure you have enough water to survive in the desert.

This time, we ended up in the East region of Saguaro National Park, which is named for the saguaro cacti that grow abundantly there.  For more info on these intriguing plants, visit: http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk/research/groups/jdeacon/desbiome/saguaro.htm.  If you don't want to read it all, you should at least know that they are at least 65 years old before they start to branch out, and they've been known to live 200 years!  I'm guessing the saguaro-of-many-appendages below is ancient!

Something tells me they don't mellow out in their old age either!

Check out their internal structure too!  (bummer that it's damaged, but pretty cool to be able to see inside!)

It was a beautiful time of year to hike here.  Although the cacti were only getting ready to bloom, there were colorful wildflowers covering the desert floor.

And, we saw some huge rabbits!

A passing hiker told us they're called antelope jack rabbits, or jackelopes.  Now, wouldn't the Birthday Boy love to have one of these to show off?!

Our destination on this hike was a dam just off the dusty trail.  Needless to say, it wasn't holding back much water that day!

We cooled off near the small stream of water behind the dam before heading back.

We decided to try Egyptian cuisine for dinner that night (food was delicious), and ended up in a booth right next to the only other people in the whole restaurant!  Naturally, the place was dead quiet except for their conversation and they weren't trying to keep it to themselves at all.  We tried to have a quiet little conversation ourselves, but it was rather difficult when their voices drowned ours out.  At one point, the man draping his arm over my head rest picked up his cell phone and called his credit card company to ask about miles.  And he very clearly announced his full name and credit card number and well as other personal information to them!  We were blown away!  Much later, they finally got up to leave and he turned to us and said, "Aren't you glad we're leaving?  Now you can talk to each other instead of whispering."  And, more than anything I wanted to say "Actually, we were really hoping you'd stick around and give us the rest of the information necessary to steal your identity, sir."

Geez Louise.

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped for gas.  Just a routine stop.  Since I've spent my adult life bumming rides off people who do own cars, it is customary for me to wash the windshield while they fuel up.  I jumped out to do this and our squeegee thing was missing so I borrowed one from another station.  I was on the opposite side of the car when a fellow wandered over to return the squeegee.  We watched him walk away, to the other side of one of the gas pumps, but we didn't see a car there.  So, we peeked around and, lo and behold, the man did have a set of wheels!  And they're attached to something similar to this:

(image courtesy of www.carryonluggagewithwheels.com)

He finished whatever he was doing and walked away, down the street, pulling his wheels behind him!  And, we speculated all the way home about just what kind of luggage this was, that you'd need to visit a fuel pump and use a squeegee...?

Tuesday morning came all too soon, and we hit the road north to the Phoenix airport.  On the way, we caught a glimpse of a aircraft graveyard:

And, some other collection of airplanes at the base of a distinctly-shaped mountain:

For such a short trip, I'm amazed at how grand an adventure it turned out to be!  Thanks everyone.

Dear AZ: I will be back!