We love staying for two weeks in one place but sometimes I dread the fourteenth day of the stay because I’m distracted with packing and find myself struggling to stay in the moment. Instead, I’m projecting and planning for the next adventure in the next place. That’s why it was so unexpected when our last day at Catalina State Park ended up being a favorite day of the trip. We started the day with a three mile hike that isn’t in the park’s brochure but one we found out about after talking to some local Arizonians. It takes you up a canyon, (I believe it’s called Alamo Canyon) and reaches a small falls and refreshing pools of water (called Bathtub Tanks). A surprise was meeting the leader of a local hiking club, at the beginning of the hike, who impromptu joined us and pointed out and identified plants, trees and flowers I’d never seen before and wouldn’t have even noticed if he hadn’t been along. I learned so much and loved it.
After our hike, we did a few “pack up” chores then had our first “old friend” visitors of the trip (people we know from our off the road life). Alisha is a friend we know from our D.C. days and Tim is her boyfriend. They both moved to Tucson over a year ago and met while mountain biking. After finishing a bike ride in the area, they stopped by for a visit and shared a meal with us. Spending time with them made me feel less like a tourist, in this beautiful place, and more like I was part of the social scene. What is that old Girl Scout song? “ Make New Friends, but Keep the Old”....I found when I followed that old adage, there was gold in Tucson!
No comments:
Post a Comment