Last Day in Tucson

Time to think of returning home.  Been a wonderful inspiring time here in southwest, and I am beginning to smell the barn. Well, just figuratively, so to speak.

We drove over to northeast Tucson to visit Sabino Canyon which is a natural desert oasis located in Tucson’s Coronado National Forest and is home to spectacular desert landscapes and abundant wildlife.

We saw many birds which made someone very happy.

Bear Canyon reflection pool in Sabino Canyon near Tucson

Sabino Canyon is well known in many circles, however, we elected to hike up Bear Canyon, its eastern neighbor.  While tourists flock to Sabino canyon, we saw very few hikers.  Due to time restraints and poor planning we didn't make it to 7 falls area, however we did get about 3 miles up the canyon (and back).  one of the most beautiful hikes ever.  Subtle colors, quiet pools of water, steep rocky canyon walls covered with Saguaro cactus.  What it must have been like 200 years ago.


We also visited Degrazia Gallery for their celebration of La Fiesta de Guadalupe featuring high school mariachi bands and ate a good chile relleno.  lovely simple living location in the Catalina foothills. Ted Degrazia was a local painter and quite the musician having completed his master's degree in arts with his thesis including paintings depicting various classical music pieces.  I didn't take any photos


We returned "home" late in the day as the clouds moved in.  Weather patterns changing and heavy rains expected Monday evening and Tuesday.  I filled up the water bottles with good drinking water from the campground tap while Sraddha worked on some business emails.  Also began to move  something around in preparation for home trip.  The campground only has electricity to offer and water comes from the taps in various places so we go fill up our gallon jugs every other day for drinking water and use the water stored on board in coach for washing and bathroom. We have been draining down our water tank in preparation for putting the motorhome into storage for 2 months. We thought we still had 1/4 tank of water, however, s the night turned dark, the RV water pump kept pumping indicating it couldn't draw in sufficient water to keep the pressure.  Back on go the shoes and out goes Kent with his trusty headlamp to break out the hose(s) to reach the water tap about 70 feet away to refill the RV water tank.  Such is the joy of RV living.  could be worse.  we could have been a lot further away from water tap or not even have a water tap.  we thought we could last for the whole week on one tank but found we needed just a bit more.  we did short showers everyday


Anyway. now we head up north towards Phoenix, first stopping at Boyce Thompson Arboretum before heading to an RV park in Apache Junction where we can drain the tanks, get a good shower, and prepare RV for storage.  I am concerned about the pending rainstorms and how that will affect our preparations.  We hope to clean and prep the RV and put in storage by Tuesday afternoon then head west. towards Barstow/Tehachapi.  Stay tuned.