Staying in one place

Tomorrow marks two full weeks at the Agave Gulch “FamCamp” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ.  And for the first time since we started our RV trip 5 1/2 months ago, we aren’t thinking about where we're going next. 

It was interesting/exciting to always be planning the next move:  Looking at maps, reading on line reviews, gathering tourist information.  But after a few months,  I wanted to stay put.  I didn’t want to have to worry about hooking up the tow car, about triple checking driving directions, about unforeseen problems with campsites and roads.  (Just because those problems were almost nonexistent doesn’t mean I won’t worry about them. Got to break that habit.)  I just wanted to be somewhere new. And stay there.

So here we are in Tucson, and here's our routine:  We get up about 7 a.m., take Cooper for a two-mile walk, have breakfast, and look at each other and say, “Well, what are we going to do today?”  Here are some of the things that got the nod:

--Hiked in the Santa Ritas, about 40 miles southeast of Tucson in the Coronado National Forest.  We saw snow on the highest peak, Mt. Wrightson (9,453 feet) and the bark on many trees looked scorched; turns out they were alligator juniper and the bark gets deep, square, dark cracks.

--Driven around Tucson to get a feel for the city.  Tucson does not have a freeway through it or a belt route route around it.  Instead, its streets are laid out at right angles, so its fairly easy to get around even for the directionally impaired like me.

--Gone back to Saguaro National Forest to watch two of their movies about the desert and to add to Jim’s t-shirt collection.

-- Visited two beer pubs for lunch and so Jim could try out the IPAs

--Eaten twice at a Mexican restaurant called El Charro, which claims to be the oldest Mexican restaurant in the USA continuously run by the same family. The food is great. 

--Went house hunting just for fun and found a great development with actually affordable houses.  

--We’ve also explored the Air Force Base, walked in a city park and along a river parkway, and enjoyed consistently warm, sunny weather (even though I wear my parka every morning while Jim often has on shorts.)

It’s fun to leisurely explore a new city.  But if I were going to be here -- or anywhere -- for the long haul, I’d also be looking for a meaningful part-time job or volunteer work.