Traveling to Tucson

We woke up about 6:30 but didn't get moving until about 7:00. The plan is to be on the road by 9:00 at the latest so that we can get to Tucson before dark.

We had a wonderful night's sleep in the RV. The mattress is a regular mattress with an air mattress on top of it - like sleeping on a cloud. Luckily, all of the dogs slept through the night and no one (Bella!) was barking at any strange sound that they might have heard.

I took the dogs into the yard to let them do their business and Helen came out to say good morning. We took all of the dogs into the back yard and Solavina was being friendly with Macy, Roxie and Izzie. She even let Macy lick her face! Cejas and Bella romped around with the other dogs, but none of mine will go into a pool. Bella and Solavina swam in Akumal, but there they could wade in. I think being in a pool and not being able to judge the depth makes them nervous.

We had coffee on the patio overlooking the pool with the view of the city in the background. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, but not too hot. The heat wave has finally broken - hopefully. We packed up all of our stuff - you'd be surprised how much stuff you get out of a car for just a night: one overnight bag for me, one for Bob, two dogbeds, six dog bowls (two for water, four for food), dog food, dog blankets, purse... Helen gave our doggies some turtle bandanas to wear with their new turtle collars in Akumal, plus some to sell down there to help out with the costs for Tucker's surgery. He is probably going to have to have another one on the "good" hip. :( He is such a sweet, beautiful boy! And Izzie and Tucker are both beautiful dogs, with wonderful conformation... if only they had been bred responsibly! But - another story for another time!

After packing up the car, we were off - 9:00 on the dot! That NEVER happens! We went back towards Cheryl's and Donny's and got to see the city again in the daylight (I think it's prettier at night) and then headed up into the mountains. Next stop was Hoover Dam. Neither of us knew that we would be traveling over that, so that was a pretty exciting surprise for us! We stopped to take some pictures along with a group of Tibetian monks, and I called my dad to let him know that I was at the Hoover Dam. He had visited it when I was a kid, a loooonggg time ago, probably when it was first opened! ;)

We traveled through Arizona and saw a lot of prairie, mountains in the distance, and lots of sagauro cacti. It's a pretty landscape, if you like desert and mountains.

We went through Wickenburg and on the east side of the town, saw a bar called Buzzards, where "bikers welcome" and Fog Hat will be playing on October 13. We just might have to come back from Akumal for that one. A concert in the middle of nowhere!

At Sun City (retirement capital of the world) we sat in traffic for half an hour - for road work that of course, was not being done... just orange flags, cones and a lane closed and not a worker in sight. They must have people from California running their construction projects!

We made it around Phoenix without a) getting lost and b) getting stuck in traffic. Then it was on I-10 to Tucson.

We passed through some more pretty country and then, about half an hour north of Tucson, we entered into a dust storm. Strangest thing we had ever been in! It looked like it was rain from a distance, and while in it, it seemed like rain - dark, cloudy, strange lighting going on - but it was just dust. All of us were wheezing and coughing from the dust. Then, just as we were getting close to our exit (259) we saw a sign that I-10 was closed from exit 256 - 259 - take exit 254. Just as we got near that, it started to downpour rain! We got off the interstate and somehow managed to find our way to the hotel by following the interstate access road and then just turning where the exit empties off the freeway. We are at the La Quinta Inn Tucson Downtown. The rain let up as we were checking in. They allow pets, but we weren't sure that they would allow FOUR dogs, so we kind of told a white lie... or rather, didn't tell them how many dogs that we had - so they assumed just one. Bob checked in and the room that they gave to us had to be accessed through the lobby, and we didn't know how to figure out how to parage four dogs past the desk and pretend that it was just one, so I went back to the desk and asked if we could have one of the outside rooms with a sliding glass door that led outside, so that I could let the dog out - DONE! We got into the room and Bob went to get us some wine and some dinner from the hotel restaurant - cheeseburger for me and chicken friend steak sandwich for him - and I fed the dogs. I took a quick dip in the pool and was joined by a little frog the size of a quarter! I scooped him out of the pool and put him over in the bushes - I'm sure he would love to swim in the pool, but there is no way for him to get out. After I put him in the bushes, I saw a man out with what I thought were little Chihuahuas - turns out it was one of the kitchen guys from the restaurant - a young Mexican-American guy, about 24 years old - and he was handing out meat scraps to a group of feral cats. There were about six black ones and two tabbyand white ones. He told me that he had a litter of kittens in the kitchen that he was taking care of. Bless his heart! The kid probably barely makes enough to get by but he's worried about these homeless kitties... maybe there is hope for the world, after all. I'll have to check into local spay/neuter services and ses if someone can get out there to spay/neuter the cats and release them. Then again, you're not in San Francisco anymore, Dorothy. As much as a I love swimming in a pool, I've realized that it's just not as much fun without Eliza and Isabelle there.

The hightlight for us of staying in hotels is that we can watch cable TV. I turned on the weather channel to find out that Henrietta had made final land fall in Mexico, and is now moving north in to Arizona and then will move east into Texas. So, looks like we will have a hitchhikerwith us - little Henrietta is going to tag along on our adventure! Hopefully it won't be too bad...

Good news for Akumal and the Yucatan - Hurrican Felix made landfall in Nicaragua, so we will get just some peripheal showers from him. And he had lessened and wasn't a really bad storm, so that is good news for Nicaragua. I still remember when Roberto Clemente was killed delivering aid and supplies for victims of the earthquake in Managua, Nicaragua - 1972. I cried so hard. He was my favorite baseball player. Still is. Maybe if he had lived, Barry Bonds would still be chasing his record. Now, there was a classy baseball player. Barry Boy could take some lessons.... but I think that's not only another story for another time, but another whole blog in itself!

We've showered and Bob is watching tennis (US Open) on cable (I'm hoping he gets addicted so we can have it when we get back to SF!) and I'm getting a little tired. Solavina and Cejas are curled up and fast asleep on their dog beds, and Bella and Missy are on the bed waiting for us...

Tomorrow, we are off towards Sonora, TX - smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Two more days to the border!