Tucson

We've had a great week in the Darby Wells area. Ellie especially has enjoyed the bike rides. She starts getting excited as Steve gets the bikes out--grinning from jowl to jowl, barking, prancing, running back and forth. I'm sure if she could talk, she'd be saying "Hurry up! Let's get this flock on the move!" There haven't been any bunnies to chase in the desert, but the lizards are out, and their quick little movements alert Ellie, and she is off after them. Her nose and face are continually brown from trying to dig them out.

We debated whether to stay there one more night, and, in the end, chose not to. In the words of the knight of the Grail in "The Last Crusade," we "chose poorly." Our current spot is about 9 miles east of Tucson, in another BLM 14 day area. It's right at the intersection of state road 86 and San Joaquin Road, and I mean RIGHT at the intersection. The highway is less than 100 yards away, there's a lot of traffic, and not a lot of choice for campsites. It's hard to know why people would want to stay here, except that it's close to Tucson and free. We do want to be in the Tucson area for a few days. Steve wants to tour the Pima Air and Space Museum and the Titan Missile Museum. I need to do laundry, and want to check out the two quilt shops and yarn shop in town. And we both want to visit Saguaro National Park. First thing on my agenda tomorrow, however, will be to do some scouting for a better spot. There are a couple of NFS campgrounds on the other end of town, or Catalina State Park, which we've stayed at before and liked.