Hot Fun in the Desert and Stats

We’re now officially gone a month. Time for an oil change in Tucson. We’ve been 4454 miles on the Hyundai, 3780 with the camper. The weather has hit a few highs. I have three pink days on my temperature scarf, which is high of 96 or more. Three long driving days to get through the rest of Texas, New Mexico and into Arizona.

Jim found a fun state park, Rockhound in Deming, NM. It’s the only park you can collect and take home rocks. We just had one night, 15 was the best campsite in the park, up high with mountains behind and the valley below. We took a walk to explore and find a few geocaches. We were disappointed that the sunset wasn’t the best, but still not bad. Off bright and early with the time change.

We drove to Catalina State Park north of Tucson. Our camper was hot! Put AC on and sat outside on the shady side until things cooled off. While sitting I saw a slithering creature coming out of the grass–oh my, a rattlesnake! The next morning I avoided the heat and the snakes to celebrate Geocache in Your Pajamas Day from our campsite. We drove to South Tucson and toured San Xavier del Bac mission. It seemed like just the right place to be during Holy Week. The mission was founded in1692 and completed in 1797. It is still an active Catholic parish serving the people of the Tohono O’odham reservation. It was amazing, I truly felt God’s presence in that place. We then found a good Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Today, Thursday was cooler. Actually each night has been in the 40’s or 50’s. We took a hike in the park, avoiding snakes and scorpions and found a few geocaches. We then met Tom and his wife Doreen. Jim has been working on a ham radio project and Tom was too, it was a fun lunch. After that we visited Tohono Chul Gardens, using my reciprocal pass from Coastal Maine Botanic Garden. Spent a lovely hour exploring the gardens. We started to pack up for our northward trip tomorrow. I went to a lovely Holy Thursday Mass at San Catalina Church. And that catches you up on our adventures!