Hit El Taco Tote on the way out of town; that place has some
HOT salsa. Mmmm.
After lunch, I got back on I-10 and headed west. I will
definitely be exiting at the east-most exit in New Mexico next time though,
because I noticed an awesome sign for a bowling alley as I drove past. Getting
back to it on this trip would have involved going through the border patrol
stop again. Not that I had any issues the first time around. I guess it didn’t
look like I was smuggling anything in my packed car, the contents of the cargo
area cleverly covered with a picnic blanket and a teddy bear riding shotgun. I
stopped driving when I hit Tucson. As they were experiencing record cold (lows
in the teens) I opted for a hotel the first night. I ignored the Denny’s that
was attached to the hotel and had both a late dinner and breakfast at the
Waffle House across the street. After a morning performing the laundral arts, I
head over to the Adventure Bound Campground to set up my tent while it was
still warm and sunny. Although the cold front was leaving (overnight lows were
going to be in the upper 20’s, plenty warm for camping), it’s much more
pleasant to deal with the tent in sunlight and warmer temps. The place is
primarily an RV park, but they have a few tent sites and hot showers, so it was
a pleasant place to camp.
With the housekeeping taken care of, I headed over to
Saguaro National Park for some sightseeing and hiking. Beautiful place and I
didn’t get lost. I went park to the park on Wednesday to run, picnic and bike.
It was good to get to use the bike for the first time on the trip, and the bike
trail was fun, although there were several moments where I was squeezing the
brakes pretty hard. Hey, Chicago is not exactly the pinnacle of trail biking! The ride was easy compared to getting the bike back into the car, but I
eventually squeezed it back into its place.
Wandering around a small portion of Saguaro National Park
was a great way to spend a couple of days between climbing destinations, but I
went to bed excited about my next destination, Joshua Tree National Park, where
I would be meeting my friends D and S for a long climbing weekend. Yay!
