Funmurphys: the Blog

Now that it’s the two of us, we have become planners on our long vacations. We start with trying to figure out how many days in each location, and then look for Airbnb’s or motels to stay in, and based on availability we might change locations or durations. Then we book our stays, and any flights and car rentals. It all gets written out in a text document so that there are no gaps or overlaps – we learned that lesson the hard way when we set up or Ireland & Scotland trip and left a gap. We have kind of a rough notion about what we are going to do, but it begins with the spine of where we are spending the night and how we are getting there, booked in advance. Later we investigate each location for all the things we might do, and those all get included in the trip planning document. Some places, especially with COVID, require advanced booking (like Biosphere 2 this trip) so we go ahead and make those reservations in advance. And then while on the trip each night we review our options, look at the weather forecast, consider suggestions from friends and locals, and decide what we are going to do the next day.

Then one day all your options are outdoors and the forecast is cold and windy. And when you wake up, it’s snowing. And snowing. So you do laundry, hang around the Airbnb, eat lunch at a diner – we’ve had the best luck eating in diners at RV parks in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, your rental car is just fine after the roads you drove it down yesterday, so you kind of just putz around minor attractions including the local maxi-mart where you pick up a couple of things and drive the car down some more dirt roads, which seem to be most of the roads in this part of Arizona. It snows and rains on and off all day, but the wind never stops blowing. You keep an eye on the nearby National Monument but all you see is clouds and precipitation of some form dropping out of them over the park all day.

So you write your daily post early and relax with MBH. And you remember, Tomorrow is another day.

Tags: JTFSSW

Today we packed our bags and said farewell to Tucson. Because of groceries, we actually left with more than we arrived with. So after my second run of the trip (shortened because we are on vacation), a second nice chat with Cindy our Airbnb host, we left our second stop on the Journey and headed out into the unknown again.

We went through Saguaro National Park East where the desolation factor was upped and the beauty factor was lowered. There seems to be maybe 10 basic plants in the park, the same ones we’ve seen every day so far, so after awhile I have to admit our attention wavered. And once again bicyclists infested the park – at one pull off MBH hadn’t bothered to get out of the car and I came running back because I saw heading towards us a cyclist slowly climbing a hill on the one way one lane road with a bunch of cars oozing behind and I didn’t want to get stuck. They were the most exciting moments of the visit but I’m sorry to say that between my unexpected arrival and the shortness of the hill we failed.

Oh to own a cycling shop in Tucson.

We had debated and discussed both with ourselves and with our host Cindy where to go in the afternoon so we headed towards the wine country around Sonoita but never made it. We found Charon vineyards a little ways south of I-10 down a gravel road where we enjoyed a delicious lunch, a very tasty Cab Sav, and had a nice view of the ever present mountains of Arizona. We cannot figure out how we traveled in the days before smart phones, GPS, and the internet. We did, and quite well, but we just can’t remember the technology besides paper maps.

But you can’t get from Point A to Point B without traveling, so we set off for our next Airbnb in the wilds of Sunizona and after a brief stop to purchase gas and milk we discovered you can drive a Nissan Sentra down spectacularly bad dirt roads. Did you know a dirt road over a hill becomes a rocky road? Now I do. Did you know a low dirt road becomes a soft sand road you shouldn’t stop on? Now I do. Even with all our modern technology you can sometimes take the road you really shouldn’t travel. Or need to. We were never lost since we could always see our blue dot on a map, but it can sometimes be hard to tell the difference between not knowing where you are versus where you want to be.

I sure hope the car runs tomorrow.

Tags: JTFSSW

After last year’s Road Trip Almost Without End, MBH vowed that for our next big trip we would go somewhere and stay. And then she planned another road trip of moving every three days or so but added the wrinkle of flying to different cities to start and finish just to add to the degree of difficulty. I’m looking forward to the next trip in so so many ways, one of which is how do we increase the degree of difficulty?

Today we officially determined that we had too much to do and not enough time in Tucson. We didn’t realize that when we set up the trip so here we are. After considering the options, we decided to head to Mount Lemmon, the 9,000 plus top of which is reached via the Catalina Highway which is a bit of a misnomer since the (top) speed limit is 35mph. It is a stunning drive, and fortunately not popular in mid March so we could go at our own pace which was good except when I was freaked out which only happened a few times on the way back down.

When I say not popular, I mean with cars since there were more than plenty bicycles on the road, and at one point a lady running downhill with her dog. Kind of reminded me of Ireland – narrow, windy, never know what you’ll meet only without the stone walls but instead with mountains. I was very impressed with the cyclists pedaling away like mad, barely moving, at altitude with a relentless climb and the only reward the satisfaction of an outstanding workout and stunning scenery. And, oh yeah, going like a bat out of hell on the downhills. I imagine it’s hours growing up and then minutes going down.

The temperature steadily dropped and the wind increased as we went up, so at each scenic overlook I put on more clothes, and by the time we got to the top and hiked portions of a couple of trails we had a multilayered defense against the cold including hats and gloves. It was so cold we ate lunch in the car, which kind of reminded me of the time we did that in Scotland only the view of the loch was better, at least what we could see when the rain let up.

After a brief recovery at the casita, it was off to dinner with my former coworker Dave Ridyard who lives here. It was great to catch up with Dave and I know how much MBH likes to talk to people, especially people who aren’t me. There is a lot of togetherness on a road trip. A lot.

Tags: JTFSSW

Today we hiked in Sabino Canyon Recreation Area which is run by of all agencies the USDA, which might explain their poor trail markings. The scenery was worth the confusion. We managed to up both the beauty and desolation quotient from yesterday.

Later in the afternoon we enjoyed refreshments in the garden at our AirBnB and just soaked up the sun. Until it got a little too cool and we moved back indoors.

For dinner we ate near the University of Arizona and added people watching to the menu. College kids are still letting it all hang out, quite literally. Plus they still cruise, based on a number of distinctive cars (the Corvette was yellow not little or red) that kept going past us – parking spots were hard to find, but not that hard.

I can’t wait for Day 4!

Tags: JTFSSW

We shook the dust of Phoenix off our sandals and took the long way to Tucson. The scenery was beautiful but desolate; we expect the scenery to be varying degrees of beautiful but desolate the whole trip.

Today was a day of up and over nameless passes from one nameless valley into another on the back roads of Arizona. The morning found us on the shores of Theodore Roosevelt Lake chatting with a fisherman whose wife showed her love by letting him slip away to fish while she remained behind at the RV with the kids; lunch was both lakeshore and al fresco; the afternoon we hiked up a hill at Tonto National Monument and later toured the Biosphere 2.

A road trip is as much about the roads you take as it is about the stops you make.

In Tucson we found our Airbnb, ate dinner, and spent vacation dollars (they only cost half of normal life dollars in our family) at Albertsons buying groceries for breakfasts at the AirBnb, lunches on the trail, and snacks on the road. We also picked up a few necessities like dark chocolate.

Tags: JTFSSW

We began our epic journey by taking a completely full flight to Phoenix, so full that the guy sitting next to me spilled over a bit into my space, just like in the good old days before any of us even knew how to spell CDC.

And like all good epics, the trials and tribulations should be many and varied. So there was the interminable ride to the rental car center; the wait from hell at the rental car center, the rediscovery of how Phoenix adds charges of every size and description to the bill.

But at last we headed out on the highway, looking for adventure and whatever came our way. Instead we got to our inexpensive motel that looked much better online and probably even worse in daylight. We have a suite which means that sometime, I’m guessing in the early sixties by the look of it, they shoe horned in a little kitchenette into a regular room. They have a lot of physical security which always makes us feel less secure; but as we keep telling each other, it’s only for one night, and we got here late and will leave early.

We have completed the Journey to the Far Side of the Southwest, now the Journey Home begins. Tomorrow, after a leisurely (i before e except after c and in leisure) hotel breakfast and a couple cups of coffee, that is.

Tags: JTFSSW