Day 52 - Not More Bloody Cactuses!

The same start as the last couple of mornings. I got up & waited for Jackie. She got up around 8.00am, we had breakfast, then got ready & dressed to give our appearance an air of respectability. Tough ask!

Around 10.00am we set off for Tucson International Airport to try & broker a new hire car deal. Tomorrow we have to return our hire car & need a new car, Jackie is insistent that it is a convertible. As we arrived at the Airport we saw the Rolls Royce Boeing 747 that Charlie works on.

We headed for the Enterprise car rental returns office & spoke to the duty manager who was very helpful. They didn’t have any convertibles in, but 3 were being returned the following morning. He looked at his computer & after we had kept banging on that we needed a decent deal, he reckons we could get one for $1600 minus 5 or 10% discount. We told him we would back tomorrow at midday.

We then went into the Airport Terminal, where there were 7 car rental company desks. We queued & spoke to each & everyone of them with our request to hire a convertible for 4 weeks & drop it off in New York or somewhere on the East Coast. Just in case they could improve on the Enterprise quote. Most didn’t have any convertibles available, Budget had a Chevrolet Camaro for just over $4000 & Hertz quoted us $10,000. Ridiculous!

We drove out of the car park & turned the wrong way. Weirdly we drove past Charlie & a colleague who were out having a walk. After stopping for a quick chat we set off to the other side of Tucson & to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The entrance fee is slightly steep, $21.95, but it has everything you could imagine that exists in a Desert. Great for Desert aficionados! I was also impressed that it has stations to fill up your water bottles everywhere & sun cream in the restrooms.

We started off in the Aquarium, which had exhibits mainly from the Colorado River, then the Reptile Hall with it’s Rattlesnakes, Tarantulas, Scorpions & Chuckwallas. The Museum main route then headed out along paths into the desert to different exhibit areas.

Next was a Cave area followed by an Ancient Arizona area neither of which were that exciting. Next was the Mountain Woodland area which promised to be my highlight. 1st was the Mountain Lion, after much searching we finally espied it’s tail & one leg poking out of a rock crevice. The Black Bear, Gray Wolves, Mule Deer & Western Screech Owl had all gone missing. The only other thing we saw here was the backside of a sleeping Porcupine. It is probably not the best time, (middle of the day in the summer), to visit a wildlife / zoological park, BUT we’d paid our money, they could have made an effort!

On we went to the Desert Grassland, which I don’t even remember, then the Desert Loop Trail, which is 800 metres long. We were supposed to see Coyotes & Javelinas, but guess what..........zilch. It was hot in fact it was the hottest day of the year, 107 degrees.

In the Cat Canyon we only saw the back of a sleeping Bobcat & in Riparian Corridor we saw a River Otter & Bighorn Sheep, but no sign of a Beaver. In the Walk-in Aviary, we saw mainly ducks & doves & in the Hummingbird Aviary, just a couple of brown hummingbirds that were camera shy.

One of the highlights for me, was the Cactus Garden & Pollination areas, which were exceptionally well set out. By this time, Jackie was overheating & Cactuses had lost their appeal.

I then left Jackie in the shade at the entrance, but not to be defeated I went back to the Mountain Woodland area. My perseverance paid off because I came face to face, albeit through glass, with the Mountain Lion & the Wolves were howling from their hiding place.

It was over 3 hours later when we returned to the oven (car), then drove just a couple of miles to Saguaro National Park, where Jackie uttered the immortal words. “Not more bloody cactuses”. Firstly, it was free with my Parks Pass & I was searching for the perfect Saguaro Cactus, apparently fruitlessly, because they all look the same.

We drove around the unpaved Cactus Forest Loop Drive getting our nice clean car all dusty again & admired the sea of Saguaros. Before we knew it we had completed the Loop, so I popped into the Visitors Center to get my glossy brochure, then it was straight back home over W Gates Pass Rd for a much needed beer.

While Charlie & Jackie prepared, then cooked food on the fire pit for a Traditional Arizona BBQ, I agonised over what my Song of the Day would be. Our BBQ was lovely, perfectly cooked T-bone steak, sausages, burgers, sweet peppers stuffed with cheese & wrapped in bacon, potatoes & courgettes, washed down with a drop of wine & beer.

After a few drinks, the conversation turned to music & when I pushed Charlie to name his favourite band, he said “Spear of Destiny”. Wow, I didn’t see that coming. That was it, we then had a music session where I gradually took more & more control of the playlist (as I always tend to do, apparently!).

Song of the Day - Saguaro by Hacienda Brothers.

Bonus Songs of the Day :-

Take Me I’m Yours by Squeeze
Never Take Me Alive by Spear of DestinyRead more