Exactly one year ago to the day, we pulled into the Pima County Fairgrounds (PCFG) south of Tucson. Little had changed in a year. In fact, it all looked so much the same, and we were parked in almost exactly the same spot, that it caused time do that weird accordion-thing that it does, making the last year seem to dissolve occasionally. We chose to stay here again, though, because it’s just a darn good place to be for both personal and vehicular maintenance. Add proximity to shopping, good hiking and biking, and friends, and the choice is clear.
Our first evening was spent settling in and tackling a mountain of laundry. Our second evening in town was happily spent bidding Bon Voyage to the Lowes who were embarking the following day on a four-month world cruise.
 |
| Farewell, my friend! |
Over several cartons of take-out Chinese food, Steve and Mona Liza introduced us to John and Pam, who have recently come off the road after full-timing and hiking since 2010 and blogging all about it at Oh, the Places They Go! The evening passed in a flash with lots of laughs and excited talk over the upcoming cruise. We came away with leftovers, huge bags of oranges and lemons that ML had gathered for us, and plans to meet for hiking with our newest friends. If you’re interested to see whether the Lowes’ voyage is really bon, they’re continuing to write about their high-seas adventures here.
Every couple of days, we headed out to bike a different section of The Loop, a 131-mile paved trail that rings Tucson. It lacks the whee! factor of single-track mountain biking, but long rides on level trails make for some mighty fine outings.
Remember our dear friend Ranger Nancy from Gila? Well, lucky, lucky us, she lives near Tucson and we met up with her and her sweetheart, Jim, for a hike at Saguaro National Park’s Rincon Mountain District.
 |
| Together again for a triple point! |
It was a late-afternoon hike, and we watched the moon rise in the east
while the sun set in the west.
It was dinnertime when we finished, we were getting chilly, and no one was in the mood to cook. Jim was a big tease and got us all excited for some delicious spicy stew at his favorite local Mexican place, but it turned out to be closed on Mondays. We zipped over to another of their frequent haunts instead and had…Chinese! 😀
To make it up to us, Jim had to agree to let us dog-sit GG the following
weekend while he and Nancy headed up to Phoenix for some contra
dancing, the activity that brought them together and one they still
enjoy regularly.
 |
| TBG gets his pup-fix with our favorite sausage! |
Before that, though, we had a very special event to go to. For years, Nancy and her mom, Doris, have been docents at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Nancy invited us to attend the volunteer awards ceremony at which Doris, who is soon to turn 99, was receiving her 15,000-hour award. Are you catching those numbers? 99 years old and 15,000 hours.
 |
| Proud daughter lauding her mom. |
The gentleman in the photo read some very inspiring statistics about volunteerism in the United States. I don’t have his exact figures, but I can tell you that the U.S. is unique to the world in its volunteer numbers. 77 million adults, which is roughly 30% of the population, actively volunteer every year. That equals $167 billion in economic value. And those are only the numbers we know about. Volunteerism spans all socio-economic tiers, all ethnicities, all religions, all ages, all political bents, all abilities. It is something to be proud of as a country, for sure, but much more importantly than that, it is something we can all take part in. I promise if you do, it’ll be the biggest win-win you’ll ever experience. (By the way, 15,000 was the second-highest award that day!)
After the ceremony, while all the docents attended some training classes, TBG and I enjoyed the museum grounds with their native Sonoran plants and animals. Then we met up for a nice lunch over which we were wowed with tales of Doris’ rather extraordinary life.
 |
| And she said we were interesting! |
Back on schedule, I went in for my tune-up and laid low for the next 24 hours to allow for possible vaccine side effects. We got the first of several Amazon orders, and we found that the birds we enjoyed here last year were here again.
My newest hummie feeder and one of my favorite birds, the Vermilion Flycatcher.
Happily, I was again unbothered by the second and last dose of the Shingrix vaccine, and I spent some time making use of our free citrus bounty by baking, cleaning, and flavoring my seltzer water with fresh red grapefruit wedges. TverycapableBG tackled a bunch of the RV maintenance himself, saving us lots of money.
Then it was time to hit some trails again!
 |
| Missing point. |
After a short walk down the private road of this desert neighborhood, the trail began in earnest.
 |
| Oh!asis |
 |
| One of several climbs along the rolling route. |
|
| Traversing a big, beautiful fin. |
The remainder of the hike off the fin to the bottom was pretty steep and rocky and required steady attention, but it wasn’t too long nor bad enough to spoil the rest of what was a really nice hike.
A few days later, we were able to meet up with John and Pam again at their place, and they chauffeured us off to hike at Tucson Mountain Park.
 |
| Seasoned hikers make TBG’s job pointless! |
Pam is a crested saguaro fanatic, and when ML suggested we all get together, I was worried she might have taken offense to my poking fun at such folks on my blog in the past. I needn’t have worried at all. The Wrights are a delightful, easy-going couple, and super-fun to hike with.
 |
| Headed out the Starr Pass Loop Trail. |
It would be almost impossible to go wrong no matter which trail or series of trails you chose at TMP (though Pam would tell you she’s not fond of the popular Brown Mountain Trail.) The park borders the northwest district of Saguaro National Park, and as you can see, the cacti here are unarguably the prettiest specimens you’re likely to find.
 |
| rock hibiscus |
Pam’s “job” was to spot the unusual cacti, and her first sighting was a developing segmented saguaro.
 |
| A Michelin Boy! |
My “job” was to spot critters. At one point, we’d paused at a trail junction to check our directions, and I noticed a particularly red-streaked rock. So red, in fact, that I doubted it was actually part of the rock, and bent down for a closer look. Blood! I pointed it out to my companions, and we discussed all the possible sources. Injured hiker passing by? Injured mountain biker rolling by? Prickle frog’s eye-squirting defense? Predator’s prey? (OK, we didn’t really think of the prickle frog one, but that’s pretty good, huh?) Soon enough, as we followed the mounting evidence up the trail, it became apparent which scenario was true.
 |
| Prey that was dragged over the rocks! |
There were several patches like this all along the trail. Likely, the prey was javelina judging by the coarseness of the hairs and the fact that it was dragged not totally carried, and probably the predator was coyote or bobcat. Trail scene-processing is my new favorite hiking activity, and I get credit for the critter-spotting since it was never specified that they had to be alive or even whole.
I spotted some live deer later on, but Pam had more success at her job.
 |
| What a beauty! And the cactus ain’t bad either yuk-yuk-yuk! |
 |
| And look at this big ol’ broccoli! |
 |
| It’s a bowl! |
This last one was a new find for Pam — she knows her cresties! — and she was very excited when we spotted it. Her enthusiasm was catching, and it was fun to scan the hillsides in search of the special ones. If you’d like to see my videos of the ones we saw — hahaha! I can’t help but tease about videos of the slowest-growing plants on Earth. Fortunately for us, Pam takes no offense at my ribbing, and we will be hiking together again before we all leave Tucson.
That wraps up our first two weeks at PCFG. The next post will detail our second two weeks, but we have to finish actually living them first. But wait! There’s more! I have an addendum to my previous post. Remember the macaws we saw? After I posted that, a friend sent me a link to a Twitter post about a missing macaw in the area and asked if I thought it was the same folks/birds we’d seen.
 |
| I did! It was! Poor Flower! |
TBG wondered aloud how would we ever know if Flower was found? I suggested we call the number and ask. That not being a serious option, I Googled a few days later instead. I’m happy to report that Flower was found and is safe, but I also learned that losing macaws is not as uncommon as one might suppose. I also learned that if you want to read about some really…interesting…people, Google “missing macaws.” The rest of your day just got made, I know, but be sure to take stretch breaks occasionally.
See you in a couple weeks!
and that is why we don’t have the data for the first hike
COMMENTS
I like your new career – crime scene analysis meets hiking trails. I see a reality show in the works. They combine everything else these days. Why not??
Finally… “cactus snacker” is the best nickname I’ve ever heard!
Pam was a very good sport about her cacti, and that made it all the more fun to search for them together 🙂
I was also relieved to see that Flower, the naughty macaw, was found safe. Unlike the peach-faced lovebirds that have done very well since being released [kind of] accidentally, I don’t think Flower would have made it very long on her own. But with my new trail skillz, I think I could’ve tracked her down should something untoward have befell her.
Hahahaha, I totally forget that my picture titles appear if you hover over the collage pics! I had to think what the heck you were talking about with “cactus snacker.” Now I’m worried about past collages and possibly inappropriate titles I may have given some pictures 😀
We are also glad that you are seeing so many friends in Tucson, especially people with ties to the community. We were just discussing how one of the best parts of our trip through Florida so far has been seeing familiar faces in every place we’ve visited, and getting the insider scoop on the area.
It is really great to get to see our local friends here, as well as our fellow travelers. The locals *always* know the best stuff! There will be even more of both kinds in the next post 🙂
I’m seriously impressed with the number of hours Doris has put in as a docent. By just a quick calculation, that’s at least 7.5 years of full-time work! And I’m equally impressed that she’s still so active at the age of 99. She’s a great role model!
Doris is such an inspiration. Her whole life story is just amazing, and it’s no secret why we love her wonderful daughter so much. I have to not dwell too much on the fact that we’ll be moving on soon, and it will be a long time before I see all of these wonderful people here again.
The 99-year-old lady is impressive with her 15,000 volunteer hours, Holy smoke I can only count by my fingers of my own volunteer time! But speaking of 99 year old, we also had a 99-year-old lady on board Viking Sun who started in LA, bound for Sydney. Unfortunately, she was picked up by an ambulance in Dunedin, New Zealand. She must have been just tired on board the ship, too much food and happening around her 🙂
Love that shot of the moon rise, perfect timing.