December 19, 2021
We arrived in Tucson.
I'm not sure I like evening flights. It worked for me when I departed Tucson the last trip. I rode from Sonoita, rescued Jan, ate dinner, and still got on the plane home. The midnight arrival with an hour drive to go wasn't the best part, but I certainly packed a lot into my day!
Jacinto wasn't sure what his bus driving schedule would be for Saturday, so we had the evening flight on Sunday. Just in case he arrived home in the wee hours. I had the entire day to wash laundry, clean, and pack.
I had a three hour layover the last trip. This time we had a mere 35 minutes to change planes. I was so busy thinking about our airbnb, that I forgot to worry about missing our flight! See, there's a silver lining in everything.
This morning I had directions from Ana's daughter, Melissa, on how to get into the airbnb. I felt a little more reassured. I never did get any sort of response to my initiated chat on airbnb.
Our flights went smoothly, and on time. We did not pay to choose our seats, but took what we were assigned. Both flights had many empty seats. We were able to change seats and sit together.
It ended up being a bit of a hike from the airport to our less expensive airport parking. We could have called them for a ride. Tucson EZ Parking is manned 24/7 and will pick you up at the airport. Uncovered parking is $3.00 a day, plus airport fees and taxes. That comes to $4.15 a day. Taxes. Got to love them.
It felt nice to stretch our legs and take a walk in the evening without seeing our breath. We arrived at the door to find it locked. The attendant was at the airport. While Jacinto waited to pay, I went on over to the van to see if it would start. The van is my daily driver. Except, I haven't been driving since retiring. The battery had run down a couple of months ago. I presumed I needed a new battery, but when Jacinto took it in to be tested, they said it just needed charged. Jacinto told me I needed to drive more often!
I wasn't happy about driving all this way on a potentially bad battery. I ended up buying a fancy jump starter/aircompressor/flashlight. It does everything but sing and dance. Jacinto used it to check the air in the tires before we left. We have yet to use it for the intended purpose of jumping the battery.
Jacinto loves, loves Denny's. Whenever we are in a town with a Denny's, that's where he wants to eat. Guess what? There is a Denny's right around the corner. My lunch was a long time ago. We haven't had dinner. It is now 10 PM. Do I need dinner? Maybe I could just have a big breakfast?
Wisdom said we should eat. Who knew what we would be facing when we got to the airbnb. Better to not deal with it on low blood sugar.
Jacinto assured me that all Denny's are 24 hour. Wrong. We entered the door only to be met by an apologetic hostess. Closed for the evening. Jacinto was willing to try the Waffle House across the street. We've never eaten at a Waffle House. It sounds very gluten centric. Would they have eggs? We decided to keep driving, and watch for a grocery store on the way. We ended up at WalMart, just around the corner from our airbnb.
I know that my preferred location close to the northern center of The Loop is not a real good area of town. My last solo stay here in February was at an airbnb on Dodge Street, perhaps a half mile from the loop. I was located behind a walled, gated four residence compound. It felt a bit odd at first. But the privacy was nice. I could see boarded up houses with homeless people right down the street. I don't know if this neighborhood is headed up or down. Some places are very nice. Others are abandoned. I walked only once down to the convenience store for a snack. I passed a number of homeless on the way and was panhandled at the store front.
Nonetheless, I do like this location for cycling. Being right in the center of the slightly egg shaped loop gives me access to the most path, right from our door.
That's a long way to say that I wasn't really surprised to see the armed guard and the swinging metal entry gate after entering the Walmart. I think the swinging gate forced people to slow down enough for the guard to look them over. When we exited, there was an interested bicycle parked outside that I would have loved to photograph. It had all sorts of decorations hanging off of it and a big speaker booming on the rear. There wasn't an obvious owner, but there was a woman standing right in front, asking for something. Neither Jacinto or I could quite understand what she said.
We had eggs and sausage to cook for tomorrow morning. Yogurt and nuts. Chips and three kinds of salsa (guess who picked all of those?). Apples, and bananas. I debated about buying salt and pepper. Eggs wouldn't be tasty otherwise. Better safe than sorry. Jacinto made sure to buy cream and honey for his all important morning coffee. He was surprised at the price of a squeeze bottle of honey. At home, we go to The Honey House and buy honey by the bucket. It's much cheaper that way!
Our airbnb was two blocks from Walmart. We knew to park in spot #4 or #5. Done. Now where is house number 2615. Hmmm, this is an interesting building. It looks rather Mexican style, with stucco, and plants in pots outside. We will have to see it in the daytime.
The inside is nice. The bathroom is newer. The kitchen is newer. There are all sorts of spices, condiments, a bag of onions, etc. Here's a question - on one hand, it is nice to open the fridge and see the door full of condiments. But, do I really want to eat someone else's mustard? I do that all the time at a restaurant. They don't bring me a new jar there. So, why does it feel icky that there are used condiments in the fridge?
I will have to sleep on that one.
It's midnight now. Our bikes are still in the van. We've only brought in the groceries and our bags. The original plan was to eat at IHOP in the morning. Now we have food to cook. Let's see what ends up happening. I know that I have a 42 mile ride with my name on it. My plan is to wear shorts! In December! Woohoo!
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