I endure a humiliating start to the morning when I roll over and open up the iPad to see the time and check the mail.  I find a comment from Keith Kline: “What happened to U?”  A puzzling question, which I follow back to the source and find my latest submission to the Alphabet Quest: Sleek Transport Vehicle.”  A fair point.  STV is the abbreviation for my heart condition, but it’s a pretty lame excuse for an alphabetic series.

Rachael sets the thermostat and then we both get under the covers to snuggle and wait until the place warms up a bit.  Scooter Trips Up, I announce.  Situation Totally Untenable.  Huh?  I relate my embarrassment and say I’m practicing the sequence so I’ll remember next time.  Some further nonsense and uncontrolled giggling ensues until it warms up enough to venture out from under the covers and start the coffee.  It feels like a slumber party.

With over a 400 mile drive ahead of us we’re packing up to leave not long after sunrise.  It’s not raining now but the bikes got slightly wet out on the balcony in the night.  It won’t be long now though - the sky is an ominous dark grey, it’s very windy, and the rains begin just as we’re driving out of town - the front wave of an atmospheric river that will wash over Southern California today. Bringing seven inches of rain to Santa Barbara, flooding, and near-hurricane force winds.

Yes, let’s go to Tucson.

There’s little to say about the long drive other than there’s some anxiety as we climb over the two 4000’ passes on I-8.  There’s a pretty dense fog at both of the two summits, and I’m unsure whether we might be nearing freezing conditions this high up until Rachael notes that the outside temperature is near 40.

Beyond Laguna Summit the sky ahead clears up and there is a breathtaking view of the distant mountains and the Imperial Valley ahead.  A trick of the light makes it look like the ranges are blanketed by snow, and at the last minute I think to ask Rachael to get the phone out and take a shot.   Which she does, but not before we drop between the walls of steep, narrow In-ko-pah Gorge (formerly known as Meyers Canyon) as we steeply descend 4,000’ to Ocotillo.  

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The rest of the drive is long, fast and straight.  Traffic is light, and regardless of the speed limit signs everyone else is going 80-85 so I do too.  We arrive in Tucson at 3:10, just minutes after the time for our AirBnB check in.

We’ve stayed in four AirBnB’s in Tucson now, and they were all great.  This one though isn’t really, and I can’t say I think much of it yet.  It has a pretty awkward layout and a spartan look.  Maybe it will grow on me, but it will take some time I think.  It makes up for it though by being the most expensive of the lot, presumably because it’s right on the edge of downtown.  It was the best option available when we booked. The next time we come down here we’ll start looking farther in advance.

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Andrea BrownHm. Looks like a ten dollar room in Thailand. Oh, maybe 11 because it has a stove.
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3 years ago

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It will be all fine though, once we get a routine down; and it is great to be within easy walking distance of downtown.  It’s warm and comfortable and there’s a dramatic sunset as we walk down to the HUB for dinner.  Afterwards, we walk back to the room in the dark, immediatelyhop back in the car and drive to the nearest Safeway to stock up.  Rachael’s plan is to shop enough to get us through the basics for the whole six weeks so that after that we can just go to the convenience store in walking distance to refuel on milk and items like that.  We walk out with a completely full grocery cart, after the most expensive grocery shopping spree ever: $295.60!   

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Andrea BrownSix weeks of groceries? That's a steal.
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3 years ago

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It’s probably because inflation is rampant.  It’s all Joe Biden’s fault.

Our first night in Tucson ends in further humiliation for the old guy as I open up the mail and find two more critical comments on the latest post.  From Jacquie: “They look so different out of their tuxedos!”, she says, in response to a photograph of a pelican statue that I’ve mislabeled as a penguin.  And Rich wants to know why I keep dissing his old neighborhood in Pacific Beach by misnaming it as Mission Beach.  

So picky!  Thanks, friends.  It feels like I’m getting Alzheimer’s.