At last, Tucson

Tuesday Morning, January 29th. We are 4 hours away from Tucson and it still seems unreal. We've been traveling for 6 days now, reflecting on the changes in the landscape and people as we make our way to the southwest. It's so easy to say "desert",but there are changes big and small, different microclimates, and different vegetation.

We took a small detour to Hatch, NM, home of the famous Hatch chili peppers.  Before we got there, we had to go through US customs checkpoint, complete with drug sniffing dogs. Hatch is at least 50 miles from the Mexican border, but it is on I-25, a major route north from Mexico into Colorado.

Once we reached Hatch, we saw numerous stands were selling the dried chilies in large strands to be hung, but we decided we didn't really need that many.  It was an interesting little town, though.

On the approach to Tucson, we kept our eyes peeled for saguaro cactus in its natural environment.  We didn't count those saguaros that had been moved as part of a landscaping project.  Saguaros are native to and found only in the Sonoran Desert which includes a portion of southern Arizona and goes down into Mexico.  It wasn't until about 30 miles east of Tucson that we saw these majestic cacti.

We reached our destination - Barbara's and Gale's house - about three in the afternoon, and immediately felt as though we had reached our "other" home. it was uncanny: by five o'clock we had glasses of wine in our hands, had been chatting for two hours straight, Barbara was starting to get dinner ready, and the year between visits disappeared.

Between Tuesday afternoon arrival and Friday morning moving in to our "Villa" we:

• sat around, had wine, had dinner, had more wine (Tuesday)
• went shopping (non-perishable food and wine), sent a fax, Gail had her nails done, hung out, went out for Bob's birthday with Barbara, Gale, and Maren (Wednesday)
• Gail had blood work done (regular monthly), we picked up our mail that had been forwarded, made deviled eggs for the evening's party, and attended the party in our honor(!) held by Barbara and Gail. Got reacquainted with some people we met last year and met a few new ones. (Thursday)
• Got the key to the Villa, moved in all our stuff, got our rental golf cart, went food shopping for real food and a few incidentals, got our cards identifying us as temporary residents of Saddlebrooke, set up the wireless connections, and are scheduled to play bridge later this evening with Barbara and Gale.

Whew! Time for a glass of wine!