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Now, I've had diner breakfasts before. But this one was different. It was Sunday, a day when it's ok to eat your body-weight in fried food for breakfast. It was also in a weird little town and it had a very retro 50's theme without any irony. I don't think I'd ever been so excited about a meal! French toast, sausage (link, not pattie), eggs (over easy), lots of maple syrup, coffee and OJ. Now that's what I call a breakfast. I also think I've mastered the breakfast lingo - stack sizes, egg types, sausage presentations, the myriad of bread types...
Now, even more excitingly, we were heading back to Tucson! To proper sun and desert heat and the lovely hostel we stayed in and the cactus forests and the constant noise of the jets from the air base flying overhead, and the trendy down-town and being able to hire bikes and have BBQs for dinner every night. Ahhh Tucson how I've missed you!
It was also a little odd though, as this was as far south as we were going to go, and after this we would start heading north, towards the rain and the coast and Washington and home. But we still had a few weeks of adventures before that happened.
The drive to Ticson was another 8-hour stint, broken up with trips to Dairy Queen, Wendys, random lay-bys to take pictures and stopping for gas, and a visit to see The Thing. This was a weird road-side 'attraction' incorporated into a service station and was just randon weird old stuff with a skeleton at the end. A weird but fun way to waste 20 minutes and a buck.
We arrived at Tucson and the Roadrunner Hostel - which I would definitely recommend should you ever find yourself down that way (but then it is the only hostel in town). Opened some beer, cooked some food, talked with some other residents, and chilled out in the 30 degree heat.
Free waffles for breakfast - who could ask for more! After a lazy morning we walked to the university campus and then into town, had a walk about and followed the tourist walking trails round the old buildings. After a while we decided to go for a drink and I was asked for ID as is pretty normal (though he'd already prepared my drink by this point!) but he obviously couldn't work out the UK date on my driving license or if my year of birth meant I was now old enough to drink, so he took the drink away from me and said he couldn't serve me! So we went to a liquor store where I got served no problem, and also meant we could sit in the back yard of the hostel in the sun instead.
The following day we hired bikes and cycled back to the uni to visit their photography and art museums - both of which are pretty impressive. It's also fun just walking round the campus, getting a coffee, sitting in the grounds. It's all open so anyone can walk in, but it has a nice feeling about it. After that we found a great Greek place for some lunch, then undertook the (stupidly) mammoth task of cycling to find some shops. Ok, I wanted to find an Old Navy as I had an urge for some retail therapy, I admit it! We eventually found it and I had a good mini spending spree, and then we cycled back - it's still 30+ degrees out don't forget!
The next few days started a little odd. There was no rooms in the hostel for the next few nights, so we decided to head on out, maybe go to LA, which I wasn't too bothered about, or just see where we ended up. We were both sad to be leaving Tucson after only a few days, and just as we were leaving town we decided to stop for a coffee and think about what we were really gonna do. We went online and found a dirt cheap (or dirty, cheap) motel in town and decided we were gonna stay a little longer and explore a little more. So we did, and it was awesome.
That afternoon we found a Trader Joes and stocked up on lunch stuff and provisions, then we drove up to the Saguaro National Forest. Inhabited by mountain lions and huge cacti (cactuses?), the place is a like a massive desolate desert land but full of life. It also has a stream running through it, which is not something you expect to see. We walked for a while in the blistering heat and saw loads of different lizards, humming birds, woodpeckers, deers, frogs and insects. We sat and had lunch and walked some more.
We found a natural waterfall that created a small pool along one part of the stream, and there were very few people around, so we stripped off to our underwear and jumped in! It was so lovely and cool and crystal clear and very welcomed after the heat which was probably near 35 degrees. The thing is it's such a dry heat that you can still keep going, it's not like awful humidity heat that saps your energy and makes you want to hide indoors with the air-con on.
That night we went to the lovely Mexican place for dinner - proper Mexican food in a proper shabby hut, and then an early night. The next day we did pretty much the same thing - Trader Joes, National Forest, swim, tried not to get tracked by mountain lions, Mexican, beer, bed.
And that was it. The next day we would be leaving Tucson for good as we needed to stick to our very rough and sketchy plan for where we would be when. The only thing that made leaving a little easier was that we were headed for Vegas baby and a night out in Sin City!!!!!
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