The road to Hell is apparently paved with good intentions, and this sums up our first night in Tucson perfectly. It is clear to us that we are unable to drink only one beer - once the flood gates are opened, they are well and truly open. Shortly after checking into our hostel (filled with strange creatures once again) we were told that the University of Arizona Wildcats (ice hockey) were playing Michigan State "this very night", so off we went to purchase "two of your cheapest tickets please" ($5 apiece). Our very good intention was to drink only one pint at the hockey game and then head home for an early night, however this was hard to do with fights breaking out on the ice, the crowd chanting and the Wildcats winning in the last minute (relief). The night continued from there with many two dollar beers and us chatting to various residents of Tucson and ended early the next morning many, many hours after our intended bedtime. Oh dear!

After the errors of the previous night, we vowed (as we do on every hangover) not to drink again (until Vegas) and to do more outdoorsy activities. Not since New York have we done so much walking. In Tucson we spanned the entire city in all directions: North (for Tohono Chul Park and Sabino Canyon), East (looking for bl00dy Safeway), South (seeking a highly elusive bottle of hair conditioner) and West (a seemingly endless bike trail in the desert heat - thank the lord it's their winter!).

We were extremely unfortunate to decide to hire bicycles from Bicas, a shop that looked very hip but was in fact utterly useless. The bikes we ended up with felt like prototypes of the Titanic and made Trudy's mam's bike look like something from the future. They were rusted cast iron, single-speed (20 mile round trip anyone? in the Sonoran Desert?), had truly primitive braking systems (cycle backwards plus foot to stop), had iron chains welded to them for locking (think comically heavy cartoon ball-and-chains) and the seats, oh good lord the seats...

We cycled for what felt like an eternity to the Sabino Canyon and thanks to the bike shop not opening until 12 noon we were only able to spend 25 minutes not even at the mouth of the canyon before having to turn back for fear of getting stranded! The next day we cycled through the desert heat to the West of the city and Tom truly thought he would have to utter to Trudy the immortal line "Go on without me...". Trudy however was loving the heat, she even spotted an entire herd (Judi, is this the correct collective noun here?) of Mule Deer. As with the Roadrunner in Albuquerque, the instant they saw Tom they sensed danger (or just another very annoying human with a camera) and fled en masse, jumping gracefully away through the desert.

In fact Tucson turned out to be a real hotbed for animal spotting: the Mule Deer, Finches (bathing no less), Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers, Dersert Rabbits, more Roadrunners, Cardinals, a bird with a weird bit on its head (technical term) and a strange boy who didn't speak (the Lesser Spotted Mental Case Sleeping in the Dorm Bed Above Us). Trudy spotted all of these animals and had to point them out to Tom, who contented himself by spotting Saguaro cactus after Saguaro cactus and pointing them out to Trudy (they weren't moving so it was easier for him to see them [obviously he could see the Lesser Spotted Mental Case Sleeping in the Dorm Bed Above Us]).

We displayed our true British credentials when, as we returned the bikes to the bike shop, we were asked "Were your bikes okay?". To which we replied (through tears) "Absolutely fine, thanks". In his Heat and Bike Madness Tom then pointed a Saguaro cactus out to Trudy, who merely agreed "oh yeah, nice one".