Thursday, November 2, 2017
We stopped in Phoenix to visit a wonderful old friend and his wife over dinner. I’ve known Jon for more than 45 years, and his wife Kelly is so warm and sweet – hard to find two better people on this earth. We had such a great time catching up, talking about travel, photography, family, food and much more. Certainly a night to remember. I have one regret – I forgot to get a photo of all of us before leaving. Poo.
Friday, November 3, 2017
We got off to a comfortable start, and headed on down to Saguaro National Park from Phoenix. The first stop was at the west side of the park (it is laid out in two separate areas – one on each side of Tucson). we explored this side at our leisure, looking for all manner of critters and learning a bit more about cacti.
Saguaro Cactus are all over the place – thousands of them – they can be considered the “trees” of the Sonoran Desert. The smaller cacti can be thought of as the shrubs.
We had the usual tailgate lunch, then left the west side to drop in at the KOA to register and set up our tent. This KOA is LUX! The tent pad is filled with rubber “wood chips” making it nice and cushy, the picnic table area has a roof and its own sink! I sure wish more KOAs were like this one.
We scrambled to reach the east side of the park before they closed, and got to drive the “scenic drive” and look for more wildlife. While we only saw one hawk, we did have the good fortune to see a beautiful sunset. From there we dropped in at a grocery store and picked up supplies, then back to the campground for dinner.
