Friday, April 15, 2022. Tucson, Saguaro National Park and El Paso

Friday April 15, 2022. Tucson, Saguaro National Park and El Paso

The parking lot behind the Moto Sonoran Brewery was quiet. Although there was no wifi, the AT&T cellular service was fine.  Ben discovered that the rear view mirror display’s cigarette lighter plug was loose in the cigarette lighter outlet that Ben had installed in the headliner above the center rooftop console.  He secured that with some electrical tape to prevent that coming loose again in the future.  

We filled up the fuel tanks with 11.063 gal with 17714 miles on the odometer at the Circle K station on Miracle Mile which yielded 14.7mpg since the last fill up.  Diesel was $4.959/gal.  There was a Planet Fitness nearby so we dropped in for showers and to refill our drinking water containers.   We then headed east on I-10 for El Paso.

As we got to the outskirts of Tucson, we saw signs for Saguaro National Park, which we have not been to before.  We saw that it was less than 10 miles off I-10 so we decided to add that to our itinerary.  There are two separate parts of this National Park.  One is in West Tucson, while the other is in East Tucson.  The one we visited was the Rincon Mountain District (East).  Most of the park is strictly accessed by hiking trails, but both districts have a small driving loop.  The Rincon one has an 8 mile long one way loop which we drove.  

There were lots of pull out spots with educational signage and a couple of shorter loop trails which we took advantage of.  We ended up spending 3 hours seeing the park including a 1 mile loop trail.  The weather was perfect with a few high clouds, blue sky and temperatures in the mid 70’s when we arrived at 9am, and lower 80’s when we finished at 1pm.  

We wanted to buy a baby saguaro cactus to replace one that Ciara had bought the last time we visited the Sonoran Desert Museum over Christmas several years ago.  It had recently died during a cold spell.  This National Park visitor center didn’t sell anything like that, but there was a cactus nursery just a few miles away that did have some.  Janet found a nice 3” tall  one which means it was about 10 years old to be that size.  It takes 30 years for them to flower for the first time, and 50-60 years to sprout their first arm. 

We then hit the road in earnest accompanied mostly by semi trucks.  We made a diesel stop in San Simon, taking on 12.458gal with the odometer at 17884 (13.6mpg).  We were mostly cruising at 75-80mm.  Diesel was $4.699.  While we nibbled on crackers and cheese, a long series of teaser bill boards finally convinced us to stop at a Dairy Queen for a real lunch and Blizzard.  

As we hit El Paso, the border wall and the Rio Grande river are quite a sight.  In this part of the border, there is a 10’ chain link topped with barbed wire inner fence, 30’ wide buffer gravel road, and 30’ steel bollard topped by steel plate and razor wire coils closest to the Mexican border.  It looked like it should keep all but the most determined zombies out.  

We are spending the night at a Harvest Host site called Pistoleros Del Adobe Cantina and Grill, which is located in the historic San Elizario town square, across the plaza from the church.  

The staff were very welcoming and friendly. The owner stopped by and chatted a bit.  They had a live band and the place was pretty busy.  The food was unremarkable, but the beer was cold and atmosphere was Mexican fiesta like.  They had wifi inside the restaurant, but not outside.  There is also practically no AT&T reception (Welcome to Mexico is the text we receive when we try to connect to cellular).  

Tomorrow, we hope to make it to Ingram Tx to stay at the Buckhorn Lake Resort to preview the location for the April 8, 2024 total eclipse of the sun.