Spring Flowers and Wildlife

During my time in Arizona over the past 9 months, I've seen many Saguaro cacti.  This one, we see almost every day on our daily walk.

Cool Old Dude

Normally, from what I've been told, the Saguaro don't flower until later in the year.  With the exceptionally warm winter we've had and recent dry conditions, the flowers have arrived.

The Saguaro flowers are on full display for a very short time. Meanwhile, the prickly pear bloom has been prolific.

We saw another western diamondback last week, stretched out on the edge of the sidewalk.  I think he was waiting for us to go by, but we waited him out, and eventually he slowly crossed ahead of us.  

Some of the wildlife has been next door.  

Bobcat 

And some of the wildlife has been at the front door.

Kids playing Ring and Ditch

April in the Tucson area has been much more pleasant than March was.  Temps have been in the upper 80's and low 90's, but nothing like the record-breaking 100 degree days earlier in the year.  Nights have been amazing with the windows open and lows in the 50's.  Before too long though, we are going to head into the high country with the Lance.  We may need sweaters and jackets.  That would be a real change!

Record-breaking Heat

Fun Fact:  Tucson has never experienced 100-degree weather in March for as long as records have been kept.  We are poised to blast through that record this weekend, along with a bunch of other individual day records next week.

Lance updates:  With a couple of hiccups, my LiFePO4 battery project went well.  I ordered two 100 ah batteries from Amazon.  The Lance has a small battery compartment on each side of the trailer, which needed to be modified in order to accommodate the wider SOK batteries.  The local auto parts store was happy to take the dead lead acid batteries.  I ended up building wood boxes that sit on top of the sliding tray in each of the battery compartments. The sliding tray locks in with a rod and locking outside door, and a strap makes sure that they don't move around.  

I bought an Eco-Worthy LiFe PO4 20 amp charger from Amazon to get both batteries fully charged before installing in the Lance, made sure that the batteries fit into my crude wooden boxes, made sure that the wooden boxes fit nicely inside the battery trays of the Lance, and then still managed to make a mistake raising my blood pressure.

The solar charger in the Lance does not have a way to check on the health of each battery, individually.  It only shows when both batteries are charged to 100%. Fortunately, the SOK batteries come with an app that allows me to monitor the batteries individually by bluetooth.  After everything was installed in the Lance, the app worked perfectly, showing both batteries with full charges.  About a week later, I went out to the trailer and could only find one battery on the app.  My first thought was somebody stole one of my brand new batteries.  A few choice words were muttered.  After confirming that both batteries were physically still in their respective battery compartments, I was at a loss for explaining why the second battery wasn't showing up in the app.  

I took the solar charger off the wall inside the Lance and couldn't find anything wrong.  Then I went to Mr. Google and saw that if one of the SOK batteries isn't being charged for awhile, the built-in operating system shuts itself down into sleep/storage mode.  But why wouldn't both batteries be charging?  The sun was continuing to blast into the solar panels in the Sonoran Desert.  I checked battery one.  Nothing wrong with it.  I checked battery two.  Hmmm, the positive post looks different than the negative post.  A washer had hung up when I tightened everything down and wasn't making contact.  I took the wires off the positive post, straightened the washers, and tightened everything back down again.  Sure enough, the app immediately showed both batteries, and they were both still at 100%.  

We are in the middle of our last three sets of guests.  Even though the Upper Midwest has experienced record-breaking snow and cold this winter, I'm afraid they aren't going to be ready for the triple digit days that have prematurely arrived.  Dave and Ruth spent last weekend here and then spent the week in Joshua Tree after driving there in a rental car.  They return today for this weekend.  I've known Dave since sixth grade, and he has always lived within a mile of the moderating climate effects of Lake Michigan.  He's going to think he's arrived in hell!

Saguaro West National Park

Margaritas on the Patio

Do we have any regrets moving to the hot desert?  Not yet.  The thing is I can still wear a t-shirt and shorts almost every day of the year.  And even though it will reach triple digits in the mid-afternoon, mornings are quite pleasant.  This morning it was 62 degrees and even a little bit chilly when I took Callie outside just before dawn.  By the time that I make morning coffee and sat on the back patio, it was a beautiful morning with the birds singing.  Compare that to Wisconsin where we had weeks when it never rose above 32 degrees or even saw the sun.  

The Catalinas at Sunset

 

It's a great time to be in Tucson with high temps in the 70's and low temps in the low 50's.  All it takes is this view from our front porch tonight to remind me why we moved here.  

Visitor season is approaching.  Allie arrives in ten days and will stay for two weeks, working remotely.  After that, there will be a steady stream of friends and family through April.  Next month, my shell for the Dodge Ram should be delivered.  I plan to do some rough "truck camping" in the desert this winter.  

Meet the Parents

 This will be a three-part post.

Our daughter Allie brought her boyfriend Corey here for a long weekend visit.  Julia had met Corey before during a San Francisco visit, but it was my first chance to "assess" the young man.

Turns out he is very polite, nice, and even enjoys Guinness.  After arriving late on Thursday night, they had to both work remotely on Friday.  We celebrated the end of their work week by going out to dinner at Amelia's, a well-known local Mexican restaurant.  

Julia splurged at Amelia's by ordering the molcajete mixto, a shareable dish served in a heated volcanic rock mortar, filled with grilled meats, seafood, vegetables (nopalitos), and a bubbling, flavorful sauce.

There were a lot of leftovers.

A good deal of time over the next two days were spent on the trails working off this dinner.  More to come.

Back Home. Where will our next home be?

With our mission complete to check out the top four choices for relocating next year, we drove home from Santa Fe without wasting any time, leaving early Sunday morning and pulling into our driveway on Monday evening.

Home, sweet home

I've mowed the lawn, picked up the junk mail, and roasted coffee for the week.  Did we reach any conclusions after five weeks of boots-on-the-ground research?  Kinda, sorta.  I confirmed for myself that I'm ready to move from Wisconsin after living here for the last 30-plus years.  Honestly, I could live in any of the four cities that we visited, but Julia and I are in agreement on the top two.

Not making the final list are Grand Junction and Santa Fe. We couldn't find as much bang for the buck as we expected in Grand Junction as it relates to housing.  Also, Julia felt that it was too isolated from a major airport and too small in general.  Santa Fe was just too expensive for us, although we loved many things about it as a destination.  As they say, it's a great place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.  We will be back.

In the final analysis of pros and cons, Fort Collins comes out on top, but Tucson hasn't been completely eliminated.  Fort Collins has a great beer scene, outdoor-loving people, dog friendly spaces, good housing market for us to downsize, mountains and trails, some folks we already know, decent pickleball opportunities, lots of sunshine, mild winters, and a major airport within an hour.  

We really liked Tucson also, and we can afford a lot more house in Tucson for the same money.  But the heat factor just can't be eliminated. I think I could get used to the summers and that they would be preferable at this point in my life to any winter.  But Julia doesn't feel that way, and it's going to have to be a mutual decision.  I know that I can be happy in Fort Collins, and if Julia is willing to downsize, it will work out just fine.  At this point, I think she is mulling over the downsizing part, so our decision isn't yet set in stone.  

In the short term, we have a couple of quick trips planned next month.  We are joining up with my mother for her first cruise.  Later, we will  drive to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with Julia's brother Scott for a big family Thanksgiving at Julia's sister's place in Lexington. 

In the meantime, I rescued this summer's refrigerated sourdough culture and will start baking bread again in the morning.  Today, we had our first wood stove fire of the year.

Tucson

This trip was originally scheduled for last February and was cancelled when Justin was admitted to the hospital. I’m sure that Tucson would have been lovely that time of year. Now, normally, in the good old days, Tucson would be starting to cool off by October but not this year. Record after record is being broken with high temps over the last few days topping out at 105-107 F.  The scary thing is that locals are bracing themselves for spiraling higher temperatures in the years ahead. 

Other than the heat, I have only one other serious complaint: the local brewery scene. After spending 2-3 weeks in Colorado, it isn’t as good in Tucson. I’ve done my due diligence on the internet to find the thriving brewing scene and have come up short.  I’ve had some good beers from Barrio  Brewing Company and Pueblo Brewing Company but nothing great.  And I’ve had some mediocre-tasting beer elsewhere.

The weird thing is that some of the breweries have only one or two of their own beers and then rely upon a bunch of other guest beers. I don’t believe in complaining, as there are other tasty cold beverages . We have enjoyed great margaritas and excellent Mexican food over the past several days.

The weekend was again spent touring neighborhoods and open houses. Unlike Grand Junction, we both like the housing market here and can afford a nice place with mountain views here— if Tucson becomes the winner among the cities we are looking at. There is also good hiking/walking here, along with ample pickleball opportunities. 

The big question is can we handle the heat?  The answer is we have some honest doubts. In the early morning we take Callie on a three mile walk in an abandoned Oro Valley golf course turned into a nature preserve. It’s generally in the high 70’s when we walk and pleasant enough. The rest of the day until the sun starts to set is just incredibly hot. It’s not bad while sitting in the shade but pretty miserable under full sun.

Yesterday, we beat the heat by driving to the top of Mount Lemmon. We hiked the available short trails at the summit and followed a forest road to the lookout tower and then part of the way down the mountain.

Later, we drove down further and hiked the Mint Springs Trail, but that became overgrown at lower elevations. As a northern woodsman, I’m not comfortable being unable to see my feet in what appeared to be “snakey” country so we cut that hike short. The temps were very comfortable above 9000 feet with temps around 60 starting out and finishing in the low 80’s at Summerhaven.

But it’s a long drive to the top of Mount Lemmon—about 90 minutes from our Airbnb. So we obviously can’t seek natural air conditioning every day.

Today, we drove out to Saguaro National Park-West and did a couple of shorter hikes. It got pretty warm even before ten a.m. 

Before we headed home, we drove south to Green Valley, a smaller town on our radar. I liked the vibe there. It wasn’t Julia’s favorite; she felt it was too isolated from Tucson. The search goes on.  We are here until Sunday morning. No break from the heat is expected until after we leave.

Addendum: On our sunset walk tonight through the abandoned golf course, Callie caused a bobcat to leave its bush two feet off the trail and retreat a short distance away. It wasn’t very afraid. As soon as we moved on, it returned to its bush.