Day 35

During the night we had a visit from several pork chops on 4 legs, we don’t know if they are eatable, called the javelinas. Anyway we slept well. We’ve visited the ‘Pima Air & Space Museum’ in Tucson. Never seen such a collection of military and civil airplanes together. The plan was to visit also the military boneyard, but unfortunately we had to make a reservation 10 days upfront and can only be visited during the working days. However, we had the chance to drive along the boneyard which was already impressive. We drove via the Tohono O’Odham Indian reservation to the Coyote Howls campground in Why. Don’t ask us why… During this road we started to meet the first Saguaro cactuses. Trees and bushes are replaced by all kind of cactuses. Amazing sightseeing! At the campsite we learned a bit more about the ‘snowbirds’ and met Gabrielle who’s travelling for 4 years around the world. Again a source of inspiration for future plans. At night we were surprised by a big bang of David’s exploding sleeping pad. So now we know… the Exped stands for EXPlodED sleeping pad.

The day after we did a scenic dirt road in the ‘Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument’. It felt like drive in a comic book of Luky Luke. The only things we missed were the Daltons. Via the HW85 & I8 (Sonoro Desert) we arrive in Casa Grande. In Casa Grande we were welcomed and fortunate to stay at Sue’s and Gerard’s place. We had a lovely evening and ate a healthy diner with steak.

After a visit to REI (buy new sleeping pad), Gerard took us for a ride in the Arizona mountains towards Prescott, were we had lunch and met his friend Kevin. Kevin was on the road with 2 more friends Bob & Jack. During the lunch we couldn’t explain why Prescott looked so familiar. After we said goodbye to Gerard, we followed Kevin and the gang and drove via a scenic mountain route to Jerome. In Jerome we realized why Prescott was so familiar… we went in both cities in 09-2001. Kevin kindly offered to stay at his place in Sedona as long as we want.