April 26 – May 13, 2024

Our first order of business the next day was to climb on our bikes and get a ride in on the Tucson Loop (Huckelberry Bike Path), a network of shared-use paths, maintained by Pima County, that when completed will comprise 131 miles of paved trails dedicated to cyclist, pedestrian, and equestrian use.  We rode a section of the loop in 2019 when we participated in Adventure Cycling’s Arizona Sunsets bike tour (https://3jmann.com/2019/11/24/southern-arizona-sunsets-bike-tour-part-two/).  The first day of that tour we rode out of our campground onto the loop and through Saguaro National Park on its one-way loop, featuring those majestic cacti as far as the eye could see.  Our destination for the day was Cactus Country RV on the outskirts of Tucson, primarily a transient park that had a number of full-time residents.

This time we would connect with a northern section of the loop about a mile or so from the house, heading west out and back which would eventually net us 22-miles in total, including a run past the house down to the University of Arizona campus.  I have many fond memories of this campus and the visits I made as part of the Pac-12 Directors group.  We would meet once a year with each campus, or pairs of campuses (UCLA and USC, U of A and Arizona State, etc.) hosting on a rotating basis.  I became good friends with many of the other directors, including Dan who was responsible for building the large Student Union here, a vital asset for the campus. 

We returned to the house and soon met up with Mike, my friend from Venice High School who we have connected with many times during our frequent visits to Tucson.  This time we headed north to check out the Picture Rocks petroglyphs that can be found at the Redemptorist Renewal Center.  It took us quite some time to find them because the road system getting there was under construction causing a number of detours, and when we finally got to the site, we kept missing the trail to the drawings as the signage was bad.  We eventually located them and were glad for the effort. 

Finished, and to kill some time before meeting up with Mike’s wife Bonnie, we stopped at Trident Grill, a local chain for a beer apiece and to split a giant order of chicken tenders.  It’s a busy sports bar but the beer was cold, the tenders were tender and for $33 out the door for the three of us not a bad place to get refreshed.  We drove to Mike and Bonnie’s house and spent some hours there getting caught up before heading out to dinner at Saguaro Corners at the eastern edge of the city on Old Spanish Trail.

 It’s a casual place with views of the surrounding countryside, although it was dark so we couldn’t take advantage of the ambiance, instead seated inside we ordered drinks, a Noisy Cricket (mezcal, pineapple juice, mint bitters, and fresh lemon) for Joanna and a Sazerac (Whistlepig Rye, cherry bitters, and Absinthe) for me.  We hit them hard before ordering the Southwest Chicken Corn Chowder for Joanna and for me the Fish and Chips.  I would finish with a Westmalle Dubbel, a fine way to polish off the fish.  The drinks were reasonably priced for cocktails and all in all, the tab came to $81 including tip. 

The next morning, we were out again to hit another section of the Loop, this time heading east and south.  We started out on city streets thinking we’d run into the path quickly, but as is often the case our sense of direction was out of kilter, and we rode roughly half of the distance for the day before we eventually stumbled upon it.  From there we turned around and rode it all the way back to the junction that would lead us back to the house.  After cleaning up and a bit hungry, we set out for lunch and stumbled upon a completely unique concept, Two Hands, a Korean Corn Dog franchise.  We are lucky to have the locally famous Hot Dog on a Stick shop at the Santa Monica Pier and it is often a lunch stop for us as we return from our regular Saturday morning bike ride up to Malibu and back. 

For this day, we ordered a dog apiece, for Joanna the Two Hands Dog (half sausage and half mozzarella) while I hit up the American Classic Dog (with a beef sausage) with ketchup and mustard drizzled on top.  Along with a Diet Pepsi we enjoyed both versions and walked out happy at $16 including a tip.  We returned to the house for a quiet afternoon and then later met with Bonnie and Mike for dinner at the Blue Willow Restaurant. 

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of our meal outside of our opening round of cocktails and don’t have an itemized receipt, so even looking at the menu online cannot recall what we ate that night.  What I do remember is that in Tucson, many if not most, restaurants close early as a holdover from a statewide curfew that was imposed in 2022, and the Blue Willow was one of them.  Imagine my surprise when we had to rush through our entrees in order to exit before they closed the doors at a little after 8:00pm.

We returned to the house with Bonnie and Mike in tow and spent another couple of hours talking to close out the evening.  We would get dinged for this in the owner’s review of us in that we weren’t supposed to have any guests, a mild infraction that I explained that our friends were from the outskirts of town and it wasn’t practical for us to go to their house.  Fortunately, the ding doesn’t appear to have affected our Airbnb reputation.  We’d spend the next day our sightseeing, so we’ll close this post and cover our day out and more in the next post. 

Links

The Tucson Loop: https://tucsonloop.org/

Picture Rock Petroglyphs: https://southernarizonaguide.com/hike-to-picture-rocks-petroglyphs/

Trident Grill: https://tridentgrill.com/

Saguaro Corners: https://www.saguaro-corners.com/

Two Hands: https://www.twohandsus.com/

Blue Willow: https://www.bluewillowtucson.com/