slowly she turned

I flew out of Greensboro to see my friend who lives near Tucson, Arizona on Tuesday, Jan. 28. The idea was that I would take a three day tapestry workshop with Tricia Goldberg on that Wednesday through Friday while my friend, who is a telehealth counselor, worked from home, and then we would have some fun in the evenings and on the weekend together.

I was so glad that I got a window seat for my flights because the snow that accentuated the fields and ridges and streams and mountains made stunning inspiration for future artwork.

But, as I talked about in my previous post, things did not go as planned. Although I masked up on my trip there to avoid getting any bugs, it turned out that I was bringing Covid with me. So I missed my workshop. At least I didn’t make anyone there sick, but I feel sure I infected my friend.

Anyway, when she picked me up from the airport, she took me for a beautiful sunset drive through the lands around the Desert Museum. I had just seen a rainstorm from the air, and I got this shot just before we went home.

The following two days were rainy and chilly, but I was wrapped up in blankets inside. So the weather worked out, really. We ordered delivery from Guadalajara’s – chicken tortilla soup and a veggie crispy “pizza” that I had no idea what I was ordering but it was great!

Late Friday afternoon we went out to the San Xavier Del Bac Mission and walked around the outside. It had scaffolding in front so I didn’t take a photo of that.

We bought Indian tacos from Popoverz, a food truck. The fry bread was delicious, but I found that I’ve become somewhat of a weenie about hot spicy food, which is funny because I used to enjoy it.

Saturday ZhaK tried to find an outside Indian craft event but it wasn’t there so she drove me around downtown Tucson and then up along the Catalina Highway into the Santa Catalina mountains to Mount Lemmon. It had snowed up there and there were families on the sides of the road pull-outs and parking lots building little snowmen and having snowball fights. The mountains, part of the Coronado National Forest, were full of rock stacks and hoodoos.

Sunday was a special treat – ZhaK is a member of the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which is mostly outside flat winding trails through the desert. We went to see the raptor release, where the trainers release birds that are being rehabilitated or can’t live in the wild for a time and they fly over the crowd’s heads back and forth. The birds were released one species at a time: a pair of Chihuahuan ravens, a great horned owl, and four Harris hawks. I think I’ll make a separate post for this visit since I have so many photos.

Later that afternoon we drove to South Tucson where I had to get a Sonoran hot dog, a regional specialty, and a horchata. Basically it was a beef dog wrapped in bacon, with a jalapeno sauce. The restaurant, El Güero Canelo, had a takeout window and a large indoor space with picnic tables and a well-stocked salsa and condiment bar. It received an America’s Classic award from the James Beard Foundation in 2018.

I was supposed to fly home on Monday, but I changed my flight to Tuesday to a shorter flight and to give me one more day to make it what I think was 10 days since I was exposed. United Airlines, as usual, was terrific about changing my flight and didn’t charge me a change fee.

On Monday I took out my Mirrix Saffron travel loom and began a little weaving with a stick I had picked up at the top and a pattern based on the many giant saguaro cacti I had seen. That night we ordered delivery from Guadalajara’s again and I had the most delicious pollo en mole!

I didn’t fly out until Tuesday afternoon, so I spent the morning packing and roaming around the neighborhood and the wash next to ZhaK’s house. The flight home was good and I did make that tight connection in Denver with time to spare, so I was glad that I made the flight change.

I will have to go back to Tucson sometime to explore the shops, galleries, and Saguaro National Park, and to have some indoor dining experiences. But I have to say, considering the circumstances, it was still an excellent trip, due to my friend.