Cheryl is here now, and all of our stuff

July 16, 2006

I flew back to Seattle to move all our stuff down to Tucson. Got in on friday night, late, then spent saturday loading the moving truck, and left sunday morning. It was a busy weekend. I drove the rental truck most of the time, my son Austin drove it some as well (though he drove the car most of the time). Cheryl drove the car when Austin was driving the truck.

We drove I-5 south through WA, then through OR. I was surprised by the Siskiyou Mountains. I didn't expect them to be as big as they are. The freeway has some good sized climbs, more than I'm used to in the WA Cascades. They extend into northern CA, and are very beautiful. We spent our first night at Redding. The next day we were up early and headed out south and switched over to Hwy 99.

Hwy99 takes you through central CA all the way south, and is a nicer drive than I-5. We drove to Barstow and spent the night there. The Mojave desert - beautiful, yet stark. From here we went to Joshua Tree National Monument. If you've never seen a Joshua Tree check out the pics in my photo album. There are very unusual, and are not actually a tree, they are related to the Lily. They grow only in southern CA, AR, NV and UT.

From Joshua Tree we went east on I-10 towards Phoenix, but before getting there, we turned south on Highway 85, then east on I-8 to Gila Bend, the east to I-10 again, then on to Tucson.

One thing most noticable about this area, southern AZ - no matter where you are, you see mountains in every direction. I love it - desert, cactus, and mountains everywhere.

We took Austin around town showing him some of the sites including the Desert Museum and Saguaro National Park. We drove to Tombstone, Sierra Vista, and visited the Coronado Cave, in the Coronado Mountains. That cave is a large cave, not developed in any way, no lights, nothing. You hike about 3/4 mile up hill, to the mouth, which is almost hidden in boulders. You climb over the boulders and down into the cave. There are two main rooms, about 70feet wide and 20 feet high, 600 feet long overall. There are several small crawl-ways, some stalagmites and stalagtites and not a whole lot more. Pics in my photo album.

Austin is back at his 'home' in the Seattle area where he will finish at the community college. Cheryl is here and we're getting settled in to our apartment. Next on the agenda - get started on the house project.