Catalina State Park and Senior Moments

Catalina State Park

We have been taking it pretty easy here in Tucson. Just today I started getting caught up on my blog reading and I am glad John wrote the last entry or it would have been a long spell between posts. This is the longest we have stayed in one place and it has been so nice we decided to extend our stay by about 15 days so we won’t leave until March 20th. I finally sat down and mapped out our journey back to Iowa with the goal of getting there the first of May. When I mapped it out on the calendar we realized we had a little more time and since there are many things we still want to do in this area and we are enjoying ourselves so staying a little longer makes sense.

Thursday we drove to Catalina State park just a little north and east on the edge of Tucson. We had heard good things about the park and had a half off the day pass in our Tucson Passport (we now have saved almost $40 by buying it). This a beautiful park and sits in a more upscale part of the metro area. Right across the street from the entrance is a shopping area with a Dick’s sporting goods, Best Buy, Theaters, and the nicest Walmart we have yet to be in. Also on the way there we passed a Trader Joe’s, a Whole Foods Market and a brewpub, along with any other shopping opportunities you might want. So the location is excellent.

The park itself has a campground with water/electric hook ups and one for dry camping. Both look to have nice level sites that will fit most rigs. We talked about staying here the last week in Tucson but at $25 for just water and electric compared to the $19 a day rate (FHU) we would get extending our stay at the Diamond J, again it made sense to stay put. I think if we came through for just a weeks stay in the future I would like to stay here. The biggest reason for that are the hiking trails. There are many and it could keep you busy for a week.

We hiked the Canyon Loop trail which was about 2 miles. This is really John’s first hiking since hurting his hip. He had been walking this last week around the RV park so we felt he was ready. It was an almost perfect day. Temps were in the high 60s and there was a slight breeze. The canyon loop takes you down along a stream and the vegetation in this park surprised me, more brush and trees as well as the cactus. It just seems a little more lush than the areas near the Tucson Mountains that I had been hiking the last few weeks. I would love to go back and do more of the trails there but that may be for another trip. John did fine on the hike so I think he is on his way back to being my hiking partner.

An unusual saguaro

As I was reading the blogs today Crusin2some had a great blog on those senior moments we all seem to have somedays, the older we get the more of them there seems to be. It really made me chuckle. She was talking about Dawn loosing the car in the parking lot. It made me remember a day I was going to my car at the shopping center in Cedar Rapids and a lady stopped me. She had just found her car but she was upset because she was sure someone had broken into it and moved it. She wanted to find a security guard to report it to. I’m not sure if she reported her “break-in” but I think she is in denial about not remembering where she parked. I don’t know too many burglars who would take the time to move a car, if they could move it more than likely they would take it with them. I can’t always find my car but there is no denial here, I know a senior moment when it happens. What is your funniest senior moment?

Happy Trails...................