Jacques and Rachel bought a canoe at a swap meet a couple days ago and built a rack for the VW microbus on loan from Jacques' sister. They loaded up on food and set off for Texas, intent on spending a couple weeks paddling the Rio Grande. For reasons not entirely clear, a few hours later they returned to Tucson unloaded the canoe, replaced it with two surfboards and left for a month-long tour through Mexico, surfing and mountain biking along the way. These are my kind of people. When reached by phone on their way to the border, they really had no choice but to turn around again and head back to Tucson to meet their old Grand Canyon raft mate. They were waiting at the campsite when I rolled in late, a warm dutch oven stuffed with enchiladas and cold Tecates under a perfect Sonoran night sky. Fellow adventures and greasers, they marveled at the FP and helped me trouble shoot a pump issue while we caught up on the past year. In the morning more tasty food came out of the microbus after a beautiful hike through the saguaro, ocotillo, greasewood, prickly pear and cholla to the top a little mountain with a beautiful view of mountains and valley.
Yesterday, a chance encounter at ASU-Phoenix lead to a guest lecture opportunity at Dr. Don Charpio's "Nature-Based Tourism" class before the late-night run to Tucson in anticipation of today's U of A visit. Now, with belly and tank full, it's off to New Mexico in search of some hot springs
