Tucson Trip

Little did we know it at the time, but this trip out to Tucson was going to be the last time for a while that we would feel like life was fairly normal.  The Corona Virus was about to turn everyone's lives upside down.

We had our usual good drive to Tucson, thankfully.  We've done this trip so many times yet it is still amazing how different things can look in the landscape each time.   I like getting to the I-20 area because then I feel like we are FINALLY starting to get somewhere.  I like looking for the Guadalupe Mountains as we drive on 10 past Pecos and wondering what is going on up there on the mountain at the moment.  I like looking at the cows between Anthony and Las Cruces - I like how they all have their heads sticking out through the fencing to get to the hay.  There are so many things that we like to look for each time we go.

Our time in Tucson was very good.  It was so nice seeing Scotty again, and spending time with him, Rebeca and Jason.  One of the first things we did was a Costco run, of course.  I went to Costco again a few days later by myself and I was really shocked at the lines.  The lines ran from the cashiers all the way to the clothing.  I had never seen it that bad.  I don't think it had anything to do yet with what was coming.  But we DID talk to Fernando later that week and he said that people in San Antonio were starting to flock to the stores in a panic because that Corona virus was already starting to spread in the US.  So, I did another trip to Costco after talking with him and stocked up on a few things - the store wasn't crowded at all.  The nervousness hadn't hit Tucson yet.

We did the usual things with Scotty.  We took him to Sweet Tomatoes and I DO remember being there and wondering about the people around us.  But it was so nice anyway to keep up the tradition of taking him there each and every time we go to Tucson.

I remember another day going to Walmart to get some things for our upcoming trip to the lake cabin, and thinking to myself in Walmart - I have no idea where these people have been.  It was worrisome but not overly so.  I did have some sort of respiratory issue while we were in Tucson and I remember being in Safeway one time and a coughing fit hit me.  It was mortifying to me thinking what the people around me must have been thinking.  Popping a throat lozenge quickly made the coughing stop.

But the days were happy ones.  Every week day morning getting Scotty breakfast and then taking him to school and dropping him off in his classroom.  Then every afternoon picking him up from school.

Here is Scotty in his drumbeats class.  I actually participated in this class also.  The entire time, most of the other kids in the class kept staring at me, I guess wondering if I was going to pass out.

Usually when we picked up Scotty after school, he would want to stay a little longer on the playground just to play.  Here he is with his friend Gunnar.

Then on February 28, we headed to our Airbnb cabin near Parker Canyon Lake.  Guillermo, Scotty and I headed to the cabin before Rebeca and Jason because they both had things they needed to finish and we wanted to get there before dark.  By the time we got there, it had gotten a little late so the first thing we did was fix dinner and we had a nice dinner with Scotty there in the cabin.  Rebeca and Jason didn't get to the cabin until almost midnight.

Here is the cabin

And the view from the porch of the cabin.

Oh how we loved it here at this cabin.  So peaceful and the cabin was so homey and comfortable and had everything we needed.  Fernando wrote us while we were there saying we should probably stay there at the cabin during the Pandemic that was only getting worse.  That was a very tempting idea because none of us wanted to leave the cabin anyway and it was so isolated.  We had a good breakfast the next morning and then later that day Charlie, Guillermo's brother, left for the lake to get the boat set up in the water.  Rebeca, Jason and Scotty left a little while later.  I was just really content to hang around at the cabin to just enjoy being there and so was Guillermo.  But we both eventually DID drive out to the lake to see them all on the boat.

 It looked like a nice day and here they all come to greet us on the dock.  And they talked us into getting on the boat!  It was very nice being all together for a while on the boat but then after a while it seemed the wind picked up and it got so cold and I was very very glad when we finally headed back to the dock.

Scotty absolutely loved fishing and he caught three fish!

 The little fisherman.

Those were some really really good days out there at the cabin and we are all grateful that we got this trip in when we did.  We all want to go back some day.

Here's Charlie watching Scotty play.  

So we also had a good drive back home.  Still not overly concerned about this looming virus.  It just seemed so far away.  We stayed at the hotel in Van Horn and had no qualms about staying there and sitting at the bar that evening enjoying a glass of wine and talking with other people.