Catalina State Park, Tucson, Arizona
Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife. ~ Proverbs 21:9
I found out they’re called Vermillion Flycatchers.
Before I get into today, let me tell you a couple of other things.
First, I forgot to tell you on the 6th that I was mistaken for a Hispanic woman. I’m assuming she’s Hispanic anyway. (Have you seen me? I can’t imagine how that’s possible!) Here’s what happened. . . I walked into a public restroom and there was a younger teenage girl in there drying her hands and wiping off her shirt (which is probably why I noticed her in the first place). When I came out of the stall, she was standing against the wall by the hand dryers and began speaking to me in Spanish, which of course, I don’t understand. It took me a few seconds to realize she was speaking to me, but then I told her “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Spanish.” I expected the conversation to be over, but no. In a heavy Spanish accent, she asked me, “Are you Lupita?” I said, “No.” And she walked out. Is that weird, or what?!? Later, I wondered if ‘lupita’ was maybe a Spanish word for something, but it’s not. I checked.
The other strange thing that’s happening, involves our mail. Many of you know that we use a mail service based in Florida. They receive our mail, notify us they received it, and we tell them what to do with it. Blaine recently asked them to send some important documents they received to a Tucson area Post Office (it always arrives at the PO of our choosing and is marked “General Delivery”). When we have something on its way, I always call the PO to let them know it’s coming. This time though, I couldn’t speak with anyone because their phone number wasn’t working. So what did they do? They sent it back the same day! Now, we don’t have the documents we need and it’s headed back to Florida! Blaine called the mail service company and spoke with them and they assured him they’d notify us as soon as they receive it and we can decide what to do at that point. This is the first time we’ve had a problem in nearly three years. It’s too bad it happened when there’s something time-sensitive and of utmost importance. ☹
Now. On to today’s adventure. And be forewarned ~ darkness and clouds had moved in by the time we began our journey around 10am, so all our pictures are pretty dark. I lightened them up the best I could. ☹
All who wander are not lost. We’ve seen this phrase on Jeep covers and t-shirts, hats . . . .
It served us well today because we were off the map, off the trail, off the grid and out of the Park (at least the one we started in).
We began on the State Park’s Canyon Loop Trail. And that lasted until we saw a fork in the road, so to speak, and took a right, simply because it was labeled “Not a designated trail” and “Leaving Catalina State Park, Entering Coronado National Forest”.
It’s a large cactus “bush” of some kind.
This one’s a Park Ranger. Two more followed it a minute later.
Wonder what they were working on?
We had a wonderful time on that ‘not a designated trail’!
I’ll just bet you those are going to burst into flowers in the coming days or weeks!
So here’s my new theory. . . .
The yellow stuff is fruit, and then the fuzzy dots come out and that’s what blooms into the flowers.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to confirm my theory soon!
I feel much more secure that way. : )
As Blaine said, they’ve got their very own Elizabethan collars! Fascinating!
I have no idea what he was demonstrating there. lol!
This is a demonstration. This is the picture my phone took. . . . 
This is how it looks after I “cleaned it up” the best I could. Better! But still not perfect.
This is an equestrian trail!
And the fact that there’s several in close proximity seems to be unusual.
It’s quite the little oasis in the desert!
We actually stopped and talked to these people for a couple of minutes, before we continued on.
Instead, I walked around taking in the beauty with my eyes and my phone.
Eventually, we made our way back to a different State Park Trail, which connected with the Canyon Loop, so we were able to complete that. It was a cloudy day, and as I intimated earlier, the pictures don’t come close to showing the splendor we encountered, but we still had a spectacular time.
Right over our coach!
And then we went to Dollar Tree and WalMart for groceries and cards and things.
Wonderful day!