Traveling south on 93, I watched the desert go by my car window: opuntia cactus, creasote, flowering ocotillo, blooming palo verde. The bushes and grasses were masses of green and yellow, lush compared to the deserts at home. Driving to make time, we had no time to stop and identify the many unfamiliar plants.
We passed our first saguaros, sparse at first, then more common after Wikiup.
The saguaros got more frequent and dense, as did the opuntias and the beavertail. Joshua trees formed forests. The blooming yuccas, yellow and white, had grown tall next to the road.
We got to Wickenburg a little after 10 am for a blueberry-pomegranate fruit smoothie break at McDonalds. We headed east on State Highway 60 then north on US 10, a route that was not as scenic as the one before.
We had lunch at the Tempe Whole Foods. I had salad by the pound with garbanzos, kidney beans and oil and balsamic vinegar. That satisfied my vegetable desire. We were back on the road by 1:00.
We arrived in Tucson at 3:00 and checked into the Hampton Inn right next to the airport. After a few hours of email and resting, we grabbed the chance to stretch our legs and went for an hour walk up the road on a dirt path next to the paved road.
I got a closeup of one of the yuccas we had seen on the road and a palo verde.
Before going back to the hotel we ate dinner at Finnegan’s, a British themed restaurant almost next door and split an order of beef fajitas and a Tucson Blonde.
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