Lola and I are getting ready to embark on our annual trip West. By this time next week, I’ll be writing from the sunny but still relatively cool January environs of Tucson, Arizona.
Meanwhile, speaking of travel, a disturbing update to last week’s post about the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. The New York Times reported yesterday that among the fifty-two travel recommendations for 2026, readers rank my beloved Osa Peninsula number two (interestingly, behind only the tour of the Canadian Rockies via the train called the “Mountaineer”). This result is hardly a surprise to me; still, for selfish reasons, the Osa’s high ranking saddens my heart.
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2026 marks the fourth consecutive year that Lola and I will be making our western journey. We’ll have new accommodations –the house I rented last year was taken by the time I got around to pulling the trigger on a place—but housing accommodations are about the only unknown element of our stay. After several years of visiting, I’m generally familiar with the town, so when I received the exact address in a message from my host, I had a good idea of my neighborhood’s location. I have seen photographs of the interior of the place, which gets uniformly excellent reviews. We’ll soon see for ourselves.
I’m looking forward to seeing my friends, Sherry and Tom, and Ross and Joanne. Except for Joanne, who is a native New Yorker, the others hail from my hometown. I’ve known Sherry and Ross since high school. In fact, Ross was the first person I met after my folks cruelly moved from the city to the suburbs during my senior year, forcing me to attend a new school. We immediately cut school together and became fast friends.
In fact, through Ross, I initially met the other members of the imaginary Frazier Thomas Band, shown below.
Sherry and Tom now reside in Tucson for half of each year. Meanwhile, Ross left home while we were still young men. He traveled West, never returned, and has been settled in Tucson for many years. During my previous stays, I have met other Tucsonans (Tucsonites?), whom I am also looking forward to seeing once more. Almost everyone I know in Tucson is a transplant.
Due to its desert climate, Tucson enjoys spring-like weather during the winter months, before turning stinking hot during what passes for Spring back home. However, because it’s cool in the mornings before the sun is high, and rapidly cools off at sunset, I don’t wear shorts as much as I thought I would when I first arrived.
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One lives and learns. Thus, whether it is tweaking my wardrobe, altering my cross-country driving schedule, or changing my daily activities, over time I’ve made adjustments. Recently, I was searching for adult educational opportunities when I stumbled upon one organization known by the acronym OLLI, which offers a broad range of programs targeting folks fifty and older. As I perused the photographs on its site, my first reaction was to ask myself, why would I want to spend time with a bunch of old people, until seeing my own reflection in a mirror reminded me that I am one of them.
And so it goes.
