Our time here in Tucson is rapidly winding down. In just over a week, Lola the pup and I will embark on our way home.
My thoughts start to turn to upcoming adjustments: a return to winter clothing, planning for uncertain, often turbulent weather in early Spring on the road, budgeting for soaring gasoline prices (impossibly approaching double the price I paid on the front end?), finding dog-friendly, overnight accommodation on the fly while passing through the dark vastness of America. I can almost feel the inevitable road fatigue that overcomes an old man and his dog on their long journey home from Tucson through southern Arizona and New Mexico, along endless, dreary miles of highway between west Texas and the Oklahoma panhandle. By then, the Ozarks will seem like a dream, despite a ceaseless string of ugly billboards exhorting tourists to stop and see Missouri’s caves and caverns, or indulge in stores of candy, chocolates, and assorted nuts that seem to exist there in bottomless abundance.
Of course, we’ll do our best to avoid the lurking traffic cops while simultaneously driving as hard and as fast as humanly possible to put some of these places in our rear-view mirror. It’s a delicate dance.
Finally, we’ll have to drive the length of our own flat, featureless State to reach home. Based on past trips, I can expect we’ll be greeted by overcast skies, a remarkably high likelihood of precipitation, rapidly falling temperatures, and a brisk, cold wind. Close to home, as the rural landscape starts to disappear, I know we’ll have to navigate thorny road construction projects and ever-increasing volumes of vehicular traffic that can double ordinary travel times and make one feel that he is driving through sludge. Here, along with falling temperatures, the rain turns to slush, even snow.
In the end, I will be as weary as Odysseus returning home to Ithaca. And with any luck, just like his Penelope, at the end of the journey, my Robyn will be waiting for me.
***
It has been the busiest season here in Tucson. First, I’ve taken advantage of its consistently splendid weather to keep both Lola and me physically active (despite painful sciatica, which makes it hard for me to hike among the mountain and desert scenery). As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I was taking several interesting classes at an adult community education center affiliated with the University of Arizona, geared toward folks over fifty. Lately, however, I’ve been cutting classes (much as I did when I was an actual student) to entertain a constant stream of out-of-town guests. In fact, my dear friends from Ohio, Bob and Linda, are currently here visiting even as I prepare this post.
Tomorrow, I am leaving for a weekend in Phoenix, where Robyn is making an unannounced appearance to help celebrate the birth of her eldest son, who just happens to be visiting. I’m very much looking forward to her bonus visit.
Finally, as always, I’ll cram as many fun activities as possible into my final week in Tucson, even as I prepare to leave the place. Preparing to depart feels both bittersweet and exhilarating. This is how I know it’s time for me and Lola to go home.
