9/23/2014
Arizona has been so supportive. I feel blessed. Yesterday’s 34 mile run was not bad. I did spit up a tiny bit of blood though. It isn’t anything to be alarmed about though. There is a dryness in this region that I’ve known about since childhood. I used to sleep with a humidifier to keep my nose from bleeding. When I moved away from this area the nose bleeds stopped. The human body is a funny thing.
We arrived to A bar A RV resort early yesterday. There we were greeted by Annie the manager of the park with open arms and bags of refreshments. She wore a flowery print shirt, was very sweet and helpful, and even agreed to put up a donation can in the office. Being an off the beaten path kind of place, I doubt the A bar A will receive tons of foot traffic. But it is nice to know Papa Didos left a mark in another place.
I started this morning with stiff joints. Even my bones felt sore. It was probably the left over soreness from the thirty-eight mile run a couple days ago. Perhaps pollen populated the air because every few seconds I needed to sneeze. The saguaro cacti had seemingly propagated overnight. Hundreds of thousands of them could be seen. This iconic desert plant can only be found in the Sonoran desert. As I ran a road runner darted along side me in the distance. It even flapped it’s sparsely feathered wings and lifted off the ground for a semi-flight. I never even knew road runners could do that. This got my mind thinking about one of my favorite cartoons as a child. Suddenly it dawned on me that the writers or creators must have come from the southwest. I realized I had seen bunny’s, and dust devils out in the desert, heard howling coyotes, and now I had even raced a road runner. Loony toons was great fun but in today’s world the content might be considered something parents need to supervise. Media does influence our behavior and our thoughts. That is why so much money is poured into advertising and marketing. As with anything, if we want our kids to be excellent, we need to put in the time.
The run was short. The achy muscles fled the body within a mile. A few more miles later they were replaced by a blister. It spouted in a very peculiar area on my foot. I was glad it was a short run. It would allow me time to treat the thing before it grew into a monster. I hobbled into the Westin La Paloma in Tucson. The majestic place sits on 270 acres of land, it has a golf course, tennis courts, a restaurant, and several pools. A waterfall spills into one of the pools while a water slide spills into the other. From the room, the view from the balcony is one of the holes of the golf course. The background is lined with mountains while the city provides the second layer.
The search for great food is always a priority on this journey. Without the proper nutrients I wouldn’t be able to survive the trek. Knowing that, after a couple more states, the quality of Mexican food would start to diminish, we chose to take advantage of our geographic location. My mission was to search out a place with fresh tortillas and spicy salsa. I found the gem of the desert. It wasn’t too far away from the Westin. Surrounded by a couple of shops Villa Mexican Restaurant was the perfect blend of taste and nutrition. I walked into the place to find a soft lit ambiance. The colors on the walls were warm and alive. What I noticed off the bat though was that they made their own tortillas. For me, the perfect tortilla shouldn’t be to chewy but it shouldn’t be overly dry either. My chili relleno burrito was wrapped in the perfect tortilla. I knew I would be eating only half though because Crystal and I share our orders. What I would receive from her would be a cheese enchilada with rice and beans. We devoured our meals and agreed that this was the best food we have had on the road. To top it all off, the owner and her daughter were very social and friendly. Elsie Villa and her daughter Rachel had all kinds of advice for us and tried to connect us with people that could help us. They even referred us to another Mexican restaurant owned by one of their family members. It was the perfect end to the day. The people, the places, and the food make this journey. 
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