BYE!

I've decided to leave, just pack up and go. The dogs and I will be out of here first thing in the morning. There's no peace here, none at all, no comfort, nothing soothing, the colors are all wrong. Still and all, I did it. I came to an unknown place and found my way and lived my life. I saw new things, looked at other mountains, walked on different streets and, in that sense, I did what I came to do and my trip was a success.

The dogs see me packing, carrying things back and forth to the car, and they're jumping around, excited. They know we're going home!

God bless our home.

Selah.

FLYING AWAY

I've been to Safeway more times than I want, Walmart too, just for something to do. I've been to the movies twice. Yes, there's a movie theater here, a duplex with turquoise carpeting on the walls, the only theater between Tucson and the border. I've eaten at the Arizona Family Restaurant, place of meetings in its private room, the Twist & Shout 50's Diner and I've bought a scale which shows I've lost 7 pounds.

I cannot wait to leave.

I've been listening to Jars of Clay's bluegrass "I'll Fly Away" - listening over and over again. I want to take up guitar again just so I can play this song. What a blessing of a song! How old it is! and I've never heard it before. I want to fly away.

TUBAC PRESIDIO

I've learned several things on my Summer Vacation. The first is to never again rent a house sight unseen. The second is that a Presidio is a fort.

The Tubac Presidio is one exit north of the mission at Tumacacori and the two were somehow connected, the cavalrymen stationed at the outpost protecting the mission against various Indian revolts and raids. The Tubac Presidio is now a state historic park which contains a dozen stops on a self-guided walking tour.

The day I went, I was the only visitor which I found a little spooky. There's a visitor's center and the man who admitted me admonished me to enjoy myself and take my time. I was already wondering why I had come and told him I'd be gone before he knew it. He truly looked sad.

Basically I went only to the museum, a large group of rooms with many exhibits. The museum was in total darkness inside. As I walked, the lights turned on above the exhibit where I stood - shutting off as I moved on. I could see that if there were many people in the museum the lights would all be on but, since there was only me, every turn I took began and ended in darkness. I started to wonder who or what lurked around the bend. Could I even find my way out?

I couldn't wait to leave.

I skipped the church and schoolhouse, the underground re-created ruin (what if I got trapped?), the captain's house, went again through the visitor's center and found my way out.

A note: Entering and leaving the Presidio, one drives through La Paloma De Tubac, a series of touristy shops on both sides of a dirt road housing what's advertised as "a collection of 10,000 items of folk art". Perhaps it's fun to look in the stores but, the day I went, all the shops but one were closed.

DIGRESSION

While I'm away I have someone checking up on my house, making sure the toilets flush and the air conditioning cools and such. Also she forwards my mail. Today I receive a letter from a community college I never heard of telling me I owe them money. I call the phone number on the letter head and I'm transferred to campus security. I am being charged $55 for a parking violation: a silver Infinity with California plates and student decal was parked in a faculty lot. The car is assumed to be mine and until the fine is paid I'm not allowed to register for courses. Thing is, I don't own a silver Infinity much less with California plates.

I asked the woman I'm speaking to how she got my name. Well, she said, she called California DMV and the Infinity was registered to someone with a similar name to mine. So she searched "the system". The system, meaning all the community colleges, threw out that I had once taken a non-credit T'ai Chi course at one of the branches. The woman at campus security added everything up and the car I don't own parked at the school I never heard of pointed to me. But, she said, I don't have to pay.

AGAVE

On the side property of the rented house there are two agaves, each taller than the highest surrounding trees. In the dusty 50 mile an hour winds last night, one fell over flat on its face landing in the wide and sandy public area between this house and the next. The poor thing made only a small thump when it landed, exposing its shallow roots.

This early morning, when the dogs were doing their business in the back, a man and woman called out, "Hello? Hello?" I didn't answer. It was very early. One of them tried again, "Hello?" I said hello.

"How did this happen?" The woman pointed to the tree.
"I don't know".
"You don't know?"
"No."
"Well, when did it happen?"
"I don't know. I guess last night some time. I wasn't watching".
"You weren't watching?"
"No."
"Well," the man said, "at least now no one will drive through the sand." And the man and the woman moved on.

BORED DOGS

This is what I found: 10 or so empty cellophane wrappers from Starlight Mints scattered over the house. Mischief by Peppy Mint, perhaps searching for his namesake. He came up to me with a look of innocence and scraps of hard candy under his chin and in his hair. Later in the day he came up to me just as I was about to sit down to dinner, and puked it all up.

SAHUARITA

If you take Duval Mine Road and make a right and go over Highway 19 and pass by WalMart and then The Dollar Store and the tire place and the Twist and Shout Diner and then you take the first left, you will come to a shopping center with a Frys and a Sorrentino's Coffee and a Subway, a cleaner, dentist, Mexican restaurant, Italian restaurant, a Long Real Estate, and then you go under a Spanish-style arch and now you are in Rancho Sahuarita. This is a huge big Master Planned Community in the Town of Sahuarita which started being built in 2001 and still is not quite finished. The catch words for Rancho Sahuarita are "amenities" and "community" and it looks to be a fun, family-oriented place.

There are many builders in Rancho Sahuarita, all building brown-roofed homes in communities off the main road which runs through the development about 10 miles from one Mine Road exit to the next. There are 19 miles of paved trails in Rancho Sahuarita for your walking pleasure, as well as a bark park, playgrounds, miniature golf course, sports bar, lap pool, water park, splash pond, water slide, fitness center, kiddy train, playgrounds, and community pools.

It is quite the place.

A central attraction is a 10-acre man-made lake and with an urban fishing license you can catch and release catfish and rainbow trout. There is a park and a picnic area around the lake and also a walking trail. Since this is a public place, I parked in a lot and walked around the lake. It was hot but pleasant.

I also went to see several brown-roofed model homes. All the houses I saw were attractive and livable and not crazy with glam. In one of the model homes, the real estate agent asked where I was from. When I told her, she knew exactly where. Before she moved to Sahuarita, she had been nearly a neighbor.