Aloha Maui, Hello Mainland

After spending over two months ridding ourselves of our Maui possessions, dealing with our landlords on getting out of our lease, selling one of two vehicles, shipping our remaining vehicle to San Diego, and finally, cleaning our Maui rental from top to bottom, we have escaped Maui completely exhausted but happy to be returning home.

The flight to San Diego was, thankfully, uneventful.  We arrived at the Best Western Bayside late on Tuesday, which turned out to be an excellent choice for unexpected reasons.  The room was rather basic, but the employees were out of this world with kindness.  As soon as we checked in, they set us up a cab ride for the next morning to an undisclosed location to pick up our Prius.

We mistakenly thought our car would be available for pickup at the docks in San Diego, but the cab driver knew where we needed to go.  We were dropped off 8.5 miles inland from the hotel in a back alley at a towing company's small office.  Evidently, there isn't enough room at the docks to hold vehicles, so this company is contracted to hold vehicles shipped from Maui until the owners arrive for pick-up.

After retrieving the car, we headed back to the hotel, loaded up the car, and took off on I-8 headed east towards San Diego at about 10 a.m.  We went through the strangely beautiful Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego as we hugged the Mexican Border.  It was fascinating watching the border patrol vehicles riding out in the desert between I-8 and the border.  At one point, a border patrol vehicle suddenly came out of nowhere and crossed the interstate highway directly in front of us. Luckily, I was paying attention and hit the brakes.

It quickly turned hot as the desert sun rose, and by 11 a.m., the car thermometer read 100 degrees and stayed there until late that afternoon.  We briefly exited the car to sight see on a couple of occasions, but the heat made all our outside ventures short ones.  For all those people who say, "Oh, but it's a dry heat", I say "Bull Crap!"  Hot is hot, and the California/Arizona sun felt hotter than even Maui.

For me, the highlight of yesterday's drive was the Imperial Sand Dunes in southeastern California. 

We arrived in Tucson around 6 p.m. last night at a B&B called The Big Blue House, a small quirky place with quirky owners.  Just our kind of place!

We ate a delicious dinner at The B-Line cafe and enjoyed being back in a university city.  When Clemson one day grows up, maybe it will be more like the area around the University of Arizona. There are numerous weird cafes, restaurants, and bars surrounding the campus, and the place is electric with young people everywhere.  Even Star got in on the action!

Sunset from our room at The Big Blue House

Today, we are relaxing and trying to get our "mainland legs" back under us.  Tomorrow, we head to Saguaro National Park for some day hiking.  On Friday, we head to Chiricahua National Monument for four days in a cabin.  We will be off-line and off-grid for those days, so it may be a while before hearing from us.