Tucson Again

January 31 – February 4, 2017.

One of the problems with being a nomad is buying things. I know in the sticks and bricks world you can order anything from anyone anywhere on the whole planet and have it delivered to your door step in 5 to 9 days. But not only do nomads not have doorsteps, we often don’t have 5 to 9 days even if we can borrow a doorstep.

From Kitt Peak we were in close range to Tucson, so we took up residence in my friend’s (Deanna) driveway again for a short visit and to do some shopping for the van. Among the purchases we needed to make, the most important was a portable heater.

We were cold.

Although we had insulated the van well as well as we could and brought 2 quilts and 2 fuzzy blankets with us, we had not planned on really being cold – at all. But now we knew, it gets cold in the desert at night. We had been running the engine to warm up the van before we went to bed and before we got up in the morning, but needed a better solution.

I heard somewhere that one could buy a portable Buddy heater at Walmart, so we went by the local Tucson Walmart to pick one up. No luck. Sure we could order one online and wait, but we wanted to hit the road again. I searched on the web for somewhere to buy one local. Home Depot had one. Yay! But when we got there we found them sold out. The friendly young associate assisting us told us we could order one and get it the day after the next. I didn’t believe him, so I asked at the service desk. No, they wouldn’t guarantee delivery for 3 to 5 days. Ugh! We really wanted to get moving and head south where we were sure it would be warmer. I scoured the Internet again and found one at Tractor Supply across town. I called to confirm. The heaters were a bit more expensive there, but at least they had them in stock!

We shopped for a few more small upgrades for Ballena Blanca, cleaned her out and rearranged things, and took hot showers every day. We also spent some time with Deanna seeing some Tucson sites and spent an evening having dinner with her folks, Meredith and Ed (who are also avid travelers and adventurers) talking about traveling and whatnot. Before we left we stocked up on all our favorite foods, beer, and wine at Trader Joe’s. Then headed south ready to explore southern Arizona, clean, warm, and well fed.

**** All pics are click to enlarge.

**** And BTW – if you want to keep more current with where we are and what we are doing, check our Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/makelikeanapeman/ or click one of the Instagram pics in the sidebar of the blog.