Guadalajara Bar & Grill

Al & Sharon joined us tonight at the Guadalajara Bar & Grill for dinner tonight.  As usual, we got there early for happy hour and beat the crowd.  We walked in and were seated immediately, the waiter took our drink order and by the time he came back we placed our food order.  We were surprised how quickly the food arrived and then had to stall around long enough to hear the Mariachi band play.  They usually start at 6:00pm, but tonight they started about 30 minutes earlier than usual.  Sharon got in on the act and we almost lost her to one of the band members.

Sharon peeking around blue pole & part of the band.

The lady who makes the salsa also came to our table quickly and made us a double batch of salsa from scratch.  It was a little spicy, but we all attacked it and almost finished off the bowl.  I could go there and just have a beer and eat the salsa and be happy.  The meals are huge and everyone had some left after dinner.  Lunch on Thursday will be great.

It sure was yummy.

We all were tired out and headed back home.  We dropped them off at their campground and went back to ours.  Now we are watching the new Survivor series and it is a mismash.  Boys against girls and the girls lost the first challenge.  Now they are "talking" about the day's events.  They sure are catty.  Should be an interesting survivor season if they all don't get together.  One girl has a broken wrist and was eliminated without them even taking a vote.

Mountain Road & Coronado Nat'l Forest

There is a gravel mountain road east of Tucson that will take you to Benson, AZ the long way.  Tanque Verde Rd ends and the beginning of Reddington Rd begins.  I'm not really sure why this road was built other than as a ranch road, but it sure is rough.  It also takes you to some of the most pretty areas around Tucson.  The Coronado National Forest covers most of the area and is quite wild.  There are a lot of "sign hunters" in this area and that must be the reason the sign above is made out of steel.  

There were so many beautiful areas that it was impossible to capture them all.  Down in the valley was a stream that had numerous waterfalls.  Of course since it hasn't rained in a couple months, the waterfalls were dried up. I would like to come back when they are flowing and get some photos .  The area is very rocky and difficult to walk around in other than some hiking trails.  These trails are beyond my ability to hike now, but it would have been great a few years ago.   Gerry and Sharon took a short walk down a trail to check it out and said it was a nice walking trail.

Al retrieving the cache

There was a geocache about 2 miles off the main road on a ranch road and we decided to drive there and pick it up.  Wow, that was one rough road and we had to take it both ways.  The truck was fine on the road, but it had us bouncing around the cab of the truck like rubber balls.  We did find the cache and also the small lake back there.  The lake was very beautiful and I wonder how the water level stays so high.  I found the cache and Al crawled out on a rock to retrieve it.  I tried to come in from the side, but Mr. Cactus didn't want me there and gave me a reason to not try that again. 

The area has numerous cattle roaming around and every once in a while we came upon small groups grazing in the fields.  They must be sturdy cattle since the hillsides must be difficult for them to negotiate.  I don't know the different breeds of cattle but there were 4-5 different ones there.  They must not see many people and stared at us as we drove by.  

 

We drove through some wild groups of Saguaro cacti that were even nicer than the ones in the Saguaro National Park.  We were very surprised to see so many old and large cacti growing in the wild.  Many of them had to be over 150 years old and they were in great shape.

By this time we were getting worn out by the rough road and were ready to head for home.  We still had about 43 miles of dirt road ahead of us, however it was in pretty good shape and we were able to make good time.  We did pass this water tank that was decorated like a work of art.  You never know what you are going to see out here in the desert.

And that is how we managed to drive over 130 miles and spend 7 hours on the road.



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Goldshop, Geocaching and Guadalajara Restaurant

Gerry left a piece of jewelry at a goldsmith's shop a week or so ago and today was the day to go back and see what they could do to repair it.  At first they didn't think it was repairable, but now they think it is possible.  She left it with them until next week and hopefully they can fix it as good as new.

We decided to geocache a little while we were in that area of town and set out to find some caches.  We began our search and found 7 caches in short order, even though they were a few miles apart.  One cache was a five gallon bucket buried in the ground in an alley behind some houses.  They had disguised the lid to look like rocks, but since we knew what to look for, it stood out very clearly to us.  

Another cache was found in an Art statue in front of the racetrack.  We had to look for this cache for a while before we found it.  Then as usual, we were surprised to see how obvious the cache was.  Some are like that and others are very difficult to find and we have to register them as a did not find.  DNF.  I hate those.  There are a number of these art exhibits throughout Tucson in various places and I think they add a lot to the town and area.


The last three times we have eaten in a restaurant we have run into people from the park eating there also.  Tonight was no exception.  We like the Guadalajara restaurant and like to get there early for the Happy Hour specials and stay long enough to listen to the Mariarchi musicians play their tunes.  Just before they started to play Ron C dropped by our table after waiting 45 minutes to get a table of their own.  Friends from Tennessese joined them and were enjoying the restaurant also.  We got our fill of beer and food and barely were able to waddle out of there.  Great time as usual.


Cousin Sharon and Al are thinking about taking their 5th wheel to a ranch south of Willcox and watching the ranch for a month.  They are going to go there on Saturday to check it out and asked us to go along.  It is about 100 miles one way and I am not sure we are up to that long of a drive.  We will have to wait and see how it goes in the morning.  


Time to hit the hay after watching the Gold Rush show.