Tucson Trip 2021
It was long overdue that the Bickett’s were off on a big camp excursion. Christmas 2020 had rolled around and I told Brian that I didn’t care where we go camping as long as it was warm and that we should go in March. We originally thought we could hook up and pull the camper even farther than we did in 2019 to Utah to find a hot zone, but after the FP did the researching and calculating it just made sense to load up the car and hit the road — destination Tucson, Arizona. And because all four of us were working or schooling from home, we were able to go for a complete two weeks.
We took three days to get to Tucson with a stop in Grand Junction, CO the first night followed by a night in Flagstaff, AZ the second night, and a pit stop for some lunch at Dave and Busters and to help pick oranges at Sherri’s on our way through Mesa. We were smart enough to get a rack and tow the bicycles with us so we had something to keep us busy in the city of Tucson. I am happy to report that all bikes, people and one hot dog traveled rather well on the way down.
We rented this cute little place in Tucson that was a short ride away from “the loop” — Tucson’s 153+ mile bike and trail system. We knew they had a bike path, which is why we made it a point to take the bicycles, but we didn’t know it was such a nice path with so many miles to ride. We road six of the eight days that we were in Tucson for a total of 50 miles. (Thank you technology for allowing us to track these stats!) We even made sure to visit the BMX track built off the path a couple of times and Jackson was pretty excited when he went “none wheels”. There were a few crashes, mostly by Jackson, who was trying really hard to get his front wheel off the ground.
As most tourists do, we made sure to get out and see what we could with a day drive up to Mt. Lemmon where we climbed to over 8000+ feet and found a bit of home with some trees and snow, which we quickly retreated from back to the bike path and the 70° weather.
It turns out that one of the top ten things to do in Tucson is to visit the Pima Air and Space Museum. We spent two and a half hours walking around and it was amazing to see all of the aircrafts, helicopters, and space mobiles that they had on view. The best part was that it’s close to an Air Force Base and it seemed to be stunt flying practice day as we were buzzed by Goose and Mavericks all day.
On another day we packed a picnic and took a drive through the Saguaro National Park. After having our meat, cheese and cracker picnic among the cactus forest, we took off on a little hike up the hill to take in the view of all of the saguaro cacti. I was pretty cautious of the little pricklies since it wasn’t a very wide or well groomed trail (hey what can I say, we love to be adventurous) and the kiddos love to jump back and forth when hiking. I made mention of the ‘jumping cactus’ which intrigued Brian to want to see one up close. So we did and then quickly backed away and continued hiking up the hill the other way. On the way down we were following Brian who found out first hand why they are called the ‘jumping cactus’ as he got a shoe full with a few that went in to his foot. We also quickly retreated from there and returned to comfort of the wide and paved bike path.
Over the weekend of our trip, we traveled back up to the Scottsdale area to have lunch with Auntie Carol, Ann and the girls. After lunch we were able to stop my Mike’s fire station where he and his captain were able to give us a tour of the fire truck including the bumper hose compartment, the medic bag, the kids’ medic box, the hidden ladders, firemen gear, and the snake stick and bucket. All important parts of a fire truck. The coolest was when a call came in and we got to see them leave in action before we headed back south to Tucson again.
A trip to Arizona wouldn’t be complete with out a trip to the pool. Brian surprised us with a night at the Great Wolf Lodge in Scottsdale for a full 24 hours of resort life including eight hours of water park fun and dinner delivered to our room. The kids most loved the wave pool and being able to watch cartoons from their bunk beds. Our favorite part was watching them go off and make friends.
We rounded out our trip by taking Sherri out to dinner on her birthday. She picked a place I had never heard of and she was surprised I had never been there — Organ Stop Pizza — so it was dinner and a show! What a neat place. I never knew so much sounds and music could all be played by one person. It was such a joy for everyone to spend Sherri’s birthday with her.
Sadly all good trips head back home. With a looming winter storm we had to decide if we would stay longer (yes please) or make a mad dash and try to side skirt the storm. So off we went up through the eastern side of Colorado for a 13 hour drive the first day and the remaining six the next. We were lucky to only run into a little bit of snow heading north in Arizona and rain the second day. It was good to be home and out of the car. We feel blessed to be able to take such a long trip and see so many amazing things. These memories are worth keeping.
More Tucson Trip Pics
