April 7, 2024

Here are some hiking photos from my hiking adventures in Saguaro National Park this past weekend.

As I understand it, before the days of the Interstate, US Route 80 was the main east-west route through Tucson. US 80 was primarily replaced by Interstate 10 back in the day, a now there are “Historic US 80” signs guiding folks along the path of the former main route. East of downtown Historic US 80 follows Benson Highway, aptly named because it used to go to Benson.

In parts of Tucson Interstate 10 was built right on top of US 80. There are service roads on either side of the Interstate to accommodate the businesses that have been here for decades, and that includes the Silver Saddle Steakhouse. Earl and I have been wanting to go to this seemingly historic restaurant (or at the very least, vintage restaurant) and we finally took the opportunity to do so last night.

It was exactly what I expected to be, and that’s a great thing.

Earl and I are fortunate to have traveled through all 50 states of the U.S. at least once. We tend to focus on locally owned establishments when traveling and are usually delighted. The Silver Saddle fits this vibe perfectly. Though it was busy on a Saturday night there was no wait for a table of two, the service was quick and efficient, the menu had plenty for the carnivores (I didn’t notice if there were vegetarian choices, but I’m doubting it) and there’s a full bar in the back which is celebrated by a “Cocktails” sign in script reminiscent of Lucy and Desi.

Earl and I had an excellent prime rib dinner with enough to bring home for lunch (which he served Aunt Meg from “Twister” style for brunch today). I mentioned during supper last night that this is the type of place I look for on my storm chasing trips. There were folks from all walks of life enjoying each others’ company and that was a good thing.

I look forward to going back again.

It is Sunday. This is traditionally a day of rest in this part of the world and I tend to treat this day of the week accordingly. I usually use Sunday as a means of getting organized, cleaning up bits and bytes that have been scattered about over the past week, and taking a gander at what lies ahead for the week so I can get my brain in the proper frame of mind.

To many this doesn’t sound relaxing, but it is relaxing for me because then I don’t have things weighing on my brain in the “unattended” category.

I started my hike yesterday in a not great frame of mind because the weather was much better than what had been forecasted the night before. I had canceled yesterday morning’s flight as a result of the forecast and I was frustrated with the fact that I had released the airplane on a nearly perfect day to fly. On the bright side, it was a good lesson for me to learn and now I have a new approach to determining whether I’m going to fly or not: just wait until the flight time and make the decision at that time. This is how I used to plan my flights back when we lived in Upstate New York, but the various flight clubs and rental outfits I’ve worked with since then have had varying rules, including one place outside of Chicago that required you canceled for weather purposes at least 24 hours in advance. Honestly? Mother Nature doesn’t work that way, but I try to cancel as far enough in advance as possible so that another can take the airplane if they feel comfortable feeling in weather that exceeds my personal minimums. It’s a balance. I like to be a great member of the general aviation community and show respect to my fellow aviation club members.

As I gained nearly 1300 feet in elevation during my hike yesterday, my brain processed a lot of things as I tend to do when I’m by myself out in the wilderness. I’m really enjoying making the videos. In fact, last night I met a quick little snippet just to amuse myself.

I’m starting to feel more confident in my presentational style and content of the hiking videos. This is leading nicely into the upcoming storm hiking trip in mid May. It’s really amazing to me that I can grab these videos, make all the edits I want to make, and give them the shine I want them to have with just a MacBook Air and a little bit of software.

I’m probably going to go for a short hike this afternoon, once the sun calms down a bit, just to get that last push of exercise in before the end of the weekend.

This type of activity keeps my blood and thoughts flowing nicely.