Day 15: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we drove from Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona.
I began my morning with a breakfast not too far from the hotel at an optimistically-named establishment called Ingo❤️s Tasty Food. From their All Day Breakfast & Fresh Baked Pastries menu I chose the overnight oats served with fresh fruit, cocoa nibs, honey, slivered almonds, and almond milk.
It was another travel day, but it was a very lightweight one by our standards. We departed the city of Phoenix at a relaxed 12pm since we had a mere 180km to cover. Our highway should we choose to accept it was once again the mighty I-10, the transcontinental freeway which for the duration of our journey would be heading southeast right down the Arizona Sun Corridor, to a city at the eastern edge of the Sonoran Desert. The scenery was largely the same as what we had driven through the previous afternoon but to add to the sprawling desert there were a few irrigated fields and a handful of orchards filled with what looked like almond trees.
Once we had checked into the hotel the workday was over and we had free time. The sun was still high above the distant mountains when I headed out on foot to explore this new city, the jewel of the southwest. It was warm but with a light breeze that agreed perfectly with my choices of clothing. There was architecture to enjoy, buildings painted in warm and outgoing pastel shades, prevalent Art Deco and Pueblo Revival stylings, and old industrial areas of functional brick construction now revived and converted into shopping and dining spaces. There were no towering skyscrapers to speak of but there were several high rises that had given it a go before sheepishly bowing out around the sixteen-story mark.
After sundown we met at a bar to watch the game, a sports event between two teams who were both experts at bouncing a leather ball. One of the teams was the Sacramento Kings, Paul’s home team and we supported them as though they were our own, cheering and clapping as they gradually crushed the fight out of their opponents, fellow Californians the Golden State Warriors. The outcome was what we had all hoped for and this meant that we would get to witness a Sacramento tradition dating back hundreds of days. An oversized purple button was wheeled out into the centre of the court, a button connected to seven strong lasers with a combined power of 8,800 watts, a button which when depressed would send a purple beam of light streaking out of the roof of the Golden 1 Centre and up into the night sky. The beam was lit and we were a happy bunch as we walked back to the hotel to sleep off our celebratory mood.
