Arizona - Oro Valley

As it turned out, TJ's Oro Valley contacts weren't able to pull through for us, but desperately in need of a shower and somewhere to plug the van in, we contacted a couch surfer in Oro Valley and left Casa Grande in our dust. 

The common response we’ve been getting when we tell people we wanted to stay in Oro Valley has been “for the love of God, why?” Apparently this little suburb outside Tucson is comprised of retirees and golf hounds; not many of our lot driving around in the burbs of civilized Arizona. If it we hadn't thought we'd be able to stay with someone TJ knew there, we probably would have skipped it altogether.

As it were, we rolled into town and turned into yet another Wal-Mart parking lot to pull out our host’s directions and get our bearings. We unfolded the receipt TJ had used to write the details on and immediately started laughing: direction #1: turn north on La Cañada! As Spanish is not a language that we often see way up in the wilds of Canada, I was very confused as to why we would be turning on to "The Canada" way, and chuckled, thinking "silly Americans." (I have since been informed that this means "droveway" but whatever.)

After traversing several dark, suburban neighbourhoods, (and wondering why there were no street lights to be found anywhere) we finally found our host’s house.
Mike is an engineer with a wonderful home (an observation that came much later after we hungrily eyed the glorious, glorious shower) and who runs a rather unconventional photo blog. He takes pictures of himself looking dead in a variety of places; restaurants, in vehicles, on the sidewalk outside of the Guatemalan place we went for dinner our second night there. His site has since been taken down, but we had fun helping him out while we were there. 

He was a really great host, pretty much leaving us to our own devices and giving us full access to a fully functioning bathroom. We showered every day, just because we could.  

We stayed for a few days, maximizing on the down time, and preparing ourselves for more adventure. You’d think a week in strip mall civilization would be recovery enough from being in the middle of nowhere out in Slab City, but a few days here in Oro Valley has really been what we needed.

Next stop, Bisbee AZ, with a quick detour to TOMBSTONE! I will be looking for Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner around every corner…