Alright, well it has now been over a week since my last blog update from Deming, New Mexico, and quite a lot has happened between then and now.
From Deming we walked North to Silver City, a nice town nestled a few thousand feet above the desert in a group of mountains. Despite being heavy laden with all sorts of living essentials, and despite our walking North away from the border only forty miles behind us, not a single border patrol officer ever stopped or questioned us. To be clear, that was certainly not due to a lack of border patrol officers in the area and along the highway; there were many.
To this day, we have not been questioned by a single officer since stepping off the bus in El Paso.
We ran into no Dust Storms, and are still questioning their existence.
There is a much more iconic feel about being stuck in the middle of the desert than being stuck in the middle of a corn field. Its also not surprising that more people stop and offer rides to individuals who are only half way down a 50 miles stretch of desert highway.
The desert is a very empty place, and whenever you do reach a town, you can still sort of tell that you are in the middle of a desert. As hard as McDonald's must try to keep all of their restaurants equal across the country, the difference between a McDonald and a desert McDonald's is clear as day.
We rolled into Silver City on Halloween night, which is almost meaningless on a road calendar. Even if we had wanted to dress up and try to get away with trick or treating, we would have had to find a place to sleep, a place to put our stuff, and we would have to then carry the candy across the desert. Large bags of foil-wrapped chocolates don't mix well with sand and sun.
The next day found us in Lordsburg, a town that is even more desert-like than Deming. Not really trusting the streets we retreated to a motel near the outside of town. The funny thing about Lordsburg is that you never can really tell where the desert ends and the town begins. So our motel was very easy to recognize as... a desert motel.
On the way out of the motel one of the wheels of Nicks dolly busted. Our grief after the loss of such an important essential, coupled by the desert heat, lead us to a Denny's, where we would spend the remainder of the day and the following night.
The funny thing about Denny's is that you never can really tell the difference between a regular Denny's and a desert Denny's.
The next morning (in Denny's), we were approached by a man from San Diego who needed some gas to get back to the coast, and would offer us a ride to Tucson if we wanted it. Convinced that it must be a sign, and eager to get out of the desert, we accepted.
Our driver, Steve, was one of the more interesting characters that we have met so far. A professional bum who lives out of his truck with his older brother, he gave us an articulate lecture on the do's and don'ts of being homeless in San Diego.
Do: Hide behind dispensaries and steal old plants our of the trashcans when they are unlocked.
Don't: Smoke crystal on the beach.
A few hours later we were in a Costco, eating free samples, and taking advantage of being part of an exclusive, member-only, shopping center.
In the spirit of following signs, a few hours later we were on our way to witness the Tucson All Souls Procession. After a phone call from Jenna's cousin, Jalyn, who is enrolled at the U of A, alerting us of the event, we paid for a motel room to leave our stuff in while downtown.
The Lost Souls Procession is an event in Tucson where members of the community, and plenty of people from outside the community, parade through the streets to honor those who have passed. Many people were wearing black and had skulls painted over their faces, and others even made large puppets that loomed over the marchers below. The final estimate for people in attendance was 50,000.
Our second day in Tucson was spent slowly making our way up to the downtown area from our motel. I bought some new clothes at a Salvation Army so that I wouldn't have to wear month-old clothes into the homes of a half dozen people all over Tucson.
Dinner was at Lindys, a burger joint on 4th that definitely rivaled Big Buns, the burger joint in El Paso. We ate with Jalyn, and were then treated to a quick tour of 4th and the downtown area.
That night was spent with Brett, a really chill guy who we connected with through Couch Surfing. I spent a large portion of that night playing his Warwick Thumb, which is pretty much my dream Bass. I am very much looking forward to getting home so that I can play again.
Brett is a grad student at U of A and was very excited to show us some of campus and explain the history of the school. It was by his direction that we ended up in the Poetry Center, a building on campus paid for mainly by Robert Frost that houses one of the countries largest poetry collections.
Keith and Nick hosted us that night and directed us to the Brooklyn Pizza shop, a pizza place on 4th that operates entirely on solar power, and makes a really good pizza while doing it. They also offered us showers and a comfortable place to chill and sleep for the night.
The next day, after sleeping in and grabbing a bite to eat, we made our way to a park in town and sat away a majority of the day playing guitar and enjoying the sun. A few hours before dinner we headed to Michaels house, where we would sleep that night.
Michael, and his son, showed us around town on a small urban-biking tour of the local art displays. Afterwards we went to a civil rights meeting at a local Occupy headquarters and learned about the poor way the natives of the area are being treated, despite laws that have been passed by the U.N. to end exactly the kind of situation that is present.
The next morning we were chauffeured from Michael's house to Corey's and spent most of the day watching Breaking Bad and Kung-Fu movies. The Man of Thai Chi, directed by Keanu Reeves himself, graced our evening with its thoughtful character development and precise plot procession.
Our final host in Tucson was Adam, a man who is still, truly, a kid at heart. The walls of his living room were plastered with quotes and posters of famous Jazz musicians, his walls were stacked with a very impressive book collection. The three of us went exploring the first night and ended up at a deep-dish pizza place outside of town called Little Chicago.
That night was the night of the Clutch show at the Rialto, and it was also the Friday night before the big college homecoming game. Needless to say, the downtown and surrounding areas were in full party mode. The show was great, and the people we met on the streets on our way back to Adams were almost just as good.
Saturday was spent at Adams, just reading and doing not much of anything at all.
The next night, after lazing around the whole day, we received a phone call from a man who was driving to San Diego. A worker for Enterprise, he spends most of his time driving parts of their fleet around the country to wherever it is needed next. He offered to give us a ride there, and we accepted.
With less than twenty minutes notice, we found ourselves in a huge luxury van headed in the darkness to teh California coast.
We arrived in San Diego last night and spent the evening in and outside of yet another Denny's. Early this morning we were picked up by Nick's brother, Dave, and driven to his house in San Diego.
We spent most of today downtown, admiring the bay and basking in the wonder of outdoor malls. The weather was brilliant and it was cool to see the salt water at last.
To all who had to deal with snow today... I am sorry.
Tomorrow we are going to relax, and then Wednesday we are going to hit the road again, this time heading north up the Coast towards the L.A. area.
We plan to spend Thanksgiving back in San Diego, and then will head home in early December, some time after the 4th, which will mark 100 days on the road.
