So it’s been an interesting week here in the Airstream. Lots of exploration in and about Tucson and a few new adventures have led to my falling even more deeply in love with the desert and this corner of the country. It feels natural to be here and I seldom feel comfortable in one spot for very long. In point of fact, this coming week we head north to Las Vegas. Anaphys has never been and I am looking forward to showing him a bit of the Strip but also to taking him out to Red Rock and the Sekhmet Temple, destinations few Vegas visitors know or care about.

I got to hike parts of the Loma Verde Loop in Saguaro East and enjoy the solitude. The only other living things I saw were a few birds, a rabbit and an enormous red-tailed hawk that landed atop a tall saguaro to scope out the meal options in the area a few yards from where I was hiking. I took Anaphys to hike the Freeman Homestead Trail this past week and we enjoyed it without any sort of incident resembling my previous post, thankfully. Driving the one-way loop on the way out of the park we decided where to stop and hike on our next visit. We’ll likely get back to it two or three more time before our scheduled Vega departure.

Last Saturday was the opening for Tucson Roller Derby’s 7th Season. The women were in great form and treated us all to a wonderful show that included three very close (like, skin-of-the-teeth close) bout scores that determined their winners within the final two seconds or so. By far my favorites were the Furious Truckstop Waitresses, followed by the home team, the Copper Queens. The ladies skated their hearts out for us and when the evening was said and done there was one not-very-seriously injured to account for, and even she was all smiles as the crowd filed out to head home.

I absolutely must give a huge thank-you shout out to all the ladies of the Tucson Roller Derby who took the time to stop and visit with our hosts’ young daughter, who attended her first Derby wearing a cast on her newly broken foot. She broke it in the middle of one of her karate classes, finished the lesson on it and then went to the movies. It was a day later that x-rays determined she’d broken a metatarsal. Tough kid. Everyone at Roller Derby agreed as they lined up to sign her cast. You ladies are the best of the bestest. You made a young lady’s evening and you totally rock for doing it. Wanted you to know.

After Roller Derby, the logical place to go for a bit of nosh was El Guero Canelo, the place that created the idyllic food known as the Sonoran Hotdog. It’s a mere four blocks from where Roller Derby was held and stays open until midnight. If you go, the Sonoran Dog is a must, followed by the Tortas. The salad bar is worth the trip on its own, and you get that with any food purchase so even a small quesadilla gets you a meal that is generous and healthy depending on the choices you make. I can’t rave about this place enough, truly. I owe Belfast a debt of gratitude for introducing us to it when we were all here for the Tucson Tattoo Expo last April. The Expo rides again this year, by the way. Here’s the skinny.

The day following Roller Derby I really needed some cave time. Fortunately there was a book on loan to us that intrigued me. I ended up reading it cover to cover in just under a day. It’s called American Nomads and it not only related the stories of some relatively unknown and truly amazing people in the history of the New World, it gave me a better sense of why this sort of life appeals to me so strongly. Even though I felt folks like Anaphys and me weren’t at all touched on by author Richard Grant, I still got a lot out of it and will buy a copy because I feel it’s an important work to have with us as we travel.

And what week would be complete without Brundlefly getting into places and things she shouldn’t? We do our best while on the road and while parked near friends to get Brundlefly into an environment where she can run about and stretch her little naked legs a bit. She has a pattern of laps she does in the trailer to be sure, but there’s nothing quite like an open living / dining room combo for really getting her speed up. She’s impressive, to put it mildly. We’d brought her into our hosts’ home a couple times previously with no problems. I had looked around for holes in the wall (they’re still finishing the house here and there) and other inviting dangers that might present themselves and having found none, I set loose our wee beast to have run of the place.

Her third foray in the house she ran about as usual for about an hour and then vanished. We called for her and looked behind and beneath furniture. This went on for several minutes until we finally heard an answering mew. It took us a little while to narrow down where it was coming from and when we did I practically had to peel myself up off the floor.

She was in the ductwork.

None of us could figure out how she’d gotten in there, but we dutifully began to unscrew the grating from in front of the duct where we heard her calling to us. It led to a wall. There was no way into the ductwork from where we could hear her. It took another few minutes for one of our hosts to determine where she’d gotten into the ducts. It was an open vent behind a bedroom door and we’d all missed it on the first cat safety sweep. He got down onto the floor to peer into it.

There was Brundlefly. I came over to see if I could coax her out and got down on the floor as he had been. I called to her. Her head popped right up in front of me out of the duct that led down beneath the floors. When I reached in to see if I could pull her out she popped it right back down again. To her this was the most fabulous game ever and she wasn’t about to stop playing. To us it looked for all the world like Whack-A-Mole. Only with a cat. In floor ducts in a house in Arizona.

When she came out on her own a few moments later, looking recalcitrant and completely covered in dust and debris, we scooped her up and took her back to the trailer, completely mortified that we had lost our cat in (literally IN) our friends’ house

So it’s been quite a full week here in Tucson and we’re looking forward to many more adventures. But no more filthy cats creeping through ducts. We’ve had enough of that one for a lifetime.