New Year's Eve Gift

Looking down at our campground from Brown Mtn

Finally ... we are getting some beautiful weather. The last few days are above normal temperatures with yesterdays high of 81. We got to get back into shorts and even the evenings have been warmer in the low 50's. We are still in the mountains west of Tucson at about 2700 feet.

We spent the New Years Eve day climbing Brown Mountain. Only about an 800 ft climb in less than a mile but was a bit more than my knee was really ready for with lots of steep rock steps and uneven switchbacks. But I made it up and we then walked the up and down along the ridge to come down the back side and a little more gradual descent back to our camp, about 5 miles all together. Could not imagine that I would be able to do that even 2 months ago. Must be the dry air and the artificial lube job that is doing the magic.

That evening we made Oaxacan-style tacos on the grill with our new friends Doug and Frankie and stayed out under the stars visiting. About 8:30 we saw a meteor/fireball streak slowly across the tops of the mountains and disappear over the hill. It was a brilliant yellow orange and had a long turquoise green tail. Really spectacular and everyone out in the campground was exclaiming over it. We saw in the news the next day that it was seen over a wide area. Really beautiful in a dark night sky with the coyotes singing close by. So that was our magical New Years gift direct from the cosmos and a sign of a good year to come for us.

After a lot of discussion we have convinced ourselves
that we don't need to come home right now. So easy to have these conversations when there is no one here to contradict our rationale. Since no one seems to need us (a good thing, actually), we are heading a little farther east while the weather is clear and warm and we will see some new roads and new sights. It has been nice being in some of our favorite places and visiting with new friends but we are ready for the adventure of new places again.

We hope everyone had a fun and joyous New Year's and we send the magic dust from the tail of the meteor your way too for good luck in the coming year.

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