We made it!
Parked the dog at the Pet Palace and wandered out of Silver City mid-morning. MapQuest and the TomTom insist that the best way to get from Silver City to Mesa (where our motel is) is to go to I-10, take it through Tucson to Phoenix and then cross Phoenix. Blech!
So, we went out through Cliff and Buckhorn and then turned left toward Safford, AZ. Beautiful country, shorter in miles (which saves gas, as does not traveling at freeway speeds!), good road and very little traffic.
We were hoping for spring wildflowers, but that cold snap this winter and the dry spring have retarded the blooms. It wasn't till we crossed a divide southwest of Superior that we began to see blossoms. There was a kind of yellow poppy and some pinkish pentstemons and globe mallow growing in abundance along the roadside.
Actually, it's interesting to see all those thorny bushes and succulents preparing to bloom; it's easy to get distracted by the showy blossoms. For example, the stalks of the ocotillo are greening up with clusters of tiny leaves, but the thorns are ferocious! The armament on a barrel cactus is pretty formidable, too; no way to get through THAT defense!
Maybe when we return next week, the buds on the prickly pear and the cholla will be opened into showy blooms. We'll see.
In the meantime, we found our motel in Mesa (Thank you, TomTom!), which is right on the edge of the Superstitions Springs Mall. So, after getting our Outback fix last night, we got our exercise by doing a little reconnaissance tour of the mall.
Today is the big day. Sandy's first appointment at the Mayo is midday and we hope clarity about her cancer will emerge rapidly after that. At least, by the end of the day, we should have a clearer idea about the length of our stay and the agenda while we're here. We'll keep updates coming. tv
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