Author: lori977987136

I got up a little early Saturday in order to get to the Tucson Amtrak station to catch my 8:15 a.m. train. It turns out I didn’t need to, since it arrived an hour late. But before arriving at that conclusion, I had taken advantage of my $15 credit at the Doubletree for their breakfast buffet and taken an Uber to the train station, arriving about 7:30 a.m.

When the train did reach the station, quite a few people got on, but I was the only one headed to my sleeping car. The car attendant, Efren, met me before the train and carried my suitcase onboard. My roomette was on the upper level again, so I took the stairs up and then got comfortable in the room. The train left about 9:15 a.m.

There were delays along the way due to freight train traffic. The dining car attendant at dinner said we were two hours behind schedule. A while after dinner, Efren set up the bed in my roomette. We had changed time to Mountain Daylight Time in New Mexico and then again to Central Daylight Time a little east of El Paso, TX. It was about 10:30 p.m. CDT by the time I went to bed.

I woke up at 6:00 Sunday morning and went to breakfast when the dining car opened. The train was approaching San Antonio as I ate. For some reason, we sat in San Antonio for over 90 minutes. I think we had to take on more fuel, water and passengers, but I don’t know why it took so long. Anyway we were late, finally arriving in Houston about 1 p.m., two hours later than scheduled. It was windy and warm in Houston, around 80 degrees.

My Uber driver was a young lady driving an electric BMW i3 on her first day of driving for Uber. She was pleasant to talk to, but I was a little nervous seeing how fast everyone drove while they tailgated too. We made it to the Houston airport alright and I found my way to the shuttle bus to the rental car office. My Enterprise compact car was waiting for me, a blue Mitsubishi Mirage. Then I navigated via my phone through the fast freeway traffic to my hotel, the Hilton at Post Oak, which Amtrak Vacations had reserved for me when they booked my train tickets.

But there was an unpleasant surprise when I tried to check in: the Hilton reception staff said my reservation had been canceled. Another glitch with my Amtrak Vacations arrangements! I got on the phone to Amtrak Vacations while sitting in the Hilton lobby and they apologized and told me to book and pay for the hotel on my own, then write an email to the customer assistance office for Amtrak Vacations on Monday, explaining the situation, and they would reimburse me for the hotel. (I sure hope that works.) Anyway, I finally got a room on the 3rd floor of the Hilton.

Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I quickly went downstairs to the bar and ate an early dinner accompanied by a beer, again taking advantage of my $15 meal credit gained from my Hilton Honors Diamond status. (Thanks again, Gary!) I decided to not go out sightseeing afterwards since I was tired from the day’s ordeals and didn’t want to battle the traffic or the wind. So I called it a day.

Friday, April 8th, was a day of transition for us. We checked out of The Tuxon and went to the nearby Waffle House for breakfast. I had never eaten in a Waffle House before and wanted to experience it. Despite knowing there were probably much better breakfast places around, Nancy went along with my wish. It was smaller than I expected inside and the menu wasn’t as long as other breakfast places. I had eggs, grits and toast which were just ok. I don’t need to return to a Waffle House again.

After breakfast, I dropped Nancy off at the airport for her morning return flight to Seattle. Although many Alaska Airlines flights had been canceled over the previous week due to a pilot shortage and labor problems, hers was a “go.” Then I drove to a Tucson park called Sweetwater Wetlands which is a wastewater reclamation and recharge site. The wetlands cleanse the water and host many birds in the cattails, reeds and trees that grow there. It was a pleasant place to walk around and there were several other birders there. But the air temperature was climbing fast and by 10:30 a.m. I wanted to go someplace cooler.

I returned to the airport and turned in the rental car. Then I took my luggage, walked to the arrivals area and summoned an Uber to take me to my next hotel, the Doubletree at Reid Park in Tucson. An older gentleman was driving the Uber and he arrived quickly, but prolonged the 10-minute drive somewhat when he missed the turn to the hotel. All turned out alright, however. The Doubletree had my room ready eve though it was only 11 a.m. when I arrived, plus they gave me water and a warm chocolate chip cookie. 🙂

I hung out at the hotel’s restaurant, bar, and my room for the rest of the day, avoiding the 93-degree heat outside. Thanks to my brother gifting me Hilton Diamond status, I enjoyed an upgraded room with a view of the pool. (Thank you, Gary!) Saturday will be the beginning of the next leg of my journey, traveling to Texas.

On Thursday morning, Nancy and I enjoyed another delicious breakfast at Casa de San Pedro. We again started with fresh fruit, this time accompanied by a small chocolate pastry and then two poached eggs served over flatbread, ham and cheese, with a hollandaise sauce and mild chiles. It was all great.

After breakfast, as we were walking around the grounds of the B & B looking for birds, a Border Patrol helicopter made two low passes over us and the cottonwood trees of the San Pedro River, causing the tops of the trees to flail and scaring out a hawk. We had noticed several Border Patrol cars the previous night as we went and returned from Bisbee too.

We packed up our things and checked out, noticing a Border Patrol truck with two saddled horses in a trailer just outside the B & B. We drove about 30 minutes to the Coronado National Memorial located at the start of Montezuma Canyon near Hereford. We went into the visitor’s center and walked around the oak and grassland habitat nearby. Then we drove up to Montezuma’s Vista overlook via a narrow, windy gravel road that was about 2 miles long. On the way up, a Border Patrol truck passed us, then when we reached the top, it was preparing to drive back down. We figured the agents had used the overlook to look for immigrants trying to enter the country. The view from the vista was expansive, looking clear into Mexico. It was windy but there were a few birds in the bushes and soaring over the pass.

Returning to the visitor’s center, we noticed Border Patrol agents with a saddled horse nearby, possibly with someone they had apprehended. We continued driving, stopping at a diner in Sierra Vista for lunch and then making the hour-long drive to Tucson.

Our hotel for the night was The Tuxon near downtown. It was pretty standard looking from the outside, but modernly decorated on the inside. It was over 90 degrees in town and our room doors and windows faced the afternoon sun. The heavy window blinds were closed to keep the sun out of the windows, but the metal door handles were super hot. The room air conditioning struggled to keep up.

We went out for Mexican food at Mi Nidito (My Little Nest), famous for good food and because Bill Clinton had eaten there in the 1990s. I had nopal-filled enchiladas and we both enjoyed our meals.

We saw on the local news that Cochise County, where we had just been in Hereford, was experiencing an uptick in illegal immigrants and high-speed chases after people transporting them, so that must have been why we had seen so many Border Patrol agents. Yet the Border Patrol checkpoint on the highway from Sierra Vista, where we had expected to be stopped, wasn’t operating for Tucson-bound traffic so we were happy about that because it would have slowed our trip.

I left my room window open overnight Tuesday so I could hear the sound of the courtyard fountain at Casa de San Pedro. It was nice to hear as I awoke in the morning. Nancy and I had breakfast at the first seating at 7:30 a.m. and it was fresh fruit, a small lemon poppyseed muffin and French toast made from English muffins, all very good. The various family/couple groups were seated spaced out, due to COVID, although everyone who stays at this inn must first show proof of COVID vaccination.

Soon after breakfast, we drove to San Pedro House, which is a trailhead and information center in the conservation area for the San Pedro River about 25 minutes from our inn. We took a path along the river to see what birds were there. Besides birds, there were occasional frogs that jumped in the river when we got close. Once we heard something slither away from the trail in the dry leaves as we walked by, but we never saw it so we didn’t know if it was a rattlesnake or a lizard.

Returning from our hike along the river, we drove into Hereford to find lunch. We ended up at a place called Urbano Coffee House, Brews and Chews, where we had sandwiches. We didn’t really find a town center in Hereford. It’s very spread out, as are other towns around here.

We took it easy at the B & B during the afternoon and I used the free washers and dryers to do a load of laundry. I also bought a Casa de San Pedro T-shirt with a vermilion flycatcher on it, caught up on emails and worked on the blog. I enjoy having some down time while traveling.

For dinner, we decided to go to the historic copper mining town of Bisbee, about 30 minutes away. We went about 5 p.m. so we could walk around town before dinner. From the highway between Hereford and Bisbee, we could see the border wall in the distance and there were quite a few border control and sheriff cars parked at intervals along the road. The highway was probably only 2 miles from the border.

After walking a couple of the streets of the old town, we ate dinner at Bisbee’s Table, located in an old building in the historic area. I enjoyed a tasty pasta dish. We returned to the B & B for our last evening there.

It was another beautifully sunny day when we woke up Tuesday morning at the Spirit Tree Inn. Mary Jane’s husband Tom was in the kitchen of the ranch house by 6:30 a.m. fixing breakfast for the guests. There were two other couples staying there besides Nancy and I. One couple was from Boise and the other from Green Valley, AZ. We talked while drinking tea/coffee and watching Tom prepare breakfast. The breakfast itself was great, with the best grits I’ve ever tasted, egg and ham muffins, and pineapple.

After breakfast, Nancy and I moved our luggage to the car, but hung around the grounds of the inn for another hour or so, finding more birds. The other guests, Mary Jane and her husband left for the day, so we had the yard and birds to ourselves.

We decided to go into Las Cienegas National Conservation Area before going to Hereford, our next hotel spot. The grasslands conservation area was recommended by Nolan, our owl guide, as a good place to see birds and it was along the way to Hereford. It was a vast area of rolling hills, a few mesquite trees, a few springs and dry river washes. At first the road was paved and traveling was easy, but the road soon deteriorated into a rocky, difficult way. We saw some birds and some pronghorn antelope. We finally turned around as the road got worse and we encountered a gate.

We continued on to the city of Sierra Vista, where we looked for a lunch spot that preferably wasn’t fast food. We found a German deli that served authentic German food and we enjoyed some Black Forest ham sandwiches. It was about 2 p.m. by that time, so there were only two other people in the deli besides the German lady owner and us. After lunch, it was time to find our lodgings near the town of Hereford.

We drove to our upscale B & B, the Casa de San Pedro, and arrived a few minutes before the 4 p.m. check-in time. One of the owners, Patrick, met us at the gate to the inn’s courtyard and showed us our two rooms and the grounds. What a beautiful place! There are 10 luxurious rooms surrounding a courtyard with gardens and a fountain. Bird feeders and bird nest boxes surround the outside. A large sitting room with tall windows looks out on the courtyard. The dining room adjoins the sitting room, where breakfast is served and there are a selection of pies laid out on a countertop for any guest to help themselves in the afternoon. Desert gardens, a shady ramada with a barbecue, labyrinth, and pool are also outside. It was a delight to walk into my cool room after being outside in the sun and dust.

After being shown around, Nancy and I walked through the gate pictured above, into the San Pedro River conservation area that adjoins the B & B. Notice the rattlesnake sign. Patrick said he had seen the first snake of the year earlier in the week. It was a short but hot walk to the river in the afternoon. We didn’t see any snakes and only saw a few birds, so we returned quickly and got ready for dinner.

Patrick had suggested a couple of restaurants, so we drove into the spread-out town of Hereford to one of them. At Mimosa Italian, we ate a light and late dinner, then returned to our inn for the night.