The Trip to Oracle

As I drive through road construction, north Tucson shows few signs of a lagging economy. Contemporary houses sprout in the desert and a  classy Walmart anchors a hopeful new, shopping center.  An international pharmaceutical firm built their low slung stone and glass  research and development complex near the cancer diagnostic firm, both near a fairly new hospital. Clearly health or the lack thereof is big business in Tucson.

But I left the predictable suburbs behind and traveled north on the road to Oracle and Globe. Stone pillars or cast iron gates announced the newest golf communities and resorts along the way.  After passing several large, modern churches with steeples extending from dusty brown desert to brilliant blue sky, the road narrowed and the wealth receded.

Catalina Mountains in the distance

I’ve always wanted to see the desert bloom.  People say it’s spectacular, a “not be be missed” experience but I always manage to miss it. “You should have been here last year.”  “Oh, that will be next month.”  Must be fabulous or why else would anyone live here in this land of brown and tan and rust and khaki and brown, “Oh, said that one already”.  But for the blue sky, I could be inside a brown paper bag.

Brown tree

More brown tree

There are the Catalina Mountains on my right so it could be worse. It could be flat.

Oh, it does get worse.

But the turn to Oracle comes up and I’m careful not to miss the turn, who knows when the next cross road will appear?  And my heart sinks as I drive dusty streets past trailers and junk cars. There’s a Circle K, which turns out to be the only grocery store in town. Unless you count the Dollar Tree where I get two gallons of spring water and a bag of tropical mix to munch.

But the road continues and I pass some interesting adobe houses and wind upwards,  my heart drawn up with each curve.


This is getting interesting.  There’s the entrance to a state park, that’s promising.


 Suddenly a turn in the road reveals reddish rock piles, boulders windblown into curvy, smooth ochre snowmen, round stacked on round.

stacked rocks

Arrived!

Suddenly there was my sign- COD Ranch.  Missing it, I immediately pull off to a convenient turn-around  to the side of the road. Clearly, I’m not the first to miss that almost hidden driveway.  Wow- my road drops into a whole new world. Windmills, dirt roads, a fancy metal fence closes off a residence,  a distant vista of mountains.  Rescued from my vivid imagination of a weekend in a dusty trailer park!

Now I’m in my snug casita- fabrics with colorful stripes hang from cast iron rods and cover windows in white adobe walls.  Above the windows, southwest murals are painted on the white.  The doors and furniture is pale, rustic pine and my tin corrugated roof promises a dancing symphony if it happens to rain.  Maybe then….the desert would bloom!

Meanwhile, I’ll meet my fellow writers, enjoy some fun with words, eat some great fajitas and snuggle under soft down, encased in soft suede coverlet (brown, of course). I’m just grateful for the heater.