Birding and Shopping

Once again it was in the 30s at sunrise. It was clear and dry.

We were up early, even on a day off. This morning we were taking Speedy over to Arivaca Cienega for the Saturday morning bird walk. The Tucson Audubon leads a walk at Arivaca Cienega every Saturday from November through March. It starts at 8 AM, so we left the refuge at about 7 o'clock.

We got there in plenty of time and a few people were already there, including a Border Patrol truck idling away in a corner of the parking lot. The group came to 11 people when we started along the trail. Most were from Tucson, with only us and a couple from Minnesota newcomers. I don't think anyone was under 50. It was certainly a mix of birders and several were very knowledgable about the area, the birds and the changes from the past. It was a three-hour walk and we saw about 25 species, two new life birds for Ellen, Rufous-winged Sparrow and Cassin's Kingbird, so she was happy.

After the walk, we continued east to the Gadsen Coffee Company just outside of Arivaca. This is a small local roaster and cafe. It is only open on weekends from 8-2, but has good coffee and good-looking breakfasts. They also serve lunch.

This may be the other motorcycle hangout in Arivaca as there was a KTM dual-sport, two three-wheel Can-Am Spyders and a Polaris Slingshot, another three-wheel delta trike. I guess it is the senior motorcyclist hangout with all the three-wheelers and gray hair in the place. The other motorcycle place is the Cantina in "downtown" Arivaca, where we saw a selection of V-twins when we passed through last week, including a classic Moto-Guzzi.

The attraction for motorcyclists is the road from I-19 to Arivaca and then on to AZ-286 (the road past the refuge), which are both twisty roads, as we were about to find out. We knew about the road from 286 to Arivaca, good on a bike, although a bit rough, not so much fun in Speedy. Today we were heading northeast to I-19 and Green Valley. That 25-mile section of road was much smoother than the 12 miles back to 286 and we saw at least a half-dozen motorcycles on the way to Amado and I-19.

At Amado, we turned north. We were going to the new Fry's Market which is actually in Sahuarita, just north of Green Valley. It was quite the market. It was almost too large. We did find everything we were looking for, but it is probably a little too far out of the way to be our weekly market. It is a lot quicker to go up 286 and 86 to Tucson, than take 37 miles of lumpy twisty roads and 20 miles of Interstate to do the weekly shopping. If you include the distance from the refuge to the Arivaca Road, it is even shorter to go to Tucson. We also stopped at the local Walmart while we were there. We were looking for a couple of household items and bicycle bits, found neither, oh well, back to Amazon.

We were pretty beat by the time we headed back to Buenos Aires, unfortunately the Gadsen Coffee Company was closed as we passed by.