Road Trip 2021: Day 2 — A new friendship blossoms

This is an account of what happened on Day 2 of our 11-day southwestern road trip in December 2021. Check this post for an overview of the full trip. Our Day 1 exploits are covered here.

Our first target location on this road trip was Tucson, AZ, to start off by visiting the Saguaro National Park. So, just like Day 1, we planned yet another simple and long stretch of freeway driving from Indio to Tucson. Entirely on I-10, making it even simpler. However, Day 2 had in store an entirely different experience for us.

On seeing that the route took us right through Phoenix, a brainwave struck me.

Day 2: Indio, CA to Tucson, AZ with a stop in Phoenix

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, a little background.

Years ago, my wife Praveena was contacted out of the blue by Angel, a recruiter. The employment opportunity was a good match and Praveena really enjoyed the adventure. For it was an adventure, taking up employment in North Carolina, working remotely from California.

Normally, a recruiter fades away after employment is realized and the finder’s fee is secured. But not Angel. Praveena and she got into a correspondence relationship whereby there was a steady exchange of information through picture postcards of their travels. I daresay this was a pen pal situation.

The Brainwave

Now comes my brainwave. It happens that Angel and her husband Brian live in Phoenix. I think you can connect the dots.

Just a couple of days prior to our scheduled pass through Phoenix, we asked if Angel and Brian would be available for a quick get-together for coffee. Much to our delight, they were. The rest was logistics.

The coffee meeting lasted just a couple of hours, but we exchanged a wealth of information. We got to know each other a lot better.

We got several tips from Brian about Tucson and Saguaro National Park to help us get the most of our visit there. The most important tips were to see the gorgeous sunset from the Gates Pass lookout and also to partake in the baked goods from a local bakery, Beyond Bread. We did visit the bakery, but sadly missed the Gates Pass sunset (details in a future story).

Just like Brian said as we were leaving, we can now “put a face to the postcards!”

Road Trip 2021 Day 2 was quite unlike Day 1. There was no unexpected, unforeseen detour leading to unwanted experiences–only the planned stop in Phoenix that provided us the enjoyment that was expected, foreseen, and realized.

On the way from Phoenix to Tucson, we saw the University of Phoenix building and smiled. A couple of our friends back home did their coursework remotely and earned their graduate degrees from this university.

Since the overall drive time for Day 2 was much less, we checked into our hotel at a decent time, even with the stop in Phoenix!

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This is part of a series of stories about our road trip through the southwestern United States in December 2021.

The overview story covering the entire trip is already published. I plan to write companion stories like this one capturing our varied experiences, some wonderful and some not so pretty, in more detail in the coming days and weeks.

The following list gives a glimpse of what is available as well as what's to come:

• Road Trip Overview
• Day 1
• Day 2 [this one]
• Saguaro National Park
• White Sands National Park
• Carlsbad National Park
• Guadalupe Mountains National Park
• Petroglyph National Monument
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Day 10
• Day 11
• Hotel roundup — comparison of our accommodations during the trip
• Food roundup — how we did as vegetarians through the trip

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This story is an adaptation of the original here.

Please visit pvenkatraman.com to read other writings of mine.

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