Tucson

Got back from a super fun, whirlwind weekend in Tucson late Tuesday night. I went with a few folks who became really wonderful friends over the weekend, but who I didn't know very well at all before we took off. We camped, we hiked, we skinny-dipped in freezing cold river water, we played music on top of a mountain! We got stopped by border patrol and got pulled over by a sheriff at 2 in the morning, we bought copious amounts of gems and found piles of quartz in the hills beneath the saguaros. I pulled cactus spines out of TJ's leg after he refused to believe that chollas were soft and fuzzy instead of being needled devils. I listened to Manu Chao incessantly and we did some chanting with the Hare Krishna weirdos. Here's some photos:

a trilobite (?) at the gem show.

Singer! The cutest dog who howled along to all of our songs and snuggled like so into my accordion case.

Za'aki and I. I love this fella.

On top of aforementioned mountain climbed.

Sunset over the Coronado National Forest (Tanque Verde).

This river was SO COLD and we all went in it butt-ass nekkid.

I met this fellow on top of a mountain; he played banjo and harmonica and gave me an absurd parting gift.

It's good to be home but I do miss the desert terribly...sand in every corner of my existence, getting high off the sun and the wind and the dizzying views, the silence and the swollen moon rising over jagged violet peaks in the distance. Coyotes crying, owls questioning the night air; the sounds reverberating off the canyon walls and seeming to come from everywhere at once. I'll be back soon enough.