Day 1

The drive went better than I expected. Except for a creepy feeling at the rest stop I paused at about halfway (why do only the weird ones stop at rest stops… wait, what does that say about me?), the drive went smoothly. My Saturn VUE, on its first long trip, held up admirably. I made it nearly 400 miles before I chickened out on the far side of Phoenix and gassed up for the last 90 miles. I’m still not sure it wouldn’t have made the majority of that, but I was in the final 1/8 of a tank of gas and didn’t want to do something stupid. Not today!

And I know everyone is reading the blog to know about the drive. Yeah, right.
:-)

The Date
We met about 4:30pm after both showering and getting dressed for the date. After a long travel day, you need to refresh!

She was wearing a devastating blue dress and looked absolutely smashing. We found an Olive Garden at which to eat (and noted Target on the way—she needs Halloween adornments so that will be a must-stop location either tomorrow or Saturday). We ate more than I thought we would, which is to say not much. But the conversation seemed to flow easily and we were able to talk about the same wide range of topics as we do nightly. I felt it went pretty well. My tongue was only tied for about the first hour! ;-) She has a beautiful smile and a great laugh.

The adventure really began as we tried to find our way back. We were in conversation and I missed the first turn and we didn’t realize it until we were pretty far up. From there, we had to break out the map and use her excellent navigation skills to get us back on track. The streets in Tucson have a bad habit of not being contiguous, so we managed to be on the wrong part of Magee twice, on La Cholla going in wrong direction once, we ran by, through, and on Ina more times than I can count, and finally found the correct portion of Shannon to lead us back to her resort. The fact that the only map we after both of our attempts to procure one was a crappy one that didn’t even label all the streets didn’t help. But she was more than up to the task and we made it safely.

Of course, that left me to navigate back to my hotel alone. I made it and even found the back entrance to the hotel that deposits me right at my door!

We plan to head to Saguaro National Park, possibly to that Target for some shopping, and maybe to karaoke. For those who know me, you can rest assured: she has promised not to make me sing. No point in subjecting the good people of Tucson to that!!

I had a blast with her. I absolutely cannot wait for tomorrow.