Catalina State Park (Tucson) and Roper State Park (Safford)

By Ross

We like Tucson. While the Phoenix suburbs are like a shiny but dull new Mercedes Benz, Tucson is more like a 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS. Sure it's got a little rust and no seat belts, but it also has a lot of character and personality. Our home base for a week in Tucson: Catalina State Park in the shadow of Mount Lemmon and the Coronado National Forest. From our campsite we ventured out for some highly rated foods, like tamales at Tucson Tamales and the Sonoran hot dogs at El Guerrero Canelo Restaurant. I rode the nearby mountain bike trails while Robin ran around the park. We had beautiful weather. We drank great coffee. We slept soundly.

With no openings in the Catalina S.P. campground on the weekend, sadly we were forced to depart Tucson. We are spending a week at Roper Lake State Park in Safford, Arizona. The park is beautiful but the community is economically depressed. The small downtown features shuttered storefronts and many nearby homes are in disrepair. Everything will be closing for Thanksgiving so we're planning to have a quiet rainy (forecasted) day giving thanks in our little travel trailer. And to celebrate this day, we're skipping our breakfast green smoothies and making a Banana Pecan Dutch Baby. Here's the ingredients:

• ¾ C flour
  

• 3 eggs
  

• 1 T sugar
  

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  

• ¼ tsp Kosher salt
  

• ¼ C whole milk
  

• 3 T unsalted butter
  

• 1-2 bananas
  

• 1 C pecans
  

• Maple syrup

This thing is part pancake and part blob. It puffs up into a delicious, ugly mess. Happy Thanksgiving!

From one of Robin’s runs at Catalina State Park, Tucson

From one of Robin’s runs at Roper Lake State Park, in Safford.