With our recent rains, an abundance of wildflowers is starting to bloom across the landscape, but our tight schedule won’t allow us the opportunity to stop and smell those mostly scentless blossoms. A few days ago, I wrote that we’d be heading east, and that’s just what we are doing on this road that will bring us back to Duncan, Arizona. Once we arrive out there, we’ll be just a few miles from New Mexico. Prior to that, but not quite at the halfway point of our journey, we’ll make what is now an obligatory stop in Miami at Guayo’s El Rey Mexican restaurant. Yeah, I know it was only three days ago I was there, and yet again, I’ll be dining on carne asada as they have perfected this dish. I’ve already called ahead to ensure I wouldn’t be stopping, only to find disappointment. Had they been sold out, the plan was to stop at La Paloma Mexican restaurant in Solomon, Arizona, but it turns out that later, we’d have been foiled as they closed forever back on Valentine’s Day.
Prior to this highly anticipated dinner with the sun still offering us ample light, Caroline continued making progress in The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History by 14th-century scholar Ibn Khaldûn. The book is a bit dry at times, dated too, but then we consider that this was written in the 14th century when Europe was just starting to emerge from the Dark Ages that had lasted since the fall of Rome. It’s important to note that Europe only reawakened for the Renaissance following the revival of Humanism, meaning classical learning. Hey America, how long will you lie fallow, allowing your intellectual druthers to rot on the vine? Anyway, the book goes on, and our surprise continues as the parallels with modernity appear prescient.
Quickly shifting roadside hues of reds, oranges, purples, and yellows with nearly similar tones skyward were drawing our eyes to these bursts of color instead of the road ahead. Fortunately for us, our new car has adaptive cruise control, stay-in-lane technology, and some other features that allow the indulgence of gazing at the beauty that will only be part of the Arizona desert for brief moments before disappearing for the evening.
While only a weekend getaway, this is still a vacation for us, and while in this mode, we can easily allow ourselves to fall into full indulgence. An hour past Miami, we will be arriving in Pima, Arizona, along with seemingly everyone else from the area showing up at Taylor Freeze for a St. Patrick’s Day celebratory ice cream. A shared malted chocolate shake warmed our souls as it’s a rare day that we stop for such a treat.
Our arrival at Chateau Simpson is heralded with fanfare by the village folk celebrating in drunken revelry to Honky Tonk Badonkadonk in the streets of Duncan. Others might say that this was merely their way of commemorating St. Patrick’s Day, but I’m taking it as a sign that they knew we were coming and pulled out all the stops.
Clearing the crowd, renowned artist Don Carlos cut a path so we might sooner take refuge in the chateau, greeting us with a hearty welcome as though he were opening his home to King Kaka Fuego and his bride Ninnyhammer instead of the humble guests we are. The Old Library Room would be our sanctuary for the duration, and we were assured that we’d be the only other guests, along with a couple of treasure-hunting geologists attempting to appear inconspicuous, but anyone with an iota of worldly experience could see the adventure they were on: they were here to grab the gold and run.
Prior to taking up our familiar places in the parlor for hot tea and even hotter conversation, we would need to pay our respects to Dimitri, Malaki, Angelina, Fabio, and Molly, who would parade by offering us claws, seductive feline purrs, and feigning aloofness implying their lack of interest, though we all know that cats require attention on their terms and will get it. With the formalities out of the way, we could get down to talking psychedelics, Proust, Tacitus, Bergson, and Death by Bunga.
That’s kind of how things went prior to laying our heads down to sleep for the first night of our weekend away.