Our plane left Indianapolis and landed in Detroit about forty five minutes later. An Indy-Detroit-Phoenix leg seems as reasonable as visiting Mercury by way of Jupiter, but we were saving a couple hundred bucks and that seemed really reasonable to us.  Coffee and scones in the Motor City terminal while waiting for our connecting flight to the country of the sun. Plenty for us to talk about.

Steve and I were returning to Arizona and Tracey was on his maiden voyage. The ninth of August, and already the late summer rains had been a deluge, making this the wettest monsoon season in southeastern Arizona since 1921. Reports on the field herping forum were promising, and visions of Green Rat Snakes and Gila Monsters danced in our heads.

Most of our time was devoted to the southeastern corner of the state. With a master birder and a botanist on board, this was no mere snake-hunting expedition. We were armed with an ambitious itinerary, planning to hike canyons by day and cruise roads by night. We were ready for whatever experiences the mountains and deserts would bring our way.

Our plane reached Phoenix in the late afternoon, and we dumped all of our gear in the rental car and headed south towards Tucson and beyond, the Chiricahuas...