The Trip That Almost Wasn't-Part One

 

For months, we had been looking forward to a vacation.  We haven’t had a real one in years and it was way past time for some R & R!

September weather in Arizona is always spectacular especially in the higher elevations where it is getting cooler. We were sick of the summer heat down here in Tucson.

I had heard of a place in the mountains where there were comfy little cabins situated right on a lake.  My plan was to roll out of bed in the morning and walk out the door and do some plein aire painting…all day…for several days. My husband’s plan was to roll out of bed in the morning and walk out the door and fish….all day…for several days.

That was the plan.

“Life is what happens while you are making other plans.”

I don’t know who first said that but it’s absolutely true.

Our ‘spectacular’ Arizona turned spectacular, all right.  It was spectacularly rainy…all day…all night and all over the state.  We checked the long term forecasts daily…it never improved.  Where we had planned to go, the temperatures were looking decidedly cold.  Cold and wet.  Not appealing.  Not at all!

We decided we probably should just stay home.  And then, we decided we should just go anyway but maybe someplace with temperatures at least a tad warmer than our lakeside destination. 

I thought I was simply dying to spend my days in one spot painting.  My husband thought he wanted to fish and fish and fish.  The UNIVERSE stepped in, took over and gave us exactly what we needed instead of what we thought we wanted.

I am grateful!

We laughed as we left Tucson because this is what the weather looked like.  I had already taken a gazillion photos with my little Canon camera before we got 10 miles away from our house.

 

Don’t my mountains look beautiful all dressed in their white gossamer gowns?

We were determined to make the best of things and headed in a northward direction which took us through parts of the Phoenix area which looked like this.

 

I about went into panic mode wondering if we’d be killed in a massive interstate pile up before we even got a good start on our vacation.

But we made it through a rain like Phoenix hasn’t probably seen in decades, thanks to my husband’s great driving skills.  A long time, cross country truck driver has some awesome skills for such conditions!

I realize that those of you who live where it actually rains are thinking I'm a tad nuts getting so excited about such rain.  Remember, I am a desert rat who lives in a place which gets very little rain every year. 

Absolutely every direction we looked, there were menacing clouds.  Absolutely nothing looked inviting. 

 

Also, all those clouds created a special sort of beauty that we are not used to seeing around here.  And it was cool-blessedly, deliciously cool!

I will not give a mile-by-mile account of the trip, I promise, but I ask you to accept that every mile of it was something different and somehow, the exact right thing for two people who were weary of the same old-same old.

Before we left the house, I had felt a desire to head toward the Yarnell area.  That is the place where those 19 Hot Shot firefighters died last summer.  There is a little place there, The Shrine of St. Joseph, and I wanted to see if it had escaped the ravages of the fire.  And also, there was something else drawing me that way…toward Yarnell and on to Prescott….where those heroes were from.

I need to back track a little.  After a McDonald’s breakfast, we had to go back home to get something important which had been forgotten…MY DOGGONE CAMERA!!!!  The clouds were so pretty I wanted to take their picture but when I reached for my camera, it wasn’t there!  After a quick look inside the house…no camera….I found it in the car, right where I’d put it but not where I’d ‘thought’ I’d put it.

I only mention this because it turned out the timing was truly everything on this trip…especially this first day….

I knew, when I laid eyes on this roadside attraction, that all would be well...no, wonderful....on our trip.

 

 

If you know me and my history, you KNOW what this frog meant to me!

It was truly a good thing to have that special 'froggie' blessing 'cause this is what we were driving into.

 

 I think this is what they call 'visibility zero.'

 

 

 

 

 

I should have been terrified.  But I wasn't.  I felt as if I were being embraced by that big, soft cloud and I almost felt like I could have jumped right off that ledge and fallen into Heaven's own big, white, down comforter!  Of course, the reality is that I would have had a fall of many hundreds of feet because just beyond those grasses and wild flowers, it is STRAIGHT down! 

 

We had to literally creep around all the hairpin curves on that long, winding road over that mountain top but as I said, timing is everything and when we got off the mountain, down in the valley, we were in the clear and very near Yarnell.

 

And we saw this:

 

 

I yelled ‘Stop’ to my dear hubby who immediately found a safe place to pull off the highway.

We learned that a Hot Shot crew from Tennessee were being shown the area where The Nineteen had perished.

 I learned that ‘no, it would not be inappropriate for me to give the Prescott Fire House my painting ‘Going Home’ and yes, they would find a place for it, no doubt.

 

I asked the Prescott fireman if I could hug him. We hugged.  I cried. 

I could have come right back home after that and been perfectly satisfied.

I am so very grateful for that experience given us by a loving Universe.  The Frog.  The Heavenly Mountaintop Cloud.  The Firefighters.

 

And we have just begun.

To be continued tomorrow.