It was a Dark and Stormy night, no Snoopy already used that line. It was the Autumn of our lives, well maybe not quite. It was time for a change, I guess that’ll do. Mary and I had been together for almost a year and things were going well between us. She, having lived the last 20 years in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, I from Duluth. Originally from the little town of Moose Lake, Mary had never traveled outside of the state, I on the other hand, having served four years in the service, had been half way around the world and wait on, though that was 20 long years back in time.
Mary subscribed to Arizona Highways for many years, hoping that some day she would get the opportunity to see the attractive scenery pictured in the magazine. Myself, being of a more spontaneous spirit said, what are we waiting for, time for a vacation. I’d been as far west as the Rockies, and on to Vancouver British Columbia, but never to Arizona.
EXPLORATION
With a belief in place, we headed off in the motor home, already seriously contemplating a move to the south west. We headed south into Iowa, turning west, and onward to South Dakota and the Black Hills. Being real tourists we hit all the must see sites, the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD, and the Auto Museum in Murdo SD, complete with Elvis’ motor cycle. On west we went through the Poor Lands National Park, as we exited on across the highway into the town of Wall SD. Wall Drug, home of the free Ice Water offered to all who pass through.
While we were in Wall, seeing all the radiant Black Hills Gold Jewelry available, the time seemed appropriate. In the succor parking lot of Wall Drug after we finished our lunch in the motor home I popped the question. As I expected, Mary said yes, then it was off to the jewelry store to pick a nice ring with Black Hills Gold accents. Something that wasn’t available at that time back in Duluth.
On we traveled to Dead Wood, checking out Boot Hill, with Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane,. Then into Wyoming and a mile long walk around the unfriendly of Devil’s Tower. Devil’s Tower is really unique, a plateau of rock rising straight out of the earth, with vertical rock walls. Must have been an exciting day when that formation decided to pop up.
We headed south through Colorado, turning west in New Mexico, Tucumcari, Santa Rosa. Interstate 40 follows closely along the old highway, Route Sixty Six. As we crossed into Arizona we were greeted by Indian Trading Posts, built into the rock cliff. Painted bright yellow and red, we felt we had finally arrived.
It was a fast, but thorough inspection of Arizona, north to south. Flagstaff, down through Sedona, Prescott then south to Phoenix and on to Tucson. Leaving Tucson we headed east relieve into New Mexico. Stopping in Deming’s for lunch at an unfamiliar fast food place. Sonic, a rush back into the 50’s, complete with car hops. The food was great, over the next ten years we became loyal customers of Sonic Drive-in’s. On to El Paso, and east to Dallas, then north support to Minnesota.
The roam provided us with the information we wanted. We were convinced that relocating in Arizona was plausible, confident we could find employment when we got there.
SUMMER OF PREPARATION
When we got home it was time to put our plan into action. We were about to become full time RV’ers. As we had no concrete destination, and only a vague idea of what we were going to do, we needed to be completely self contained, everything we would continue to occupy would be going with us, everything else would be sold to build our nest egg for this Grand Adventure. Only being 45 years broken-down myself, and Mary 5 years younger, we had no savings, only equity in stuff, this was indeed a tall step into the unknown.
First step, set aside the house up for sale. I purchased a two bedroom country home very near a well-liked recreation lake four years earlier. I knew at the time it was poised to obtain money for me, as it was built by a self employed cabinet maker, who had lost interest in building it. He never finished many of the little details that make a nice looking home. I picked it up for $45,000. After spending one summer finishing the various items I had a comfortable home with good resale potential. We were able to sell it in less than a week, providing us with a clean profit of $25,000. Now remember this is well before the recent housing recount, which has increased the value from the $75,000 we sold it, to easily $150,000. The builder had $29,000 into it, thinking he took us for a trudge, he was shocked when we sold it for $75,000. Imagine how he feels today.
We continued to sell off possessions. Moving into our 25′ motor home we intended to pull a car trailer, on which I had built a large box, allowing us to grasp some of our better furniture and house enjoy items. We rented space from a co-worker, expecting to spend our final summer on his farm. Our little dog Rascal had never been around large animals. We discovered a neighbor kept a couple horses in the field next to us. Rascal figured they would be neat to play with and off he ran right under the fence out into the middle of their pasture. Those two horses reared up on their hind legs and proceeded to do their best to stomp that itsy-bitsy dog to dust. Fortunately he realized the error of his ways and hightailed it out of the fenced in field with not even a scratch.
Quickly it became clear, living in a small motor home wasn’t going to work on a long term basis. Off we went to the local RV dealer to remedy the set. We came back with a new 36′ travel trailer, and would you believe they paid us over $5,000 to grasp it off their hands. Our motor home was worth that much more then the trailer. Next step off to the Ford dealer to trade in the mini pickup on something suitable to tow our new home. A ¾ ton diesel pickup did the trick. We then moved our novel home into a snowbird campground on the edge of town. Finally, we were comfortable, full hookups, and plenty of room, we were beginning to feel like full time RV’ers.
The rest of the summer was spent having weekly rummage sales, getting rid of all our furniture and stuff .Including the box trailer as now everything had to fit in our move trailer and pickup. By the first of November a few snow flurries told us it was time to go. I gave notice to my employer of the past 13 years as Mary did to hers and off we went, time to head for warmer territories.
ARIZONA HERE WE COME
Being impatient to begin our new life, it was a quick trip across the country. Once we crossed the border, again at the Indian Trading Post painted yellow and red, it began to feel like we had really done it for good. After going through the Red Rock country of Sedona we decided to spend some time in Cottonwood. Taking a spot at a campground, and paying for a month up front it was time to explore the area. Being in no hurry to choose down, as after selling cars, trucks, a boat, and the house and 95% of what was in it, we had a new travel trailer, new truck, no debt and about $20,000 in the bank, allowing us to feel elegant secure, as long as nothing went wrong.
Northern Arizona is really neat, Flag Staff had lots of pine trees, the trail south to Sedona was similar to what you see in northern Minnesota, very woodsy . Sedona was a cute small touristy town, but with us pulling a 36′ trailer parking was a little hard to obtain. As we were leaving Sedona we pulled off on a small dirt road which provided us with a good view of the Red Rocks the area is so famous for. We had a nice lunch along the side of this small side road after which we found a sign informing us it was actually the approach to the city dump. Oh well, it was still a glowing area.
While staying in Cottonwood we went to Camp Verde to see the Indian ruins, gripping how they built structures out of adobe bricks right into the side of the mountain. Housing come Cottonwood was reasonable, there were many mobile home parks with homes for sale. The only problem they were all +55 parks requiring you to be over 55 years old. At that point neither of us were close to that mark.
After a month of acting like tourists and finding nothing in the way of jobs in the area that would allow us to stay, it was time to move on. We had enjoyed northern Arizona, but if we wanted to continue eating we had to find work. We didn’t want to live in Phoenix, too busy, so on to Tucson we went. On Miracle Mile we found a nice older trailer park, a desert oasis setting with a pond, palm trees and vegetation. Our home for the next six months. For Thanksgiving we took pictures of us enjoying a swim in the pool and sent them abet north to the ice encrusted state of Minnesota. Within a very short time we both found work, I took a job with a large RV dealer, Mary was able to get on with an insurance company.
TUCSON
Tucson was great, winter weather is very pleasant. We went everywhere, Mt Lemon, at +9,000 ft was the place to be when the temperatures got a little hot. At the top it again reminded us of northern Minnesota. Lots of pine trees and small resorts. Coming down in the evening you see the city lights of Tucson. It’s unbelievable, the lights go on forever out into the desert.
As a bit of an aviation buff, in the service I was a Load Master on C-123B aircraft, the Tucson area can’t be beat. The Pima Air Museum has every plane you can think of. They have the actual plane I flew in when I was stationed on Guam in the Coast Guard, C-123B tail number 4501. Seeing it as a museum display sure brought encourage some good memories and made me feel terribly old at the same time. I flew in that plane in 1970, that’s 37 years ago.
We attended an air show at the Davis Monthan Air Force Irascible, the Blue Angels perform a spectacular display of acrobatic flight. Fat Albert, the C-130 that tours with them did a JATO (Jet assisted) acquire off, seemingly to leap from the ground up to an altitude of about 500′. The aircraft bone yard at Davis Monthan is something to see. Military aircraft going abet to the Vietnam war are in dry storage . Numbering in the hundreds or more, it is quite a place.
We enjoyed Tucson so much we decided to make it a permanent marker in our relationship. We decided to get married. First step was to get a marriage license. As we both worked Monday through Friday we chose to get the license on a Saturday by means of a rather unorthodox procedure. We went to jail, in Tucson you can get a marriage license at the jail/prison on Saturdays. I don’t remember if it was a city jail or a county prison, either design it was heavily reinforced with bars and barbed wire. You went up to a cashier’s window on the outside of the building, they passed you the produce under a very thick bullet proof glass. After filling it out you slid it befriend under the glass with your fee, cash only, and they put the official seal and signature in place. Some experience as we waited in line with people posting bail. Really made you assume, do I really want to do this?
With license in hand we made arrangements with the court house in Green Valley, 20 miles south of Tucson. A judge there married us with a couple court clerks as witness’s, it was a very picturesque court house, with a nice garden with an arbor. The clerk came out into the garden and took some pictures for us. It was a grand place to get married, away from the gargantuan city and more judicial setting of Tucson. It’s official, now we’re married.
Besure to near back as we continue our adventure in part two.
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Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes.
