DOWN THE ROAD

November 15, 2010

I know some people had their laugh for the day when they heard my husband and I were driving to Arizona for the winter, it gets funnier (is that a word?) when you throw four (4) cats and one small yellow canary into the mix. All were in proper containers of course - and yes I know the old story about no matter how hard Fluffy begs do not let her out of the cage. We don’t have a Fluffy - would you believe Ozzi cat? And he did beg. And beg. And no we didn’t let him out until we stopped for the night.

We were delayed a day, the garage thought we had a major problem, crack in the transfer case and it turned out not to be that at all. I’ve never heard of the transmission being over-filled with fluid, but it was and looked for all the world like there was a crack at the top. Once everything was removed and cleaned up the problem disappeared. In addition to the transmission being overfilled the transfer case had also been filled with the wrong fluid. Trav moved the motel reservations up a day and we left early Saturday morning instead of Friday. The Friday departure was on purpose so we didn’t have to drive through any major city on a work day and fight traffic. 

Fortunately Trav is a really good driver - says it is in his blood as his brothers were all long-haul truckers. But we arrived in Ogden, Utah with no difficulties. Trav had stayed at the Best Western High Country Inn before and it was just dandy. One doesn’t give a lot of thought to the things which cat owners need to consider. Such as can the cats get under the beds where you can’t reach them to put them back in their crates to leave? Or under, between davenports or other furniture which makes for tearing your hair out. The High Country Inn was pretty much cat proof. There is even an excellent restaurant as part of the complex, Jeremiah’s and we had both dinner and breakfast the next morning right there. Really good food and excellent service.

The next night put us in Kanab, Utah at the Red Hills Best Western. Trav had also stayed there before and knew we had to stuff bath towels under the head of the bed or the cats would disappear under the bed with the only way to get them out being taking the bed apart. Really.
We got in early enough to take a nice walk around town - Kanab is very famous for all the western movies which have been made there over the years. All along the main streets are placards with photos of various movie stars who made films there with the names of the films.
Utah’s “Little Hollywood.” Very nicely done.

The big show is the drive down from Ogden. This is the route for the North Rim of Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Lake Powell Recreational Area, The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. I had never seen anything like this and my poor neck swiveled like an owl (well almost). It really is breathtaking beauty and not at all what I expected. Fall is late in this region, so we also had the wonderful fall color added to the sculpted vermillion cliffs. Lots of wow!

We pulled into our winter digs around lunchtime on Monday - not bad time at all. Our friend here, Dorothy, had the house opened up and waiting for us to pull in.

We’ve been here a week now and I’m amazed daily. I expected the desert to be anything but green. It is green.  Oh it’s still picky and everything bites, but it is green. There is also nice green lawn around the club house/ community center across the street. It is watered in the winter and really is lovely. None of the properties in the community have lawns, it is not allowed. I can see where people come and go over the year maintaining lawns could be a real mess - much less the water necessary to keep them up in the summer. So the landscaping is various desert plants, rocks, pots and sculptures over all quite attractive. I don’t recall if I have told you exactly where we are, it is called Tucson Meadows on the southeast side of Tucson.

I had never been in an ‘over 55 gated manufactured home community’ but this is one. There are several in the area, Trav has been to most since he was on the shuffleboard team when he lived here before. He calls it geezersport, and some of the folks playing are very serious. This can be as bad as the contract bridge bunch I knew some years ago. Don’t make a mistake; they won’t let you forget it. There is a large heated pool, two hot tubs, sauna, pool room with two regulation tables, a terrific kitchen, dining room, auditorium with stage and of course the shuffleboard courts. There is also a section of the community for folks with motor homes, permanent spots with either a pad to park the motor home and a small ‘park model’ home and awning, screened Arizona rooms a nice way to make living in a motor home actually livable over a longer period of time. We have friends from Livingston who have a permanent spot in another park who have spent their winters down here for a number of years. They called today to let us know they were finally here too.

It certainly is a different life, and we are settling in - and did I mention we joined the choir here too? There is something to do every day - which is very good for people who do not have a lot of other interests like we do. Everyone has been very welcoming and I do feel like I am part of the community. 

Did I mention the sky is really blue and the sun shines a lot? And it’s warm? I love it! 

Comment on this article

Archive of Ladyfisher