Up, Up, and Away!

          Our first look at our mountain home after being gone for 18 days. The grass needed to be mowed.

          Our welcoming committee consisted of one feral and not even ours. This guy is Jerry and he ranges between the Robinsons' house and ours. He's here almost every morning for breakfast.

          As I write this, more than a month later, I've yet to see Mr. Mister, the other feral that's not mine.

          Our first day home was busy but I took some time out of the next day to walk Ginger around.

          Hmmm. Methinks someone who is not me left the barn door open and the wind got it.

          I picked a wildflower bouquet for my windowsill vase. I thought the pine boughs might make the house smell good after being closed up for so long. I got sticky pine sap on my hands. 

    

          This handsome guy took up residence in a corner of the awing. The way he has his legs folded makes him look weird.

          I told Mike about the barn door. "I meant to close that," he tells me. A couple of days later we went to fix it.

          Mike used the tractor to straighten the rail as much as he could...

 ...then a sledgehammer to finish the job.

          Reattach the hinges...

 ...and almost as good as new!

          I was surprised on a trip to town that the vineyard didn't use bird nets this year. Instead, they had balloons.

          I wonder how they decide when to use what or if they just alternate.

          I was photographing this little crab spider...

...when a wasp landed nearby. He started going up one side of the leaves and down the other. He's hunting, I thought. I'd hate to be that little spider if he finds him.

          I spent the rest of my week cleaning out the RV, getting ready for my flight to Phoenix and writing. We left here at two in the morning to catch my 5:30 flight. We were there plenty early but that's way better than being a few minutes late. I hadn't printed my boarding pass so I did that as soon as the self-serve kiosks came online. There was a lady sitting in an airport wheelchair with four bags and no help in sight. Mike was a gentleman and helped her get through the check-in process before the counter attendant called for help to get to her flight.

          Because of security these days, Mike couldn't go very far with me and we had to say our goodbyes. It's not like the old days where he could wait at the gate with me, watch me board, and the plane takeoff.

          I approached the first hurdle of getting on an airplane, a guard checking boarding passes against ID. There wasn't anyone else around. I had my smile on my face. "♫Good morning!♪" I called in my cheery sing-song voice a little before I got there.

          He took my ID and boarding pass, "Good morning." He checked my face against the picture on my driver's license. "You must be a morning person."

          I was taken aback and had to think about it for a moment. The last time I'd even thought about classifying myself, I was a night owl. My, how things change.  "Yes, I guess I am!"

          A gal came up behind him and he glanced up. "Okay, Miss Margaret (my given name), you are a pre-check so I'll see you in a  minute."

          Pre-check? I'm a pre-check? How the heck did I get that! I hadn't applied for it but when he handed my boarding pass back to me, I glanced at it and it does indeed say pre-check with a pretty green checkmark stamped next to it.

          "I don't know what that means."

          "It means you go right over there and you don't have to take off your shoes or take your electronics or liquids out of your bag. I'll see you there in a minute."

          I didn't know what he meant by that but in a minute it became clear as he motioned me into the full body scanner.

          "I told you I'd see you in a minute, Miss Elizabeth, and you are good to go."

          I didn't bother to correct him as I thanked him, collected my things and made my way to the gates.

          The first leg of my journey was on a smaller airplane with just four seats across, two on each side of the aisle. The guy beside me was already in his seat and when he saw me he dug his earbuds from his pack and plugged them into his phone and his ears.

          I don't want to talk to you either!

          Once we were in the air the cabin lights went down and almost everyone snoozed on the way to Chicago. It didn't bother me too much that I'd forgotten my earbuds. We were getting near the end of our flight when my seatmate stirred. He checked the time on his phone, he pulled his ticket from his pocket. "Excuse me, but aren't we supposed to be there by now?" he asked me.

          "I think we're almost there."

          He went through the routine of checking everything again and I knew something was bothering him. "What's wrong?"

          "My connecting flight leaves in ten minutes."

          I looked up and saw the flight attendant, a somewhat goofy but lovable character, coming down the aisle. "Maybe you should say something."

          "Excuse me," he called.

          The attendant stopped and leaned over, eager to help.

          "How soon will we land? I'm supposed to catch my connecting flight in a few minutes."

          "There's an hour time difference," he informed us. "You'll be fine."

          That meant I'd have a two-hour layover and didn't have to hurry to my next gate which is a good thing because Chicago's O'Hare is huge!

          I flew coach. Have you ever flown coach? My second flight was on a Boeing 737 with two rows of three seats. We were packed in like sardines and only one of us could use the armrest at any given time. I had a middle seat with a lady on my right and a gentleman on my left. Neither one wasted any time in putting in earbuds. Was it me? Do I just look like a chatty old lady? Well! I'll just show them! I won't talk to either one of them! The gal in front of me had a different way of saying she didn't want to talk. She pulled a hoodie over her face.

          We hadn't been in the air very long before a flight attendant came around passing out earbuds to anyone who wanted them. Yes! I'd loaded some new sermons onto my Nook and now I could pass the time listening to them and playing Solitaire, which takes very little concentration to play.

          My tummy growled. I hadn't been ready for breakfast at two a.m. and it'd been a long time since supper the night before. When they came around with a little snack size of maple cookies, I took them and was thankful. Before long they came around with the drink cart and were also selling a more substantial meal. I had money. I had plenty of money. But when I found out I could bring my own food, I'd packed peanut butter rice cakes and a baggie of baby carrots. I know that most rules of etiquette are out the window on an airplane. It's perfectly acceptable to eat and not offer any to anyone else, but I felt funny about it. Now that the guy next to me was getting a Classic box, I pulled my food out of my bag.

          The flight attendant swiped his credit card and giving it back to him, she turned to me. "Oh. I see you have diet food," and gave me a thumbs up.

          I smiled at her approval. I wanted her picture. I wanted to show you how truly beautiful this lady is. She had a very warm and engaging personality and her smile was genuine. You could tell she loved her job. 

        That's not the case with all the flight attendants on this trip. One lady smiled when she looked at or talked to anyone but she just gave off the impression that she was too good to be 'waiting' on us and that's all you'll hear about that.

          The cleaning crew was already on the plane working by the time I got to the front and this guy saw my camera. "Paparazzi! Should I pose?"

          I smiled. "Sure!"

          He gave me a little attitude and I took his picture. I love people like this.

          It was late morning when I arrived in Phoenix and didn't have long to wait before Patti was there. By early afternoon Momma and I were tucked into some serious Skip-Bo playing.

          "I'm warning you right up front," Momma said. "I'm going to be ruthless." And she was!

          When Patti rang the dinner bell she asked how our game was going.

          "It was a slaughter! It was a shut-out! She won all three games!" I exclaim.  

          Patti laughed. "Ma, you have to let her win once in a while or she won't play with you anymore."

          Momma laughed. "I told her I wasn't going to go easy on her."

          Momma and I played every day and she won most of the time. I think I won my first game around the nine or ten mark.

          In one of my morning emails to my beautiful sister Phyllis, I told her, "Momma and I are having so much fun playing Skip-Bo. I keep up the jibber-jabber the whole time but Momma ignores me for the most part. Hearing loss can be a blessing, you know."

           "Yes and the world is also prettier when you see it with very soft edges. My eyesight isn't what it used to be and when you cannot see the details, it's prettier."

          Oh, that can be true in so many instances. Like when I'm sweeping the floor. I never know how much I miss until I have to pick something up.

          And that's all you're going to hear about Skip-Bo.

          Patti's home is inviting and comforting.

          "I just acquired a Robert Redbird original," Patti told me. "I like the frame but they had it under plexiglass and it reflected so much light that I took it out and threw it away. I've ordered a piece of museum quality glass."

          Oh my gosh! The painting is so beautiful! Robert Redbird died a couple of years ago at the age of 76. Google him and see some of his other beautiful works.

          "I'd like to go for a run tomorrow," I told Patti. "Should I just go around the neighborhood?"

          "There's a trail you could run on. It's just down on Medlock."

          "Maybe after a while we could take the Kubota out and you could show me?" I suggested. I do much better when I'm shown something than when you just tell me.

          "We can do that," Patti agreed. "But right now I'm going to town to pick up that glass. You wanna go?"

          I didn't. When I wasn't playing cards with Momma, I was working on my story making. And that's what I was doing when I heard a bird, outside the window, making a ruckus. I don't know what kind of bird he is but he was not happy that he couldn't get at the hummingbird nectar. 

            Don'cha just love this hummingbird feeder? I do. I'll have to see if I can't come up with something similar to make for myself.

          Speaking of birds, the quail, with their little hats on, cross Patti's property twice every day. "They go up in the morning and come back in the evening," she told me.

          I could have gotten better pictures of them had I tried harder, but I was busy with other things, you understand.

          Now speaking of crossing Patti's property...

          Luke Air Force Base is right down the road and those powerful and awe-inspiring jets fly over all day long.

          "They train fighter pilots there," Patti tells me. She and Mom have lived there long enough that it's just white noise to them.

          Did you know that Luke is home to over 70 F-35A Lightning II jets and graduate 105 pilots for them every year? They have 77 F-16 Fighting Falcons and they graduate 188 pilots for them every year. 

          Google them too. It's interesting.

          "That was plenty of money," Patti told me when she got home. "Two hundred and eighty-five dollars!"

          "Wow! What makes it so different from regular glass?"

          "It's anti-glare and has UV protection in it too," Patti tells me.

          We went to work putting the new glass in her Robert Redbird and getting it hung back up. I can't tell you how much I love this piece! Patti sat in her place on the couch and was pleased.

          "Okay, should we go for a ride and find that trail for you?" she asked.

          "Yeah. Let me grab my camera."

          Patti was just reaching for the keys for the Kubota when there was a humungous, gigantic, sonic boom from the other room. Honestly, guys, I thought something exploded in Momma's room.

          "I didn't," Patti told me later. "I knew what it was."

          As soon as we reached the living room, what it was, became apparent to me. The Robert Redbird was on the floor — the hook had failed. The couch, at least, kept the glass from flying all over the room. My heart just sank like a lead ball into the pit of my stomach.

          "I hope it didn't damage the painting," was Patti's first and most immediate concern. "Glass can be replaced."

          We pulled the couch away from the wall and inspected the painting. "Shit," Patti says. "Shit, shit, shit." Oh wait, maybe that was me. She might've used a stronger word. There were a few small scratches on the painting, only one spot where the paper was damaged a little, and none of it on the faces of the ladies.

          It took us about 15 minutes to clean up the glass and I saved a piece. "What for?" Patti asked.

          "I don't know but chances are I'll never buy a $285 dollar piece of glass and I'd just like to have a piece of it."

          "You can't take it on the plane."

          "Why not? They let me bring my hand mirror."

          "All right." I could tell Patti had her doubts but she didn't argue.

          "If they make me throw it away, I'll throw it away."

          "Okay, let's go," Patti said and got the Kubota keys from the hook. We stopped at Dakota's kennel and let her out. Dakota is an Australian Cattle Dog and one awesome dog! She was stolen twice and managed to get away and come home both times. She loves Patti as much as Patti loves her.

          Dakota took her usual seat in front. "You have to ride in back," Patti told her. Dakota got down and went to the back. Patti put the gate down and Dakota gave a mighty leap, unfortunately, before Patti was ready. Dakota fell back and hit her head against Patti's jaw. Dakota tried again and this time Patti was ready and gave her the little boost she needed to get in. Knowing the neck problems Patti's had, I was afraid for her. "I think I'm okay," she replied when I asked.

          I played cards with Momma that afternoon and Patti got out her watercolors and fixed the painting.

          "Now for the test," she said and carried it into Momma's sitting room. "Can you see where I touched it up?"

          Momma looked and looked but Patti had done such a good job that Momma couldn't find it.

          "Good. Tomorrow I'll go to town, pick out a new frame and order another piece of glass." The frame had broken in the fall too.

          "Why don't you tell them what happened?" I suggested. "Maybe they'll do something with you." Patti looked at me so I went on. "When Mike and I broke a toilet we were installing — and it was totally our fault, we went back to the store and told them what happened and they gave us a discount on the next one." It was an expensive, specialty toilet for an upflush system and we'd knocked the tank box off the bowl box and broke it.

          "Peggy, this isn't a small town. They're not going to do anything."

          Something you may not know about my sister is she hates to cook and yet she is a very good cook. Every meal she prepared for us was great. Momma likes to have a little bite of dessert after her evening meal and Patti always asks her what she'd like to have. "Is there any Tiramisu left? I'd like Peggy to have a piece."

          "No, Ma. You ate it all." Momma had to settle for something else that night.

          Every evening after the dinner dishes are cleaned up, Patti feeds Dakota her evening meal, gives her a treat and walks her around the perimeter of the property. I'd been walking along on these evening walks. This night Dakota saw the dog across the street and took off after him. It scared me. I was afraid Dakota would get hurt or Patti would get hurt breaking up the fight. Then I saw the other dog was behind a fence.

          "DAKOTA!" Patti yells. "DAKOTA! COME HERE!" Dakota obeyed and came back. "You leave him alone! He's not bothering you." A few seconds later Dakota takes off after him a second time.

          "DAKOTA!" Patti yells again. "DAKOTA! COME BACK HERE!" This time when Dakota came back Patti gave her a talking to and Dakota seemed like she was over it. 

          We started our walk and Dakota made a third dash for the fence.

          "DAKOTA! DAKOTA! COME HERE!" When Dakota came back Patti had had enough. "Okay. Back to your pen." You could tell Dakota knew what she was saying and begged for another chance. "No. You were a bad girl. No walk for you. Get back to your pen!" Dakota reluctantly went. When Patti reached the gate to shut it, Dakota stood there expecting her last head rub before the door closes. "No. You were bad," Patti told her, shut the door, turned her back and walked away. Dakota's head drooped. "She knows," Patti told me. "And she'll be good now for a while then she'll forget again."

          The next morning, and every morning, Patti set a beautiful breakfast at the bar for Momma. 

         I had my computer set up right next to it and worked while Momma ate. I didn't try to engage her in conversation because she only has breath enough to do one thing or the other; eat or talk. She was getting right down to the last of her breakfast and scraping the dish pretty hard. "Why don't you just pick it up and lick it?" I jokingly said.

          She surprised me when she said, "Sometimes I do! Cottage cheese licks off really, really nice."

          A couple of mornings later she had cottage cheese on her breakfast plate and she did indeed pick her plate up and lick it, but she wouldn't let me take a picture.

          Patti came back into the kitchen dressed for the day. "I'm going to town to order that glass. You want to go along?" she invited but I didn't want to go. Instead, I spent the time working on my stories. When I needed a break I went out and walked around taking pictures of Patti's landscaping, which I just love!

          She has a memorial garden to honor her husband, Lee, who's been gone for three years now.

          "Some of his ashes are under the plaque," Patti tells me. "It gives his daughter a place to go to talk to her dad." I know that some people need that and this is a beautiful tribute to Lee. He'd love it.

          That night at dinner, Patti told us what happened when she ordered the glass. "He asked me what happened and I hung my head. I told him how the hook failed and the painting fell. He felt so bad for me that he isn't going to charge his time to frame it for me."

          Something else weird happened that night. That night Patti didn't ask Momma what she wanted for dessert. Instead, she got up and came back with a nice big piece of Tiramisu for Momma and a piece for me. Patti seldom eats dessert. The look on Momma's face says it all. It's the best Tiramisu I've ever had. "It's like heaven on a fork!"

          I picked a good time to visit because the Arizona State Fair was in town.

          "Do you want to go to the fair tomorrow?" Patti asked.

          So Friday we went to the fair. We arrived shortly after it opened and it was crowded already. "It'll be worse over the weekend," Patti tells me.

          We stand in line and get our tickets. I actually got the senior discount because I'm 55 or older. Yeah, I'm older. At the gate, they searched all backpacks, purses, and had us empty our pockets.

          Right inside the entrance was an elephant. If they collect 500 pounds of plastic bags they'll get a brand new bench. Isn't that the best thing ever!

          It was lunchtime and I was hungry. Patti must have been hungry too. "Let's check out all of our options first and make a decision." 

         In the end, we decided on Indian Tacos and it was so good! The base is like a fry bread and I'd never had one of those with anything other than sugar and cinnamon on it before. To quote my friend Jessia, "It's da bomb!"

          We found the goats and the size of this guy was impressive. Isn't he handsome!

          We found the pigeons next. "I had no idea that pigeons came in such a range of sizes and colors," Patti said.                      

          "That one looks like he has a formal on." I pointed out the black and white one.

          "Some of these pigeons are big as chickens," Patti said and she did think they were chickens when we first saw them from a distance. I'll tell you what though. They were beautiful and my camera didn't do them justice.

          After the pigeons, we found the pigs. There were three little piggies, snoozing all content in a nice clean pen. They were pink and healthy looking.

          But then we came upon a couple of pigs that didn't look so good. One of them was either breathing really hard as he lay on his side in the pen, or he was chewing something, I don't know which. "He looks sick," Patti said.

          The one in the next cage looked even worse with his tongue hanging out.

          "I've never seen a pig with his tongue hanging out like that before," Patti said.

          The cow barns were all empty. No cows. We were walking past another apparently empty barn and I spot ears poking up from way, way down at the other end. "There's something in there," I told Patti. We head that way. "Llamas, I think." All I could make out from the distance was the outline of a head and ears. "Deer would be my only other guess."

          "I doubt they'd ever have deer at the fair. Alpaca's?"

          But they were llamas and they had four different fact boards in front of the cages. Did you know that llama poop has very little odor? Nope. I didn't think so. You're welcome.

          We went into a couple of the exhibit halls and found these complex wooden toys. Aren't they just fabulous!

            They all had signs on them asking you to not touch and we were respectful of that. We were standing in front of one of the marble runs and Patti was trying to figure it out.

          "Would you like to see how it works?" This guy asks.

          Patti brightened. "Sure!"

          He came over, cranked the handle, and got the marbles going.

            "Did you make these?" Patti asked.

          "Yes, I did."

           Then he showed us how the cat tries to catch the mouse, "But he never will," he told us. 

           "It's named Pamela after my wife." Then he flipped it around. "All the gears are made of wood." 

       

          There were so many interesting and fascinating things. Five-foot crocheted dinosaurs, tractors made from soda cans...

...robots out of tin cans, art from pieces of garbage, a dress made of clear playing cards joined by rings — "I'd definitely wear something under that," I told Patti. Then we came across Tapigami. A whole city made from masking tape. Who knew there was such a thing let alone a club for it.

 

          Our next stop was The Thunderbird Model Railroad Club. They have a permanent display at the fairgrounds. I was busy snapping away at the realistic miniature scenes.

          "The water looks so real," I said.

          "It looks like that guy back there's got a fish," Patti pointed out. They were so detailed.

          Next thing I know one of the guys is mouthing words at me and pointing to the end of the building. "What's he want?" Patti asked.

          "I think he wants us to go down to the door."

          Patti didn't hesitate. "Let's go!"

          We walked down in the direction he pointed and waited. Pretty soon Bob opens the door and invites us in for a behind the scenes photoshoot. 

          There's a big display in the backroom that the public never gets to see. "This is an exact replica, built to scale, of the old Phoenix rail station," Bob told us. 

           "And right here, right behind this window with the air conditioner is where the Thunderbirds got their start."

          From there he took us out into the main display area. Once the train had crossed the trestle, he lifted the section of track and we went in.

          "This is great! I can see things that I couldn't see from the front!"

          "That's right," Bob said. "And if you look right through there you'll see something you can't see from outside. You'll see a pair of skinny-dippers."

          Too funny, but there they were!

          Our next stop was the fine arts building. We walked around and looked at the different mediums and styles. Patti was looking for some new artwork for one of her walls and although most of the stuff was for sale, the things she liked had a NOT FOR SALE sign hanging on them.

          We came to the section devoted to the photographs where Patti paid me a huge compliment. "Your photos could stand up to any of these."

          Then she glanced at her watch. "We should get going. It'll be time for dinner by the time we get home."

          Arizona goes out of its way to make their highways pretty. The bridges, overpasses, and sound barriers have things like cactus, turtles, and salamanders inlaid in the construction and design.

          "Why did you take a picture of that car?" Patti asked.

          I was confused for a second. "I didn't. I took a picture of the dragonflies."

            I thought it was interesting that they designed the body of the dragonfly in the wall and the wings were added. It actually took me a minute to see the dragonfly but now that I see it, I can't unsee it.

          "Who thinks of dragonflies when you think about the desert?"

          She's right. It isn't a critter that immediately comes to my mind.

          It rained the next day. "I'm glad we went to the fair yesterday," Patti commented. Then I heard on the news that they actually closed the fair for the day. That's the first time in its history it's ever been closed because of rain.

          Next in my file of memories are two flower pictures I took on one of my morning runs. I thought you might like to see a couple of desert flowers.

            See the bee butt?

          Patti took me to old Phoenix for an authentic Mexican lunch. They have a protective covering over the original adobe walls.

            It started to rain on the way there and by the time we were done with lunch, there was a river running down the sides of the road. Neither one of us could jump far enough to avoid getting our feet totally soaked!

          One day we took a trip to Yarnell. That's about 68 miles from where my sister lives. "Why do those trees look so funny?" I asked.

          "Those are Ghost Eucalyptus," Patti replied. "I actually just found out what they were last week."

          I laughed. "That's because you knew I'd ask about them this week." Of course, she didn't but isn't it funny how that stuff works.

          We passed through Wickenburg and this is a road picture of the Jail Tree. I guess in the old days they couldn't afford a jail and chained prisoners to this mesquite tree which is over 200 years old.

          We passed other landmarks such as the giant spurs in a roundabout...

 ...and a rock painted like a frog.

          "Lee and I had been in that store," Patti tells me. "But it's been designated as a historic building which means only original materials can be used in its repair and that makes it so expensive that no one will touch it."

          Now it sits and rots away because you can't tear it down either.

          As we get closer to Yarnell the landscape changes and there are huge boulders all over the place. People build around and incorporate them into their landscapes.

           "Near here is where the 19 Hotshot Firefighters lost their lives," Patti tells me and we passed a memorial.

           Yarnell is a quaint little town and we stopped at the Yarnell Emporium to do a little browsing. They have such a variety of things! I loved the unusual birdhouses. 

          And they had a crow fountain that captivated my attention. Two crows were standing on the edge of a bowl. Their mouths would fill with water, the beak opened and water poured out. It sounds weird but it was fascinating to watch.

          On the walls of the shop were tons of clocks. Salamanders, cats, dogs, cupcakes, mixers, cameras, everything you could think of was made into a clock. I came home with a bear and a trout as his pendulum. I hung it over my desk where I see it every day.

          Before we left Yarnell we had lunch at the T-Bird Cafe.

           "They have a brick oven pizza," Patti said. "You want to try that?"

          I love pizza so I was all in. Yeah. It was that good!

         

          On the way home from Yarnell we came to a place where Patti told me to watch for a train trestle. "They don't want you to pull off the highway so we'll just get a glimpse of it as we pass by.

          I had my camera ready and got a couple of decent shots of it.

          On the way to Yarnell, we climb a heck of a mountain. The views were awesome — just don't look down. "In the old days there was only one road and if you got behind a truck, you were stuck and it might take an hour to get up the mountain."

          Now there are two separate roads. Can you see the RV in the center of my picture? That's the old road and that's the road we'll come down.

          And on the way down is this. A white elephant holding an American Flag. It's painted on a section of the road that 'bends like an elephants trunk.' He's called Scooby The Elephant by everyone except the Arizona Highway Department. They call it graffiti and try to paint it over only to have it magically reappear. The local paramedics use Scooby as a marker when dispatched to aid some unfortunate soul that needs help. They're either above or below the elephant.

          One of the last things I did when I was visiting is to help Momma clear a small jobs list. I tightened the handles on her dresser, framed a photograph for her, and helped sort out some of the things she'd never wear again. Momma has lost so much weight. She uses so many calories just trying to breathe that she can't eat enough food in a day even though Patti feeds her well and she's on a high protein diet. Some of her shirts were way too big for her so she gave them to me. She also only wears compression socks so I inherited a whole bunch of white ankle socks. I'm glad to have these things only they won't fit in my luggage.

          "I'll send you a box," Patti offered.

          Heck! If I'd have known that, I'd have kept more of the museum glass!

          On the way home I met and talked with a couple of interesting people. A lady who overcame a Meth addiction and a man who met Reverend Sun Myung Moon and is a follower of his. The plane ride into Chicago was a bit bumpy. "I've flown a lot and I've never seen it that bad before," my seatmate told me.

          Other than that, my flights were uneventful.

          Well, my loves, I've only shown you a few of the photos I've picked out to share, only told you part of the stories I wanted to tell, but time marches on and life keeps happening around me. We'd better move on.

          Know that you are all in my heart.

          Let's call this one done!