The drive back home

Reveille was at 3am although I didn’t get up for 20 minutes to shower, load the van, grab a muffin and drink coffee with Iris before we took off at 4:20am in darkness. There were no critters dashing across the highway as expected, save for a lone coyote.

The sun rose an hour later, at 5:20am. We stopped to pee at a lone gas station. By 6:15am we were in Flagstaff eating at The Place on Route 66. Much to my disappointment, Mike and Ronda, whose names decorate the menu cover, no longer own The Place. Food was still good and affordable, though. Iris had the Arizona Omlette and Kevin and I both ordered two eggs with biscuits and gravy and hash browns. We had plenty of time from here on. We had time to enjoy our meal.

It was 7:15am when we continued our trip to Phoenix Sky Harbor, and I knew we had plenty of time. There were no traffic jams hindering our drive. We gassed up for $3.46 a gallon.

“Are there any blacks here?” asked Iris as we left Flagstaff. We hadn’t seen any all during our trip.
That question took me by surprise. “Sure we do, in Phoenix,” I answered, aware finally that not too many live in Navajo Country. Tucson and Sierra Vista are also more diverse. She also added that the nights here are cold, not warm like they are back East.
“That’s because we have clear skies and aridity,” I answered. Had she ever been in the Southwest desert before?

Iris gave me the feeling she was uncomfortable the entire time in Arizona. It wasn't just the forced closeness with the family that seemed to put her at unease, but her discomfort in and around desolate desert places. She has truly become a big city, big spending type of woman. Being with her this week has contrasted our personalities even more so. People say we look like sisters but we hardly act like what sisters are supposed to act.

Kevin sat in the back as Iris and I chatted up front, talking about her painful past with her previous boyfriend. I finally told her it was her ex-boyfriend that kept me away from her for many years, as I never trusted that man. He had always given me a leary look, as if he dispised me. He was quick to criticize me for my flaws while hiding his own. He ended up serving a year in prison for bank fraud, and she learned after that fact that he had had a criminal record before they had met. I had missed these conversations. I told her about my woes.

Our drive started at 4200’ in Page, rose to 5000’ at Gap, rose further to 6000’ and finally 7247’ on the north side of Flagstaff and the high plateau below the San Francisco Peaks. Once we got back into the van we slowly lost elevation again as we passed Sedona, Black Canyon City (where we stopped again for a bathroom break), and finally the airport where we dropped her off an hour ahead of schedule at 10am.

A part of me didn't want to see her go, but she seemed relieved to get out of the van and start her own voyage back to Baltimore.

The rest of the drive was quiet as we were both hot from the 95F heat. Traffic was light through the Phoenix Metro. I gassed up for $3.46 again in Case Grande. We stopped for lunch in Benson before the final stretch home. We were both exhausted now, and fears of a trashed house and pieces of cat around the house and yard frightened me.

When we drove up to our driveway at 1:23pm the yard was quiet. None of the dogs welcomed us at the back gate and I feared they were either dead or gone. They normally jump up with delight to see us. Instead Kevin sneaked up on the dogs via the back porch; all three were staring out the front window instead, but then stormed outside to see us.

I went to the yard to water the parched vegetable patches. The corn that had been harvested was now dry. The squash looked like the downy mildew had killed off the growth. (The squash won’t grow any more.) A few of the cucumbers dried up but many more doubled in size. I ended up picking three buckets of Contender corn and was pleased to see new snow peas poking through the soil. I used half of the harvested water and watered a part of the yard for 45 minutes while I tended to the front yard. The garden did OK in our absence. The Galliardia is going to seed but nothing died, not even the acacia seeds.

Storm clouds briefly sprinkled some rain but the monsoon season is now coming to a close. It was a good season. The yard didn’t grow into one lush green yard of Bermuda grass as I had hoped, and it looks like some of the crab and quackgrass took over parts of the yard in the absence of daily weedings. I won’t do too much more to it this year.

The bush beans that were dying were now completely gone. But overall everything looked better than I thought it would. Even the house was tolerable. Two buckets of food were still untouched (!) but there was a lot of dog fur everywhere, and dog food kibble all over the place. I was too tired to clean up anything.

I took the dogs on a four-mile hike at 6pm, making it just shy of the green water tank on the frontage road. This was my longest walk in over a week. I need to burn off the excess fat I grew over the week. My jeans are feeling tight.