Preparation

(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)

Winter is winding down and we are getting ready to make a move. We will be leaving Gila Bend on April 4th. Our current plans are to head Northwest. First to Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, then across the top of the country, making our way back to Tennessee. Better than a covered wagon, but not much faster. The trip will take two or three months, depending on when we need to be back in Tennessee for medical service. All is not fully decided as yet. By the time we cross the demarcation line between the “West” and the “Mid-West,” we will have spent some eight months out West.

Before we pull out we will need to get the truck’s 30 thousand mile maintenance and make sure the fifth-wheel is in top shape. We will also need to get a chip in our windshield repaired before it creates a “spider-web“ effect. Some weeks back a large truck threw a rock at us just before we got back to the campground from a trip to Phoenix.

Today we went to the Gila Bend gift shop to pick up a little memento of our time here. You see pictures above of the outside and inside of the store. We picked up an arrangement of cacti in a hollowed-out puma stone, something we can put in our bay-window. It won’t need much care. It’s a good thing it doesn’t, because we are not going to give it much. Cactus can pretty much take care of itself.

The Winter has been good to us here. We have enjoyed the site and the friends we have made. As you no doubt know, Winters are mild here. The biggest change is a cold front coming through that drops the temperature from the mid-80s to the mid-70s. There is also no rain. We had only one day of rain since we have been here, and that was very light. But, even a little rain makes things start to grow. I showed you pictures of the “greening” of the desert a few blogs back. Now, it is much greener with wild flowers and ragweed all about.

We are glad the weather has been so nice, but rain doesn’t bother us much. It seems that many events in our married life has included rain. When Carolyn and I were dating, back in the dark ages of the 1950s, rain produced some strange happenings. I was stationed at an Air Force Base in the area and met her at a church in her small rural community. The church was having a Valentine get-to-gather for the young people (we were young then, I swear) and somehow I was in charge of the music for the event. At least, I was in charge of the sheet music. After a practice session (Carolyn was the pianist), I went back to her house. Of course, it was raining. “Cats and dogs,” as the saying goes.

By the time I left her house, late in the evening, it was difficult to see in the dark, heavy rain. There are no street lights in the country and it was difficult to see where the road began and ended. Well, as Parsons’ luck would have it, I ran off the road and got stuck in a ditch right in front of her driveway. I tried to get the car un-stuck by the tried-and-true method of rocking, back and forth. All I could do was spin the tires. I needed some traction, I reasoned. I looked around in the rain for something that I could put under the rear tire for traction. I found nothing.

Being soaked to the skin, and you know it was cold since it was around Valentine’s Day, I decided to use the only dry thing that I had at hand…….the sheet music. I stuck every sheet of music I had under the rear wheel and gave it a try. The only thing I accomplished was a new way to shred sheet music. Defeated, I trudged back to Carolyn’s door, knowing that now everyone had gone to bed, and knocked. By the time Carolyn got to the door, I was one “drowned rat.’’ There was nothing to do but wait until morning to get help with the car, my dark-blue, 1950, four-door sedan.

Keep that car in mind for this next event. Yes, it was again raining, and had been for days. On this particular Sunday afternoon, dressed in our Sunday best, Carolyn and I were driving to a friend’s house. The rain was coming down hard, all the windows, naturally, were up and fog was forming on the inside of the windows. You know how it is. To reach our destination it was necessary to go under an elevated railroad track.

We approached the downward sloping section under the railroad, when suddenly we stopped with an impact as if we had run into a wall. Water sprayed up over the windshield and the car. The underpass was flooded, and we were in water almost up to the car windows. The car was setting at about a 40 degree angle. Hood practically under water. Now water was beginning to seep into the car. Water was up to my ankles before I realized that I still had my foot on the brake.

The water kept rising. We put our feet in the seat. The water kept rising. By the time the water flooded the front seat, Carolyn had leaped into the back seat to escape the water. Vehicles began to form behind us. Someone suggested a rope to put on the rear bumper to pull us out. Someone had a rope. Someone tied it to the bumper. Someone else attached it to a truck bumper and backed us out of the water.

We opened the car doors and the water rushed out of the car. We tried the ignition. Believe it or not, the car started. We thanked everyone who had helped, and because we were young, we just continued on our journey (of course, by a different route) to our friend’s house. When we arrived, everyone saw Carolyn in the back seat and me in the front. They wondered if we had had a spat. The car told the story of that event, by a water mark half-way up the doors, until the day it was no longer mine.

So if it rains on our continuing trip, I think we can handle it. I may, however, need to buy some sheet-music and get our rope ready. So, the moral is, if you can’t keep dry, just enjoy the rain. Maybe next time I will tell you about a time in the rain and the mountains of South America.