Heading Home in Arizona

As often as we proclaim that “Home is Where we Park it,” we have a special affinity for Site #299 in the Saguaro SKP Park in Benson, Arizona. Like an old horse heading for the barn, we’re on our way.

After Antelope Canyon and Page, Arizona, we headed south, doing a one-nighter at Tuba City. It was a surprisingly nice RV Park associated with a Quality Inn. Then we moved further south to our Thousand Trails Verde Valley Preserve near Cottonwood. For the past seven months, we have been sightseeing around a large part of the country, and we weren’t in any great hurry to do more now, so most of the time we sat and did other things, like play with computer software, sort photographs, read. Suzy is working on crocheting some “watch caps” to be given away to needy youngsters.

We did have some good family time. Brother Chuck and his wife Karma paid us a visit (they live in nearby Prescott) and we returned their visit a week later. We caught up on what each other has been doing, and we enjoyed some nice lunches in local restaurants.

Karma is a very creative ceramicist (is that a word?), currently attending classes to learn a variety of new techniques and styles. She showed us her latest works, some very practical, some quite fanciful.

We met a lady (she moved in next to us) who was widowed last December. She is carrying on the RV lifestyle on her own, with two small dogs, miniature Dobermans. She downsized from a 40-foot diesel rig to a much smaller gasoline Class C motorhome, and is trying to learn some of the “guy things” as she goes along. She is either a full-timer or an extensive part-timer on the road. She’ll winter in Florida, and is planning a trip to Michigan next year. We congratulated her on getting this far, and wished her well along her own life on wheels.

On our last morning at Thousand Trails, I was taking our garbage to the dumpster, and happened to be wearing the shirt we bought at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A gentleman came rushing out, his hand extended in greeting. As he was speaking to me in a language I could not understand, I thought, “Surely he has mistaken me for someone else.” However, he then translated his greeting” “Hello, my friend.” He was speaking the Cherokee tongue!

Turns out Lester Kniffin is a full-blooded Cherokee, and a member of the Cherokee Elders Council. (The picture of Les in his dress regalia is a copy of a photo he gave us.)

We chatted for some time about where we had gone this summer and where each of us was going next.

I asked Les if he and his wife would stand with us for a photograph for our blog, and we exchanged travelers cards. Les told us about some major powwows coming up later this year in Tucson. He will be dancing in the powwows, and expressed hope that we would be there. Sounds good to us!

Now we are stopped in Black Canyon City for two nights, only 50 miles south of Cottonwood. Next we’ll move to Arizona City, where we hope to stay a couple of nights at a site at the Moose Lodge. Suzy joined the Women of the Moose this year through that Lodge, so we’ll be visiting her “home” for the first time.

We’re scooting back to Benson, to take a rest along … Our Life on Wheels.