Bisbee/Tombstone, 2022 Prelude

As a special summer treat, I've been revisiting some past adventures Mike and I have had over the past few years. Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing our first road trips together in the summer of 2022. The first, to Bisbee and Tombstone, Arizona was taken in August, 2022.

I met Mike a few months before this trip. He was just beginning his journey into the metaphysical realm. I consider it to be a privilege to assist another soul to progress on our collective journey through the Universe. Over the course of spending time together, we discovered we share the pleasure of life's more humble luxuries. Namely the summer vacation road trip. After juggling schedules, plans were finally solidified for our first road trip together.

I was living hotel life in Scottsdale and sat and listened to an exquisite monsoon rage outside my hotel room window. I never tire of a good monsoon, and 2022 was a good season. The predawn storm was made more pleasant by my comped BBQ potato chips and ice-cold soda. My first comp since I fully embraced the nomadic hotel life. I felt as though this small event marked a place in my own journey. Once one starts having things comped, it feels really good. As though one is valued. A reward for the thousands spent on hotel rooms over the past couple of years.

Mike and I share the wonder and joy of adventure that a road trip provides. It turns out we are both “that” tourist to a certain degree. By which I mean someone who loses complete touch with reality they hit the border of their destination. Those with the tendency to buy literally anything with the name of the destination on it for way more than the object is worth. Those that lose track of the fact that traffic laws exist, for both drivers and pedestrians. Getting around can be quite dangerous at times for tourist and townie alike. Greenhorn pedestrians and distracted drivers always present hazards in popular vacation spots. “That” tourist treats locals as secondary means to an end. Than again, unfamiliarity brings a certain helplessness in which at times only a local holds their fate.

For our first road trip together, we took an overnight trip to Bisbee and, as if almost by default, Tombstone. Tombstone is a pleasant twenty-for minute drive from Bisbee and it would be a shame to miss it whilst in the area. The classic American road trip. The nomad's vacation. There are few things better in my humble opinion. After a brief introspection, I couldn't think of an unhappy childhood memory made on a road trip as a child. I was all giddy as a schoolgirl.

Not quite sure of the itinerary, if indeed one existed, but I am so very excited! I'm willing to bet good money that there will be tourists about, there always are. However, it is August, and we are local, as far as living in the state goes. The misery of the humidity of the monsoon season was ignored as I prepared for departure. As one hotel clerk said to me a few years ago: “Nobody in their right mind would come to Arizona in August”. Tis true. Nobody has said Mike or I were in our right minds come to think of it. I figured out how to use the panoramic setting on my camera works and was excited to use it again. The last time I used it was on a trip to Sedona with friends who were visiting from Delaware. Mike and I have spent many happy hours of conversation on trips around the Valley to see the local sites.

To live a life of endless travel is part of my Aunt Iola Retirement Plan. There is a long-forgotten episode of All In the Family in which Edith's Aunt Iola comes to visit. At the end of her visit, she is stuck at the Bunker's because the next relative that she was due to visit had a medical emergency and couldn't have a visit. Edith tries in vain to find a relative to take her in, and Archie will blow his top soon.

The family explores all options. Mike and Gloria offered their home, feeling that good hippie vibe of inter-generational harmony. The frightening thought to put Aunt Iola into the Sunshine Home on a temporary basis was floated. Keep in mind nobody has asked Aunt Iola what her plans might be if such a situation arose. All of the comedic brainstorming sessions took place, presumably without her knowledge, as she is off screen as this occurs.

We know from this episode, Aunt Iola is a feisty little old lady. Small and seemingly on the frail side, she smiles sweetly when she tells others to mind their grammar. With white hair pulled back into a bun, classic wire rimmed glasses, hunched over her knitting under her shawl. A hit to how feisty she is comes to us by referencing a book titled Sex After Sixty. The book was given to her by a dear friend in Buffalo who she stays with when she is “between relatives”. At the end of the second of a two-part episode, we realize that she isn't just another frail old lady. She appears to essentially be homeless. She is a nomad. Her unmarried status and stories gives hints that she has been a lifelong nomad and is truly welcome anywhere she goes.  

Aunt Iola is one of my role models. Like most of my generation, I've found my role models through the magic of television. A huge heartfelt thanks to Norman Lear (God rest his soul) for being my favorite teacher and babysitter as a child. She is my role model, not only as a nomad, but also as one fantastic inspiration as I look down the barrel of my own impending twilight years. No rocking chair will catch up with me, at least not without a classic Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote style chase. There have already been more than a few metaphysical anvils dropped on top of me. A couple of them have squashed me completely flat. Mike and I share similar philosophies on aging. We've both been through some shit. The second half of life should be all about enjoying the time we may or may not have left. The only expectation. That's true freedom.