Back Through the Portal - Farewell to Arizona, For Now

By now we will have left Arizona for the Midwest.  A matter of family business has come up, which requires that we return to Chicago for a time.  Just as the desert starts to show faint bits of green, breaking up the tan, brown and mauve landscape, we are leaving. 

How do you sum up three extraordinary months in the desert?  We’ve had a good time, yes, but it’s so much more complicated than that.  Maybe it would work to list the things that stood out during our time here.

What I Will Not Miss in Portal

               Sand.  It gets on and into everything – door frames, windows, computer keyboards ..

               Sand and rocks.  They tear up shoes, so that we all wore croc-type rubber shoes.  I had to invest in a new pair as my walking shoes, which I thought could stand anything, were starting to wear out fast.

               Sand and high winds.  The last few days before we left, we had the strongest winds yet, with gusts upwards of 30 mph.  During these times it was inadvisable to go outside so we got a bit of cabin fever, though we could always find plenty to do, besides listen to the wind howl and feel the trailer rock.  Then on one of those days, finally, torrential rain, the first rain we’ve seen since arriving here (except for that one day we had a short-lived, miniature snowfall).  The photo, taken through the trailer window, does not do justice to the rain and wind, but if you look closely you can see our chairs around the fire pit, all tipped over.  

               Prickly plants.  I will not miss the thorns, some as long as 2 inches, one of which gave us a flat tire.  Also the smaller ones that get embedded in the soles of shoes and have to be removed with some force. 

But … What I will miss in Portal

               Shopping trips to Douglas with Mashawn.  Sure, it’s an hour to get to a fully stocked grocery store or do laundry, but we would combine it with other errands and make a day of it, finishing with pizza or a huge, crispy chicken sandwich on the way home.  We had fun.  

               Beautiful plants.  Not only many varieties of cactus, but the yucca plants, which in their last stage of life always remind me of the dancing ostriches in the movie "Fantasia."

                Coyotes.  Starting in the evening, we could hear a large pack of them howling and yipping.  They seemed to make a semicircle from the base of the mountains to the west, north across the plain, and to the mountains to the east.  Sometimes they sounded very close, but we were assured they were a mile or more distant.  Their noise reminded us that we were the visitors and it is their territory.                

                Stars.  The star-gazing out in the remote desert is unbelievable.  The stars seem huge and bright, like you could reach out and grab one.  I learned to use a star-gazing app to see the planets and learned a lot about where they are located.  We were there long enough to see the positions of planets and constellations change over time, also we followed the phases of the moon.  The moon too seems bright and close, but we liked it best when it was below the horizon, because then we could see the stars much more clearly.

               Fireworks.  Sajad’s penchant for blowing things up was given free reign with professional-quality fireworks.  Some of us kept well back from these explosions.  They were spectacular, and oddly, some of the least expensive fireworks were the best.

               Bonfires.  Long, congenial evenings spent talking and listening to music, an eclectic blend of everything from Al Green to Led Zeppelin to James Taylor to Adele, many genres and artists.  There is just something about gazing into a fire that makes time seem to stop.  After that, you feel refreshed, like everything is all right.

               Local culture.  Besides attending the local monthly open mic and appearing once with my “Wizard of Oz” presentation, LCR and I attended quite a few meetings of the local Sew What Club, which turned out to have nothing whatever to do with sewing but was a gathering of locals every week or so at the local volunteer firehouse, featuring guest speakers.  There are so many experts in the area, and some were invited just for these occasions, and we learned about predators on the US-Mexico border, chimpanzees in Africa, cowboys in the 1930s and beyond, images from the James Webb telescope – a wide range of topics.  There were always people in the audience asking good questions.  Or just asking questions, like LCR …  There were also Kundalini Yoga classes at the firehouse, which Mashawn and I attended several times.  

               The farmers’ market.  We became regulars and bought homemade banana bread, corn bread and prickly pear jelly, and met local growers and their families.  And one morning there was an open mic about books, at which anyone who wished to speak talked about a favorite book and what it meant to them.  The results were as varied as the audience, in gender, race, nationality and education.

             And last but definitely not least, the wonderful hospitality of Sajad and Mashawn.  It was not merely a place to stay with our RV; we made a family.  Their cooking was fantastic and their company was fun and interesting.  Love you guys!!

It was an unforgettable three months and we really hope to be back again sometime.

Thanks to all at Portal!!!