Arizona - 1995

My dad has this best friend named Jimmy that has always lived far away so the only time they really get to spend any time together is when either Jimmy comes back to the Kootenays to visit his folks or if he and my dad make plans to meet up somewhere fun in the world. 

When I was three, my mum and dad met up with Jimmy and his wife Terri in Hawaii. My dad loves to take photos and this one photo that he'd taken on this trip he had blown up and framed and it was on the wall in our house until he sold it in 2001. 

Dad only does landscapes. All photos of people are taken from low angles and contain insane smiles.

Jimmy was always this strange character that had some kind of undefinable job that paid well and allowed for them to go to a bunch of cool places. Over the years my dad has gone to Hawaii, China, and New Orleans with Jimmy. Him in China especially makes me laugh because he's a 6'3" Norwegian man and stuck out like a sore thumb so bad. 

Find Kenny. 

Anyway, when I was nine, my dad took my sister with him on a trip to Vancouver, which made me insane with jealousy, so to appease me he said he'd take me on the next big trip he took. I don't know if he knew that the next year Jimmy would invite him to visit in Arizona, but needless to say I got to tag along. 

I remember looking out the window as we descended into Phoenix and marvelling at all the little turquoise blobs behind all the houses thinking how lucky everyone must be here to have their very own pool. 

The need for these pools became immediately apparent when we walked out of the airport and a wave of the hottest, driest air I'd ever felt came over us. Jimmy and Terri immediately whisked us off to their car that had *gasp* AIR CONDITIONING. We were strictly a family with manual windows so this novelty was very exciting. 

Jimmy and Terri lived a few hours north east of Phoenix so we had a bit of a drive ahead of us, but I was mesmerized by the scenery we drove past. At this point in my life, I'd only been to a few places in British Columbia and as far south as Spokane Washington. There isn't a great variation in the landscapes within this area so when we came across a stovepipe cactus taller than a house, I pretty much lost my mind. 

My keen fashion sense on full display. 

I think I'm pretending I sat on the cactus and that my tuchus was sore. How was I never cool as a child?

IS THIS A SECRET BOWL CUT? How have I never noticed this. 

As we continued on our way to Jimmy and Terri's house, a heat storm started brewing in the desert valley we were traversing. It came in quickly and I swear to god, I've never seen the sky as dark and purple as it was that day. I think part of it was that the sun was setting bright and orange at the same time and it was shining up at the clouds from below. 

This is an honest to goodness SCAN of a photo that got water damaged, but this is the actual storm. 

Suddenly, huge fork lightning started shooting across the clouds and occasionally striking down viciously to the desert below. The desert we were currently travelling through. 

I may have panicked a little. 

Especially when, I swear, I saw a cactus get blown to smithereens. I can't attest to the accuracy of this memory though. It could be some kind of fever dream I concocted to really get across how insane this storm was, but I feel like at the very least, the lightning must have come down very near us. I remember Terri reassuring me that we were safe in the car because the tires were made of rubber and the lighting wouldn't be able to get to us through the ground because of that. I don't know if that science is sciencing but that's what I remember from my 10 year old brain. 

We left the valley and the storm behind us and started to ascend through, to my absolute shock, actual forest! I thought we were going to the desert! I was not expecting PINE TREES! 

Jimmy suggested we stop at this lookout he knew about to stretch our legs, and low and behold, Justine the entertainer came out to play. 

You seriously can't take me anywhere. 

Jimmy and Terri's house was in the middle of nowhere, they had acres of land and you couldn't see anything but trees in all directions. They had a bed set up for me in Jimmy's office, which I remember being slightly creeped out about at night because the exterior wall was comprised only of windows. In fact there was a whole wall of the house that I swear was just floor to ceiling windows. 

We went on a few walks close to the house and there was this amazing sort of half-waterfall/half-cenote thing nearby that I conquered in short order. 

Me and my pastel neon pink hammer pants making a statement. 

Jimmy and Terri didn't have kids, so their movie selections were limited. We mostly watched an old box set of Johnny Carson but, as I outlined in my Roswell post, my predilection for astrophobia was not helped by watching the other thing they had to watch: the real-life alien abduction movie Fire in the Sky...which Jimmy helpfully explained to me was based on true events that took place not far from the very house we were staying in. Trying to sleep with those windows was not something that happened for me that night.

Apart from scaring the pants off me, we went on a bunch of excursions to some of Jimmy and Terri's favourite places.  We first went to this amazing secret swimming hole in Box Canyon that was one of the highlights of the trip for me. There were natural slides carved into the rocks by the water, and pool after pool to swim in. 

There were apparently crayfish in these pools so I had to wear these super "cool" water shoes.

Jimmy and Terri were really trying to make sure that we saw the best of the area and we decided to go further afield for the rest of our trip. 

We drove north towards Flagstaff and stopped at this place called Walnut Canyon. It is this incredible natural formation that the early indigenous people of the area, the Sinagua, carved homes into the sides of the canyon. They are so camouflaged into the natural formation of the canyon that you can barely tell that they're there from the other side. 

Jimmy and Terri being properly wowed. You can see the dwellings in the background behind them!

We went into one of them and the smells inside were so wild. Everything smelled old, like even though there were a bunch of people milling about it's what you'd imagine the inside of an ancient tomb would smell like when it was being breached for the first time, with hints of leftover fires long since gone out. 

And I never wore shorts again.

I think you could find me in a crowd from space. 

After we finished in the canyon we drove back down to Sedona for lunch. That's where my imagination of what Arizona was supposed to look like kicked in. The odd red rock formations were abundant all around us. 

I'll let you guess who took this. 

I don't know what in the 'pose like no one is watching' is happening here, but get it Dad...

When we finally made it into town, we stopped for lunch at this restaurant that my only memory of is that the water tasted like how the inside of the dwellings in Walnut Canyon smelled - earthy and old. 

Would you like some dusty water?

After lunch we walked around the town and did a bit of shopping. The first place we went was a salsa store. They had about 40 different kind of Salsa's that you could try, but they had one that was apparently so hot that they recommended if you were going to try it you just dip the tiniest corner of a chip into it. I don't know how much of that was BS but the salesperson said they've had some macho men come in, keen to prove their manhood, overconfidently scoop a huge amount and then subsequently panic and go through the front window before needing to go to the hospital. I did not try any salsas. 

The other store I remember going into was this leather goods store. My dad apparently needed a new wallet and they were selling really nice leather ones here. He said he wanted basically the same thing as what he had just new, but when he whipped out his current wallet from his back pocked to show the man what he was looking for, the man exclaimed "Ew! Butt rot!" 

I of course thought this was the funniest thing I'd ever heard.

You see my dad is a painter - sign painter, building painter, interior painter etc etc etc - and for some reason many of the buildings in Trail BC tend to use this pale teal colour for the trim of their stucco houses. Paint will get onto my dads hands and transfer to the exterior of his wallet and to the untrained eye it might appear to be some kind of odd mold. 

But I assure you - it is paint. 

This is the last of my memories from this trip, but I remember it being one of the most exciting experiences I'd ever had up to this point. Granted I was only ten, but I feel like this might have been where the idea of travelling became something I wanted to be a reality began. Up until this point, every thing seemed far away, unattainable, and not meant for me - but afterwards I think I started to hope that I could go somewhere completely different from what I knew again.