Phoenix

Rolling down the winding dark snake from Flagstaff with one headlight operational and Hank guiding the way with craned neck at the windshield we finally got to Phoenix at around 8pm. Got on 10 west in the city and brought her in for a nice landing at the Flying J a few exits up. I was weary and vibrating but not in a bad mood per se, until the abysmal FJ connection would not let us check my ebay bids (paintings), email or anything. We will not be paying for it again. At best it is poor but at night sometimes it is impossible to get online. We decided not to get the buffet even though it looked good and drove around looking for fast food. Drove through a Churches Chicken, a place that neither of us had ever tried but the drive-through menu was too difficult to navigate without ordering the meal combos and it seemed a tad expensive so we drove around until we found our old standby Wendy's. I was tirading by then about everything and at a stop light said, "Mmmmm. There's that old Phoenix smell, grass and golf shoes."

J was going down with my bad mood but she kept trying to uplift me with positive observations and in the Wendy's it just got worse. Finally, at the point of tears I shut up, but it was too late. Her good mood had been ruined by my black abysmals. We slept well at least, in spite of a lingering gasoline smell that permeates the back of Jodie's Revenge. We woke up together at about 6am and cuddled and rekindled our love vows so hopefully everything will be cool today as we make our last leg of the journey to Quartzite. We're both excited about this but I nearly ruined the morning when she asked if we should take a shower here and I told her we didn't have to. In the desert you can take a sand shower. Just rub your body down with sand. It's wonderful...I stopped myself from further sarcasms though...

We left Carla and Michael in Flagstaff where he has to paint some windows for a chain of grocery stores. The holiday season is great for Michael. He has been doing it for many years and has a nice cross country clientele built up.

Money is tight but all we need is a mailbox where we can have canvas sent and an internet supplier to upload paintings. It is going to be okay. Practically free rent and I can't wait to write about Quartzite, which has become quite a phenomenon among the RV community. It is unbelievably good fortune that we have this RV to live in and work out of. Getting here and trying to do this living in a weekly motel would have been hellish.

Here's a poem for the day...

Your nipples are mesas
my fingertips running
toward
and dancing on top of
them
while
our laughter is
the wind's laughter