We have actually been to a museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with my grandparents. We got to touch the water that was the exact degrees that night, be given a card that had a name and find out in what area of the ship he/she was at, and also stand on a slanting deck that was an example of how steep it was (kind of fun, actually). We tried to steer on the bridge, found out how many dogs died, and did many other things like looked in a room where a little kid, a German immigrant, died. It was a really sad event, proving that man had not conquered nature and that even an iceberg could take the lives of more than 1,000 individuals. So how much faith should we put in technology and ships? You make that decision yourself. A cruise liner just went down in Italy only months ago, so....
April is really a month of famous deaths. Singers, actors, and many other people died in April. Mark Twain died on April 10th in 1910, followed by Abraham Lincoln on April 14th by John Wilkes Booth. And now all those sad souls that met fate on April 15th, 1912. April is a month of death, but of life too. It is the beginning of spring and the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, and... last but not least, has the date of Easter, Christ's Resurrection, in it. So.... but to the blog.
Tucson came at a bad time for us. We had toured in New Orleans, which was tiring, and had gone to many museums in Texas and then hikes and seeing wildlife in New Mexico. Also, we had several things that we needed done to the R.V., for instance my bed being so flattened, the Verizon card not working, and also our front windshield was cracked down and it was really bad, making a spider web of cracks. We were really tired and so couldn't do all the things that Tucson had in store. Kind of sad, I guess. But we had so many problems with our motor home on the second part of the trip! We never had this much on the first half, for some reason. Some person told us that Western roads were really good, but they actually were really bumpy and gravel-like. He didn't act sarcastic at all, he was actually really bragging on his Western roads. But anyway, I woke up from a terrible night's sleep of dumpsters, construction, trains, and cars on the road. On February 18th, Mom and I took the dogs out, going to the right by all the dumpster stuff, the concrete and dirt. They went to the restroom. I hadn't seen any grass for days, just desert dirt, shrub, and rocks and cacti. It was really sad. But they went to the restroom, and then Mom and I went back to the R.V. It wasn't the best campground and certainly the noisiest site ever.
The dogs were dirty and smelly, and so Rebecca cleaned them up a little bit in the shower, with a bathing suit on she made them put on shampoo and the like. I wondered if she knew they didn't have aposeible thumbs. They looked so skinny without the puffiness. Actually, she did Rocky outside because Dad didn't want him inside the shower in a bucket, which was really cold, and Rocky hated it. Bouncing around, he tried to get away from the icy cold water. Dad finished washing the R.V. that day also, the other sides of it. Mom was very sad about Whitney Houston's death, as they played the song she made called, "I will always love you" on the wedding dance between Mom and Dad. As Dad got ready and got on his work clothes, he mocked the sad people, and Mom told me that was because he wasn't as affected by her death; Whitney was a drug addict. Complicated I guess. It was sad though, if anyone dies, and we watched that director who starred with her in the Bodyguard say some funny stories, and all the Baptist people singing and the preachers and all. As some other people say, they took the world, by CNN, to church that day. But we were really sad about that and as I blogged and Mom did some other things, the CNN coverage shown.
I think we really connected with the dogs, that day in Tucson. First of all, we walked them in the morning and waited a long time for them to go to the restroom. Rebecca and Mom washed them and cleaned them. And we stayed with them for a long portion of the day, and so I got to look at their odd habits of rubbing their buts on the carpet and rolling around, also Emma hiding under the bed and Rocky loves to get into the half circle of Rebecca's bed and lay on the pillow, their love of treats and their peeing habits. I got to know them a lot that one day.
I got to do a blog post about my dad's birthday party, the whole swamp tour thing. I was feeling a little guilty about not helping Dad to do the washing of the motor home, but he proclaimed that it was fine and that I needed to catch up on my blog posts. I muted the funeral, as it wasn't too enlightening for a creative writing time, as Mom went to laundry. Dad finished up on the motorhome as it came up to like 3:00. We hadn't done any touring that day, but we'd gotten some good things, mandatory ones, that were very productive. It was loud with water, dogs, trains, construction and guys coming in on cranes and dumpster-dumpers too, but it was a peaceful day in reality. Well, all done with our little chores, we were now ready for an errand and at least do something good for the blog post and make it an important day. We got in our jeep, and then drove out onto the road, in the up of town where the more commercial area was, with many chains. Tucson is a very well developed town with a lot of thriving businesses. It's not too big a down, but not too small a town either. It was a really good place for us to recharge, refuel, and restock, which is funny because it is such a good tourist town too.
We passed on past the Verizon store and some other places. We wanted to at least go to the house of my great grandparent's, mom grandparents, Pop's parents. We knew they didn't own the house now, but that it would be really cool to take a picture of the place that they had known as home for so many years. We were passing by the University of Arizona, which is actually much larger now than it used to be, having a great sports standing. We saw some red brick, and many students on a green lawn, trees around too. We passed by many great buildings of the school, and some students in casual clothing with their textbooks, backpacks and all that make a student... well, a student. I called Pop and told him of our whereabouts, and we talked about the school, the city, that I remembered what we did the first time and a whole lot of other things. Mom whispered to me to tell him we were on Speedway, crossing over a street into the more residential area, little houses with little lawns. Pop mentioned he knew right where that was. Mom took the phone and asked him what the address was of his parent's house. He told her, and she put it into the GPS. Sorry, but I'm not repeating it. Some weird guy might come to their house and demand Reese's Butter Cups. IT MIGHT HAPPEN!
I thanked Pop and told him goodbye. Now it was time to see my great grandparent's house for the first time in my entire life. It would be really cool to see my grandparents, that made my grandpa, my really awesome grandpa named Pop. We came to the address, which was on the side of the road in the entrance to a little neighborhood. It was in the shadow of the mountain, with shrub, and rocks up on the mountain. They were fairly close to A mountain and really close to the university. Pop stayed at home while going to college, an opportunity that not many young adults get nowadays. It had a white slate roof going the full length of the one story long house, and then there was some white boxes on the top, like for air conditioning and other things. There were three windows, green ones, that were rectangular, and some bricks that made up the base of the house. Many bushes resided in the front, kind of blocking the house, and there was a telephone line behind. There was a black truck, to the right, and a little old Sudan car, and also a white boat and orange rim going along it, with green tarp halfway on the little device. Well, we made many pictures with us in it and without it, and videoed the house for quite a while. There was a field across the street, I believe. I wondered if the residents, if they saw us, thought we were the Witness Protection Program, the press, Men in Black, or worse, stalkers.
Mom wanted to show us something. Going down the avenue which had some other nice houses along there, we now saw a little brick wall and Mom was apparently looking for something. This was going to be good for the blog, I now knew. There was a beautiful tree spreading out it's green leaves, making a big shade. Mom pointed out, as we were now behind the house( I wished no one came out with shotguns) along the right side behind the tree, some plants by a big window. There was a little alcove with some work equipment, all old and rushed, and there was now a chipped-off white wood fence. Mom told us that her grandma had a lot of vases and pitchers that were very pretty, and she was the last one to have grass on her neighborhood before going to white rocks in the end. Mom remembered that she really loved those vases when she was 13, when she and her parents and brothers came in an R.V. This was the same trip who's tracks we had followed before, their stop in San Antonio, the heat, and the guy flagging them down because he thought that they had stolen his R.V., but in reality that was untrue. She showed us some tracks in the overgrown with grass asphalt patch, that went between two houses along the back and the other one, which was not facing the horizontal street the other was but the vertical one all the others faced. Mom told us about this.
She said that they parked their rented R.V. right there, and that they slept in there and that one night the tree boys slept in a tent... very adventurous guys, in your grandparents yard. I've done worse though, sleeping up in a treehouse with Rebecca and a sleeping bag but going back in the middle of the night. I think I'll try it again this summer. But anyway, she remembered that really clearly because of their quarter lot. Mom also stated that the mailbox we saw in front was the one that he had taken with him from Tennessee, in the late 40's! So this mailbox, that my great grandpa carried as some of his only property he was able to bring, is still there! Mom didn't know that until we left, so we never told the owners of the house of this unknown treasure. Maybe they'll find out some day... maybe. I looked at the little area of bright green grass, the green wood with a grill and table there, and the hot tub in the other corner, red and circular. I looked at the tree again. Very pretty. And then, they came out. Supposedly the owners of the house, a man in green cap with a crab on it and a grey sweater with Washington State on it, and a lady with short hair, kind of plump, and short sleeves on. They asked us what we wanted, in a nice enough way.
Did we run away and take some last pictures as we sped into the car? Did we take Dr. Von Handson's Special Disappear smoke and disperse into oblivion? Did we call upon our red dragon named Torso and then hop on it and burst the house into flame? Did we pick up our electronic balls and knock the people out? Did I have too much chocolate milk today with my breakfast? Don't answer the last one, it was rhetorical. But we did none of those, as Mom, kind of embarrassed, told them about our trip and that her grandparents had had this house for several years and that they were now both dead. They were really interested and nice about it, and thought it was really cool that we were here. They talked a little about purchasing the home as Mom said the whole vases story and the double lot. The lady mentioned at one time, the person a few before they owned it had owned both this house and the one by it, which had the same kind of architecture as the other one. They introduced themselves, and we met Tim (skinny and bearded with some grey hair really close to him) and Franca (such an odd name) Barker. Very nice people they were, given the circumstances. They could have not cared and called the police for us on their property, but they nodded and continued to talk about their purchase.
Mom shared a similar story about how she met the lady who lived in the photography studio before it was one. It was her house in third and fourth grade (3 room, in 1920's), and then it became a florist shop in the 1960's. The paint store was a greenhouse. They grew their own plants. They were very good people. Fairview Flower Shop bought the husband and wife out, and they became retired easygoing farmers. Fairview had a girl named Freida (Dad's future wife) working there, and they went out of business. Dad bought it thereafter. In 1975. The lady had said she saw every business that the building became come and go. But I just mentioned it 'cause I thought it would be interesting.
I looked at Tim's sweater and thought it was funny he had a Washington State shirt when Pop had just talked to me earlier how Arizona had been beaten by them. I thought it funny because he liked that and his team had just beaten Pop, who was a resident for four years, favorite team. They told us we could go back and see the lemon tree, and Franca sadly reported that it was dying. Rebecca and I went through the gate on the right side under an arch and walked under the columned area, and looked through a window at a trashed table and washing machine with all this junk on it. Through a wooden door we saw more work stuff and then were in this little grass area with a pretty lemon tree, with brown branches going out in different directions, with a few circular yellow lemons. It looked old, even though there was a lot of green stuff. As Rebecca and I took pictures and then returned, Franca told us about a botanist who came and stated the lemon tree was sick, as he cried about it (she said he was a very emotional man) and said it was an old man's tree. Tim told us he was a salesman for a medical company, which would make sense as their are so many old people in Tucson because of the dry climate. If your sick and elderly, it's the way to go, I believe.
Well, we said goodbye to the Barkers and then left in the car. Dad had been waiting for a long time. Well, I think it was a real success to go there because they were nice and we got to share a lot of interesting stories. I'm glad we went. On Around Me we found the Verizon, and it was fairly a close way. It started raining and Dad and I went in. I was bored with my A Tramp Abroad book and needed a little adventure. I took it in however. It was a big area full of display technology, and a lot of red and black and white. There was a young lady with an iPad and she recorded our problem and put us on the list as I looked at a few 4S's. I like that Surri thing a lot. I showed a girl how to use it, feeling rather like an employee. I live in a cool time in history, because of all the updates in tech and really cool things that we have. Although, if we use this component unresponsibly, then dire consequences may arise. Look at me, I sound like a politician.
The person called us, and we went up to these counters at the end of the long room. And a guy helped us out, thinking that it was the this-this that was wrong with the that that. He went into a room as a door locked, using his ID to open it. Tech. A big guy with a bow tie helped out an old man buy a LUCID. Our Verizon hotspot has been broken so many times on the trip, and it always goes off and isn't reliable. The guy came back and reported that the battery was the problem, but we knew better. Well, he gave us a new battery and said that he hoped that the thing would work. We knew it probably wouldn't however.
We then went to a Men's Warehouse and got me a belt because I'm getting too small for my britches. I saw a 50 things Every Young Gentleman should know book, which I've read. My cousin Barret gave it to me. Well, strangely I was already in their database. Weird. Well, we left with the crisp leather metal black belt in hand, and went home.
Going home, we watched T.V. and ate some leftover pizza.
PIZZZA! I LOVE GOOEY CHEESY CRUSTY PIZZA!!!!!,
Andrew.
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