Time And Time Again Road Trip

We decide to travel the state a bit. We're still over eighteen, way, way over. In fact, we're even a little older now than when we met. As with most of my writings, there's no raging sex in it, just easy, comfortable love.

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When Kay and I met, a few months ago, we were both single and had been for several years. Both of us were active senior citizens, living in Arizona. Kay was born in the state and I had moved there many years ago and found a home. We had found each other and also found that we worked and played well together. She was well educated with an engineering degree and a fierce independence brought on in part by two divorces. The first husband ran off shortly after the birth of their second child. She was left to raise them and earn a living for many years. Then she married again, later, to a man that seemed nice but mistreated her after the ceremonies. She got rid of him quickly.

I, too was an engineer, an uncivil, civil engineer as well as a former commercial pilot. My wife had died a few years aback after slowly suffering from senility for several years. I had three sons, one a contractor, number two a police officer and number three a chef. There were three daughters in the mix, too, all bright but very different. Number one daughter was a strong, forward executive, number two was my "pain in the butt" daughter who tried her best after her mother died, to continue trying to bring me up to substandard, and number three was the quiet one. Of course they had names but when they were young and misbehaving, my wife and I would have to go down the whole list of names, in our anger, to get to the proper miscreants' name. That's when they got numbered. If you come from a big family, I'm sure you know what I mean. Dammit, Bill, Joe, Karen, Liz, Oh Hell, you there, stop it!

As Kay and I got to know each other, we had traveled a bit in the state, stopping here and there overnight sometimes. When spring started to turn into summer, we decided to go up north, to higher elevations and cooler weather. Both of us were retired, and had been for years. Because we both liked to travel, we had our utility bills and credit card bills on automatic pay. Any income we had was also on direct deposit to the bank, a situation that allowed us to be away for any length of time.

When we first talked about going up north, we discussed which of our motor homes we should take. Hers was newer, a class C, which meant that it was built on a truck frame with a truck cab in front. Mine was a purpose built class A motor home, a few years older than hers. We tried a short trip in hers first. It was great--for one person. With two people inside, when one wanted to change their mind, they had to go outside. Not too good.

Then we tried mine, a 32' Bounder with a separate bedroom and bath as opposed to the hide-a-bed couch and cramped toilet in her vehicle. The first day out convinced her that we should travel in mine. A strong woman, mentally, she was intimidated by the size of the Bounder. We decided to take an experimental trip in an open area to get her used to driving the beast. We took a circular swing, driving first to Yuma, Arizona, 200 miles of desert highway. We then turned north, along the Colorado River with the river on our left and mountains, such as the Kofa range to our right. All open space and not heavily congested. It didn't take long for her to learn to put that rig anywhere she wanted.

Along the way, we went through a geothermal area, interesting that when drilling for water to first construct the road they hit steam and hot water. At a couple of places, near the highway, the state had built rest stops with pools to soak in. Water goes from one pool to another, cooling on the way. You can pick your temperature. Pressure fed, some is piped to a sprayer pointed up in the air. As they are a ways off the freeway, the pools are not too heavily used by the general public. That makes them great, as it is possible to go nude there, if you dare. Sometimes there will be 8 or 10 people, other times, no one. It's a favorite stop of mine.

We tried it, stopping for an hour. Kay was reluctant, at first, to go skinny-dipping in public, so's to speak. I convinced her that she already was "skinny" and at our age, what the Hell. That did it, she joined me and we had fun even though we had company for a while. She had never known about that spot. It was fun cuddling, hugging and splashing in the pools.

Driving on, we turned north, after leaving Yuma and parked in the desert not far from the Colorado. I have solar panels and two large batteries for "house" power, so we watched TV and read a while before going to bed. In the morning, it was beautiful. We were alongside the lake formed by Laguna Dam, the first dam on built on the Colorado. Again, a not wellknown place and we had it all to ourselves. We sat outside with our coffee for a while, enjoying the solitude before going back inside and enjoying each other for a while.

We drove north, through the Yuma Proving ground with a few stops to see the displays of special, experimental old weapons they had placed along the way in spots. We arrived at Quartzsite, Arizona. It has a summer population of about 5,000, or less, but in the winter, the surrounding desert will have close to 200,000 campers around it, basking in the warmth, escaping the cold of Canada and northern United States. It was still crowded so I drove to Brenda, turned off the highway and went to an 80 acre place a friend owned. No one else was around for several miles. We oriented the rig so the passenger side was to the north in order to have shade with out putting out the awning.

Now we were really alone and no visitors expected. You'd think we had been married for a long time the way we acted. Then again, maybe you'd think we were newly weds We were comfortable with each other and didn't have the raging urges the younger set had. A hug here, a kiss for no reason and slow, easy sex when the mood struck us. Neither of us had experienced that in a long time. We left, reluctantly, after a few days and went on back, to the Phoenix area and home.

That trip decided us that we could live together, at least for a while, and we started planning a longer trip, taking in northern Arizona and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We also considered taking my raft and going down the San Juan River, in southern Utah. That could be a five day trip in itself.

All this proves that, given fair health, an older couple can enjoy life in fantastic ways, often surpassing the quick, frenetic excursions that younger people usually take, no matter how exotic the place. Some peace and quiet, with a few amenities nearby, works for us. We've found happiness with full knowledge that it may not be for many years, so we try to capture as much as we can, as often as we can.