One vacation that mom and I and Jeremy took together which is always fresh in my memory is the time we went to Arizona. The first thing that happened was having our trip interrupted by car trouble. We would start out our days by figuring how far we would get that day, what motel we would stay at and any attractions that were near that area. That day we made it a total of 10 miles. My transmission was shot and it needed a refurbished one.

That night we stayed in a motel close by while the mechanic stayed working on my car till midnight. The restaurant across the street was expensive so we didn't eat much. Jeremy and I walked a mile up the road to get some supper for us and brought it back to the motel to eat. There were tornado warnings out and Jeremy was freaked out about that. When we asked them at the motel where we would go if a tornado touched down they said they had no idea.

We were all disgusted by the delay in our travel plans but as was mom's way she said it was all in the providence so not to worry. The next morning when we got up and turned on the news we saw pictures of the motel we were going to stay at, had we gotten to where we were headed. It was destroyed by a tornado and the cars had been tossed a mile down the road. Mom was right, it was God's way of protecting us.

When we did get to Arizona we spent a day at the Grand Canyon. We all loved it and were awe struck by it. How can you not be? Jeremy had already started with his strange behavior at that time. Later we found out he had Schizophrenia but we didn't know that at this time. At one point at the Grand Canyon he was walking, looking off to the side over the rim of the canyon and he walked smack into a tree. "Mom!" he yelled at me. He was very upset with me because he walked into a tree. It took a bit for me to get him to realize that he had walked into the tree, I hadn't pushed him into it. I thought it was funny, but even at that time I found out he had a mind of his own.

We did have many good days on that vacation though. Times at Old Tucson, swimming, visiting with family, the petrified forest, even a wayside in the desert where you were reminded to stay on the walkway because of poisonous spiders. At Old Tucson Jeremy and I walked around looking for actors and didn't spot a one but had a good time in the process. Mom sat in an air conditioned restaurant sipping an ice tea and one of the actors came over to chat with her. She had one up on us. It was 120 degrees there that day and I loved it. I guess that is why I came back down here.