On a Trip to the Middle of Nowhere…

This weekend I went to visit my mom for Mother's Day and stopped to see my Grandma too. For once I had my camera.  I decided to take you on a trip with me, a trip through photos, of a place that truly feels like it is in the middle of nowhere…The places I photographed are those that are engrained in my mind as familiar.  Come along if you'd like…

(I almost deleted this whole post, it felt so terribly boring and long…So, sorry if it is….And, I warn, it really is very very long.)

Preparing to get on the freeway, takes me passed the evergreen cemetary.  This is the first step to heading home, an hour and a half south of Tucson, Arizona. 

      

The road home is a long stretch straight ahead.  It probably feels long because you just drive straight ahead for and hour…Then you get to this little town infused with busy body obnoxious people called Nogales. From there you go about 30 minutes into the hills…So, here we go…

Passing the San Xavier Mission means that we are officially exiting Tucson…This is on ultra zoom while driving down the freeway.  Looks like they are doing some restoration to the top there…It is a fascinating place, if you get a chance to visit it in life…

      

Driving along, I look to the left, I look to the right…Yep, looks like desert to me…

      

I know it looks creepy to you, but to me, it is normal. And yes, people do really come out of this place being fairly normal.  Although, my father owned a business that allowed us to be in San Diego alot.  I even lived there as a kid…Homebase was always in the desert though.  But, most of my summers were spent in a very magical place, home away from home…

Yep, still drivin… I am about 20 minutes away at this point…

      

It gets greener as we get closer to the town…A little cooler too…

      

Almost to town, notice the warehouses. They line up and down the road, as this town's main industry is produce.  This is where most of all of your veggies in the United States filter through.  My dad owned a produce brokerage for 35 years….He retired the business a few years ago…Interesting huh? I can tell a ripe avocado from an unripe avocado from across the room.  I was pretty much a pro at produce from about, 5 years old??  I used to love going into the ice cold warehouses with my dad to inspect the produce when I was little.  It was freezing in there and, oh so hot outside.  I miss the smell of all of the produce in wooden crates…Fresh and vegetably?

Are you bored yet??? Okay, now we hit the town… and travel through ultra windy roads to get to the hidden place where I grew up.  I get so annoyed because I lived in the middle of nowhere since I was 5.  There were no houses around us. Well, actually, there was one.  And a girl I used to play with lived there, she was really mean, but I had no choice, no other kids around.  The road was pure dirt and it seemed really really far.  Now, the whole town has discovered the place and it is becoming populated, people fighting to live out there… So silly.  Annoying really.

So, here we are down the long and winding road….

      

Finally we are here….But, the gate is closed. (most people have gated entries around here for safety purposes)

      

      

Yes, another winding road up the my parents house….I need a dramamine at this point…

      

Noone is here! What???  Grreat.  I didn't bring my key…

I guess we can go snooping around… Now that is fun to me….This is a lovely tree!  And, notice, the reason for this post, is to show you what the middle of nowhere is like.  Look beyond the tree. Yep, nowhere.

      

And, if you walk to the other side of the yard and look over, again, you see, nothing???

      

Ooo, I see an open gate… let's go snooping in Mammie's side garden…Where everything is so short, for little elves and fairies…

      

      

      

      

Little benches…

      

A little work table for potting and fixing bird houses??

      

I am sooo amuzed at the grass..Betcha' didn't think you'd see anythin' green in this post huh?  Where did you think I got my green thumb from???

      

My mom has funny things in her yard (and Dad's yard too). Like giant humongous boulders…

      

You can see how far we are in the hills by looking beyong these rocks at the town, way in the distance…

      

I hear a car!!  Yep, I am going back through the yard.. and Yep, look who it is!! The hat-wearing dad himself…(he is really lovable, as you can tell) I think he is hugging all of you!  hee…

      

My heart is sad for my mom and dad.  They are all alone now, no kids at home, in the middle of nowhere…And we all don't visit that often because our lives are sooo busy.  I just feel so sad for them sometimes.  I should visit more often…

Time to open gifts.  Momm-bee received a menagerie of art gifts, some Anahata Katkin cards, Awesome blocks from Stiletto Heights (custom made), a lovely checkbook cover from Thompson Designs , and some homemade treasures by me and me…

      

      

       

      

Wanna go snooping at Fairies in Kandeedo's room???? My Momm has filled it with fairies galore…She was showing me this contraption that is something like a fairy tree and when you clap you hear fairies giggling and they dance around…

      

      

Someday I am going to steal that Mackenzie-Childs desk below!!!!

      

      

       Oh, I hear comotion!! Guess who just arrived! Kandeedo and Adam (my baby brother)…..

      

With her super-lovely shoes…

      

And her boyfriend….

      

And now, the fun begins!!!!! Eatin' lovely delights and off to Granny's, where all the witch stories, and creepy attics stem from…(that is Kandeedo below)

      

Oh My, why are Momm's refrigerators and pantry always so deliciously stocked???

      

Okay, let's go in our car caravan to granny's house.. Come on Kandeedo get out of Mammies car and ride with me!!! And Mammie asks, are all you munchkins in the car.. Nah, Kandeedo and I are takin' a detour on the way to Granny's…

      

So here we go, 30 minutesfrom my parents house and into town.  And now, it gets interesting.  You see, we are going into the town of Nogales itself.  A strange and bizarre place.  But, there is much history here, and the Mexican-Amercian border is there.  So, if you all want to know what seperates you from Mexico come along! 

I even drove through the old downtown to show you the Woolworth and Kress buildings, although all the shops are cheap knock off stuff now.  Here we go…

First amuzing image as we enter the funky town…Not so sure about Disco and Sushi, you?? And, will that old school Limo pick us up?

      

Getting closer to where Grandma and Grandpa live…I want those stairs! Stairs to nowhere.  Perfecto!!

      

Passed the entrance to Granny's street which is a mile long up hill steep road, and just into downtown.  First you go passed the old courthouse…

      

So, just passed this, is the old dowtown.  It is madness down here.  Just at the end of the street, you can see a fence?  That is the Mexican border.  At the end of the street to the shops you can cross into Mexico by foot.

      

And to the right, is the "Placita" a little park-like place…(Kandeedo's eyeball)

      

And, here is what seperates Nogales, Mexico from Nogales, Arizona.  Pretty freaky wall huh?  You should see it at night all lit up.  Look up the hill there…

      

as I turn to the right, I get to see Woolworth and Kress.  Oh, how I long for the real shops to be in there…..Kandeedo exclaimed, look at the ceiling in the upstairs window…She tried to take a pic…

      

      

      

      

      

Now up to Granny's. Passed the old Post office, and the hundreds of mail trucks…and passed lovely old houses…..

      

      

      

      

My grandparents live up this really really steep and long hill, and you can't turn your car around, so you have to go to the top of the hill where there is a cul-de-sac. Then you turn around and come back down and park on a narrow side strip…But at the top, in the dustance, this is what you see.  The border again…I am zooming in for you here…Scary huh?  I never realized how big it was…Until I came way up the hill one day and was shocked…You can't see all this from the hills where I grew up in…Only 30 minutes away and it feels like a whole different world, don't you think???

      

   

      

      

If you look in the other direction you see the old church I went to, it is incredible inside, just beautiful, and the old highschool (I did not go there, but I used to think the Rocky movie was filned there when I was a kid)…

      

      

We are here.  Kandeedo is yelling at me to stop snooping through my Grandpa's mass amount of treaures of metals and such…I make these wooden treasures full of found metals, so I pocketed a few scraps I found…I don't know that I can make it down 100 cobblestone steps without killing myself!!

      

Okay, we are here at Grannies house, and it is gift time….I am so excited to give her her very own Jennifer Kerr treasure!!!  And, it is called Josephine's garden, and that is my Granny's name ( I really call her Nana). How perfect!!! Thank you Jennifer!! She loved it!!! Also, gifts for my mom's sister Denise.  And the little girl you will see here and there is one of my Aunt Denise's kids, Carolina, pronounced (Cado-Leena, long a)cute huh?

      

      

      

My Grandma cooks on this. Can you believe it?  They got her a real new stove/oven, but she still likes to use this…I love it myself.  I think it is wonderful!!

      

And now, the moment I have been waiting for this whole post!!!

My grandma has this little door at the top of the stairs.  This tiny door leads to a long room. In this room there is another tiny door at the end.  it is taped up and closed off.  It is an attic. An attic that houses treasures beyond our wildest imagination!  One day, I am going to go visit her and peek through all the treasures!!

Having Carolina there was so interesting.  I had a sense of nostalgia…As she was carrying on with my Grandma, trying on furs and such, I realized, she is having the same magical experiences I had with my Grandma at that age.  It was so touching…

The steepest stairs on the planet…(until 2 years ago there was never a handrail on these stairs, so you could drop off onto the polished brick floor and crack your head if you weren't careful.)

      

      

Me, opening the door….

      

      

      

      

(We did not go deep into the attic, it is closed off, I will be back with that story someday…)

It gets better.  This house is said to be haunted..It is on a cliff…And there is a cesspool, which I guess is like a big open septic tank, closed with a huge metal door. In this cesspool they found human bones in the 40's.  A man murdered his wife, so the story goes….There is also a witches house on the property…But, now, it is totally deteriorated…I wonder what is inside.. My Grandma says it is full of treasures…As the aunts were witches too…

Carolina re-tells me the same story I grew up with.. I love it…And I act as though I have never heard it before…

      

Scary cesspool that you can easily fall into if you go down there….

      

Witches house…

      

      

Carolina telling me about the Witch…

      

Witches brew…(Granny made it)

      

When I was a little girl, this "bird-man" lived across the way from my grandparents.  He built this huge bird house, it was phenomenal.  I saw for the first time, that it has collapsed and deteriorated. It used to look like a secret garden.. Now it is just dead and falling apart.. so sad….

      

      

Well, it was all fun. But, now it was time to go home… Back on the freeway I go.. Half-way to Tucson there is a Border Patrol checkpoint….And then smooth sailing back to Catalina…Packed with delicious food for Mr. Lovee… (Tinga)

      

Hello Tucson!!

      

      

Almost to Catalina

      

I am not even stopping at my home in town…Straight to another hidden place, where my heart and soul thrive…

The yard-sale dog rests….

      

      

A place, where my studio awaits, and I should be ashamed to let you see what a disaster it really is…

      

      

      

Okay, I better get to work. As this longest post ever has taken me forever, and you are probably totally sick of my world by now…..xxo

Too bad I left these lounge chairs behind…. 😉 I could use some R&R…