September- December 2024- Fire on the Mountain

The month of September started in a blaze. I had started following @thehotshotwakeup account on Instragram and we had started using Watch Duty app on our phones. The IG account posted information on current fires all over the country. At this time, most of the posts were about northern California, eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho. It seemed that particular corner of the country was on fire. Not to be outdone, Arizona had to get into the mix. A fire started on the northern edge of the Superstition Mountains prompting evacuations from Tortilla Flats towards Gold Canyon. Fortunately there were no lives lost in the AZ fire. One evening as our small group sat outside (Rikki, Eric, Brett, Callie and Teri and I), we saw the fire creeping over the top of the Superstitions onto the western side. Things were getting real. During the course of the night, the fire did not continue down the mountain side but remained at the top. We later learned through various sources that the fire we saw were backfires started by the firefighters as part of the containment process. Due to the ruggedness of the mountains it took a couple of weeks before the fire was completely out but all the evacuation orders were lifted prior to that.

Life started to get busy by this time as well. I was meeting Kevin at the gym 2 days per week and for a ride 1 day per week. In addition to that I was riding almost every day. Teri was busy with her life as well with hiking and some strength training. We started playing pickleball several times per week and spent Tuesday nights playing bingo. In addition to all this we had doctor appointments to attend to and I was called for Jury duty in Florence (an hour drive). The case involved a 30 something who had been arrested for carrying a firearm in Apache Junction and was prohibited by law due to (I’m making an education guess) a prior conviction. After sitting for several hours for the court proceedings, the court had identified their jury and I was released.

The RV park was surprisingly empty and the managers told us that a lot of the reservations had been either cancelled or pushed back. Some of the comments and reasons for the changes had to do with a very poor exchange rate from Canadian to US money along with this being an election year, a lot of folks were staying home to vote. Additionally it was still very hot with the temps still in the triple digits. We spent many a night outdoors visiting and enjoying the cooled weather once the sun started to set.

It was also time to start training with the first mountain bike race of the year being the Fire on the Rim in Pine/Strawberry. It was time to really test the new hip and my fitness. This was a 15 mile loop with a lot of climbing. I finished 8th of 29 in the 45+ age group. A finish I was very pleased with.

Then we started rolling into October with plans for the Tour of the White Mountains mountain bike race in Pinetop. As I was in training working my way toward race weight, I was very cognizant of my diet and couldn’t indulge in my favorite food- ice cream. During the week prior to the race we took a relaxation day and went to the spa for a massage and soak in the hot tub. A wonderful experience. On race weekend, we drove through the Salt River Canyon and stopped at the bottom to marvel at the sheer rock walls, the river bed, the impressive bridge and the winding road through the canyon. Brett and Callie joined us for the weekend so we had a great time.

As for the race, this was a 35 mile race at 7,000 ft elevation. I’m used to training at less than 2,000 ft elevation. There had been no rain in the area for quite a while so the forest was dry and dusty. At the starters gun, several hundred of us started out fighting for position as we rode the paved portion before gliding onto the single track. There was an aid station setup at about the 1 hour mark. Teri, Brett and Callie had all planned to meet me there and supply me with some water bottles and fuel. I had received a text from Teri about 15 minutes prior to arriving at the aid station, but I didn’t stop to read it. As I rolled into the aid station, I didn’t see them where we had agreed they would meet me. I stopped to check the text. The text said the phone mapping wasn’t working and they couldn’t find the aid station. I tried to text, but didn’t have any signal. I knew I would pass through this aid station again in about an hour and a half and I would be able to top off my bottles at that time for the final hour of the race at the neutral support tent. On I went. As I rolled back into the aid station on the return trip, I stopped at the food tent and then heard someone calling my name. I looked up and saw the 3 of them there holding signs urging me on and they handed me my severely desired fuel bottles. I rolled into the finish line in 14th place out of 40 60+ age group racers. Another successful finish.

In an effort to break up the normal routine, our little band of crazies took a weekend visit to Sierra Vista. As we approached the city we could see a white balloon flying high in the sky above city. It never moved but just circled in the sky. Research indicated this was a monitoring device used by the military and the Border Patrol for monitoring for illegal border crossings. We had rented an Airbnb with plenty of room for the 6 of us (Rikki, Eric, Brett, Callie, Teri and I) along with a pool and hot tub.

We took one day to cruise down to Bisbee to check out the sights and walk the town. We had a wonderful lunch while we walked in and out of the various shops. The walk through memory lane through the community of Lowell is always interesting. This is a throwback to the 60’s with the various shops a gas station with the pumps right on the sidewalk. It is also on the edge of the large open pit copper mine that is no longer active. Many of the structures are still visible and I can only wonder what it was like when this was an active mining operation.

The 2nd day consisted of a trip to the Historic Townsite of Fairbank on the road to Tombstone. Fairbank was a small mining community until the ranchers ran everyone out of town (based on my recollection from a prior visit). The buildings are still intact although not safe to enter but there is a visitor center that is staffed by volunteers. Teri and I thrill with the history of these types of locations. Next stop was Tombstone where we walked the dusty streets and boardwalks and dreamed of hearing the jingle of spurs and the clomping of horses hoofs. We did take a tour of the Birdcage Saloon and also jumped into a stagecoach for a riding tour around the town. Our last stop was Boothill. Little did I know that this was the actual town cemetery until it was closed and not just an attraction. There are 3 lawmen buried here and their graves are decorated with blue ribbons. At the entry there is a photo of an essay titled, You Don’t Remember Me, Do You written by Tim Lindsey, Lamar County, MS Sheriff’s Dept. I’ll try to post the photo here but there was some glare. I found a link for this poem on a couple of websites memorializing fallen officers so I’ll paste it here. My apologies for making this a long read but this pulls at my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

__________________________

You Don’t Remember Me, Do You…
By Tim Lindsey, Lamar County MS Sheriff’s Dept.

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who unlocked your car
after you accidently locked the keys and your baby up at the mall.
I was the one who gave you a ride to the gas station
when you ran out of gas on that backroad.
I was the one who changed your tire
becasue you couldn’t figure out how to work the stupid scissor jack.
I was the one who directed you safely through that busy intersection
when the traffic signals weren’t working.
I was the one who gave you a jump start
after you left your lights on.

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who found the item
that identified the guy who raped your daughter.
I was the one who spent my off days in court
to testify and help convict the man who beat your son so badly.
I was the one who located your grandmother in the woods
that night it was 22 degrees
and she had wandered away from the nursing home.
I was the one who loaned you the raincoat
the night we stood and watched your house burn.
I was the one who talked with you for two hours
about your son running away from home.

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who held your hand,
wiped the blood out of your eyes, and calmed you down
while the Fire Department cut you out of what was left of your car.
I was the one who called you at 2 a.m.
to come pick up your 16 year old daughter
because she had been drinking too much.
I was the one who knocked on your door at 4 a.m.
to let you know your 16 year old daughter
would never be coming home again.
I was the one who did CPR on your 3 year old
after you found him in the pool.
I was the one who helped deliver your new baby
when you didn’t quite make it to the ER

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who got the snake out of your bathroom
around midnight.
I was the one who got my knees and elbows scraped up
fighting with the shoplifter with your carton of cigarettes.
I was the one who took your son for a “ride-along”
so he could see what it was really like.
I was the one who gave you the right directions
so you wouldn’t miss that business meeting.
I was the one who stopped you
to let you know your right tire was going flat.

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who escorted your son’s funeral procession
from the church to the cemetary
and cried behind my sunglasses because he was my friend, too.
I was the one who watched over your place
while you were on vacation.
I was the one who worked for you on Christmas Day
so you could be off with your family.
I was the one who joked around with you
after your truck go hit by a train
and you walked away without a scratch.
I was the one who was able to talk your husband
into going into counseling with you.

You don’t remember me, do you…
I was the one who got shot when I pulled over a car
for a traffic violation and the driver turned out to be an escaped convict
who had sworn he would never go back to prison.
Oh, by the way, my memorial service is at 2 p.m.

Will you remember me now?

August 31, 2005

_________________________________

November is a month filled with birthdays and of course Thanksgiving. This year we were treated to the arrival of Craig and Sherie from Iowa to increase our band of crazies to 8. The whole crew took a day to visit Papago Park to hike to Hole in the Rock and visit Hunt’s Tomb. Teri, Craig and Sherie took time to hike various trails while I was busy on my training rides.

Early in the month we celebrated the 83rd birthday of Joe Caldwell, our former pro basketball rockstar. On the opposite side of the spectrum we memorialized the life of a former co-worker and friend, John Calender. John had been one of my supervisors at Chandler PD and we had stopped to visit he and his wife June in Texas in 2023. John had developed cancer that eventually took him from us. Although he had died in Texas and that’s where they held the funeral, this was a Celebration of Life to celebrate his time and friends in Arizona.

November is also the month in which I met Kevin 2 years ago and he calls the Cave Creek Cactus Class mountain bike race our anniversary because we met just after the race in 2023 and he has been training me since then. This race is a 23 mile race through the desert and mountains above Cave Creek. In this race I finished 9th of 25 and another successful finish. I was also featured on Hammer Nutrition’s website as a Sponsored Athlete.

We continued to play pickleball each day. Teri has had remarkable improvement in her play and we have spirited matches with several other people in the park each morning. Weekends are for football. Between all of us, there are 4 teams that we focus on. Brett and Callie are diehard Chiefs, Teri is Seahawks, my son-in-law Tim is a Steelers and Monica (my daugher) and I are Cardinals. Yes, there is a lot of trash talking surrounding some of the games. We’ll sit outside the motorhome with the tv on and watch the games and root for our favorites.

For Thanksgiving Teri and I met with my daughters and their families for a family dinner at Joe’s Real BBQ in Gilbert. This is so much easier than any of us having to host a large gathering and has become a tradition of ours. My sister and her family from Flagstaff and my brother and his girlfriend from Washington DC were in town for the Thanksgiving weekend as well. My brother’s son and his wife and child are here in Chandler so we had another exceptional reunion with them as well.

As the Thanksgiving weekend rolled to a close, it was time to dig out the Christmas decorations. This year we decided to decorate a real tree but we left it outside to save us the clutter of fallen needles. Besides, we have no idea where we would have put it in the motorhome without it being in the way. Football season was winding down with everyone looking towards the playoffs and more trash talking. Craig, Sheri, Teri and I took a day and rode the Light Rail into Tempe to walk through the Tempe Arts Festival. There is so much there, it’s hard to know if you saw everything before you were tired. We had a wonderful lunch on an upstairs balcony overlooking the festival.

I continue to train with Kevin at his new gym and although I know I’m not tall, I felt dwarfed when I met Torsten. He is 7’2″. The irony of meeting him was that he was wearing a shirt that showed me how short I am.

One of the fun things about mountain biking is the people I meet on the trails. On one particular bright sunny warm day while riding through Usery Mountain Park, a rider was approaching from the opposite direction. He stopped to allow me to ride through the narrow wash. As I climbed out of the wash I heard him call my name. As I looked at him, I didn’t recognize him. It didn’t help that he was wearing a full face helmet. Burt was a fellow retired officer from Chandler PD and we spent about 30 minutes on the side of the trail. On another ride I found Charlie and Cathie staffing an aid station for a running event. I know them from my days at the PD. They both have become very accomplished trail runners as well as marathoners.

On one of our hikes into the foothills of the Superstition Mountains, with our crazy crew, we came across a crew of AZ State Fire Dept Hotshots. This team of about 20 were out on a training hike. We were all dressed for the heat that was present. They were all dressed in fire fighting gear. They were wearing yellow long sleeved, heavy fabric shirts, green heavy duty cargo pants, black high heeled boots and all were carrying a backpack and the tools of their trade which included shovels, picks, chainsaws. We spoke briefly as we thanked them for their service and wished them well. As mentioned this had been a tough year for wildland fires.

Craig and Sherie had family, Tami and Adam and several grandkids who unfortunately I don’t remember their names, come to visit just after Christmas and they rented side by side cars and along with us and our Jeep we went for a 4 hour cruise into Bulldog Canyon. Another fun day!

We also took an impromptu trip to Winslow and then Flagstaff to see the lights of downtown Flagstaff. While in Winslow, we stopped and stood on the corner next to the Flatbed Ford. I know you’re singing the song in your head now…. We also took a quick stop at the Apache Death Cave before arriving in Flagstaff. Upon our arrival, we found several of the downtown streets closed. We learned there was a parade of lights and of course we had to stay to watch.