Day 1

In November of 2018, G3 competed in his first Taekwondo tournament. He took second place in Forms. Shortly after that, he declared that he would someday qualify for the World Championship. Well, he made good on that declaration and so we are now heading to Phoenix, Arizona where he will complete in Forms on Thursday.

We were up early—3:45 early—in order to get to the airport in time for our 6:59 departure. Okay, we probably could have slept an extra fifteen or twenty minutes—that had been Kati’s plan—but I don’t like to be late. Or rather, I don’t like the fear or anxiety of possibly being late. I don’t want to stress that things won’t go smoothly. I like to leave time for wrong turns and long lines. However, this morning we didn’t have to wait long for the shuttle from parking to the terminal and the line through security moved rather swiftly allowing us to arrive at the gate nearly an hour before boarding. Before Kati could say “I told you so,” I joked that we didn’t have to wake up quite so early. But you know, if we had opted to steal a few more minutes of sleep something would have tripped us up and we’d be panicking. Now, I have time to sit and write.

Guess what we almost forgot. G3’s belt. Yes, we are heading to the World Championship Taekwondo tournament and we almost forgot his black belt. In my defense, when I helped him pack his suitcase, he still needed the belt for practice so we couldn’t pack it yet. This morning, the bags were in the car ready to go and I was pulling the front door closed when I asked if we had everything we needed. G3 immediately said, “We have my uniform, right? And my belt?” Oh shoot, we didn’t have the belt. I ran back in the house and grabbed it. Damn that was close. What would we have done if we arrived in Arizona without it?

As excited as I am to be heading to Arizona for G3’s competition—and well, you all know how happy I get when I leave NJ—I can’t shake the feeling of sadness hanging over me. The last time G3 and I flew we were with Mom and Dad when they took us to Disney. Being in an airport reminds me of Dad and the fact that we never did get to take that last trip to Florida together. Sitting here, the memory of G3’s first flight is very vivid. He was four the first time we went to Disney and I’m not sure who was more excited, G3 or Dad.

The airport also reminds me that it was a vacation that killed Dad. The very last time he was on a plane he was probably already dying, we just didn’t know it.

After weeks of hearing about chaos in the airports—flights being canceled and delayed—I was surprised that we took off on time. (Fingers crossed we have the same luck on the other end when we will need it more.) Perhaps Dad had a hand in that, wanting this trip to run smoothly for G3.

On the plane, I read for most of the flight. Though a heavy blanket of fatigue did fall over me for a spell so I did nap—somewhat—for about an hour. If I didn’t have a book, flying would be a miserable experience. It’s hard for me to sit still for twenty minutes, hours at a time would not be possible, if I couldn’t read. Movies don’t help. Somehow they make the time seem infinite and I end up feeling painfully restless. Yes, Dad used to make fun of me at for being “a snob.” In fact, can hear laughing at me as I write this.

But I am the only odd one in my family. G3 is normal. He loves watching movies and he couldn’t wait to get on the plane to be able to watch uninterrupted for five hours. Things have changed since we last flew. The seats no longer have individual screens. Instead, you can connect your smartphone or other device to the in-house system and watch movies that way. G3 was able to connect with his phone and he used the headphones he got from school. Kati did not have headphones. She was bummed because she too is normal and really would have enjoyed a movie. Unable to watch, she read a bit, napped, and played games on her phone.

I was bummed because I could no longer watch the plane move across the electronic map. I never had use for the movies but I alway pulled up the map on my screen to see where exactly we were at any given moment. I really missed not being able to see where we were at all times. Kati connected to the in-house system to see if she could find it for me, but it wasn’t there. I felt lost in the sky and could only guess at what state might be below me.

We are now waiting for our rental car. Initially, we were told we had to wait 35 minutes but now that a half hour has gone by they are telling us we need to wait another hour. When Kati made the reservation, she made it for us to pick up the car at 9. That was 90 minutes ago. We complained. Sitting around and waiting when there is a new state to for G3 to explore is just not acceptable. Shortly after our complaint—and it may have been a coincidence—we got a car.

Once we had a car, we stopped for a quick lunch and then headed south to Saguaro National Park. We didn’t even bother to swing by the hotel first. But you all know me, no matter the purpose of the trip, if I can squeeze in some site seeing, I do just that. So while we are here for the World Championship, I did want to take G3 to at least one National Park. He’s never been in a desert and he’s never seen a cactus in it’s natural setting. Of course, the moment the car started to move he fell asleep. And he crashed hard—real hard. The excitement that kept him up late last night combined with the early wake up call left him exhausted. I’m tried too, but I promised Kati I wouldn’t fall asleep. It’s a struggle because I always sleep in the car.

Last summer, I thought Montana looked parched. Arizona is worse. It’s brown, nothing but brown as far as the eye can see in some places. There are far more cars on the highway than I expected but the land between Phoenix and Tucson is barren. The grasses are yellow with a few green shrubs strewn about. In the distance, craggy mountains jut up from the earth. The mountains, as always are pretty, but the various shades of brown detract from the beauty of the landscape. Occasionally, we pass mountains or hills covered with tall cacti. Sometimes they march right up to the edge of the highway, as if greeting the cars that race past. They too are pretty to see. I thought they looked like people, sentinels standing guard and protecting nature, but Kati thinks they look more like wooden crosses. We both agree, depending on the angle you see them, they sometimes look as if they are giving you the finger.

The giant saguaros are the largest cacti in the United States. They are also a symbol of the American west. In Saguaro National Park they are protected, though it’s hard to believe anything can survive in this heat for a sustained period of time. According to the car, it reached 106 degrees this afternoon. Usually, I enjoy hiking when we visit National Parks but when we finally reached Saguaro, the rangers had posted a sign saying all hiking should be completed by 10:00 AM. It was 2:00. And just stepping out of the car Kati and G3 were melting. I was disappointed, but even without the sign, neither G3 nor Kati would have been up for a hike. Of the three of us, I definitely handle the heat the best.

We couldn’t hike but we did take two short walks. G3 and I followed a nature trail that was less than a half a mile. He grumbled about the heat and grumbled some more every time I paused to take a picture, but the cacti were so pretty I had to shoot them.

The three of us took another short walk to see some petroglyphs—designs etched into rocks by Native Americans. We’d never seen them before so that was interesting. They were mostly swirly pictures and simple designs, but on one rock there seemed to be a picture of two deer or deer-like animals.

When I first told Kati I wanted to take G3 to see the Cacti, I don’t think she was all that keen on going. But she knows me, when I fall into travel mode it’s go, go, go. But once she found out they were the biggest cacti in America, she was more excited about seeing them. And she did find the park to be beautiful. So despite the heat and being miserable in it, she found the trip to be worth the drive.

As we were finishing up our walk it started to drizzle. G3 got so excited you would have thought he had never seen rain—ever. Obviously, he has seen rain, plenty of times but never in the desert. It was the scorching heat that made the rain different—fun. Of course, it only drizzled for about three minutes and it never even made the ground wet. Seriously, not even a drop appeared to land on the pavement. It was like they instantly evaporated upon contact. Except when they struck the windshield, those we could see.

We finally went to our hotel to check in at around 7:00. It was awful. It looked nothing like the pictures online. The pool looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years—there was no way I was letting G3 swim in it—and some of the windows were broken and boarders up. The clientele looked sketchy—not the sort of people I want near my son—and if drug deals were going down in the rooms I would not be surprised. G3 said the stairwell smelled like poop and Kati said it smelled worse than the NYC subways. Plus, the window to our room didn’t look secure. We spent two seconds there before Kati declared we were leaving. She made a reservation elsewhere—outside of the city center—and managed to get her money back without a fight. I wouldn’t be surprised if we weren’t the first family to show-up only to decide it’s better to leave.

Any one want to venture a guess as to where we ate dinner? Yep, you got it—Culver’s. I am sure my addiction/fascination with Culver’s and cheese curds would not be this bad if we had them in Jersey. Since we don’t, it’s one more reason to get excited when we come out west.

It is now nearly 10:00. Our bodies think it’s going on 1:00. It’s time for a glass of wine then bedtime.

I apologize for all my typos. Not only are my thumbs too fat for my phone, but I am now old and my eyes are not what they used to be. The words on my phone screen are all blurry so I can’t properly proofread. Yes, I have reading glasses, but I forgot them at home. Perhaps it was a product of my denial that I need them.