TEMPE, AZ. – Once upon a time when we were younger, I had a reoccurring dream that Jim and I just up and left our house and everything in it – to go – I know not where. We just drove away never to return to Greenwood Drive.
Waking up to that thought more than once was disconcerting.
Well, we recently sort of did that, but lookie-here, we came back.
Thanks for missing me, dear readers. I hear some of you called the Exponent wondering about me.
A lot of people go south for all of winter. We went for one month, the longest we’ve been away at one time. Jim’s Southern blood must have thought he had returned to his roots and this homebody must fess up! It was doggone nice not to have to deal with ice and snow, to go for walks in our shirtsleeves under a brilliant blue sky and to just “be still” in the sunshine of our private and cozy yard.
As we started to plan a trip, we set our sights on Arizona. Daughter-in-law, Jyl, found online a VRBO (vacation rental by owner) in Tempe and we dished out the dough. Long running Snowbirds, Wally and Dorothy Radi, East Grand Forks good friends and neighbors, picked us up at Phoenix-Mesa Airport, took us to our rental car and helped us move into a sweet little unit in a 4-plex on a cul de sac. Our on-loan lawn chairs also were compliments of Wally and Dorothy.
It seemed Jim and I were playing house in somebody else’s home.
We spent the first few days getting settled, buying groceries, having coffee and blueberry donut holes at Dunkin’ Donut. We visited Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, home to thousands of species of cactus, trees and flowers from all around the world. We roamed a good share of the acreage and enjoyed the architectural studio glass installations of Dale Chihuly, on the garden’s landscape.
Our second weekend there, Dean and Jyl came to Phoenix for a ministry conference. We joined them one day learning that people come from all over the United States for this — 2,500 in fact. We were delighted to see our former pastor, Rev. Jon Buescher, and his wife, Sarah, as well as Rev. Jim Baneck, my niece, Myrna’s husband.
On Sundays in Tempe, we visited Christ Lutheran, Phoenix, and Gethsemane Lutheran, Mesa.
Then there was the biggie – the discovery of Tempe Marketplace. After the first encounter, we spent part of everyday there, basking in the sun or reading in the shade beneath palm trees, walking 10,000 steps a day, having coffee at Panera, lunch at Dave and Buster’s or fine dining at Thirsty Lion.
Tempe Marketplace is an open-air shopping center located along the Salt River near the interchange of Loop 101 (the Pima/Price Freeway) and Loop 202 (the Red Mountain Freeway) near the Tempe borders with Mesa and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. It offers more than 100 shops and restaurants plus a vibrant outdoor environment with cozy fireplaces, unique waterfall features and lush landscaping. It’s busy, but you can always find a place to park yourself on a comfortable couch to turn the pages of a book.
All this was five minutes from where we were staying.
The discovery of Tempe Marketplace happened after I asked my phone navigator to take us to a Barnes and Noble Booksellers store. I’d heard about, “The Boys in the Boat,” by Daniel James Brown, and wanted to read it while in Tempe. I did and recommend it ever so highly.
As we browsed Barnes and Noble, we noticed a Starbucks in the corner. We bought coffee, exited through the back door to behold – Tempe Marketplace.
It was there, at Panera, we met Jim’s ole U.S. Navy buddy, Jim Jolley and his wife, Dottie, for morning coffee which lasted long after lunch. The two veterans love to reminisce about their Navy days in Japan.
We met Leon Wedar, a Newburg High School classmate of mine and his wife, LaVonne, at Panera. On another day we also visited the Wedars in their Mesa RV park, making plans for a class reunion later this summer.
At Dave and Buster’s Restaurant, we lunched with high school friend, Tom Issendorf, and his wife Mary, who came to us from Fountain Hills, Az. It’s amazing how the years between now and then just melt away and we are kids again.
One day we ventured out on one of the “loops,” toward Surprise, AZ., to visit Tom and Beth Bethke. Tom’s parents, Glenn and Sandra Bethke, friends here at home, were in Arizona at that time, too.
We also loved visiting Wally and Dorothy in their RV Park and are eternally grateful to them for many things including the return of our rental car and a trip back to the airport to fly home.
My reoccurring dream hasn’t reoccurred lately. If it does, I think we’ll just “up and go,” to Tempe.
Until Soon
In the Spirit 