The drive out was through a beautiful little red rock canyon.  Made up of the brightest red sandstone against very green growth spotted with cabins built right up to the creek.  This area really took Kari aback and we discussed taking advantage of the next time-share trip offer we get for this area.  I certainly wouldn’t mind, this is a beautiful area, and we really got to see it since the drive was slow through this little canyon. 

  We left the canyon and drove through one of the many “Main Street” towns that we’ll see along the way.  Just a quaint little vacation town, filled with tourist oriented businesses like Jeep tours and bike rentals, we were even more enthralled with the area.

Now on to Prescott, a desert city built on copper mines of the early ages.  Just outside of Prescott is Jerome that Janice (Kari’s Aunt) said is a ghost town that she remembers when her and Jerry were through there many years ago.  Things, Oh how they change.

When we get to Jerome, we simply can’t find the ghost town.  We tried the museum, no luck just more outrageous national park fees which we declined to pay this time.  A little further into town we find what Janice had remember, however, the entire town had been converted into a little tourist shopping area and antique area.  But there’s gold in them hills.  Which brings us to….  The Ghost Town.

If only manufactured, it was still a great little place.  Intended purely to bring in enough tourists to keep this family in a position to play with their cars and old time toys.  The proprietor of this fine establishment really dresses the part, a skinny older man with a rough full unkempt beard, overalls, and a beat up hat.  He had a love for old, unique cars, and old machinery.  The ‘Ghost Town’ is littered with tons of vehicles that I didn’t know existed, Three Studebaker trucks, one of which was used to tow an antique gas truck that the tank was converted in to a very unique Art Deco Recreation Trailer to “Route 66” in San Bernardino just last year.

The picture of the Proprietor you see here is just before he started ‘Thunder’ a monster 4 cylinder engine that for an extra $10.00 they will start and light off flaming backfires throughout the canyon.  This 4-cylinder engine is so big that it takes a tractor motor running an air compressor to fill a tank with 1500 lbs of air that is used to get the pistons moving to get it started.  The traveling bikers that were there at the same time as us were nice enough to pay the $10.00 so we all could hear.

The ghost town had so many great little things to see that I couldn’t go into all that detail here without surely boring you, but I hope you hear my passion in the need to stop by this small little “Ghost Town.”  It certainly is worth the $6.00 per adult for a quick little trip through one man’s treasures, and another man’s junk.

I’m afraid that after Jerome the fascination of this side road loses some of its value.  The road out is narrow, windy and slow, this was not apparent to us on the map and for quite a while we only managed 30 miles an hour.  This combined with the stop at Jerome put us 4 hours in and only about 120 miles accomplished, we got a lot of desert to cover before arriving home some 400 more miles away.

Slowly, we get out of the mountains and out in the desert and open road.  We are on a small highway with only two lanes, fortunately, there is no traffic on this road proving that we are definitely on the slowest possible route home.  We drive through a few small towns with one thing in common, several open bars, and several vacant hotels.  I don’t know why I’m just sharing what I saw.

The rest of the drive home is vaguely different from the highway I was dead certain no to travel, but soon enough we see the California welcome sign and not too far after that the very familiar ‘Sea of Windmills’ west of Palm Springs and we are almost home.  For me this trip was about reflection, a time to evaluate the people and things around me. 

Transitions in life are very similar to driving across the country, as towns and state borders pass by you find yourself in a different scenery, not worse, not better just something new to explore.  Small or large town they each have their way of encapsulating our interest and posing the questions “could it be better here?”  It doesn’t matter what you come away with as long as you come away with something.  For me I came away with an appreciation for the simpler things, a fascination with the people who make their life in these difficult areas, and an appreciation for what I have.

Tim Ehrlich

June 2, 2005