Early Impressions of Arizona
From James Donahue’s Journal
Our first weeks after settling in the old motel were filled with memorable happenings. Even though we were almost poverty stricken and homeless, Doris, Jennifer and I found ourselves caught up in an wonderful new world of sights and places to see.
Just walking outside after the sun went down was a new experience for us. After years of living in cloud and smog shrouded Michigan, we discovered the night skies in Arizona were clear and filled with stars. We could actually see the Milky Way, make out the Big Dipper and pick out many of the planets. Not long after our arrival we were blessed to witness a rare alignment of the planets. It was something astronomers said only happened once every few hundred years.
Among the thing we brought from Michigan was a good pair of binoculars, which gave us excellent views of the stars. We could make out details of the Moon’s surface and many other amazing things that happened during our three-year stay in that state. While in Arizona we witnessed a full eclipse of the Moon and two comets. One was the infamous Hale-Bop Comet linked to the mystery deaths of the Heaven’s Gate cult in California. We also discovered that the sky is filled with odd flashing objects, obviously artificial satellites that flashed spectacular colors. We never got tired of looking at the sky in Arizona. There is a funny story linked to our discovery of the satellites that I will include later.
We took a trip through the Petrified National Forest, which was located only a few miles east of where we were camped. There we followed a well-kept road that wound its way among miles and miles of giant petrified logs lying flat, often alongside one another. Many of them were neatly cut or broken into short sections, almost as if a woodsman with a chain saw had prepared them for firewood. The trees looked as if they had been placed there just yesterday, except they were all turned to solid quartz. Some catastrophic event had occurred in the far distant past that caused all of those mighty trees to lie flat, and then events occurred that petrified them. That trees like these once stood in a forest in that high desert area was strange enough to fathom. How they got in the condition that we saw them was even more of a mystery. The National Park rangers handed out little booklets and offered lectures on their theories about how it all came about. The story was that the forest was buried under volcanic rock some 220 million years ago when the area looked much differently than it does today.
Part of the adventure through the Petrified National Forest included an extended tour into the adjoining Painted Desert, a cropping of rocks that display just about every color in the rainbow. Who can explain the amazing rock formations to be seen in that part of the country?
When we entered and left the park, we had to submit to a car search. The park had suffered so much pilfering by tourists that the rangers had taken to searching the cars to look for stolen rocks. I wasn’t sure why they were so alarmed. We found small pieces of petrified rock under our feet all around the Holbrook area, and the stuff could be purchased at souvenir shops all along the road.
Because cooking was difficult at the motel, we frequently sought out local restaurants for meals. There were at least two along the I-40 business loop through the town that we liked. One was located at a large truck stop at the intersection of I-40 and Highway 77 leading north into the Navajo reservation. That place was not one we wanted to frequent in the night but the food was good. It had a reputation as a place where truckers bought drugs and probably hooked up with prostitutes. The police raided it at least once while we were living there.
We quickly learned that the State of Arizona was tough about forcing new residents to register their cars and purchase license plates and new driver’s licenses within weeks after arriving. We found a DMV office in Holbrook and went through the trouble of filling out the forms and buying our licenses. We learned that the cost of automobile plates there was high compared to what we had paid in Michigan. The state had a strange system of charging big fees for newer cars and larger vans and pickups. We heard of some drivers shelling out nearly a thousand dollars a year for their plates. We came to Arizona in an eight-year-old Chevrolet and our cost was something around $100. Most people in Arizona drove older cars because of the law. A lot of people in Holbrook had their cars registered in Gallup, New Mexico, just over the border, to get around those steep prices, but they risked getting found out by the police. What amazed us was that once we received our new Arizona driver’s licenses, we were licensed for the next ten years.
Two other things about Arizona that we found different and hard to get used to: holstered hand guns were legal and a lot of Arizonians were packing, and liquor was so easily available you could buy a bottle of whiskey in just about any gasoline station along the road.
From James Donahue’s Journal
Our first weeks after settling in the old motel were filled with memorable happenings. Even though we were almost poverty stricken and homeless, Doris, Jennifer and I found ourselves caught up in an wonderful new world of sights and places to see.
Just walking outside after the sun went down was a new experience for us. After years of living in cloud and smog shrouded Michigan, we discovered the night skies in Arizona were clear and filled with stars. We could actually see the Milky Way, make out the Big Dipper and pick out many of the planets. Not long after our arrival we were blessed to witness a rare alignment of the planets. It was something astronomers said only happened once every few hundred years.
Among the thing we brought from Michigan was a good pair of binoculars, which gave us excellent views of the stars. We could make out details of the Moon’s surface and many other amazing things that happened during our three-year stay in that state. While in Arizona we witnessed a full eclipse of the Moon and two comets. One was the infamous Hale-Bop Comet linked to the mystery deaths of the Heaven’s Gate cult in California. We also discovered that the sky is filled with odd flashing objects, obviously artificial satellites that flashed spectacular colors. We never got tired of looking at the sky in Arizona. There is a funny story linked to our discovery of the satellites that I will include later.
We took a trip through the Petrified National Forest, which was located only a few miles east of where we were camped. There we followed a well-kept road that wound its way among miles and miles of giant petrified logs lying flat, often alongside one another. Many of them were neatly cut or broken into short sections, almost as if a woodsman with a chain saw had prepared them for firewood. The trees looked as if they had been placed there just yesterday, except they were all turned to solid quartz. Some catastrophic event had occurred in the far distant past that caused all of those mighty trees to lie flat, and then events occurred that petrified them. That trees like these once stood in a forest in that high desert area was strange enough to fathom. How they got in the condition that we saw them was even more of a mystery. The National Park rangers handed out little booklets and offered lectures on their theories about how it all came about. The story was that the forest was buried under volcanic rock some 220 million years ago when the area looked much differently than it does today.
Part of the adventure through the Petrified National Forest included an extended tour into the adjoining Painted Desert, a cropping of rocks that display just about every color in the rainbow. Who can explain the amazing rock formations to be seen in that part of the country?
When we entered and left the park, we had to submit to a car search. The park had suffered so much pilfering by tourists that the rangers had taken to searching the cars to look for stolen rocks. I wasn’t sure why they were so alarmed. We found small pieces of petrified rock under our feet all around the Holbrook area, and the stuff could be purchased at souvenir shops all along the road.
Because cooking was difficult at the motel, we frequently sought out local restaurants for meals. There were at least two along the I-40 business loop through the town that we liked. One was located at a large truck stop at the intersection of I-40 and Highway 77 leading north into the Navajo reservation. That place was not one we wanted to frequent in the night but the food was good. It had a reputation as a place where truckers bought drugs and probably hooked up with prostitutes. The police raided it at least once while we were living there.
We quickly learned that the State of Arizona was tough about forcing new residents to register their cars and purchase license plates and new driver’s licenses within weeks after arriving. We found a DMV office in Holbrook and went through the trouble of filling out the forms and buying our licenses. We learned that the cost of automobile plates there was high compared to what we had paid in Michigan. The state had a strange system of charging big fees for newer cars and larger vans and pickups. We heard of some drivers shelling out nearly a thousand dollars a year for their plates. We came to Arizona in an eight-year-old Chevrolet and our cost was something around $100. Most people in Arizona drove older cars because of the law. A lot of people in Holbrook had their cars registered in Gallup, New Mexico, just over the border, to get around those steep prices, but they risked getting found out by the police. What amazed us was that once we received our new Arizona driver’s licenses, we were licensed for the next ten years.
Two other things about Arizona that we found different and hard to get used to: holstered hand guns were legal and a lot of Arizonians were packing, and liquor was so easily available you could buy a bottle of whiskey in just about any gasoline station along the road.