HAWKS VS ARIZONA ~ Arizona Daily Star Says it ALL

On Friday September 17, 2010 the Arizona Daily Star said it all. The headline on the front page read . . . ARIZONA IS NOW NUMBER 2 IN POVERTY!! . . .

The day before, as a dear friend and I drove across the country from Iowa, I did not have a clue what was ahead. As the scenery changed from green and fertile to dry and brittle - I did not know that the attitude of my fellow Americans would change so drasticlly as well.

I think the last time I had been to Arizona was some 30+ years earlier as I hitchhiked to California. I didn't make a stop there, didn't visit anyone there. I remember the interstate was not the same. This was basically a new adventure for me.

We left Des Moines at 5:30 am on Thursday morning. The sun had not yet made an appearance. We seemed to leave Iowa behind so quickly and pass through the State of Missouri before we realized it. Highway UW 54 was perhaps the longest portion of our trip - which was about 500 miles of it- 54 ran catty corner from one side of the Kansas to the other. It seemed like days upon days going through Kansas. My friend Pat had no trouble sleeping in the car as I was driving enjoying the satellite radio and its endless collection of Pop Music. I swear I knew the words to each and every song.

At one point I thought we had left Kansas and gone thru both Oklahoma and Texas - only to find out that we were still in Kansas. Ding Dong the Wicked Witch is dead! Finally we hit Oklahoma and the land was more barren than Kansas. I think it was about 90 miles through the Oklahoma panhandle and another 70 miles through Texas. It was a very long 2 lane highway. With that being said we arrived into Albuquerque around 12:30 pm Thursday night. It was dark~ pitch dark and with the city lights glittering in the darkness - I lost my satellite and my connection on my "World Phone" I don't have an Apple phone - maybe its not the Apple phone but the service provider...??? How do you lose you service in the middle of the desert?

When I regained connection to the outside world I had a friend find the nearest Walmart. We were getting tired and the rest areas were uncertain at best. I have to tell you that IOWA has the best rest areas! I mean what kind of rest area has a picnic table , couple trash barrels and no bathroom??? I mean not even a porta potty or an outhouse??????? HELP!!!

Well the next Walmart we came upon was in Deeming, New Mexico. It was about another hundred miles- and as we rolled into Deeming at 2:30 am we saw 5 or 6 border patrol cars zipping around - like they were looking for someone. Bars on the windows. Pat says - "This is not looking like a good neighborhood. . ." I am thinking - we are pretty close to the Mexican border - not sure any neighborhood is a good neighborhood if that is the case.

We were too tired to continue on in this dark dark night. . . it is a little bit scarier when you are going down unkown streets and highways. You can't see what is out there. So we rolled into Walmart. There were a couple of vehicles with their human occupants fast asleep. We rolled on over where the truckers were parked side by side, pulled up under a samll tree that provided us some refuge from the parking lot lights - grabbed our pillows, our blankets and snuggled down. The Walmart security cop rolled up beside my door - I rolled my window down and he bellowed "How you all doing?'' 'Tired" I responded. "You might be better off going to the other side of the parking lot - these trucks will keep you awake" he pointed to the other side of the parking lot. "Will you be here all night" I asked. "Yea I will be here all night long" he answered. "Okay" I replied. We were too tired to even move the car to the other side of the lot.

The last time I looked at the clock on the dash of the car it was around 3:15 am. I drifted off into a deep sleep. . . I did not hear the trucks. . . I did not feel the discomfort of the car seat. . . reI could not feel the parking lot lights burning my closed eyelids. Reality was lost to the warm embrace of REM sleep.

The noise startled me. . . I heard my friends voice. . . it was 5:30 am and Pat's sister calling to see what she was doing??? OMG!! The conversation lasted about 3 minutes. . . it was too long I couldn't go back to sleep. Well we were up before the truckers , throwing our pillows and blankets over our seats - pulling our composure together and heading on down the road through the desert to Tucson. Atleast it was the final piece of our roadtrip.

We stopped in Tucson for breakfast - where else but at McDonalds. While the outside of the building always looks the same and the food on the menu is the same - it was not the same - it was different - the atmosphere was different. There on the table was the Arizona Daily Star Newspaper - left by a previous customer. The headline "ARIZONA NOW 2nd IN POVERTY would be the one variable that had not occupied my thoughtsbefore now. The State of Arizona had made recent national news headlines - with its controversial pespective on illegal immigrants and it's newly passed illegla immigrant law that was being hotly debated and challenged. I guess my perception of Arizona had been - hot weather - lots of retires- coupled with glitz and glamour and money - the place to be during our cold winters - but this very morning upon our arrival I was not feeling the glitz and the glamour part at all. It just seemed to get hotter and more desolate than it had been the day before. Maybe I was just beyond tired - maybe a hot shower and nap in the air conditioned hotel room would make me feel better not just physcially but mentally as well.. .

We headed to the hotel - The Marriott Courtyard" right across the street from the airport. Yes was the answer when I asked if we could check into our room early.

OMG the cool water felt good - it never really got hot - but just the water pushing the dirt and grime from my skin left me feeling like the darkness had made way for the light. I collapsed on the bed - I didn't have not even one tiny spark of energy left to check for bed bugs. I texted my brother .. . in hotel taking nap see you when you get here. . . I was swallowed completly by the darkness of the sleep that I yearned for. . .