Trek to Tucson: or, How We Found a Body in a Car; or, Midnight Ghosts!

Our road trip to Tucson for our wedding in May was very pleasant, and mostly uneventful. As we gained an hour nearly everyday, we would roll into town (St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Albuquerque) around 4 p.m. and therefore could explore a bit.

Paco as navigator

 St. Louis was a highlight. All I knew about the place before arriving was:

1. The arch

2. A hub for Somali refugees

3. Home to some sports team (probably baseball) called the Cardinals

Now I can add Forest Park to my list of "Things I Know About St. Louis." A superb, ginormous park with plenty of walking trails, water fixtures, museums, a zoo, a botanical garden, a concert hall, and a gazillion wedding parties getting their photos taken.

We ate some delicious food at Atlas Restaurant where the waiters fought over who could give Paco a dog biscuit, and had a a leisurely meal at the Boat House, located on a paddle boat river in Forest Park, on the way back to Ohio.

Oklahoma City was another story. Many folks have heard this, but yes, we did find a body in a car outside our Motel 6.  Pulling in to the parking lot after dinner, we saw the car below double parked, the driver's door open, and a woman slouched over, her leg hanging out of the door.  She didn't respond to any noise we made, and afraid she had O.D. and not wanting to look too closely, I reported her to the front desk.

As the car was parked right outside our window, we surreptitiously "overheard" the front desk lady try to wake the woman, and learned it was to no avail when an ambulance and several police cars pulled up  and surrounded the car. I was quick enough (I think) to notice that the ambulance drove off with the lights flashing, so I can only assume, and hope, it means the paramedics weren't taking the woman to the morgue, but rather to a hospital.

Having read too many detective novels, I half prepared myself to be interviewed by the police, and when that didn't happen, I peaked out the window to see the cops searching the car, particularly the backseat which was piled to the ceiling with junk. The cops kept pulling out and passing around this Raggedy Anne looking doll and laughing, which did nothing to improve my opinion of the fuzz.

I later asked the lady at the front desk if she had learned something of the woman's condition, and she said the authorities wouldn't tell her anything. However, Javier is "pretty sure" he saw the woman and another woman dropped off later that night by a Lincoln Town car (or something like that), and that our o.d. lady looked showered and changed.

Javier and I can sometimes be slow on the uptake, and we stayed at this Motel 6 on the way back to Ohio. Nothing like finding a body occurred, but upon check-in the front desk lady (a different one) was hunting down some guy roaming the halls and said there was going to "be trouble."  After reporting a broken smoke alarm (sigh) we locked ourselves in our room and didn't leave until the a.m.

Where we found the body

Here are a couple photos from the rest of the road trip:

Spotted in tiny Texas town

Crochet bomb in Albuquerque

A week or so after our wedding (wedding photos can be found on Facebook), Javier and I went to Bisbee, Arizona for our "honeymoon." Bisbee actually served as a home base where we stayed the night so that Javier could get some shots for his film, but I always have fun walking around that hilly little mining town, and it's a place where I always have good meals.  

We stayed at the School House Inn, a former school house perched on one of Bisbee's many rocky outcrops, where each room is themed (The Geography Room, the Library, etc.) and where, like many other hotels in Bisbee, ghosts may haunt. I definitely didn't see any spirits, and didn't feel a "presence" per say, but I had some weird-ole dreams about the place and Javier and I slept terribly that night.

Pizza vs. Man at Screaming Banshee Pizza in Bisbee

In Bisbee: Our "honeymoon"/Javier's research site

A man hard at work: filming the sunset at the Mexican/U.S. border

Our room at the School House B&B: The Writing Room

 There were many other highlights of the trip to Tucson. Here are a couple:

 What Auntie April does while babysitting: snap photos of Salim.

Javier is famous! Outside the Screening Room in Tucson. In case you can't read it: Director of Photography: Thomas Castillo 

On the trip back to Bowling Green we were pretty antsy, what with losing an hour everyday and being tired of driving. But I will round out this post with a final photo of Paco.

Paco is stoked to go back to Ohio