Susan and Fred - A Long Overdue Meeting (Tucson, Arizona)

Today was a very special day for me. Susan Johnston and I met through an on-line forum back in 2010 (I had thought it was longer than that). Susan and her husband, Fred, live in Haines, Alaska part of the year and in Tucson, Arizona the other part of the year. For years we had hoped they would be passing by Woodland and able to stop in to see us. Unfortunately, we never could make it happen. Today it happened! We drove down to Tucson and had a wonderful visit.

Susan shared photos of her beautiful gardens in Haines. Joe told me on the way home that if he was looking for a place to live – he’d choose Haines. No worries, we are already committed to Minnesota as we want to be nearer our daughter’s family. We got to their home around 11:30 am. They live in an upscale mobile and modular home division. The homes and the grounds are well maintained. During a driving tour of their community, Susan pointed out a triple wide modular home that she said John Wayne lived in while filming many of his westerns in the area.

We chatted about Fred’s experiences as a truck driver for an LTL company in Alaska. We learned about special truck grills to curtail the damage of moose. If I understood correctly at one point Fred hit six (6) caribou in one incident since they are pack animals. Like deer, they will suddenly jump in front of a truck.

I especially enjoyed hearing about Susan’s gardening. She has a riding lawnmower (their property is a little over 7 acres with forested land. Not all is lawn; however, it takes Susan an hour to an hour and a half to mow. She explained that er mowing is her deep thinking time. She loves to mow. She also has a tractor for her property and her own chain saw. At 74 years young she is far more active than many people younger than her. She retired at 55 and says she wonders how she ever had time to work!

Fred retired a few years after Susan. I asked if they had a plan for when they retired. Fred said they did not and not to worry about a plan that active people find hobbies or projects to keep themselves busy. That was good to hear!

Around 1:45 pm we headed over to a restaurant/bar called Tiny’s. Again, a favorite of John Wayne’s. As I was snapping a photo of the place, Susan informed us the building would be torn down soon as they are building a new place. We had some fine tasting burgers! Susan opted for a chicken sandwich. The sandwich was so big I thought maybe they gave her the whole chicken on the sandwich. She commented that it was a bigger sandwich than normal.

The driving tour came after lunch. We got to see the beginning of the Sarasota Trail that goes up Little Cat Mountain. Fred walks the path daily. Susan goes to the pool daily for her main exercise and then likes to take an afternoon walk. We got out of the car to take photos within a few yards of the trail. As Susan and I were getting in position for Joe to take a photo we all got distracted by a coyote walking a nearby trail. By the time we got our cameras set to get a photo of the coyote, he had slipped away into some nearby brush. He was good size.

The photos below are of Susan and Fred, Susan and me, and Joe and me. The weather was extremely windy and there was lots of dust, so we don’t always have hair around our face or swept straight back.

It was a very sweet day with Fred and Susan. We felt blessed to be in their space.