Recently my family drove up from Mesa, Arizona to Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona. It is a good 180-mile-long drive through lots of mountainous and ponderosa-pine filled terrain. Most Valley of the Sun folks do the trek to Payson, Prescott, Sedona or Flagstaff. I have always preferred the Show Low area.
My parents bought land just outside of Show Low in what was then only called Lakeside in 1980. It was wooded and beautiful--just a small parcel in a small neighborhood. In a few years, my dad had coworkers from Pulte Homes frame the house and my dad, over many years, did his own plumbing and electrical work on it. My folks always thought they would sell their home in the Valley and move up there permanently. However, it became only a get-away home, and with my dad's passing in 2001, they never retired to it. My mom felt she didn't want to drive up to the mountains by herself and did not know if she wanted to retire up there, so she sold the home to a friend in 2003.
We drove by that house last weekend. It looked so small and rustic, as we remembered it. We were surprised that the lava rock dirt road had been replaced by a paved one. But it was nice to see the home, just the same. I was tempted to knock on the door and say "Hi, my dad built this house." But I didn't. It is their home now.
It was a wonderful small home: the site of summer retreats, wild thunderstorms, crazy Thanksgivings, and my honeymoon get-away. I will always remember it fondly. And the next time we are up there, we will all drive by and say silently, "Hi!"
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