Richard, the librarian of SCA (Special Collections and Archives), and I drove to Jerome, AZ, to meet Katie. Jerome is a small town holding on by its fingernails and digging its toes into the side of a hillside. Many of the homes are skinny three-story homes that look like they are about give up and take a wild slide down the hill. They often have third floor front doors on one street and first floor back doors (or vice versa) on the street below. The first thing people notice when they come to Katie's house is the fence with red, white and blue bras (substantially sized) hanging below a sign that says "Support Hillary."
Katie's second floor office feels more like a basement and houses a Mac, scanner and copier along with file cabinets, and walls covered with photographs and newspaper clippings, mostly of her advocacy for restoring Glen Canyon. She and Richard visit and I mainly listen and absorb. She then takes us downstairs to show us her bathtub--a former opium cask made out of teak--along with pictures of her and her various friends sitting/soaking cozily in it (very cozily--it's barely big enough for one let alone two). We follow her up a floating spiral staircase--she much more nimbly then either of us--to see various photographs and artifacts.
Our trip home takes us through Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, a beautiful drive. Oak Creek is a small, but clear, stream lined with green trees below the red rock walls--a welcome sight for my thirsty eyes.
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