“I’m gonna have to tie a bell on you!” Charley exclaimed as I had walked up behind him and accidentally scared the shit out of him! Now I am not really that quite but Charley’s ears were damaged years ago from gun fire while he was in the Navy. This was the hardest part of my trip.... to try and let Charley know I was present before my presents made him jump out of his skin like he was in a haunted house and was surprised by a ghost! Not a bad trip eh? I must admit that the little girl in me giggled when he did jump because it was so funny, but I really did try and not surprise him too much.

I got use to his weird sleeping habits, in fact I got to enjoy it. It was nice to awake at 4 am in the desert, coffee always ready to see his smile, talk or watch the news, or just sit there with the patio door open and smell the breeze and hear the desert waking up; while Charley read the paper and did his cross word puzzles. The Desert waking up is an amazing sound and yet silent all at the same time, I could listen to it for hours and often did. I tried to do crosswords with Charley guiding me, just couldn’t get it and wished I had brought my word find book.

By 6 am the animals would come and I would watch the cottontails snoop around the patio. One morning a baby cottontail came when I was standing on my side of the screen. Charley was amazed at how close it came to me. It was so beautiful! The the doves and quail pairs would start their morning serenade and finally by the last day of my trip I got to see the lizard that drops by.

Wildflowers were still in bloom on the patio when I arrived, in fact the Desert was alive with color and the tantalizing smell of wild sage, I would just close my eyes and take in deep breaths of the Desert in spring time and a total peace would float down my body from my nose to my toes. I even got to see the Saguaros in bloom a few days before I began my trip back home. So many different sounds and smells, colors, and sights would twirl around in my head delightfully, calmly, peacefully as I enjoyed my days in the desert with Charley.

Mornings and dusk were my favorite times. Mornings with the cooler air, the birds and animals, the smell of a new day. Some times we would have breakfast at the park and one day I had a swim in the lake. I liked having breakfast in the park, I liked it a lot. We would read the paper or magazines, watch the walkers or take a little stroll ourselves. I noticed even though people would be talking, or the lawn mowers grooming the park would be going you could still here the silence of the desert.... It was always alive with it’s own kind of silent kind of sound; and Charley and I would sit there, as he likes to listen to silence too; comfortable with the silence between us and all around us. I loved how all the human sounds got lost in the vastness of the sky and the wide open space and it became just Charley and I and the sounds inside the silence of the desert.

Then there were the lighting storms... different then the ones in the city or forests. Silent and yet loud to your other senses. The clouds would come fat and dark with rain and the air would become alive with electricity you could not see. It would dance around my head and move down my body in a tingling way. It would make it’s way into the nerves thought my body; and I would watch the sky. The air was hot and thick suddenly with the promise of rain and if I touched metal I would receive a shock. A hot musky smell would sting in my nose as all the smells of the desert got mixed together with the electricity and humidity of the clouds. I’d watch the sky, waiting for it. It would build and build until I though the electricity would flash from my finger tips and then it would streak and flash across the sky in all it’s glory with no sound. The hair on the back of my neck would tingle and then my arms till the fat desert rain would fall warm and stinging, neutralizing the electricity in my body and air.

Just enough rain would fall to clear the air and the power of the Lady would move on to some where else with her life-giving-blessing. The birds would sing, the sun would dance into sunset as the air became alive again with sweet smells of spring time in the desert. “Breathe.... breathe it all in, all the way to my toes” I thought, with the raindrops still heavy on my body and clothes. I just stood there breathing it all in and listen to the sounds in the silence of the desert, looking into the sky, eyes closed now, no longer a part of the parking lot where I stood watching, feeling, waiting, when the electricity first hit the air.

This was how I began to experience Lake Havasu City Az, and a desert I had always wanted to see; more through my senses then of anything else. My mind shut down and the desert became alive inside my body. By the time I would leave, it would become a part of my soul I realized as I flew on the little plane watching the patchwork below; “come back..... come back to me,” the desert whispered silently.

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