A nice place to visit, but forget about living here (except in the summer)

We spent 3 days in Flagstaff enjoying(?) the snow, but, most especially, visiting with Margo. We arrived Friday night around 9 PM and went to Margo's apartment. Flagstaff had received about a foot of snow earlier in the week and the majority of parking lots in the city were not cleared as thoroughly as needed. So there were large ice and snow mounds everywhere. We parked next to Margo's car on top of some icy snow. An hour later we decided we'd better head to our motel. As I was backing out, the back of the truck started to slide towards Margo's car. I quickly stopped, pulled forward to try a better angle, but because of a huge mound of frozen snow in front of us, I couldn't move very far. I tried backing up again but even with Rod outside to guide me, the truck again slid and when I stopped, it gently "kissed" Margo's car. Now what were we to do? Margo was pulled up as far as she could be and because of the angle of the truck against her car, she couldn't back up. I suggested we try to remove about a foot of the 2-foot high frozen snow pile in front of Margo's car and then push her car forward and maybe that would give us enough room to back the truck up. Of course, the temperature was in the 20's and the water on the asphalt, in addition to the ice already there, was quickly freezing. So with a large plastic (plastic -- to chop ice?) snow shovel Margo had borrowed (because every store she checked in Flagstaff was sold out of shovels), Rod and I started chopping away at the mound of snow. Even though it was after 10:00 at night, Margo went to get her home teacher who lives in the same complex to see if he could help, which he did. He even got his tire chains to put under the truck tires for better traction on the asphalt. Well, my solution worked. After about 20 minutes of chopping, shoveling, and chain-placing, we were successful in getting the truck backed up and, upon inspection of both vehicles, no damage done. If I had been thinking, I would have taken pictures of all the fun. After that, we made sure to park away from other cars.

Saturday was sunny and warm (43`) so we took a drive to Lake Mary about 10 miles south of Flag. Margo reports this is where the city gets its water supply.

Sunday, the first day of winter, was also sunny and beautiful. Then, on Monday, winter made itself known once again. We left for home at 1 PM with a temp of 29 and near blizzard conditions. About 30 miles out of Flag, there was absolutely no snow anywhere. Then, four hours later, we are in Tucson and it is 63`. It was warmer than Phoenix had been. This trip just reminds us why we choose to live in southern Arizona.