Our Isabel

"Our house had a heart,

and a soul, and eyes to see us

with; and approvals, and

solicitudes, and deep

sympathies; it was of us, and

we were in its confidence,

and lived in its grace and in

the peace of its benediction...

we could not enter it unmoved." - Mark Twain

For years, my husband and I drove through little towns around the United States. We took back roads and at the end of the day, we'd find a nice mom and pop motel and hole up. Many times, we'd explore the towns and find the nearest watering hole. One day, towards the end of summer, we chanced upon Eureka, Nevada. We saw a sign for this great bar called The KeyHole. It was a typical little western bar, complete with a deer head on the wall and thousands of pictures of the locals. We had a great bartender who told us his life history in the first hour. It was a Saturday when we first stopped at this little hole in the wall. They were barbequeing out back and asked us to stay. Yes, indeed. We stayed and stayed. The next year, we went back and all the locals remembered us. This went on for years. We stayed at a motel called The Sundowner, Room 17.  Marge, the owner, always liked to please. We are habit forming creatures. That's where we stayed for many years.

The years passed quickly. We became used to our tiny room and watching CMT and kicking way back. We explored the hills, searched Lone Mountain for trilobites and hung around the historical little town. The bar folks became our little family. They invited us out to their ranches for dinner. This town felt like home.

I photographed everyone and gave them pictures and made photo albums. Last count, I had eight. There's lots to photograph but I won't give away my secrets. One New Year's Eve, I ran out of film. Someone happened to be going to Elko, which is a couple of hours away, and said they'd pick up film for me. The next day, I went to pick it up. Across from his place was a house with a For Sale sign in the front yard. The house sat there on the corner looking beautiful and lonely.  We found out who owned it, made an offer and had a new second home two months later.  We named her Isabel after the former owner, Mrs. Isabel Kitchen.

Ironically, Marge who owned the motel is our next door neighbor. Everyone thought we got the house for a steal. We really did as it came with lots of old tools, relatively new appliances and several antiques. Oh yes, it needed paint, still does, but it had good bones. It's been five years since we bought it and we totally love being here. Thank you to all the wonders of the Universe for this gift. Thank you for reading this. Salud.