Book Details The Ups And Downs Of Adventures In the Southwest

The book includes stories on a variety of activities, including canoeing/kayaking, wildlife viewing, back roads, Native American cultures and customs, cliff dwellings, horse camping, hiking the Grand Canyon, rafting the Colorado River and rodeos.

Both Farnsworth and Heath are senior citizens, and they hope their book will encourage other seniors to take advantage of their retirement to see what’s in the world to enjoy. “We want to encourage older people to get out of their home. Join a choir, travel, continue their education, just get out and go,” explained Farnsworth.

Farnsworth began travel writing 22 years ago and has experienced adventures from Fiji to Germany.

While most of their trips have been a delight, some took unexpected turns. This book details some of their most challenging experiences in the Southwest.

“There’ve been some disasters, several of them actually, and they weren’t the type of thing you can publish in Arizona Highways,” stated Farnsworth with a laugh.

There was the time the women took their first canoeing trip down the Gila River, not knowing that river conditions were going to be somewhat treacherous. “I’d never been in a canoe. We didn’t call ahead or inquire about anything. If we had, we would have known that they had let water out from the Coolidge Dam. We climbed in that canoe, and the next thing we knew the canoe was upside down and I’d lost a shoe. We got it right side up just in time to go over again and I lost the other shoe, then Bernadette’s camera broke,” Farnsworth recalled.

By then there was no going back and the women righted the canoe. As the waters became more like rapids, the canoe struck a sharp object, creating a hole and disabling it entirely. The area had recently succumbed to a fire and surroundings consisted of little more than blackened burnt wood.

“We were in the middle of nowhere and me with no shoes. We decided that we’d better plan to be stuck there all night since there was nothing out there, then we heard the train,” she continued.

It was a small transport train traveling from Kelvin to Florence on a track not far from where Farnsworth and Heath were stranded. They knew it might be their only chance at a rescue before nightfall.

“I hobbled out and stood in the middle of that track in my bare feet with a big sunbonnet in my hand. I must have looked like some sort of crazy Scarlett O’Hara,” related Farnsworth.

The train stopped at the sight of Farnsworth waving her bonnet frantically on the tracks, but since it wasn’t a passenger train taking on passengers would have meant a hefty fine, leaving the ladies to convince the engineer that they were in a life or death situation.

“We rode for 17 miles on the front part of the frame of that train and didn’t care one bit at all about the bugs on our glasses,” she said.

While many people may not find any humor in such a situation, the women took it in stride. “Now every time we take that road down to Gila we laugh about how we must have looked with our big hats with the white chiffon tie on it and my rubber blow up dolphin ring. It was just so ridiculous. Whenever we get in a bad position we say at least it’s not the Gila,” laughed Farnsworth.

Another incident involved Farnsworth and her son as they hiked along the Needle’s Eye Wilderness along the Gila River.

“I got heat exhaustion and became just goofy. We were with a big group, but I couldn’t go any further so my son stayed with me while they moved the camp closer to me. We were walking along this ledge that was just a few inches wide and there was a crevice in the wall, so he just shoved me in the crack in the wall to keep me from falling over. I’m thinking I’m gonna’ die, my legs had gone to rubber and my biggest fear was that I was going to be on the 10 o’clock news because some helicopter had to come get me out of there. We finally got to where I could lay down and I landed right next to a manure pile, but I was so out of it that it didn’t bother me in the least,” she recounted.

To add to the surreal effect of the exhaustion, when her son left to help bring the rest of the supplies to the new camp, a group of kudamundi (a raccoon-like mammal) gathered around Farnsworth and began chattering at her incessantly. “They weren’t dangerous but it just made things that much weirder,” she noted.

Farnsworth explained that while the book details these adventures and more, it’s really about stepping beyond your comfort zone in a safe and fun way. At the end of each chapter there are suggestions for similar, safer trips for seniors and families to enjoy.

“We don’t recommend people take the same trips that we did, but there are ways to have similar positive experiences and we really encourage that,” she said.

When asked what her favorite adventure was, Farnsworth admitted that it wasn’t what most people would expect.

“We went to learn about butterflies down in Sierra Vista where there was a butterfly specialist. One of the butterflies landed on my cheek and batted its wings against my eyelashes as I blinked. It may not have been exciting to anyone else, but it was to me and that’s what it’s all about,” stated Farnsworth.

The 124-page book includes photos, and is available at Shevell’s Books in Snowflake, The Book Barn in Show Low and at Amazon.com. For more information, visit www.grandmaneedsafour-wheeldrive.com.

Photographer Bernadette Heath catches Janet Farnsworth as she gets a surprise kiss from a giraffe at Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde. The adventures of the two women are included in their new book, “Grandma Needs a Four-Wheel Drive.”