I need to double check but don't believe the park was especially important to the deceased mom. She collected driftwood though and Jr. has taken to doing the same thing; Murray Park has a lot of accessible shoreline and Jr. has enjoyed fishing, meditating, just hanging out on general down at that area. He called it his "happy place" and said he always has been drawn to the river. It is absolutely no coincidence that the van was discovered there. I have attached a pic of the aerial view of the parking lot where the van was found; Jr. put a red dot in the wrong area...the van was actually parked in a space more in the very center of the left hand side of that back lot & was pointed toward the river. Quite a view from that spot I must say. Beautiful vista of Pinnacle Mountain to the left and the expansive Big Dam Bridge. A good spot to sit and just consider life, in my opinion. Interesting to note that the van's ashtray was loaded with cigarette butts, despite Alan Sr. having quit smoking back in 2008 or something like that. And before you ask, yes, they were his brand: Winston Lights.
The makeshift memorial to Jr.'s mom is down by the dilapidated dock which can be seen right next to the "5900 Rebsamen Park Road Parking" text on the attached image. I asked Jr. if his dad would have gone there because of that, but he said he wasn't sure if his dad even knew that he had put a little memorial there for mom. From what I understand the mom had walked out of their lives when Jr. was little, but it is interesting that the parents were married at a park pavilion down there, just a bit upstream...the pavilion closest to the Big Dam Bridge.
I don't understand the ball cap remark. His hair looks darker in the Edward's pic, not sure why. His other pics show his hair more salt n pepper like.
