Lake Powell

Headed north. Perhaps I should look at a real map rather than depending on Google to get me there... This is all new territory for me and I'm enjoying it anyway. There is a smoky haze hanging in the air since north of Flagstaff. Staff at the welcome center say it is probably the fires in California. The camera makes it look clearer than it is.

North! To Montana!

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Being a hermit

I spent a week at my Aunt’s place in MO.  I’ve been home since, getting things done.  I am now bored and hot.  I am in need of a road trip.  I’ll be loading up the Mazda3 and heading north in a few days to visit friends.  There may be more drive-by pictures as I head north.  If I stay true to my usual way to travel I’ll just head on up.  I will be passing some really pretty places and I have my Golden Geezers pass to get into the National Parks, so who knows.  This is part of my on-going experiment with how to travel now that I have no real time constraints.

I will ask a neighbor to come check Bosley.  She is an animal person so I’m sure he will be taken care of.  I bought bunches of cat food when I was last in the Valley, so he should be set.

Now to pack and clean the motor home so I can be gone a week or so.

Family

I decided this is where I need to be, my Uncle Bob's military funeral. I decided that around 1pm Tuesday, knowing the funeral is Thursday afternoon. An hour later I was on the road. Pulled into my their driveway yesterday about 25 hrs later. Stayed up talking with (listening to) my Aunt until late last night. We are sitting in line for the procession to head up to where the ceremony will be. This is where I need to be.

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To Everything There Is A Season

My Uncle Bob died this evening.  He was at home, I assume.  I had called my Aunt earlier today and learned he started going downhill on Monday.  He made it through Father’s Day able to walk with his walker and sit at the table and enjoy the meal with the family who came to see him.  On Monday he started the quick slide down.  Earlier my Aunt was going over the signs of impending death with me from the list given to her this week by hospice, and said he had most of them.  This isn’t the surprise it would have been if I hadn’t made the call earlier.

I don’t know if I’m going back to Missouri for the funeral.  The point of going when I did was to see him while he was still alive.  I’ll play it by ear.  If I think my Aunt wants me there I’ll go.

Those who watch my side bar see that Doug Begley, the author of Strolling Amok died this week as well.  He went lying in his bed in his truck camper.  His son went to check on him when he wasn’t returning phone calls.  He had just made it back to the area where his kids are.  I never met him in person but I had made notes to check out some of the places he camped.  He put a lot of detail about the places in his blog which makes them seem findable.  I’ll leave Doug’s blog up on my side bar for quite awhile.  I think I left Rod Ivers’ blog up at least a year after he passed.

I have no words of wisdom.  This is the season of my life, when I’m losing the folks who have been a part of my life.  It isn’t easy.

It was a.good trip

As a shakedown trip it went very well. The North Rim is beautiful but very different than the South Rim. The Canyon is pretty much the same, but the infrastructure is different. I only spent one night in the area, so that may be part of my opinion. I do like that dispersed (read free) camping is available closer to the Park. I also like that due to the higher elevation there are trees around the outside of the park which makes the camping much more enjoyable. I'll go back at some point.

The car works well for camping. I can sleep in it just fine. I do need to tweak a few things, but they are minor. All things considered, I hope to do more traveling in the car now.

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Made it

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On the road again

Taking the car out camping to see how I do. Off to new places. Just an overnight this time.

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Another city park

I am again killing time between shuttles. I'm at another of the city parks here. A frustration with this job, if you call it that, is that I don't feel like I can walk around the lake now as I need to head out for the next appointment soon.

Weather has been nice up here. Sweatshirt temps in the mornings, but I run the air conditioning for a few hours in the afternoon. It is still dry as there has been no rain.

My Uncle is back home from the hospital. I fly back to Missouri for a couple of days next week to see him. Told him he needs to get stronger so we can go out dancing while there. Part of the joke is he doesn't dance, ever.

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Some things don't change.

I'm sitting parked in the shade in one of the town parks. I have dropped off one ride and I'm waiting to pick up the next appointment. That raised area with a fence is the town swimming pool. I can hear the music playing and it is pretty much the stuff we listened to at our town pool in the summers growing up. I've even heard YMCA. They still play that some places, apparently. I just heard some mumbled talking, so it seems to be a local radio station. Given the average age in this town, I guess they know their audience.

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New places

My part time shuttle job, if you can call it that, has me learning about new spots. Typically I'm seeing parts of town I had no idea existed. This past week a guy who was camping out in the forests came in to town for supplies and his truck threw a rod. He called for a shuttle back to his campsite and Jerry had me do the run. I ended up finding out about a while new area of cping spots that is right on the rim. I probably won't take the motorhome up there but I may run up and camp overnight sometime to get out of town. Living in the trees now makes that not as important, but I want to get a car camping setup that I'm comfortable with for future trips back East.

So far I've talked myself down from the addi knitting needles. I found a set the right size and length (100 cm) to finish the shawl in my sets of bamboo needles. For some reason I had given up on the bamboo sets and gone back to the metal ones, but for now it is working ok. I'm 2 skeins of yarn in out of 5, so it won't be finished for awhile. This project is to relax between the baby caps.

I will do laundry today and start packing and getting sorted for my quick trip back to Missouri to see my Uncle. He is back in the hospital again as they try to get his medicines sorted out. I fly out on the 12th. I had told him I'd come out every couple of months to see him.

I'm settled into my summer.

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