Rarely do I see people I want to interview twice. As a famous celebrity reporter who has interviewed or tried to interview Taylor Swiffer, Kim Karcrashing, and others, I was intrigued by this character as I strolled down the lovely streets recently, of our small town, the fall wind foreboding an eerie encounter soon to unfold.
Pumpkins, colorful gourds, fake giant spiders in glittery webs, and various Halloween holiday decorations popping up in yards as I slowly made my way through town, the snap, crackle, pop of fall leaves sounding underfoot as I walked along. (Geez, suddenly I craved some Rice Krispies with cold milk! Wouldn’t that taste good about now?)
~Baba, do not get distracted. See if you can sneak up on that tall, mysterious, gangly stranger back there and get a quick interview.~
THE FALL WIND DID A NUMBER ON MY HAIR FORBODING AN EERIE ENCOUNTER TO COME.
I AM NOT ENTERING EVEN IF YOU DARE ME!
SPARSE BUT CUTE DECORATION.
I PREFER THIS TYPE OF WINDOW DECOR.
I’M HEADED OVER TO MEET THE TALL DARK STRANGER!
I got my short interview with the mysterious stranger but he is still not talking. He’s pretty stubborn. Maybe I will try again next year. He is the tall slim quiet type. I’m usually not shy but this guy kinda creeped me out. I need some Rice Krispies to help revive me.
My genius husband figured out the problem with the leveling jacks and the generator. We are good to go. It was an obscure and funny looking breaker that was tripped. Thankfully, no repairman will be needed because everyone is super busy, and nothing was going to happen today.
Good things did happen today, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
Thanks for your friendship and all your supportive words. We learned a lot from this experience. I have no patience, and Kip is tenacious.
We’ve already paid for this spot for tonight, but tomorrow, we will head towards our next destination…Yosemite National Park! Let the good times continue.
We have encountered a couple of problems that will delay the progress of our trip. Since our RV is our home both on the road and wherever we stay for months at a time, we encounter maintenance or repair issues just as we did when we had a house. At least, that’s the way I’m trying to look at it.
We are set up in a nice park near Clearlake, CA. It’s about 100 miles down the coast from Ft. Bragg, where we stayed for 2 nights. Our leveling jacks, which are a very important part of our rig, quit working. Kip talked to a technician on Friday, but they were unable to figure out the problem. As it always seems, problems happen on the weekend. Tomorrow is Monday, so we’ll try to get someone to come out here (there are mobile repairmen), or we will drive somewhere. The generator won’t start, either. Kip is going to try to jump-start it this morning. Maybe we just need a new battery. The good news is we are hooked up to sewer, water, and electricity while we wait.
I’m doing laundry here. They have one washer and one dryer, so it’s slow going. I’m trying not to be a complainer. How am I doing? The dogs are fine, we’re fine. As my good friend Pat reminded me, life has hiccups and snags. You just have to walk through the difficult times and do what you have to do. I’ll keep you all posted. Thanks for traveling along with us. Have a wonderful Sunday.
You can’t be 70ish without thinking about death. Sorry, please do not give up on me yet. I’m going to make this as painless as possible and throw in a few jokes to sooth your worries.
AT MY AGE MANY TESTS AND DOCTOR APPOINTMENTS HAVE ME FEELING LIKE THIS
Grandpa Sanderson’s favorite indoor sport later in his senior years was attending funerals. When you’re young, it’s not a number one priority but in his generation and with his kind and generous spirit and upbringing, you attended church and you loyally attended funerals for friends and loved ones who have passed.
Now that I am in my early 70’s, I understand since recently I’ve lost some good friends and relatives. One of our longtime friends passed away in August and she was 70ish. Her husband of 54 years taught math and science with a lot of our friends at our local school for over 30 years. He’s taking it really hard. He called me yesterday for my birthday. We had a solid conversation with some philosophy and emotional support thrown in. It was intense. After the happy birthday wishes, he talked about his wife’s death. He is reading books on grieving and joining a support group. He was numb and did not know his own name for two weeks after she passed away, he told me. Then he said his wife sent a message to him from the after life and he realized she wanted him to keep loving others. He decided to use his time left on Earth to learn. She wanted him to learn about himself and others throughout this grieving process. To turn it into another chapter in life and not hang his head in sorrow.
It was good to hear him speak of his experience. He’s always been a caring, thoughtful man. He has these 70ish years left to learn and grow. His wife would have wanted him to keep learning, to keep loving life like she did.
DO NOT DROWN YOUR SORROWS WITH ALCOHOL!
Our sons visited this week. One from LA and one from the Bay Area. I was chatting away as we sat around our old kitchen table (an antique table that sat in Grandma and Grandpa’s South Dakota cabin long ago). I was telling them about teacher friends and family that had passed away. Our oldest son said. “Uh, I have a rule that you can’t mention more than two people who have died in our conversation.” He did it with a half smile on his face. He didn’t explain himself so I figured he was teasing. Later I decided that being 42, he didn’t want to hear about dead people. On the other side being 70ish, I’m experiencing several close friends passing away which leads to realizing how close to death I am at this age and stage.
Back to my phone conversation with our friend who’s wife died last month: his wife who had cancer 13 years ago and had beaten it for the time being, always said on her birthday each year she was so happy to be here. She was glad to be alive. She loved and learned in the time she had left.
It’s another part of being older whether you’re 65 or 75 or 85. We face the end differently the closer we get to it. Our son joked around by making up a rule about dead people in conversation. That’s how he dealt with the subject. And that’s fine.
I once heard that our first name is Birth and our last name is Death. I don’t like that saying. I prefer the old saying: you’re as young as you feel. I also prefer my friend opting for continued learning and loving in life. And his message to me that day was “Happy Birthday” so I am still celebrating my birth, another year to look forward to and having that cocktail and enjoying that sunset.
Except for the part about finding an RV spot for the night, which can be stressful, I love travel days. It’s fun to be where I usually haven’t been before. I love seeing all the different landscapes, and I especially like going through smaller towns. I love looking at the houses and churches and wondering about the people who live there.
We spent 3 days at the Peach Beach RV Park on the Oregon/Washington border. While there, we spent one day driving along Highway 14, which hugs the Columbia River. It was beautiful. We shopped at a fruit stand and bought fresh peaches plus jars of cherry butter, peach butter, rhubarb cherry jam, cherry cobbler in a jar and pickled asparagus. They didn’t have anything with huckleberries in it.
Saturday, we packed up and spent 2 driving days staying just one night at 2 different spots. We drove highway 101 along the beautiful coast of Oregon, and we’re now in Crescent City, CA, in the midst of beautiful redwood trees. Here are a few shots of all the beauty we’ve seen these past few days.
By the way, gas is $6.00 a gallon here. It’s a good thing we got to see all the sights for free!
The Columbia River“What bone?”Built by the WPA during the depression. Can you imagine the work that went into these walls of stone?Standing in front of this redwood tree made me feel like Alice in WonderlandDo we look little?We had a beautiful space surrounded by redwoods.The harbor in Crescent City, CA.The lighthouse Does Kip look little?
One of my fondest memories of growing up in Murdo was of the day my cousin Valerie and I played Rawhide. I wrote about that fun-filled day in one of the little Murdo girl stories. I’m republishing it today because it’s Valerie’s birthday, and I hope the memory will make her smile.
Thank you, Val/Lav/Baba for making me smile over and over through the years, and now that we’re 70ish girls, we’ve still got a lot of good stories and laughter ahead of us.
Hafty birthday to one of the sweetest and dearest people I know. I love you bunches.
We are at one of the Jones County gatherings in Mesa, AZ. We both just love reunions…Lav gave me a JCHS sweatshirt. I missed one of the reunions. She never misses.Cousin Mark riding Guv
Here’s the story.
One day, my cousin Valerie and I decided to play Rawhide. Valerie rode Mark’s horse Prince, and I rode Guv out to Aske’s ranch, where they have a bunch of milk cows. We were having so much fun herding those cows all over that we decided to spend the night. I volunteered to ride back to town to get some supplies like food and matches. I already had the saddle off Governor because he was pretty hot from running those cows all over, so I rode bareback. The ride back was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. I really didn’t feel like riding all of the way back to Aske’s, so I went to my cousin Mark’s to play. It didn’t seem like such a big deal until I saw Aunt Ella, (Valerie’s mom), drive up in her pink car. She was looking for Valerie, and when I told her that she was at Aske’s ranch, she said to get in the car. Well, I must have forgotten that Valerie had both saddles, so she just couldn’t have hopped on Prince and ridden back. It would have been hard for me to find my saddle if she’d just left it in the pasture. Valerie wouldn’t have done that, anyway. As it was, I had a little bit of trouble remembering exactly where I left Valerie. When we found her, she didn’t say much except that she was hungry and did I even remember to get food and matches. Thankfully, Aunt Ella didn’t hear the part about the matches.
We decided we weren’t going to play Rawhide anymore because we found out it’s not really good for milk cows to run that much. Valerie and I feel guilty every time we see Mrs. Aske working at the Super Value Store. We never heard anything through the Murdo grapevine about Aske’s having cow trouble, so I guess it turned out okay.
Huckleberries have changed my life. It is said that Mark Twain named Huckleberry Finn after the huckleberry because it grows on a short but very tenacious bush. While blueberries can be found in the supermarket year round, huckleberries, on the other hand, are not grown commercially. Huckleberries hate domestication and are traditionally harvested from the wild, making them much harder to come by. If you are eating something made from huckleberries, it’s likely because either you or someone else went up into the mountains and picked them. They can be found in the Pacific Northwest. The bears love them. We found some delicious things made from huckleberries in Montana near Glacier National Park.
Not counting rhubarb, huckleberry is now my favorite flavor. The pie and shakes we consumed are amazing. Kip also has become a big fan. One day, when we were out and about, I told Kip I wanted to buy a huckleberry pie. I knew nothing about the berry, nor had I tried them. Imagine my surprise when I found the pie cost $47.00. (This was before I learned huckleberries aren’t grown commercially.) We opted for 2 pieces at $7.99 a slice. It was love at first bite.
Now we’re in a beautiful little RV park nestled between the Columbia River and a vast peach orchard. We’re going peach shopping tomorrow. I already know I love fresh peaches…yum!
Glacier National Park is all of the above and more. While I hope you enjoy the highlight reel I put together, I have to say I white knuckled it around every curve of the “Going-to-the-Sun Road.” I couldn’t capture the straight down view that we experienced as we traveled straight up to the top, but it was so spectacular, it took my breath away. My cell phone camera shots were in no way equal to what we saw. Kip agrees and will vouch for me. All I can say is go and experience it yourself.
We’re going on another drive into the park tomorrow. We’ve been to several national parks, and they each offer something unique but so far, if I had to choose only one to recommend visiting, it would be Glacier National Park.
Just one footnote…I didn’t have to drive on the very curvy road where I was looking straight up or straight down for as far as I could see. In addition, the barrier is only 2 feet high for 30 miles. Kip did the driving. You can book a shuttle bus or one of the large red convertible bus/cars and let someone else do the driving. You’ll still have the experience of a lifetime.
Enjoy this glimpse of today. I wish I could have shown you the really captivating views…
We really enjoyed our time in Yellowstone. The weather was perfect, and the dogs were super good sports. They had to stay in the car while Kip and I took turns viewing the spectacular falls and other attractions. We didn’t see any bears which disappointed Kip, but we saw herds of Buffalo and several elk.
Our 3 days at Yellowstone National ParkOld Faithful
Life on the road is not without its challenges. Just because we’re living in a vacation-like atmosphere where calories don’t count doesn’t mean everything is always hunky dory.
Yesterday and today, we have had to deal with a $1275.00 unauthorized charge to our checking account. In the process of trying to dispute the charge, which was the amount of a payment on a loan that’s been paid off for 6 months, they froze our account. We’re in our RV in Wyoming. It costs money to exist every day, and we need access to ours. Kip was getting nowhere with a long line of customer service reps, so I insisted crying might help and got on the phone. “How will I purchase my next rhubarb pie?” I wailed. “It’s spelled, r-h-u-b-a-r-b.”
Thankfully, it finally got resolved, but something like that makes you realize how we’re all too often at the mercy of customer service reps. They have all the power. They can be your angel or your nemesis.
Back to the travel log…
We left Gillette, Wyoming, this morning, and we’re headed for Yellowstone National Park. We spent the past two weeks spending wonderful quality time with son, Mason, his wife, Amy, and their son, Ethan. I even got to spend a little time with grandson, Mase Jr., who is attending the University of Wyoming in Laramie. I went with Amy to a football game in Cheyenne, and Mase met us there. It was a fantastic 2 weeks.
I should mention since I’m blogging about our rv travel experience, that we spent the first 3 days in Gillette attending an FMCA Rally. There were 2500 people attending, and their registration was down 800 from their previous rally. I’m sure fuel prices as high as they are had something to do with it. RV parks have all increased their rates, too. It’s amazing, though, that most parks are up to 50% occupied by permanent Rvers. The rates are always somewhat lower for full-timers.
While at the rally, we got hooked up with a vendor who was able to get the awnings to repair the 3 that were damaged by the Texas hailstorm we endured. That was a piece of good luck. We also got a new mobile internet provider which has made watching television and using our devices much better.
All in all it was a fabulous 2 weeks. We got to eat Amy’s great cooking several times, and Kip and I found good desserts at a couple of the local bakeries for our contribution. Mason and Amy treated us to an outing at the Frontier Auto Museum, which was amazing, and we ate at Lulla Belle’s, a local favorite where you can get a wonderful breakfast. We also spent a fun day at Keyhole Lake where Amy’s mom has a house.
Ethan, Grandma, and Mase Jr.At the lake with Amy’s mom, LindaMason and AmyThe Frontier Auto MuseumBreakfast at Lulla Bell’sAmy and Kip at the lakeFun looking for antelope
Here are a few pics I took on our drive today between Gillette and Greybull. Next stop…Yellowstone.
Those 70ish Girls 