California or Bust!

While in New Mexico, I was talking to my great nephew, Thomas Bluefeather,  and I was telling him about my two lives.  I have this great life in the USA where I get to visit family and play with old friends and exercise with new friends (in Fort Collins when I can get there) and I get lots of travel and new adventures.  Then I have this great life in Australia where I get to play with my card buddies and laugh with my craft groups and exercise with my tennis friends and do my volunteering and fall into my regular routine which I also love!  I said to Tom - "I wish I could do them both."  He answered, "I think you sort of are."  Good point.  How nice!  It's TRUE that I miss my Aussie friends when I am here, and I miss my family and friends when I am there, but I'm getting BOTH - so what is there to complain about?  Not a thing.  I am so blessed.

Yeah, he's looking old with that grey in his beard,
but he's still my sweet boy!

It was obvious Jonathan was happy to hang out with me.  One day, he was even willing to watch "America's Next Top Model" rather than spend the dy without me!  I love that boy!

Here's another wonderful story about my wonderful life.  Chris and I are driving from New Mexico to California on Thursday to visit his cousins and attend his 50th high school reunion. As it stands now, we have TWO cars here in NM.  The big new (used) Dodge Durango (bought to haul the boat) is here because we needed to get it registered here.  The Honda Fit is here because 1) we came separately, and 2) we don't want to drive the gas-eating Durango to California.  So...Chris originally thought that I would FLY back to Albuquerque, pick up the Durango and drive it back to Colorado while he drove alone straight back to Fort Collins from California - thus saving us the day that it would take for us to BOTH drive back to NM and then onward to CO.  But after thinking about it a while he decided that he wanted to be with me, spend time with me, and it was worth the extra day in order to do that.  Isn't that the sweetest thing?  I am SO lucky to have him in my life! <3

We always have fun with Tom and Sara and the boys when we're in Albuquerque. This time, we went to what they call "The Jumping Joint" and hung out for a while.  It's a huge gymnasium with wall-to-wall trampolines.  It was so fun to watch Sky and Forest do back flips in unison all down the length of the room.  I didn't have my camera ready at the time, so no photos of that.  But here's Forest walking right up this pole and back-flipping off, and Sky OBVIOUSLY obeying the rules!  Even yours truly got involved in the fun - though I was NOT dressed for the occasion.

UP....

and over!

Woo hoo!

So today (Thursday) we are driving to California.  There is a LOT of roadwork in Arizona, and if it says "35 mph" you BETTER slow down to 35 because there has been a cop in a car with lights flashing at almost every site!  And sometimes one at EACH end of the construction zone!  I took this photo to signify....well, I'm not quite sure WHY there are random dinosaurs in Arizona.  It's just road worthy stuff, I guess.

Here's another road trip photo - it has been AGES since we've been to McDonald's, but Chris likes their breakfasts.  

When I was in Los Alamos, I bought a new skirt at the consignment store when I went there with Becky Hardy and Jane Bolton.  It's a great skirt with big purple and teal flowers.  Then I went to the craft shop, because I NEEDED a new craft project, and I bought the wool and a pattern to knit a shawl to go with my skirt.  It's going to be great if I get it finished, but I may have bitten off more than I can chew, as it's rather complicated.  Anyway, when I'm knitting in the car, I am wearing my sunglasses AND my magnifying glasses - it may look silly, but it works!

When I'm driving and Chris is sleeping, I sometimes play the ABC game by myself.  (Because Chris won't play with me.)  There are several versions. The most traditional would be to find a word that STARTS with A, B, C, etc.  When I'm seriously just trying to stay awake and distract myself, I play the "Aaron Version", where you can find the a, the b, and the c on the same sign - and even in the middle of a word!  When I want it challenging, I have to REMEMBER each word, so when I find the E word (and in MY game "EXIT" is not allowed for ANY letter!) I have to recount what I had for A, B, C, and D etc.  But I have learned that the ABC game is absolutely worthless along Route 66 through Arizona, because there is NOTHING but desert!  The only signs are on the trucks that pass - and that makes for a sl-o-o-o-o-w game.

Once we got to California, the air in San Bernadino was BROWN!  WhoEVER would WANT to live in Southern California????  WAAAAY too many people and AWFUL traffic, no matter what time of day!  (There are more people in Southern California than in ALL of Australia!)  We were on a freeway with EIGHT lanes all going in our direction, (not counting the eight lanes on the other side of the median strip) and it was still bumper to bumper - on a Saturday! AAARGH and UUUUGH!   And if you're not crawling, then you are being passed like crazy by maniacs going 10 - 20 mph over the speed limit.   We paid $4.59 for gas in CA.  I think the least we've paid was $3.39 in AZ.

Anyway, we had a lovely day with Chris' cousin, George, and his wife Margaret.

George & Margaret

 Chris and George discussed the problems of the world, and Margaret and I had a very rewarding heart to heart, while I furiously knitted the whole time!  Margaret was a dear, and saved my bacon, as she provided me with 1) knitting markers, 2) magnifying glasses and 3) food!  I still didn't get it finished on time, but it wasn't Margaret's fault.  She encouraged me the whole way.  I think it was Tom's fault!  Too much farkle-ing and not enough knitting at Tom's house.

Tom playing farkle.  Of COURSE -he's winning!

Chris had a wonderful time at the Gardina High School reunion.   It was the FIRST reunion he had attended ever, so after 50 years, you can imagine that many people were delighted to see him.  And, of course, he won the award for coming the farthest - but not only that, there was a prize!  We won a bag with two engraved glasses and a very nice bottle of California wine with a special label for the reunion and our names on it!

David Wise, Geoff and Doug Anderson, and
Mike Welzer with Chris.  These guys were great
buddies in high school, and they still enjoy each other!

Check out that good-looking kid
on the name tag!

Monday we're on the road again - with a frantic schedule.  We're trying to get back to Albuquerque in one day.  Then rushing up to Los Alamos and back to Fort Collins the next day (we EACH have a car!) Then we'll have a day to pack and grab the boat and then the next day - another ROAD TRIP!  Off to Michigan.  Our new Garmin GPS is scarily accurate.  It will say things like "Turn left after the overpass," or "Turn right just before the Wendy's restaurant."  Chris says that pretty soon it's going to say, "Turn left after the discarded Coke can on the right hand curb."

Wednesday: It was a long day yesterday, as we suspected.  I left early, and had to stop in Los Alamos, where I said good-bye to Jonathan again, and dropped off some goodies for Larry and Connie.  So when I got to Ojo Caliente, I decided I would stop and take in the "natural healing waters,"  as, even living there all those years, I had never visited.  I really enjoyed it - the soda water, the arsenic water, the cliff pools, but especially the mud! The instructions for Mudding Up are 1) Get wet  2) Slather mud all over.  (They have this funny little fountain where the mud comes out looking like drinking chocolate!)  3) Bake in the sun until done.  4) Soak in the mud pool.  It was a fascinating experience.  And "as our special blend of clay dries, toxins are released from the pores of your skin and you come away feeling cleansed and refreshed."  What do you think?  Want to give it a go?

Tomorrow we take off again across country towards Michigan.  We'll be hauling our boat and taking three days to get there.  We're quite excited to see our good friends and my sister, Joyce!  Here we come!