Gaye's Muzings October 2007

October 31, 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!

We have no tricks or treats as we are on our way through Phoenix , Az. heading towards the Anza Borrego Desert .  It is a very beautiful and peaceful place to be.  We are still not sure how we are going to get Brett home from there but there is an outside chance that his that dad may meet us halfway between there and Los Angeles.  Today is not the day to worry about it, though.

They say position is everything in life….Brett is in my seat and I am in the chair behind him with my feet on the sofa.  The 3 cat beds are always lined up there and the boys are in them when they do as they are supposed to.  Spotty just engulfs his bed with his ponderous self.  Twilly was in the middle and Freddie on the other end.  It is definitely time to get Twilly clipped as he is full of the devil and starting to exhibit the young buck behavior.  We will get it done as soon as we find a place to take him.  He was in his bed then his head was in Freddie’s bed.  Next the front feet with his back feet stretched out the other side towards Spotty.  Freddie started licking him under the chin and in the ear which was really good to see as it is the first time he has done that since he first got sick in August.  It has been a long row but he seems to feel better since the antibiotics and some more potassium.  We will see how long that lasts!

We went on our ride along the Apache trail yesterday and must admit that some things are much more spectacular the first time.  It was still a beautiful ride but the water was out of the lake and river or about 10 of the 22 miles due to some repair work that had to be done at the Canyon Lake dam.  It is so neat to see the saguaro cactus growing right along the edge of the water.  There were thousands of saguaro cacti on the mountain sides.  The ride ends at Roosevelt Dam and Teddy Roosevelt compared it to the Swiss Alps, the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains .  He considered it the most beautiful place he had ever seen.

We started the ride at Tortilla Flat restaurant that has over 90,000 dollar bills tacked to the walls from the patrons from all over.  We sat at the bar for lunch and the barstools are made out of saddles.  Brett was not at all impressed but managed to make it through lunch.  I reminded him of the time in his life that I had different toilet chairs around the breakfast room table.  I did a show at a gallery on Funktional Art and my friend Alfred Johnson and I put together rocking toilets, swivel toilets, a long urinal with hand dyed silk cushions and a lampshade on a dress form lamp, a sofa made from a claw foot tub, a bathroom sink with a plastic top used for a table and a recirculating urinal for wine.  He made the pieces and I accented them with my silks.  It was fun and we divided up the pieces after the show and my children kept asking if they could just sit on normal chairs to eat.  I, of course said no and they were subjected to my creative whim for a time.  I, to this day, still regret some of the things I put my children through.

We are going to stop and have some lunch in a few minutes so bye for now!

It is now dark and we just crossed into California .  It has been a long time for us.  We left last April to start our trek eastward to see our friend Cynthia and her sweet Jack and Annie and Steve and to spend time with WC and Leslie .   It wasn’t in that order but what does it matter!!!!!!!!  We saw them.  Then off to Canada and then Newfoundland where we became very cosmopolitan.  Sort of like Brangelina and TomKat.  We had no idea we were going to be bi-coastal and bi-country.  Wow, where life has taken us this past six months.  Blink, blink, is it real????????  It must be as we email our friends Randy and Tracey and Bernie and we know Randy is checking the house once a week for us.  What fun, we are bi!!!!!!!!

Carl, we are in your favorite weather; you and my son Mitchell.  Just like lizards sunning yourselves on a rock.

It feels like we have been gone for a very long time and I miss my grandchildren.  Oh, when I hear their voices I turn into a puddle of mush.  Lilli Mae told me she would put her costume on for us when we come and see her.  Oh, my girl it will be soon but not soon enough.  We will be there for your birthday. It happens to be the same day as my oldest son Mitchell’s birthday.  Sorry Mitch but Lilli is taking the cake this year.  I did a major boo-boo and completely forgot it was Jon’s 40th birthday October 5th.

I made Lilli Mae a serape like mine about 2 years ago and she wore it once.  Of course I was devastated but guess what…..she wore it today and we will share the picture with you as soon as Chet can post it along with balloon pictures, more knitting pictures, magnificent sunset pictures, etc., etc., etc.

Jack, my little man, we want to see your skeleton costume, too.  Every time my phone rings it is your voice saying “Hi Grandma, this is Jack.  I listen and listen and almost miss answering the phone.  We can record a new one with you and your sister when we get there in December. 

We are just pulling into El Centro , Ca. to find a Walmart to spend the night and make a Costco run.  Boy the fuel prices took a jump when we crossed into Ca.  We filled up in Arizona as we knew it would jump quite a bit.

I hope you all had a great pumpkin day.  I miss your faces!

October 29, 2007

Rules, something I have never done well with; following them that is!  I shy away from anything or anyplace that has them.  I was telling WC and Leslie the other night that I dropped out of U of Fla. because they wouldn’t let me wear my rollers to breakfast.  Well that was the final straw as I didn’t like school from the very first day I started nursery school and hid in the closet.  My mom finally took me out but didn’t succeed with public school.  I can only remember enjoying sneaking out at lunch in high school but NEVER did I have any use for it at any time in my lifetime.

Sometimes we run into places with rules on the road and I immediately start to buck.  We are in an over 55 RV resort for a few nights and we have to wear nametags.  Pin on nametags.  What will happen if we go in the pool.  At least this place gave us a special dispensation for Brett and he can even use the amenities.  The other places we called said he could be with us but he couldn’t use the amenities. 

We had other choices but want to take the ride along the Apache trail tomorrow and the county parks are too far away.  Evidently they have lowered the water in Apache Lake so we will be able to walk on the original trail that was built in the early 1900’s as it is not covered with water at this time.  We have been on the ride before, 4 years ago and it was so exquisite that Chet decided he wanted to do it again.  It should be very different this time due to the lack of water connecting the 3 lakes formed by the Roosevelt Dam but I am looking forward to seeing the original trail that has been under water for so long.

Do I have to wear my name tag to bed?  Maybe I should go ask.

Brett was supposed to go home yesterday but asked if he could stay longer.  It was the first time he has asked for something like that instead of beating around the bush until I filled in the blanks so of course we said yes.  It certainly does put a crimp in certain aspects of our relationship; Chet’s and mine but we really are having a great time.  How can you not when you watch the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and then spend 10 days in Tucson with our own Jacuzzi at our site.  All we did was sit, eat, swim, eat, sit, go to 7 movies, sit, eat and in between watch television.

I have to make a salad as Chet is grilling some Brat’s.  I’d better check and make sure his nametag is still on.

Mine is coming off right now!!!!

October 26, 2007

Up down, up down, up down, up down, up down, up down.…..  My life is and has always been like a rollercoaster.  Upupupupupup  dowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn.  It is a very exciting and happy existence when it is an uuuuuuup.  Creativity is spectacular, life is spectacular, excitement is spectacular, all is spectacular.

Dooooooooooooooooooooooooooown is awful, tiring, painful, sad, lonely lonely lonely and filled with catastrophizing.

It has taken years and years and a lot of work to understand that on the other side of an up is a down and vice versa.  At least I am aware and watch them and don’t allow either to go too high or too low.

My goodness this is very self-exposing but so what.  It is who I am and I love me and wouldn’t trade my creativity or excitement for anything in the world.  I have also learned it okay to just be okay.

Today is one of those days in the midst of a downward spiral.  I have also learned how to put a finger on what is happening, bottom line and deal to with it and know it will surely be over at any given moment.

Brett is leaving on Sunday and I always start falling when it is time to separate from any one I love.  Chet has been in classes all week and I haven’t liked that as we are usually together 24/7.  I don’t have to like it but I did choose not to attend the seminar as it would have been like listening to someone speak to me in Vietnamese or Russian. 

We had to take Freddie to the vet for some antibiotics for his nasty abscess on his chin.  Now I have had two vets tell me he most likely has cancer of some kind.  Down, down, down!!!!  He was sleeping on my chest the morning after my daddy died.  Do you have any idea where he came from?  I do!!!!!!!  He hasn’t left me since then and has been a very special friend; staying close when we are sick, mothering the many kittens I have brought home, going outside the motorhome, checking where we are and not venturing away.  He has gone up and down dogs many times that have gotten too close to his home.  He went from being Freddie to being an old man almost overnight.  I know death is inevitable but that doesn’t mean I have to like the idea nor am I one of those people that think it is a much better place.  I don’t like separation.  I don’t like the pain of it.

Now you know a little more about me and I am compelled to keep creating beautiful things and crying at the drop of a hat over most anything. 

Oops, it is time to go get my sweet man husband!

Later……..

Later is now and all is well; on my way uuuuuuuuuuuuuup!  It is trying because it is tiring.  I went to get Chet and had some good chuckles with WC and Leslie about things from our childhood.  It is rather amusing.

I think I will go back to my knitting.

Life is a good place to be!     

October 20, 2007

Muze, muze, muze, think Gaye; don’t let it slip for too long…….

We are having a marvelous time in Tucson as Brett says.  We have been to 4 movies in 3 days.  We got used to not going in Newfoundland and were doing fine.  There were no movies except in the 2 large towns on the island so we really didn’t have a choice.  We didn’t have television either so we got used to reading in the evenings.  Well we’re back and are in a movie frenzy and have been watching tv a lot.

Chet starts his rally tomorrow evening so I am going to have to find out how to work the GPS tomorrow.  We have been swimming, and doing a lot of sitting.  It has been so relaxing.  We went to P.F. Chang’s tonight with our friends WC and Leslie .  It was great as usual.  It was 92 here yesterday and today.  It’s not my favorite type of weather. 

Freddie cat is doing better every day for now and Twilly is the nuttiest kitten I have ever had.  Not only is he humping my teddy bear he is humping my yarn.  I saw him holding it in his mouth and said how cute as we took him from his momma when he was 5 weeks old.  I thought he was trying to nurse and then I watched a little longer and yes he really was not nursing!  He also has yarn spread from one end of the motorhome to the other every night.  He really is a cutie when he is sleeping.  We get a lot of good laughs watching him.  Oh, until December…he’ll get a Christmas present!!!!!!!!

Life is good and it is fun to watch the park fill up with all of the satellite dishes.  The blue lights that light them look like we are a bunch of spaceships.  Next year they are talking about holding the rally in Tampa , Fla. which would work out fine for us as we return from Newfoundland .

I am off to bed!  Goodnight and sleep tight.

Reading this probably put you to sleep, too.  

October 16, 2007, A continuation…….

Dreams, imaginings, oh how I dream and have dreamt; dreaming.  We all must have dreams.  I do-lots and lots of them.  I have always dreamt of things I wanted, starting when I was a young girl.  I used to go to the beach with my mom and dad and my brother when we lived in Miami .  I would look at the big houses along the beachfront and dream of living at the water one day.  I don’t forget my dreams; they may just be tucked away and spring to the surface when one of them is coming true and then I tell Chet.  I say, “do you know that I have dreamt of that since I was a child?"  (Sometimes that is not so long ago as a big part of me is still that little girl, holding onto my mother’s hand, toe tucked inwards and eyes wide with wonderment).

I always wanted a big dollhouse with lots of rooms and furniture.  I never had one.  I have looked at them many times in my adult life and thought about building one.  Somehow I made one out of my home in Portland but it was a mini one compared to the one I have now,  It is the epitome of all of those dreams.  Ahhhh yes, dreams.  I brought all of my things from Los Angeles but it was never my “doll house”.  My ex (I really don’t like that word….it sounds so ex!), Lorin, the father of my children, for which I will forever be grateful and have love in my heart, came to my house in Portland and said “this is the dream house you have always wanted”.  Ah yes, it was a beginning of my dream.

I collect things. Things of all kinds: old keys, locks, old tools, cameras, kitchen utensils of all kinds, radios, Dept. 56 Dickens Village houses that stay lighted 24/7, wooden soda boxes, razors, an ultra violet set with attachments that doctor’s used to cure all sorts of ailments that I won’t elaborate on here.  I have to leave some things to your imagination, don’t I now?  On and on and on and somehow I got sidetracked from the things that I dreamt about.  I will concentrate on where and how I have dreamt of living; over and over.

I wanted my big dollhouse, a stream in my yard, a living room made over into my bedroom, a bath tub that was not attached to any walls, sitting out in the room; a big room, a kitchen with open shelves and only a few cabinets, a big yard, a pond, and to be near the ocean.  Oh how I have wanted to be by the ocean.  I had a view of the ocean when I lived in Pacific Palisades, California, but I wanted to be at the water and wanted to be able to look outside and see a stream trickle by.  I told Chet he could build one with a recirculating pump just so it would be a real stream.  I made recirculating fountains out of urinals and one of them was a waterfall for my fish pond that was a claw foot tub.

I turned it upside down and it looked like a big fishes mouth with a little waterfall trickling from it.  Boy, how I used to piss off the guys at the plumbing store.   One of them said “you damn artists, come in here and expect us to find all of the parts you want!)  I said yes, true and reminded him perhaps not in a Newfie way that it was his job to wait on the customer……

I am still in a state of shock as I have the most desirable and photographed house in Twillingate.  I not only see the harbor but I see the Atlantic .  Maybe that is part of why it feels like I have been there before; it was the Atlantic where it all started.

People are always stopping to take pictures.  There are even miniature copies of the house that are sold at the local museum and the pharmacy and on line.  I have antiques that are irreplaceable.  I have a place to put all of my things that will fit right in with what is in the house.  My 13 mannequins and my collection of American Girl dolls will have a great place to live!!!!!

We dug a little heart shaped pond and opened the stream which was overgrown with grasses and little flowers.  We will make the pond larger over the next 2 years.

I have always wanted a goat but probably won’t be able to have one as we will only be in Newfoundland 6 months at a time and no one could care for it during the winter.  Maybe I can borrow one.

The sleigh in the living room was used for a taxi and was pulled by small Newfoundland horses.  It is so beautiful and in exquisite condition for being   from the 1800’s.

It seems that all of the above is happening and I expect more things will pop up as we start getting settled in.  I am looking forward to photographing old houses that have been painted; the ones that are called the “painted ladies” so I can decide what colors I will paint my beauty.  We also have to decide about the SUF Hall which is Chet’s “boy house”.

Don’t ever stop dreaming as they do come true.  I have just shared a few of mine with you…..what are yours?

October 16, 2007

It’s pretty bad when my son, Jon, the English Lit. major, emails me with suggestions for my muzings.  I guess I had better get my mind moving away from my sick cat and my knitting and start writing again!!!!!

We left Albuquerque Sunday afternoon and drove several hours to a rest stop and spent the night after we watched Brothers and Sisters and Dexter.  I really like the dysfunctional shows……!!!??????  We decided we would catch Tell Me You Love Me another evening this week.  We headed on to Tucson , arriving yesterday to heat in the high 80’s and a weekend of 90+ expected.  I guess we are paying for a year of constant fall weather with only 1 hot day in Twillingate during the summer.  I could live in constant fall weather all the time.  We are still not sure what to expect in Twillingate in the summer as everyone said summer never really arrived this year.

We really had a great time at the fiesta and will probably never get through all of the pictures of the balloons.  We had the perfect parking spot at the bluff overlooking the field.  It would be the only place to stay if we ever went back again.  It was total boon docking and for $85.00 a night it was a bit of a splurge but worth it.  The only mar in the 11 days that we were there was the death of a passenger in one of the balloons.  It hit a line above the power lines and she got thrown out.  The freakiest thing was the name of the balloon was Heavenly Ride!!!!!  Uh yeah! 

We are in Tucson for Chet to attend his Motosat classes for his satellite dish on the motorhome.  I will be spending the time with Brett as I wouldn’t attend the classes anyhow.  I’m doing well with just typing…it is getting easier.  The rally doesn’t start until Sunday so we will go to the movies today. 

My Freddie cat is battling a huge abscess on his chin.  It seems to go from one thing to another.  He is an old boy and is shutting down.  I force fed him with a big syringe for a few days and he is eating by himself today.  Hi chin is healing…I will spare you the gory details.

We are parked in a spot with 50 amp electricity and full hookups so I am very happy as I can use my washing machine.  We have a hot tub at our spot and a pretty little yard.  We will be here until the 28th and will put Brett on a plane home and we will be off to the Anza Borrego Desert State Park with 657,000 acres of park land.  It is a beautiful place and very peaceful.  I will actually have birds at my birdfeeders that I religiously put up; infrequently attracting birds.  It is a lot of crap to carry for so little use but worth it when there are birds around.

Got to go get ready for the movies now

Later, soon, I think.

I’m sorry I am so boring lately…..we are still coming down from our summer and the experiences we had in Newfoundland .  It’s not that I am excited about going back or anything like that.  It seems there is nothing else to talk about after that experience.  We will be back to Earth one of these days.  I will see if I can get Chet to put a picture on the web page of the bathtub I bought for the new bathroom on the first floor.  Yowzer!

October 13, 2007

I haven’t had time to write or the desire lately.  We have been having the loveliest time at the balloon festival.  We get up early and watch the dawn patrol go up and the mass ascension as the sun comes up.  We have breakfast and then it is nap time.  We would watch the balloons inflate at night and then the most beautiful fireworks I have ever seen.  I don’t know if it is the air or the altitude or just beautiful fireworks.

Brett arrived Wednesday evening and we took him out for a late birthday dinner.  We have had the most laid back time here since being on the road.  He is happy and having fun and a real Brett vacation. 

Chet has actually gotten some of the pictures of the balloons on the web page before I have had the chance to write much. I think the pictures are self-explanatory.  We have hundreds and hundreds of pictures and it will probably take forever to go through them. 

The special shapes were the most fun to watch and we went down on the field to see them blown up.  They’re huge!!!!!

We leave tomorrow for Tucson and Chet’s Motosat rally.  I will have time just for Brett and we can hang out which we haven’t had time to do in a very long time. 

We still pinch ourselves when we think about Twillingate.  It all seems like a dream.  I have already bought my bathtub and it is waiting in Portland for me.  I am excited about getting all our stuff together and on it

s way there.

I will write again in a few days……..

October 6, 2007

It is now 6:20 a.m. and we have been up since 4:30.  I am not quite sure that I like being up at this hour but it is festival time.  The cars were streaming in and filled the space below us and behind where we are camped.  My controlling little self inside me has already been outside and set up our chairs and table in front of the coach.  It is pitch black out and the field in front of us is buzzing with people entering the festival grounds to partake of the food and fun of watching the balloons inflate.  I can see burners firing up in preparation to inflate the balloons.  Unfortunately the wind is blowing a bit so we will see what happens as far as liftoff. 

Yesterday about 25 to 30 balloons were up as several of them took off from the local elementary schools for Albuquerque Aloft.  The day before about 10 or so went up.

Ah ha I see the first balloon inflating so I don’t want to sit here at the computer and miss anything.  Today is officially opening day and there are several events planned if the weather holds.

We have really been enjoying ourselves running a few errands and then spending the rest of the day kicking back in our chairs outside in this glorious air (as long as we are in the shade).  I think this is the first time we have been positioned just right for the awning to work perfectly.  I must admit we haven’t spent all that much time just sitting outside in the past.  It is actually a real treat.  Except for the fire ants all is perfect and very relaxing. 

I see a nap in my day today.  First I have to go about 3 minutes away to a parking lot sale at a yarn warehouse.  I just happened upon the info yesterday.  We are close to overload with all of my new towels for Twillingate and several sales at Michael’s stores where they have reduced some of my favorite yarns to $1.00 a skein!!!

Later, as the balloons are taking off and beautifully illuminated.  This is so cool!!!!!

It is now 9 p.m. and we have to go to Circuit City as we think we left the video camera charger in Twillingate.  What a drag and would have loved to have had it this evening for the fireworks.  The wind has been bad all day so all of the events except the fireworks and the band were cancelled.  It would have been an interesting afternoon as the big helium and hydrogen balloons were going to compete for distance traveled.  Last year they said one made it to Florida and was up in the air for sixty hours.  Hopefully tomorrow will prove to be a better day.

We went out for a great Southwestern meal…..hot, hot and hotter!  I got to my yarn sale but even at 75% off it was outrageously expensive but very beautiful.  I got 3 things. 

Chet is watching the fights so he is very happy but we have to get out of here so we will have the camera charged for the morning.

We brag about the fireworks in Portland as it is the 2nd largest display west of the Mississippi .  Well, the fireworks we saw tonight were the most beautiful we have seen yet.  They were incredible all at one end of the field and then a display on the ground in the middle of the field.  It was amazing!!!!!!!!

Good wishes to you all and love too.  I miss you very much!

Tomorrow……………

October 5, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, MY SON, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, MY HEART,   HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY JON.  IT IS YOUR DAY IN MY MUZINGS AS THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO ME TODAY.

LOVE.

MOMMA

October 3, 2007

Well, I guess later is today!  We gave up and went to bed last night without any more muzing.  We forget how tired we get when in altitude.  We were at almost 8,000 feet last night.  It is why I had a headache for 2 days, being in Denver and then going higher when we left for Albuquerque .   We have been at sea level for quite a while.

I guess coaches get old as we do and all sorts of creaks and noises happen.  Fortunately there will be a Camping World booth at the festival.  Our dinette table is disconnecting from the wall, new bulbs for the bathroom, a new toilet seat that we ordered, a small refrigerator fan to blow the cold air to the bottom so all of the food can stay cold, putting our dash back together, pad the tv as it squeaks as we ride, and today we took off with the leveling jacks lights flashing and beeping.  It is an assault to one’s senses but one of the pleasures of living on the road that I accept instead of the alternative.       

Kittens are so cute when they are asleep.  He just bit the shit out of my foot.  Freddie is really winding down; my poor old friend.  At least Twilly keeps us busy and Spotty sleeps and eats!

There were 2 antelope in the field this a.m. We got some good pics of them.  We are headed to Albuquerque and have 160 miles to go.  We have to dump, fill with water, propane and fuel to be prepared for 2 weeks of dry camping.  Water and a pooper truck will come around, so we will be able to replenish as once parked we can’t move.  We will be on the front row overlooking the field and right up the hill from the booths and concessions.  Hmmm…built in shopping, I can do that!

We are passing small herds of antelope and just saw a bunch of them with some llamas.  We had our closest call with an animal a few minutes ago.  There was an antelope on the side of the road and it ran out onto the freeway accompanied with my yelling and starting to cry.  Fortunately we and the truck that was passing us missed it as it got to the center median and ran and ran as I was getting more hysterical.  We finally passed it and Chet said he saw it cross back behind us and go over the fence.  I know he is honest but I had to ask him several times if it was really true that it was okay.  He assured me it was but in all reality I don’t think he would tell me otherwise.  It took a few minutes for my heart to slow down and my eyes to become unwet.

I will report in about our spot when we get there.  I have only called 4 times over the year to check and recheck that we are where we paid $85.00 a night for (with no amenities) just so we could have one of the 18 available front row spots.  Others who have stayed there say it is the best as you can get up in the a.m., watch the ascent from the front seat and then go back to bed.

We just stopped at a rest area so we can make some breakfast…..

We ate and went on our way arriving in town at 2:15 to get in the line at the Flying J truck stop that went all the way back to the off-ramp to buy fuel etc.  It was mostly truckers and we passed the time listening on the CB.  We were there for a little over an hour.  I shudder to think what it will be like in 2 or 3 days when everybody starts to arrive.

Unwarranted parking anxiety, as we are the first to arrive at the VIP spots, so we had our pick of where we wanted to be.  We went to the far end on the right, a few spaces in from the last.  We have to double check tomorrow as the man in charge has us hanging over into the space next to us and we don’t want to run into any difficulties if someone as possessive as me parks on that side of us!!!  That is, of course, before I learned how to be laid back like the Newfies. 

It really is fun being totally nice to people.  They’re not exactly sure what to make of it but I am getting some good results.  I guess flipping off the man who wouldn’t let us change lanes today was a bit of a blunder but I can’t be perfect all at once, can I now?  It is beautiful here and we are really looking forward to the beginning of the festivities.  I am off to bed now so I shall say goodnight to you wherever you are and may your dreams be sweet.  

October 2, 2007

Dusk, did I say dusk?  Driving at dusk is something else I don’t do.  Well, I don’t do it but I just did.  The only other time I ever drove this beast in the dark is the first night we had it and we went to a Wal Mart parking lot and I idled all over the parking lot.   I never touched the gas pedal, just the brake.  I think I really made the people who were trying to get some sleep very nervous.  I had a 53 mile run to do to get to the rest area where we are right now watching SVU.  I drive and my husband goes instantly to sleep.  It’s amazing.  I used to love to drive at night when I had my little trailer and I would take it and my Bronco to Portland from LA quite often.  I think I was young enough and had a bit of a chip on my shoulder so I would drive all night in rain, snow, hail, etc.  I used to feel so free, all by myself flying up Interstate 5.  I was nuts as I don’t think it was very safe.  I did great until I had my really bad accident and spun a 180 on the freeway in Detroit .  I have never driven with the same confidence since.

It’s strange as I am a much better nighttime person than a morning or daytime person.   I started out and figured it would be dark before we got here.  I experience life and fear with all sorts of bodily sensations ranging from feelings of shocks, pain in my knees, pain in my legs and butt, pain in my arms. Chet saw me rubbing my legs one day when we were crossing one of the big bridges in Portland (I don’t like high places either) and asked me what I was doing.  I asked him how many times I had told him my knees or legs were hurting when I was nervous. My fingers stay glued to the steering wheel and my eyes don’t leave the road for a second.   Driving is no longer my favorite thing to do.  Chet asked if I had the road lights on and I said what road lights.  He told me where they were and guess what, I could see the road.  I can’t understand why they don’t have street lights on the freeways for me.

We spent the day and night yesterday in Denver ’s Wal Mart.  It was prettier there than some of the campgrounds we pay to stay in.  We parked next to a little bridge, some trees and a little rocked in stream/catch basin.  We were really tired as the 2 prior days were very windy and a hard drive.  We were going to spend the day in Denver today but found out we could pull in to the balloon festival early for half price so we will get there tomorrow.  We’re really excited about the festival.

My knee has been really messed up again and I am trying to rest it an am taking Advil but think all I am is getting is a rotted stomach.  We hiked in Newfoundland and I wore some different shoes which must’ve turned my foot just enough to mess up my knee.  It is a drag.  We finally got up to walking for an hour and now zilch.

Chet is going to post the pictures of the leaves we saw coming down through Canada and New England .  They were so beautiful; a symphony of color. 

SUV is over and we are going to push on.  I have been having a great time knitting; just finished 3 scarves in they past 2 days.

Later……………

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