Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year 2014


                                                              Desert Tarantula
"Finger Mountain" north of Parker, Az

Sunrise over Parker, Arizona

Arizona Barrel Cactus
Dead wood in a wash
                                                           
Another year has passed us by.  At least it seems that way to me.  This past year is a blur when I think about it.  When Richard and I got back from our winter sojourn  of last winter I hit the ground running.  I had sold my home on US 2 in Crystal Falls and I needed a new place to call home.  I found it in Crystal Falls on Harrison Avenue - 822 Harrison Avenue to be exact.  After looking at a few homes and going back three times to 822, I knew it was going to be the one.  The curious thing is this.  When we moved to Crystal Falls in February of 1976 we moved into a cute little YELLOW house on Third Street.  When we found the house that would become home for the next 30 some years it too was YELLOW.  The house on Harrison is.....surprise....YELLOW.  I see a theme beginning.  However, it should end with the house on Harrison.  Hopefully, it will be my last home unless, of course, there is another yellow one out there waiting for me.
The summer passed by so quickly with the work that was being done in the house; packing up the house out in the country, sorting, giving away.  I moved in on Sept 7th and began the unpacking and putting away.  If anyone has lived in one place for well over 30 years you will know how much "stuff" is gathered, boxed and saved and then discovered when one moves. It definitely was a time of cleansing and of letting go.    I am somewhat settled into my new little house on Harrison.  It is not quite yet home, but Jonas my cat likes it so it must be ok.  With the help of some wonderful craftsmen it all came together. My children came “home” one last time to say goodbye to the home they had grown up in, played in, laughed and cried in.  It was an emotional couple of days but good for all of us.  It isn’t the home that I will miss but the land, the trees, the rocks and even the weeds I called the lawn.  It was time, and the perfect young family walked through my door one day and it became theirs.  I think that home will be a happy dwelling as it has (almost) four little children to raise and nurture and protect. This family will be wonderful stewards of the land as Roger and I tried to be .  They love the trees, the pond and even the old falling apart barn.
Richard and I  began our 2013-14 trip on November 24th this year and headed downstate for Thanksgiving with my son and family in Dexter, Mi.  My daughter Anne Marie and her husband, Daniel flew in from Portland, Oregon for the holiday.  It was so good being all together again especially with the little ones.  I stayed through to Safia's 8th birthday and then Richard picked me up and we headed into some of the worst weather we have experienced in the last four years.  We had hoped to get as far south and west as we could without running into extreme winter weather.  Not possible this year.  We wove our way through and around and in between fronts that were coming through.  We had to stop one day at 11:30 AM because of freezing rain.  We were t he smart ones on the road that day it seems.  The next day leaving Mt Vernon, Illinois, we passed several semi-trucks jack-knifed, belly up, sideways, in all positions in the median of the four lane.  We used common sense and got off the road.  The trucks....well, they  just kept on trucking.
The past four years we have always taken “the roads less traveled” literally., The Blue Roads as we call them   to get to wherever our planned destination is.  In fact the journey has always been our destination.  Not this year.  For whatever reason we both felt compelled to bee line it for the south west even taking the dreaded highways to get there.  We pushed and finally arrived where we both felt we needed to be....the desert near Earp, Ca. just across the Colorado River from Parker, Arizona.  We have met other people from all over, and it has become kind of a home away from home.  This year we met a couple from Iron River and spent Christmas together as well as New Years. 
Coming here is like taking a deep cleansing breath and a slowing down of bodies and minds.  The air is dry, the temps are in the 60's during the day under clear sunny skies.  There are huge washes, canyons and small mountains to climb, a road to bike and countless rocks to bring back to Iron County.  This is an excellent place for "older" bones and muscles to lose their ache and to re- find the bounce that got misplaced over the years.
I wish you all a HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

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