Weather in the Tries:

Today, Sunday, seems to be our last warm day at 65. The highs for the rest of the week are in the 50s, with the lows in the mid 30s and some higher. It was nice when I left on my Drive About and I’ve spent the week since coming home getting warm. How quickly I adapted to the warmth of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California. However, I have a dog (only 1) and an electric blanket, so on those 3-dog nights, I can turn it on and make up for the 2 dogs I don’t have, and that Sammy wouldn’t like, anyhow!

Part, The Second:
It took 3 hours to drive to the rental in Dallas, all back roads until arriving at the Freeway in, around, through Fort Worth and Dallas. Siri got me through the obstacle course and to the house we’d rented. I arrived at 3pm, check in time. Two ladies were there, the fourth was in route to the airport to pick up our fifth lady. We got along fine drank lots of coffee, wine, tea, and told some great stories.

The culmination of our stay was a 5K Walk for Gaza, which I did not partake of, but waited and cheered them on. Then we left for Houston, where I stayed with Good Friend Terry and GF Dixie for two days, then up to Austin to stay with GF Patsy for two days, then a short drive to San Antonio to have breakfast with my Favorite Sister Melanie. Haven’t seen Melanie is ages, and breakfast was over too soon and she had things to do, and I had a long drive ahead of me.

I really looked forward to stoping at Rosa’s Cantina as I went through El Paso. Yes, that Rosa’s Cantina. It was an easy off and an easy on to the freeway, and I just wanted a couple of tee shirts. Alas, my phone overheated in the Texas sunshine, and it was out of commission, and to add to my misery it was rush hour and I couldn’t remember which exit, which on ramp, so I stayed in the inside lane and drove. And drove, and drove, and drove some more.

Spent a bit of time in Lordsburg NM, looking for a motel, finally found one, the lights were off, and the street was dark, and I misunderstood, the name of the town and thought it was Laurdesville, city of miracles as it was a miracle I found the motel.

The next morning, I drove into Tucson to see my Good Friends Maryann and Dave, and Good Friend Linda. We three gals, having pity on Dave, got a hotel room and had a ball. And Dave enjoyed the peace and quiet of a female-free three days. New Friend Cherie (Mary Ann’s daughter) took we three to old town Tucson, and a covered market, then to an excellent Mexican restaurant. It was all a bit of a change for me, the hotel put out an excellent breakfast, so I ate at 8 instead of 11, but managed to go until an early supper. Cherie took us to her house and the view was fantastic, especially as the sun set.

Then it was time to leave, and take a short trip up to Henderson NV and my old travel buddy, Kay. She is living with her son and dil (Tod and GeriLyn), and we had a few days of gossip, and more gossip, and then we just jawboned a bit. Kay made an appointment for me with the gal who does her pedicures, and oh. I think I died and went to foot heaven. GeriLyn took us out to dinner at an Italian restaurant close to where she works, and is known. The staff knows her, and the manager gave us complimentary appetizer, and special desserts. Check out the desserts and the icing art on the plates.

Kay and I had wanted to spend a day or two in Death Valley, but the roads are still bad, so we gave that up. I’ll fly down for a few days later on, and we’ll go then. To make up for our disappointment, we talked some more.

Then it was again time for Siri to get me to Castaic CA and the Roadway Inn. I arrived two hours before I could have my room, so the manager brought out a couple of tables and chairs and I set up shop in the lobby. Two of my poetry friends from LA area came up and we spent three or four hours talking and on a zoom meeting. And, again, it was time for parting. But the meeting and visit with Zoom Friends Elizabeth and Will was good for us and good for our poetic souls.

The next morning was a drive up to Vallejo and a marvelous couple of days with my Favorite Brother Craig. He turned me onto a delightful series on Netflix, Blue Eye Samurai. He went to work the next day, so I binged on it. Watched the whole series. Great fun. It’s anime, so it’s much easier to up with put the violence and swordfights etc. 

After a couple days, I drove to Vacaville, I think it was less than an hour by quite a bit, and spent some marvelous days with three of my cousins. Barb is a quilter, and we went shopping for fabric, and other fun things. I came home with lots of goodies. And ideas. Eventually, it was time to leave. I’d planned on taking two days to come home, but wasn’t tired so came on in to Kennewick and slept in my bed with a very snuggly dog.

I also brought fresh bay leaves from Cousin’s bay tree, a pomegranate off his tree, and some persimmons off another of his trees. I’ve never had persimmons before, or don’t remember if I have. They were quite interesting. Don’t think I’ve had pomegranate since elementary school 

My body is here, and I have it on good authority my brain will catch up to it fairly soon. Perhaps this next week. Not sure where I left it, possibly at Cousin’s house. I haven’t miss it very much, but I do kinda sorta it would catch up with me. I do miss it. 😉

And there you have it, 4 weeks of travel condensed to two parts of blog. Long blog. Maybe a slog? I hope not. 

Photos of the week:

The four gals who walked:

two views of an armless flier at the Mall we went to in Houston:

from the desk of the happy dance dog;
my human is home, it’s so nice to have her to snuggle with, and to feed me and walk me in the mornings. housemate dan usually does it in the afternoon’s but that’s ok ’cause he always brings me back to my human.