2023 West Trip…

Today is day four on the road and I’m in Montana.  I’ve been enjoying the solitude, and choosing a few interesting places to visit each day along the way as I travel west.

I have sampled a few new hard ciders, had a great restaurant French dip, and eaten granola bars, apple sauce, tuna, fruit, oatmeal and peanut butter and honey sandwiches the rest of the time.

It’s been hot.  In the low to mid 90s to be precise.  It was a welcome change when the high only got into the low 80s today, and then went down to 74 this evening!

Solo road tripping has its own set of challenges.  It is always an opportunity to reflect on life, to think about everything, and to devise your next plan in life.  It’s a challenge for a thinker like me, whose mind takes me to many places in the silence of the car, with just the sound of the tires gliding over the road. I think about the things I’ve done right, the mistakes I have made, and the people who have made life easier or harder along the way. 

When I’m done thinking, I listen to audiobooks.  I’m currently listening to The Teahouse Fire, which I only made it halfway through on my trip with my mom; now it is almost done.  It’s been nice to have time to devote to a book after all of the flurry of mom’s move. 

I have once again noticed that tent camping and living simply is a dying art.  Everywhere I’m surrounded by giant RVs and their owners’ toys.  No wonder everyone carries so much debt these days…  The most I have seen is three other tent campers in a campground so far.  I guess to a purist I’m not really even a tent camper, since mostly I sleep in my car. Although the temps in the 90s really tempted me to give up the comfort of my car bed.

In a few days I’ll be in Washington, and I’m looking forward to catching up with friends, seeing some of my favorite Northwest places.  I’m so excited!

 

Book Review: Call Us What We Carry

Call Us What We Carry, by Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman, if you haven’t heard of her, was the inaugural poet for President Joe Biden’s administration.  She is also the youngest inaugural poet in history; she was in her early twenties when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at Biden’s inauguration in 2021.  I received this book as a gift from my niece a couple of years ago, and just recently pulled it off the shelf as a pick for our book club.

Gorman is a remarkable poet.  She graduated from Harvard just as the pandemic was beginning, and her experience in the pandemic is evident in her writing.  She also weaves in the parallels of the 1918 flu pandemic.  Her grasp of language and vocabulary is impressive, and she uses creative placement of words to get her points across.

Overall, I enjoyed the book.  I appreciated several of the poems and their metaphors between the sea and ships with life.  I did feel it was too heavily focused on the pandemic, but I suppose that comes from Gorman being so young and having less life experience to draw from.

Her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” mostly painted a picture of hope and the need for the community of Americans to set aside their differences and stop the divisiveness that is so prevalent in our society today.  It would be nice if politicians would actually pay attention and take that to heart.

3 stars.

 

Book Review: Mistress of the Art of Death

Mistress of the Art of Death, by Ariana Franklin

Can I just say wow.  This was an unexpected treat!

I read this book back in May.  My mom and I had been working really hard to get her house purged and packed to be staged and listed on the market.  We were exhausted.  So once it was listed, her neighbors offered us their beach house down on Whidbey Island so we could unwind for a few days.  While I was there, I took a walk up the street to the little free library I had seen, and spent a bit of time perusing the selection.  This one jumped out at me because of the title, but as I read the back cover, I was intrigued.

After a series of child murders in medieval Cambridge, England, King Henry II calls on his ally, the King of Sicily, to send an expert in the art of death to get to the bottom of things.  Adelia is the chosen expert, who is sent with Simon and Mansur to unravel the mystery.  Of course, as Adelia is a woman and a Jew, she must conceal her true identity as a doctor to avoid the suspicions of the local community.  Adelia begins her investigation with autopsies of the murdered children, while operating within the local customs regarding treatment of the dead. 

Franklin weaves a thrilling tale of murder and intrigue with the true history of the practice of medicine in the medieval ages.  The medical school in Salerno was founded in the twelfth century, and in a quite unusual move for its time, even permitted women to study and obtain their medical licenses. It was news to me that there was already a formal effort to train physicians and elevate the practice of medicine above the belief in vapors, miasmas, and other thoughts of the time period.

Of course, Franklin is careful to not overstep what a doctor would have been able to cure in that era, and Adelia administers herbs and treats kidney stones for the local residents of Cambridge while she and Simon quietly investigate the murders and try to stop the killer before he strikes again.  Her story of the trio of outsiders slowly gaining the trust of the community is endearing, while creating the suspense of danger caused by a murderer who walks among them and does not want to be found.  Franklin’s writing shows the emotion of a young woman in a foreign community hostile to Jews, and the fear associated with Adelia’s realization that the killer is stalking them.  The character development is excellent, with several minor characters built out with complex personalities and motives.  The writing is fantastic and the subject matter, although dark, was very interesting.

This historical novel was an unexpected treat, and as it is part of a series, I think I’ll have to read more of them!

5 stars.

Note: Ariana Franklin was the pseudonym of Diana Norman, a British writer and journalist, who was the youngest reporter on Fleet Street.  She was recruited during World War II at the age of 20, and had a long career in journalism in addition to her success as an author of historical fiction. 

Retirement Diaries 2023: Getting Ready

Now that my mom is sliding down to a whole month in her new house, we have hit a few milestones.  She has her kitchen functional, with everything she needs to cook meals.  Her bead and jewelry stuff is unpacked so she can make me tons of new jewelry as a thank you for helping her with her move…  And, as of yesterday, the garage is unpacked enough so she can park in it!

At home it has been tractoring loads of oak tree to be used for firewood, making wood stacks, cleaning the chicken coop, tending the garden and trying to organize my living space better.  The wood is from three oak trees that were taken down because they were too close to the house and the garage; it needed to be done, but wow, it’s a lot of work!  The temperature hasn’t been unbearably hot, which is nice, but the breeze has meant that it’s been a little too cold to use the pool much.

Between mom’s unpacking, and working on house chores at home, I’m fully ready for my road trip.  I’ve only been on a couple of trips since I retired last September, if you don’t count the ones spent helping mom.  Last September I spent four days on the Oregon coast, and I took a trip to Knoxville in October with my mom.  Well, and we did have about five days to relax on Whidbey Island when mom’s house first hit the market.  But other than that, no vacation for me!  That is about to change!

The car bed mattress has been reinstalled, and over the last few days, in between over unpacking and house chores, I have been assembling the items that will need to be packed for my road trip.  Sheets, blankets, kitchen utensils, electronics, and more.  I’ve made up a packing list, and keep adding to it as I think of more.  It’s definitely a work in progress!

I’m so excited!  I’ll be heading out to Washington to see friends, as I feel like didn’t have enough time during the flurry of my mom’s move.  Plus, summer is the best time to be on the West Coast!  This year is my 30 year high school reunion, so I will be attending that too.  It will be a low-key, casual atmosphere get together, which sounds perfect.  I definitely don’t feel like it is possible that I could have graduated 30 years ago.  But I guess it’s true.  The gray hair doesn’t lie.

Road trip, here I come!

 

 

Circus Trip 2018: Capitol Reef NP

Day 84, Sunday, October 7, 2018
Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey, Utah

I was really excited to see Capitol Reef National Park.  It had been on my bucket list for years, and it was one of the Big 5 National Parks in Utah!  The photos I had seen were beautiful, so I definitely wanted to check it out for myself.

Of course, when I got there the first order of business was to get my National Parks Passport stamp and some postcards!  I also happened to get there in time for a Ranger talk on Geology, so I joined in.

Capitol Reef used in be an inland ocean, and the landscape today formed over millions of years.  There are different sedimentary layers, and fossils, and some of the oldest fossils in the world, Giant Stromatolites, are found here!  Unfortunately for me, it started to rain again and the thick clay soil made a mud that wasn’t very pleasant to hike in.  It was cold too.  Like the kind of cold where I was wearing long sleeve shirt, hoodie, jacket, winter hat and gloves!

I drove the scenic drive, which at 7.9 miles seemed a bit short for a National Park.  It is an out and back drive, with beautiful cliffs and colors all around, and the rain made the colors pop even more.  After the scenic drive, I went to the historic settlement section of the park, the Fruita Historic District.  Fruita is located at the confluence of the Fremont River and Sulphur Creek.  It was established by Mormon settlers in 1880, and extensive fruit orchards were planted. The community had homes and a school.

In 1955 Fruita was purchased by the Park Service to be included into Capitol Reef National Park.  The orchards are maintained, and the fruit from about 1,900 trees is used to make delicious pies that are sold from the bakery there.  The Gifford Homestead home sells a variety of pies from the apricot, cherry, pear, peach, plum and apple trees.  I was lucky enough to be there when they had pies, and my apple pie was delicious!

There are also some remaining buildings in the Fruita district, including an 1896 one-room schoolhouse, a few cabins, the Gifford Homestead house and a barn.  The last residents to live here sold their property to the Park Service and moved away in 1969, so there was a long history of habitation in the area.  I always find it so interesting to imagine what life would have been like in such a harsh, isolated climate, without modern amenities.  The Gifford house didn’t have electricity until 1948! 

Sadly the rain wasn’t really letting up, and I still didn’t feel like hiking in the thick mud, so I said goodbye and “see you later” to Capitol Reef.  I went into Torrey, Utah and found the Chuckwagon Deli, where I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with chips and a pickle.

While I ate, I perused their eclectic book collection!

After lunch, I headed out on Highway 12 – a gorgeous Scenic Byway!  You drive along a ridge for part of the way, with stunning views of the rocky desert landscape.  It was so incredible!  And still cold.  It was actually snowing for part of the drive, although it wasn’t really sticking to the road.  I went through Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument, but I didn’t stop.  That is a place I dream of going back to!  Unfortunately, I passed by just after the closing time of the Visitor’s Center.  Next time!

I also passed Bryce Canyon, which was my destination for the following day.  Since it was so cold, I got a room for $50 at the Adobe Sands Motel in Panguitch.  It wasn’t very nice but it was cheap, and warm!  I ventured out for Subway for dinner, because there wasn’t much open on a Sunday night…  And, I ate part of my pie! 

As I look back, I know that not every day traveling is going to be great.  And my day at Capitol Reef was an example of that.  It was raining and muddy and just not a fine day for hiking and touristing.  I was cold, and frustrated by the rain drops on the camera lens, which made spots on most of my pictures.  And most of the views were tempered by the fact that I spent them sitting inside the car or near the road, instead of a few miles up a trail where I like to be…  But, that was just one day, and I’m not ready to rule out Capitol Reef.  I’ll go back and hope for better weather.  So, as I sat in that little 50s motel room that night, eating my Subway sandwich and pie, I got excited about visiting Bryce Canyon the next day!