random thoughts on a roadtrip

I dressed a little too casual for travelling. I stopped by Wal-Mart on my way out of town and I looked around and realized I pretty much fit in with the masses. Yikes.

Does anyone have a mathematical explanation for why 2 lanes of traffic traveling at 65 mph on the highway has to slow to 12 mph for a 3 mile stretch to merge into one lane. Slowing, yes. Slowing to a near stop, I don't get it.

When I'm at home in my office and near the phone, fax and computer, no one will return my calls. When I am driving across northern Arizona and can't access the computer or even a pen and paper, everyone calls me - clients, doctors, suppliers . . . everyone.

Despite the fact that I despise eating alone, Strombolli's Fine Italian Cuisine in Page serves a delicious pizza. Great leftovers for breakfast too.

I'm listening to an Audiobook, "Shantaram". It starts out dark, but has parts that had me laughing out loud. Sadly it downloaded onto my MP3 out of order (disc 1 chapter 1, disc 2 chapter 1, disc 3 chapter 1, etc) It has 10 minute chapters and I can't be distracted that often while driving to skip around to follow the chapter sequence. So I finally ended up listening to the beginning, the middle and the end alternately.

I wanted to get a cheap little hotel near Bryce Canyon. I think all the small towns in central Utah shut down during the off season. Ghost towns.

Cheapest motel ever - $35 including tax in Kanab. It was old, yes, but clean and surprisingly full of extra features - breakfast, internet, cable, microwave, refrigerator. I think I deserve a prize for finding that.

I am sad that the dinosaur at the entrance Moqui Cave is gone. I know it's been gone for years, but it's still sad.

There was a police apparently trying to slow traffic . . . I think. Flapping one arm up and down like a bird is the universal symbol for what??

10 hours of driving to stay in Provo for 38 hours and then 10 more hours of driving is too short of a trip. We're going again for a quick turn around trip in two weeks. I'm tired already.

this week's hikes

Flagstaff, AZ - Fatman's Loop Trail

Page, AZ - Lake Powell

Tropic, UT - Bryce Canyon

a whole bunch of cellos

This is my friend, Janice.The photo was taken a little while ago when we were all just little girls in Winslow, Arizona, but Janice is still playing her cello and is still just as happy. I get to go see her this Saturday. She is putting on an awesome community event in Orem, Utah, "A Celebration of Cellos-My Cello Dream". What is so cool about it, is that she has dreamed of this event since high school and now (a few years later) it is actually happening. She put the whole event together. I have been excited about it since I first heard about it a year and a half ago. You can read about how it started here . Go ahead, click on the link and read about it. I'll wait . . . .

Isn't that a great idea? And isn't it cool that she is making a dream of hers happen? I've been telling my friends about it and someone asked - what does she do? does she work for a school? Nope, she just went out into the community and to the schools and gathered up some amazing talent and tapped into some great resourses for sound, lighting, photography etc. I'm excited for her. It seems to be all coming together with a lot of support all through the community.

I needed to get up to Utah this spring and I was hoping I could get there the same weekend as her concert. It all worked out and I get to attend. I'm taking my cousin's little daughter to the concert with me, I hope she will enjoy it too.

Janice had a radio interview recently which you can also hear here . There is a play button right under the photos. The first few minutes is similar to the story on her blog, then the interview goes through some awesome experiences of making this happen and the ups and downs of having a dream and making it a reality. It's an inspiring piece no matter what your dream is.

Way to go Janice - see you this weekend!

a great saturday

I ended last Saturday realizing I had a great day.

Melanie and I headed out to the temple for a service project. It was our stake's turn to clean the temple grounds. That is one of the most pleasant assignments to join in on. It reminds me that I could do a little more to make my own yard pretty. Well, in all honesty, I don't do much with our yard, but it makes me wish I did.

After we finished a couple of hours of work there, Melanie got a ride home, and I drove farther east to the Apache Junction Tractor Show. I don't know how going to a Tractor Show added to an overall great day, but it was kind of fun. (Don't tell Dave that or he might get me a pair of overalls and want me to attend all of them.) I was expecting a small gathering, like a local club . . . but no. There were hundreds of people from far and wide displaying and driving their tractors and farm equipment and implements - old, new, rusty, restored, refitted, etc. Most of the interest was centered around the machinery that was perfectly restored, or the machines that were the most rusty. And there was also a lot of interest in the exceptionally large/tall machines and the cute little miniature ones.

I realized there was a dress code that I missed on the information flyer. Apparently you should wear suspenders or overalls. I'm not entirely sure the requirement would be to wear suspenders, or if it is just required to have a big tummy, thus needing suspenders. Either way, lots of big hefty suspenders. The women's requirement would be fanny packs. I showed up with neither. Next time I'll know.

I hope these didn't sell. I would hate to think there are men out there wearing John Deere tighty-whities.

But I did find that there are men willing to drive around sitting on a toilet selling drinks out of a bathtub.

I don't know what this was, but it was kind of like a Segway . . . balancing on 2 wheels as it drove around. Kind of cool.

It was a long way from nowhere so we were limited to the food for sale on site for lunch. We settled for a sausage on a bun loaded with onions, saurkraut and mustard. You need a plate and a table for food like that. Our food was wrapped in a napkin and we were eating out of the palms of our hands. All three of us had mustard stains down the front of our shirts at the end of lunch. But it was delicious. Dave had two of his tractors out there and he and his dad drove them in the parade. (Yes, there was a tractor parade - awesome!)

Then back at home, I had been dreading some yardwork that needed to be done in our backyard. But I realized today that I simply don't have the right tools to make it an easier job. I stopped and got a few hand tools and then enjoyed the cool afternoon temperatures and worked until after dark and the garden is starting to look lovely again. I can't imagine why these delicate little flowers survived the freezing temperatures last month, but this big hearty bush died through and through. Go figure.

It was such a good backdrop for photos of our girls and their boys . . . we don't have many good photo backgrounds in our yard. I hate to lose a good one. I've got to get something planted again right away.

The only thing that went wrong today is that I accidentally gave away all our irrigation water. I didn't read the schedule correctly and my neighbor a couple doors down got a nice yard full of water that she didn't order. Dave had the garden all tilled and leveled waiting for a deep watering from the irrigation today. Oops.

I spent the late evening printing up a quick reminder flyer for some activities in RS and got to bed before midnight.

It was a busy day, but I went to bed happy. Life is good.

probably t.m.i.

I was told the other day that my liver wasn't working quite right. I was questioned about alcohol consumption on the night before my blood work was done. I had to tell them I have no good stories to tell because I don't drink. Before the week was over, I was asked 3 more times about my drinking habits. I finally said - can you make a note in my medical file that I don't drink? Never have. Not ever. Not even once. She laughed and made a note on my file. The next day someone asked me if I drank any alcohol before my blood work was done. I asked, would you mind getting a highlighter and circling the note on my file about the fact that I have never touched alcohol in all of my living days? (is that so unusual?)

Anyway, I had to go get an ultrasound done so they could get a few snapshots of my insides. I was told to go fasting, but to drink 32 oz of water one hour before the test. I learned something about myself. I don't have a 32 oz bladder. I was kept in the waiting room for an additional 10 minutes and by the time the ultrasound started I had to have a conversation with the cute young ultrasound technician that we were about to have a medical emergency on our hands (well, maybe not a medical emergency, but a very real emergency nonetheless). He promised he would hurry. My definition of hurrying would be to quickly get the work done. His definition of hurrying entailed pressing directly on my bladder for extended periods of time. I don't think I have ever been in such a precarious predicament in all my adult life. He finally let me take a bathroom break before he inspected the rest of my innards. I had to ask him "when you were in grade school, did you ever dream that one day you would look at people's spleens?" He laughed and admitted that it never crossed his mind.

Apparently my spleen is in excellent condition. He said my liver looked fine too. That's good to know.

last saturday

Our stake RS had a great service event last week. There were 101 choices of service projects to sit down and work on, big and small and at all levels of talents and interest. I don't know what is wrong with me, but I still get uncomfortable in big crowds. I used to hate to go to events that were crowded, wedding receptions, big parties etc. It doesn't bother me so much anymore, but I still find I feel more comfortable finding a spot with a few friends and staying put rather than milling around. Someday I should try to get over that. We spent a couple hours coloring alphabet books. Very theraputic.
Sadly, every time I saw the poster advertising the event, I read it to say "Our Hands ate His Hands".After the service project, Suzanne and I had planned a hike back out in the Cave Creek area. I invited a few other women at the last minute, but no takers. Probably for the best since it wasn't one of our best navigational trips.The creek was pleasant, the views were gorgeous, and the weather was perfect. We headed off on a trail that was about a 6 mile loop, we were hoping for about a 3 hour hike. The first third was a wide horse path, easy and smooth. The 2nd third was significantly more primitive. It narrowed and seemed to go uphill for longer than I cared for and very rocky and uneven, but again . . . great views, very green and pleasant for a wintery February day.
Our friend Jet and his dog Scooter was with us. He was a ways ahead of us and Suzanne and I took a wrong turn and headed up into a ravine for a ways. Well, in actuality, Suzanne didn't take a wrong turn. I did, and she dutifully followed. We probably spent an extra 15 minutes before we got back on the right trail. Clearly we weren't the only one to have done that. It was a well traveled mistaken path. Anyway, we found our way and found Jet waiting for us a ways down the trail. We then found a spring that was shown on the map. We know we are half way around the loop and we know we are still on the right trail. But we were so focused on seeing the spring, we missed the sharp turn a few feet before the spring and somehow we all lose the trail again. We wandered farther than we should have when we realized we were off the beaten path. We knew we had to be parallel to where the trail was but just couldn't see it. We talked about going forward until we found it again, but Scooter got into some cactus, my arm got scratched and was bleeding, Suzanne slips and takes a bit of a fall and we realized we've got to go back to the spring and find out where we went wrong. It was surprisingly hard to even backtrack our path and find the spring again. For a few minutes I was starting to wonder if we were needing to worry about our time frame and if it would be getting dark before we got back to the car. We certainly didn't want to be on a narrow, primitive path in a remote area as it was getting dark. We finally found the spring, found where we went wrong, and went the rest of the distance with no further problems. It was still a very rocky and uneven path, so we weren't moving terribly fast, but we were steadily getting back to civilization. Suzanne kept humming the theme from Gilligan's Island, about how they set off for a "three hour tour". It was getting dusky, but we finished the loop in 4 hours and got back before dark. And it had been a great afternoon after all. I don't think Jet ever wants to go back, but I think it was a learning curve for us and I would try it again. It's a pretty area....and all's well that ends well. This little rock marker looks like it had been added to be every hiker that passed. There were a couple of visitors in the parking lot when we got back. Scooter wanted to be a little more friendly than the three of us. I wished my camera snapped faster, they were nose to nose a second earlier.

does something look out of place in this picture?

There's water in the desert. Weird huh? I found out that Cave Creek got its name because there's actually a creek out there. Who knew?It was a pleasant morning. And now that we know where Spur Cross Conservation Area is we have plans to go back and explore some more trails. Suzanne is even trying to talk me into going horseback riding out there. We'll see.