Gratitude
That we can go
South like the birds
Two-degree sunny day this October twentieth
Bob must have packed well
Nothing moved as I backed down the driveway
Furnace down, water shut off
Car battery disconnect
Sandwich made
And we’re off to see our girls
More emotional than I’ve ever been
Saying good-bye to Brett
Singing myself a lullaby
One last check for passports
Edmonton here we come
On Idylwild for two minutes
Text comes are you on your way
Lots of crops still in the field
Second eagle we’ve seen
They must feel a little vulnerable
How they stand out
With no leaves on the trees anymore
All the little birdhouses on the fence
North Battleford to Lloydminster
Big dead moose laying on the highway
Pretty black compared to golden fields
Sent daily quote to Brett
A Henry David Thoreau one about walking
To the beat of your own inner drummer
White swans; tails in air
In deep blue water of the slough
Two combines and a grain chaser
Bouncing down a road
Standing crop both sides
One hour out of Edmonton
Fifteen degrees; sunny and warm
Maybe can take girls to park.
(21st) To the park and more
As I show them the moon
Same one we’ll see
Where we are going to live.
Mom and Dad at the Oilers game
We sleep sound and do it again
Play all day
Sunrise over Edmonton’s oil refineries
As my niece is half way through her
Thirty km cycling fundraiser
For Stollery’s Children’s Hospital
Thinking grandchildren stretch us
In more ways than one
Our vehicle looks small compared to the big trucks
In hotel parking lot
2016 Ford Edge with 39,000 km
And a wonderful day
Harder to say good-bye each year
And yet easier to stay connected
When we arrived Saturday Sierra sang
“Here we go loopty loo, here we go loopty lie
Here we go loopty loo, all on a Saturday night.”
Song ideas in my head and what I’ll do when I get down south
Keep up the Brett quotes
Did some yoga this 5:30 a.m.
While Bob sleeps
Listened to my meditation
Was so dizzy when it was over
Kind of scared inside
Bob had such doom oracle cards
Ending for the future…..?
So glad mine resolution during this transition time.
(22nd) Sun is rising as we leave Sherwood Park
Warren texted as we pass the Beaumont sign
Learning lots; go by the Silver Creek Golf Course
Close to New Norway
New road to us
Hilly countryside
A gas plant; cattle country
Rows and rows of canola swaths
Migrating geese
See Three Hills in the distance
Wonder if we’ll see my sister
Did and quality visit
Lots of combines at ready
Where snow flattened crops
Lots of dust flying now
As I’m basking in the sun
On the number one
Ford dealership tops up oil
Shows us how to work dash rpm display
Charge nothing so Bob tips
Very few oil pumpers pumping
And those are pretty slow
Costco had a line up
$1.08 in Edmonton; $1.28 in Lloyd
(23rd) Last night’s hike
Facebook photo delight
Redcliff’s coulees
Silver Buckle Steak
Sweet dream condo
Sisters hospitality
Meditation aids sleep and awake times
Leaving by nine
Harvest moon wild as sun set last night
Graveyards galore
As leave Medicine Hat behind
Distracted driver ahead
Twenty-five kms
Passing lane ahead
A dugout that is full
A collection of threshing machines
Irrigation and throughout Alberta we saw
UFA gas stations
Now sugar beet storage
Lots of semis
Fourth wide load
Trailer, two bins and super wide houses
Corn for a windbreak to swathed canola field
Taber bean plants
Sugar beet piles
Police station all in grey
Four garage houses
Redone train station
Life Church, community center
Aquatic; tourist info, auditorium, museum
Interpretive center
Golf course behind R.C.M.P station
An hour to the border
St. Mary River Irrigation District
Narrow bridge over valley river
A recreation area we don’t remember
County of Werner
Sixty full minutes
Computer glitch wait at the border
Another forty minutes paperwork inside
To list U.S. funds we are taking with us
Coutts to Sweetgrass
Read the history, geography
Economy and recreation of Montana
While we waited
Our longest wait yet in nine years
Only question: Have you ever been arrested?
My tour books tell me about Missoula and Yellowstone Rivers
Glacier National Park
Grasslands and oil
Back in glorious fall
Rocky character mountainsides
Green and golds dark evergreens
Cabins and rowboats
Paddling the Missouri
Twenty degrees outside
Lewis and Clark came in 1805
To see if Missouri would meet Columbia
To get to Pacific
Not
Leave the shimmering beauty of the leaves
To next valley full of forest fire smoke
And road takes off another way
Road work for rock slides
Snow on the hillsides
Glad it’s fifteen degrees
In the Deer Lodge National Forest
Hight up along the Continental Divide
Saw the ninety-foot white statue
Of the Virgin Mary
Overlooking the world’s largest open-pit mine
Thanks to the tour book
Rainstorm as it drops to eight degrees
Awe as we top the Idaho Medina Pass
Out Best Western familiar Jakers evening
Great sleep, yoga and meditation
Connecting to the now
Imagining
Roots into the earth
Connecting
With all awareness
Around above below within
(24th) Hotels have stepped up their game
Fresh ground coffee
Steel cut oats, fresh berries
Free water
Love the wi-fi breakfast chat with our girls
FOG socked in
Maybe the proximity; doorstop to the river
Sun burning up the fog as on our way
Leaves still on the trees
Unique juniper shrubs
Bigger than our vehicle
Lots of interstate construction
Surprising for October
Now we are in Utah
Where it says, “Life Elevated”
Back to green fields
Gorgeous fall day
Sixteen degrees at eleven a.m.
Three lanes into Salt Lake City
Reds and oranges with the green and golds
Travelling on six lanes last half hour
Saw one near miss
Like being on a racetrack
Sign: “Domo loves LGBQT and everyone else too”
And “Don’t hide your opioid addiction”
Never under 110 km/hour
Peaceful Utah countryside
Red rock under dark green cedar hillsides
Mountains in distance
Twenty-five degrees and hot in vehicle
Summits and valleys
Gorges and mesas
Stratas of rock
Breathtakingly picturesque
Firsts: Canyons, cholla cacti, palm trees
Solar farms that go on for miles and miles
Thirty degrees in Vegas
West Jet plane above us
Text from home; 90 degrees there
Rush hour traffic
Boulder City beautiful
Lake Mead is not overflowing
New tunnels and walkways at Hoover Dam
Aquave and barrel cacti make me smile
In Arizona and on the roughest road we’ve had so far
See our first accident
All seem okay
Forget how good a free pour marguerita is
At Kingman, Az for the night
(25th) Bob wakes up to my Om Meditation practice
Glad he tips for the above and beyond omelette
He is a superb driver
Caring travel partner
Although we had a BIG discussion
Gold Rules is the golden rule or not
Bold letters are my emphasis
Which has me trying to remember a quote
About be of the world not in it or ?
Bob burned his arm yesterday just driving along
Structures dotting the landscape
On the Palo Verde Road with adobe structures
Mobile homes, wood houses with prickly scrub
Looking bush on desert mountainous landscape
With large double row of Hydro power lines
Coming from the Hoover Dam at Lake Mead to Phoenix
Remembering the nuclear power plants supplying power needs
One cloud in the whole Arizona blue sky
Reading about Az dust storms
How cacti survive; the whereabouts of petroglyphs and pictographs
Driving through the goofy rock area
Bob calls the teetering ones that show off the
Saquaros and Palo Verde
One hundred miles from Phoenix
Greener than we have ever seen
Lots of wild green grass
Reviewing the success of Mexican restaurant
All ages and families
Salsa revved up the tongue
Before a great meal
First time no state troopers to be seen
11:30 and we’re on the 303 at Surprise
The purple and red flowering shrubs
Deep red beaugenvillia
Does something for me
Desert design
Fifty-five minutes through Phoenix to home
Reviewed why we came in 2009
What has changed
New speed bumps
Get our phone turned on
Lemons on the ground
Two new park models
Across the street
One hour to unload the vehicle
Barbeque out
Bike tires blew up
Hugs to the neighbors
Now – a grocery inventory
And we’re here.
ellensagh 