Second time we are headed to Mesa this way
How we’ve changed in one year
Finishing my list of thirty things
Bob’s list about ten
Told him I will someday learn to live lighter similar to him
Feels like the whole house going with me
He stops for Canadian money so we can have tv
We are loaded down with books
Reading for pleasure, songwriting for band; on and on and on
Took a few less clothes; Bob is ready for Hawaiian night down there
9:30 am leaving Saskatoon this October 25, 2019
To be sixteen degrees today and today’s the day the freeway is opening after months of construction
Midtown plaza being redone; will we get an arena downtown?
Farmers Market where? The Station getting a makeover
We are talking about men’s get away weekends
Takes fifteen minutes to cross town; love the sunlight on fall fields
Sad to say they are not combined
Five police cars flashing; a highway patrol by Langham
Oil train coming; one hundred and three cars
Losing one billion a day someone said as US pay less money
Our only customer and west coast as well as down east playing hardball
Is the word and yet want our money
I am seeing brush cutting; two ducks and a magpie
More than half combined here; two dugouts full of ducks
No leaves on trees; abandoned yards, falling down buildings
Bleak beautiful landscape; somber overcast cloud
As if change in weather coming
Favorite is the wheat colored straw fields; quarter after quarter
With the brownish red bush; tan and gold grasses; golden stubble
Bare poplars, Battleford hills in the distance
Cross the North Saskatchewan
End construction sign; didn’t know it had begun
Work truck with fifth wheel headed east and loaded trucks as well
Phone call comes from a Mesa/BC friend going to Costa Rica this year instead of Mesa
A sky in front of us would be fun to paint if I knew how to paint;
Driving through a white poplar forest, cattails, sloughs and red willow
Ten horses and then five more; tumble down fence and same for corrals; barbed wire surrounds
Closer to Lloydminster they are combining canola on both sides of the road
Now there are u-hauls going east; blue skies and migrating geese
$1.05 a litre gas up and set up a system to keep track; 57072 starting km in Saskatoon
Third trip down south in our 2016 Ford Edge
Eat our homemade lunch of chicken buns and a muffin
Grain still out on both sides of road at Vermillion
Twelve degrees and no combines going
A few raindrops; but extreme wind and then a rainbow at Vegreville
Ominous clouds and wind coming into Edmonton; closed in feeling
Like in the mountains. Millions of dollars of stored Rv’s for the winter
SATURDAY & SUNDAY spend with the kids and Bob at 71 years old has his first
Butterfly Kiss; eyelash fluttering on his cheek
Lots of good-byes and then we had to call CAA
Door had not been properly closed and battery was dead.
Three hours later they came
We drove away through steady stream of traffic; Leduc, Red Deer; Calgary
Stayed overnight in Okatoks where light dawns
Abd in like a snow storm with snow covered crop in fields
One car in ditch at Fort Macleod. Slide into an icy Lethbridge Co-op
Take our passports out in preparation for border crossing
Still have nerves jumping as we approach
Twenty-minute wait for cars to go through and then standard questions
Fruit, firearms, alcohol, tobacco; ever been arrested, parole or pardoned?
The I–15 roads are good; foot high snow drift on a bridge by Great Falls
No snow plows in sight. It is not snowing but like sky and cloud and snow on ground
All the same color.
BIG BELT MOUNTAINS and SNOWING BIG TIME as we drive eight times over the Missouri River
Every bridge saying ICY; and NOW we are in near white out conditions
Then stops snowing forty-one miles to Helena
Gates of the Mountains and we’re back in whiteout wall of wind blowing snow
9:50 am – 12:40 am. We and many, many more continue on till 4:30; where no choice but
To stop at Dillon; could not see cars in front of us due to blizzard conditions.
TUESDAY THE 29th of OCTOBER: Crisp clear minus 19 cold but okay to drive. One lane open until
We get to Idaho and both lanes clear; first time in a long time
Cloud filled sky; glimpse of sun lights up the snow capped mountain tops in west
Crops are off here; straw bales stacked and covered.
Pocatello has lots of snow as Bob says, “and this is to be fun?”
Ten miles of good road maybe; then ice crystal pellets like a fog.
THE GOLF CART PEOPLE phone saying one bad battery will replace with a used one and we agree
Roads seemed to get better and then a side wind hits; two lanes open
With blowing drifts.
We get to Ogden; one hour out of Salt Lake City and it starts snowing.
We both start laughing. I say, “what are we learning here?”
Bob says, “Patience.” Snow was short lived. Five lanes of traffic and we were able to drive
110 km/hr in express lane as temperature dropped minus nine to minus two.
Best roads in two days and then a snow squall happened and we could not see.
I am texting my sister as she is texting me and I say we will only keep driving as long as it makes sense.
Dry roads fifteen minutes later. I ate my salad I bought and Bob bought a sandwich at Beaver
We are out of the snow; sunshine, roads dry; blue sky, sunny and spectacular scenery
Magnificence of the Mountains, Diversity of the grasses, rocks, shrubs and landforms
Saw a palm tree in St. George; sixteen degrees; dry river beds and green trees
Massive rock formations have me feeling miniscule; first barrel and cholla cacti
Lots of palm trees at Mesquite, Nevada and long drive through Vegas to 3rd exit into Boulder City
Spent the night; morning wake up with a message from neighbor at home that our furnace did not
Stay at thirteen degrees like we set it but reverted to twenty-two.
Our breakfast across street from the Best Western has a sign, “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, Thank you.” Where we gas up, CBD sold with 0% THC; Edibles, Topicals and shots.
Drive by the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and now mountains are around us and in the distance.
All seems different; they keep changing the roads; could not even tell we went over Hoover Dam.
Weren’t sure we were on the right road and then see sign, “#93 will become #11 Corridor”.
At Kingman, have to take a sharp left on #40 & #93 for 18 miles till we find the Junction 93
Wikiup and Wickenburg with three hours to go to Phoenix.
Wonder if heat is as hard on roads as cold; some Az roads are needing attention but mostly great infrastructure.
California wildfire smoke is an issue here; although sun is shining in and I feel toasty and relaxed
First saquaros; come upon some really wild rocks; black lava type ones; then ones sitting on each other like tumbledown rocks like they are just balancing ready to topple at any time. Lots of greenery now
More rain than usual; Joshua trees and distinctive cacti.
Bob buys a sun protection hat
Twenty- three miles out of Phoenix is now 250th Ave infrastructure; we enter Surprise; 303 to the #10;
Still on #10 Tuscon as we see downtown skyscrapers; Stay on left hoover lave through tunnel to East 202
Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Mesa has seventeen exits and neat to see many new buildings
Nineteen degrees when usually twenty-nine; Bob said doing good and glad to be here.
He did awesome driving all the way and know we have supper invite at sisters tonight. How nice is that!
ellensagh 