It was one wild and crazy time. I think I'm going to blog in bullets to simplify things. Ammunition at the ready, go!
- Dog injured before trip. Minor surgery involved (I pay for a doctor for the dog when I haven't been myself? Really?). Now had to give dog pain killers and antibiotics.
- Due to lack of sleep was driven to paranoid heights by "warning" signs along the side of the road (see previous post). Learned CO has many more dangers than NM and AZ put together. Maybe that's because I'm driving through muy mucho mountains?
- Was able to spend a lovely evening with Dean and Renda in NM before leaving early the next day for AZ.
- Reached the intersection of Gilbert Road and Southern (yeah, like 3 miles from Richard's house) when I realized my purse with driver's license, debit card, checkbook, cell phone, reading glasses and, LIP GLOSS (my favorite, magic lip gloss, sniff) was still in Dean and Renda's kitchen.
- The Merry Go Round Effect in Communication. Before I explain this I just want to say to my mother, I love you. During conversation the whole time I was gone Mom would go off on the most random tangents. It reminded me of being on a fast moving merry go round and she would just let go. Wheeeee! Kept us on our toes following her. Again, I love you Mom!
- Got to see my Aunt Shirley and meet my cousin Babs for the first time ever! Babs, if you read this, I love you too. Poor Babs! Trying to navigate in a strange city with her Mom sitting next to her (I can really relate to the "with you Mom sitting next to her" part). Thank heavens for cell phones.
- GRRRRR!!! Forgot to take my camera to Tyler's house when all the Dean Ellsworth children gathered. SO sad! It was so fun! Cookies! Brownies! Lots of "great" and great-nieces and nephews! Time on the trampoline? Fun, until I couldn't escape. Yeah, five 9-13 year old girls zipped the enclosure shut and effectively trapped me. Kind of funny until I was on my stomach with KT straddling me, then I really had to go to the ladies room! My thanks to Macy and Emily for enabling my dismount even if it wasn't graceful.
- Loved going to Costco with Richard and Sherri. It was fun making good food with them. They made it possible for me to find awesome cupcake displays for Chris and Christina's open house. Sad footnote: I still have a lump on the back of my head from a chance encounter with the freezer door in the garage while putting groceries away.
- Fun BBQ at Bryan and Lyndsey's house with the Richard Ellsworths. Loved, loved, LOVED meeting Kami and her parents Jim and Nancy!! Hope I didn't scare them. Who would have thought playing trampoline dodge ball, with 2 balls being thrown at us, on a tramp without a screened enclosure felt safer than facing my 5 awesome great nieces the night before at Tyler's? Note to Lyndsey: Tell Ella I will show no more mercy... cling to me during dodge ball and I will not care for your safety (I still have a bruise from the ball I took for you girl! Love you).
- Took Emily on a whirlwind tour of Mesa. She was driven past my childhood home, the little house it only cost Mom and Dad $8,500 to build in the 50's and the Mesa Temple. We had a nice interlude at the Mesa City Cemetery visiting Dad's grave. In keeping with the general skewed weekend there happened to be a Cubs game that afternoon (for those of you who don't know, the Cubs spring stadium is directly across the street from the main entrance of the cemetery). It was still peaceful but we found the front gates chained shut as we went to leave! I found later the cemetery has had problems with some fans cutting through there to get to the game faster. Twisted, no?
- Looking for a specific movie in AZ? Forget it. After two WalMarts, a Target and Best Buy no luck! It's not even an old movie people! Em and I declared, warm and tired, "Gilbert sucks." Will not be sharing what the movie title was due to someone in AZ thinking of gifting it to another said Arizonian.
- Leaving town was fun? Poor Sherri couldn't find her car keys so Em and I felt good that I was moving slowly and we were able to take her to work that morning. Got almost out of town and realized I still needed to fill the car with gas. Shell stations have an agreement with Kroger stores up here to get the same discounts on gas that you would at the store. YES! I received a discount!
- What is the East Valley Sertoma Club? I felt the mile of highway they cleaned might be contagious.
- Decided that if Emily or I wanted to jump and roll from our moving vehicle we really needed to be careful of cactus.
- Decided that bicyclists in CO are way more serious than bicyclists in AZ. In CO there is a surfeit of spandex, aerodynamic helmets and goggles. All cyclists we saw in AZ were dressed, well, kind of homeless and walked their bikes a lot. Hmmm, maybe they've been in the sun too long.
- Surrounded by cars I missed the turn from Gilbert Road to the Beeline Highway (if that's what it's called, I just know it by the road I take to get to Payson). I drove straight into the Landfill and tried to a)find a way to turn around and b)figure out why I missed the turn. Aha! Turned to my sleepy daughter and declared "I didn't take my pills this morning!" She jerked into a tense posture and exclaimed "Really!! WHY!?!?" and she dove into the luggage to help me. I suspect she was a little worried about herself as well.
- Dean and Renda were SO sweet to me. They had even overnighted my wallet to me so I wasn't driving illegally. They were ready to play cards with us. Dean and I were gracious enough to let Renda and Emily beat us by a measly 4,000 points. Now that's love. Know what else is love? Dog proofing your house so your sister's separation anxiety ridden dog wouldn't hurt anything as we were gone for a little bit. All doors closed except the pantry door and it swings inward! Dragging the love seat to the kitchen seemed the only option. It worked.
- Emily gained serious experience driving the last leg of the trip from NM to CO, all 7 hours of it. I became really concerned for a 50 mile stretch of high mountain highway where the winds were upwards of 50 mph, constant, and we knew a stretch of road ahead had been closed earlier for blowing snow and several serious accidents. She forged ahead, even through patches of whiteout blowing snow. They only lasted a few seconds but they were even scaring the dog!
