Home!

Well, we’re home! 2500 miles from our start in Minnesota, by way of Greeley, CO, Rocky Mountain National Park, Salt Lake City, Bryce Canyon National Park, Over the Navaho Bridge, and HOME!

Dang, it’s hot! The AC and fans are chugging away inside, but letting the dogs outside this morning felt like midday summer in Minnesota. In fact, it was a bit of a cool summer up there, making Sun City even hotter. Walking barefoot through the house, the concrete floor is warm, as opposed to it being the coolest part of the house usually.

A quick glance at the plants last night in the dark seemed to indicate that at least some of them made it through 3 months of relying on Mama Nature’s water supply. We watched weather radar regularly all summer for down here and there was a lot of rain falling... everywhere but here!

There is no TV (satellite) or internet yet, despite requests to have them started by now. We’ve been mostly out of cell contact, especially through the mountains, and there’s been no email reception. Anybody we’ve been ignoring, that’s why. I’m still waiting to read the deluge of emails backed up, mostly special financial deals and enhancers for body parts I either don’t own or don’t care about enhancing. I’m writing this in advance of being able to access my blog for posting. It’s really 6-something AM here. Steve is sleeping for now, bless him. He did most of the unloading of the car - the little we actually did - last night, in exchange for my doing the night driving. After a bit I’ll head out for some groceries to get us through breakfast at least. The fridge is cooled down so we can store food, and the microwave works.

The gas gets turned on sometime tomorrow. We scheduled it for then since we have to be present to let him check inside the house to be sure no leaks have developed or blockages in the line to cause problems. We just weren’t sure how ambitious we’d be, leaving Salt Lake City during rush hour, hitting at least one national park before continuing southward. But the dearth of motels actually welcoming dogs in the area helped decide us, and since Flagstaff was our first overnight option and I was still fairly perky and alert, plus both of us anxious to be home and only have to unload those suitcases one final time, home it was.

The dogs were relieved as well. In both senses. Finally off leash and able to sniff around inside a fence again instead of getting tugged on by a couple old folks with very painful knees after all the wear and tear put on them by packing, loading and unloading the car, dog walking every stop, plus a tiny bit of walking when we couldn’t actually get the pictures we wanted through car windows, even rolled down, they finally had outside freedom. At least Steve and I got a break when we hit his brother’s house, four kids vying for the “privilege” of walking at least one of them at a time on the leash until they were empty.

We relished the break. So much, in fact, that we have actually started talking about the possibility of life and travel without any dogs, once that days arrives.

We did bare minimum last night. Most of the car is still full. the only stuff we brought in was what we four couldn’t live without for the night: clothes, meds, dog supplies. The back of the car was pretty full already after loading nearly all of the pictures from the walls to bring down, finally. (They’ll come in, sit a while, then get unwrapped and hung. Eventually. Possibly with younger bodies helping. We’ll see.

The succulents we’ve been nurturing all summer are still in the back and will get set where they can get some sun and watering until I feel like planting them. First I have to see what the rabbits and neglect have done to the existing ones around the house. We’ve already seen that the one we call a pencil plant, locally called a lady slipper, has grown taller and then drooped over its chicken wire cage, So I have to decide just what is required there: a new location with more sun for sturdier branches? At any rate, the present ones will be chopped where they bend and potted for rooting so we can have more plants.

Only two patio chairs were moved outside to the actual patio last night, one for each of us to sit and enjoy the back yard. And the heat. Sheets need to be removed from the display cabinets where - hopefully - they’ve kept dust off for the summer. This involves washing and folding as well. It might wait a bit.  Our scooters need to be rolled out to the carport and plugged in, in the process checked for functionality.

All the counters have to be washed, freed from all the little presents left behind by our summer visitors. The sticky traps did catch an enormous amount of those, including holding three very detailed and tiny lizard skeletons. I don’t know how those guys get in, though I’m sure there are holes enough around the foundation. I’m mostly disappointed that they had to die, plus that I never get to see them anywhere around alive. Any mice have avoided the traps. At least we think so. Two are missing, though it’s hard to imagine a mouse stuck on one of them could have moved it far. Chipmunks, yes. We’ve witnessed that in Minnesota, many years ago. But not mice. Perhaps when we actually locate those missing traps....

Cockroaches have managed to avoid the traps too. Three of them didn’t manage to avoid me, however, while I was wiping off the counter. Boy those things are fast! But I persevered and finally mushed all three in the sink. And again. And again. They’re immortal too! Or close. Somehow they seem to go away once we move back in, since after two days of washing counters, etc., there are no more of their smears to clean up. We never leave any kind of food crumbs out for them, and since they can’t penetrate glass containers with screw tops, we’re pretty certain there’s no reason for them to invade in the summer, but for whatever reason they do. Perhaps they nibble on lizards trapped on sticky boards? Their flesh has to go somewhere!

But hunger is triumphing. so it’s time to figure out what and where breakfast is this morning. Let’s see: where do I keep those clothes down here?

Hey! We’re back!


Addendum: I have now located the 7th sticky trap. One is still missing. Internet finally got turned on this evening, much later than promised due to a company office screw up. Their support staff fixed it, however, and here I am.