Homeward Bound; W-Holy You; Window Adrift! "Voices"... Tuscumbia, Alabama; "You Can't Talk to Females"; Franklin, NC; Hardeeville, SC; Home!

 So, we ended the last blog post in Taos, New Mexico. The mountains there are scenic, but home was calling, so we saddled up the coach and headed east. Next stop was Tucumcari, New Mexico, where we had a nice dinner at the Pow Wow Restaurant and Lizard Lounge... yes, that is the correct name of this very classy establishment. Thinking back on Suzanne's 1999 Corvette C-5 convertible, we both had some lustful thoughts about this brand new red Corvette... 

Next stop was Unity Village.... as always, the venue for a spiritual event was stunning! The architecture is mostly Italian Renaissance style, and was designed by Waldo Rickert Fillmore, son of Unity's founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore.

Suzanne's W-Holy You event was another super success, with 125 attendees loving the lessons, experiences and new friends. This was her third W-Holy You retreat this summer at Unity Village. Thanks to the Unity staff and chefs who helped make this another terrific event!

Suzanne's "Gong Bath" has been a new favorite at her recent events. The sounds that she creates with her gongs and crystal bowls is stunning; some sound just like humpback whales that I am used to listening to on Navy destroyers' and frigates' passive sonar receivers.

The final part of Wholy-You is the Angel Wash, one of the most spiritually moving experiences imaginable. 

This next photo is a reminder that one can never get complacent... we were driving down the Interstate near Oklahoma City at 65 mph when Suzanne said, "Ty, it sounds like a window just opened!" We could hear the engine noise of the semi we were passing, an unusual experience... She got up and shouted, "The fixed window over the sink is flapping open!!!" I pulled over at the next exit and found that the sealant holding the window closed had failed, and that it was only being held on by the hinged top. So, being a very technically proficient RVer, I selected the appropriate material to hold the window shut... Duct Tape! It held until we could get the window repaired properly a few hundred miles later.

While cleaning the counter the other day, I noticed a present that Janean Quigley had given me... It reads, "I only do what the Voices in my wife's head tell her to tell me to do"... Janean, you are in so much trouble!

Next Stop Memphis! We camped right along the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas. The view of the barge traffic was spectacular! Suzanne got to the Memphis Drum Shop and acquired two more gongs, so it was a great stop!

On Eastward to Tuscumbia, Alabama, to visit our dear friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens, and their daughter Nadia. 

The Emens family took us to Big Spring, a beautiful waterfall and park in downtown Tuscumbia...

But we were getting hungry, and Judson and Donna Jo knew of this famous "hole in the wall"... Rattlesnake Saloon... The food was very good, but the highlight of our meal was talking to one of the locals who made a comment that, "Well, you know, you just can't talk to females." (The context here is important, but we can't divulge it for privacy reasons.... and I don't want to get my head broken or be declared Persona Non Grata in Tuscumbia!) In any case, we got a good laugh out of it after we left...

From Tuscumbia, we moved on to Franklin, North Carolina, where we spent two days hiking in the Nantahala National Forest. On one trail we found this lovely waterfall, one of My Lovely Bride's favorite things...

One of the characteristics of Dachshunds is their exceptional sense of smell; this picture shows Rusty following Nellie's path through the grass from the night before. The dew on the grass made his track obvious...

This next photo from a grocery cart ad made me laugh; I learned after reading it that Tinder is a dating app.

Our last stop before arriving home was in Hardeeville, SC, just a half hour from home. "Why not just go home?" Well, some anti-social whiners in our community protested that people shouldn't be allowed to keep their RVs in their driveways overnight. So, we delayed our arrival so we could get home first thing in the morning and have a full day to unload and clean the bus. It also allowed us to visit a local park that we had never heard of and get a hike in alongside this beautiful lake.

Back at home now, Rusty and Nellie like having the run of the house rather than just our bus. However, Rusty has learned that he also likes to roll in the grass and take the sun. Here he is "on strike", eyes closed, refusing to get up and walk...

Nellie, on the other hand, prefers to snooze by Mom's side...

Our Summer 2021 Tour has ended, after about five months and 11,500 miles. We are happy to be home, catching our breaths, and hope that you have had as good a summer as have we. Love to you all, Suzanne, Nellie, Rusty and Ty.

Flagstaff continued; Sedona; A Custom Hairdo; Meteor Crater; SPIDER! Taos; Holistic Healing; Rio Grande Gorge; Taos Ski Valley; Binary What?

 

My Lovely Bride asked me to post a photo of Your Faithful Correspondent, sort of a "Proof of Life" exercise. So here I am on my backpack trip near Flagstaff... I could live here!

On our last day in Flag, we went on a mountain bike ride on the Arizona Trail north of where we had previously camped. Suzanne had hiked this section from her campsite and said it was beautiful, so we rode from a Forest Service road nearby. It was spectacular. There is nothing quite like riding through aspen groves on singletrack paths. And there were no bears sighted!

On to Sedona, one of our favorite places in the world. And yes, I could live here, too!

The red sandstone cliffs and rocks of Sedona are even more spectacular up close and in person, but I think you get the idea...

We had a fabulous dinner at Mariposa with our friends Jerry and Karen Facciani from Las Vegas. 

Our RV campground was right along Oak Creek. We jokingly call this "a hateful place"...

Jeff and Lynn Hollahan drove up from Scottsdale and joined us for the day, and we went on a hike to West Fork, Oak Creek Canyon. Beautiful! (And the canyon is nice, too...)

The canyon walls go straight up for about a thousand feet; you do not want a big rock to fall down on you here!

On that trail, MLB found a knothole in an Arizona sycamore trunk that made a nice picture frame... "No, Suzanne, we cannot bring it home with us!"

A mountain bike ride on the Bell Rock Pathway was required before departing Sedona; even though we are "mature riders", according to a guy in a bike shop, we had a blast zooming up and down the trail here.

Sedona was not all play; Suzanne had an event here, but her hair needed a trim, so our new friend Phoebe Miller flew in with Anne Wernimont from Denver to give her a "do" at our campground...

Phoebe is a "Stylist to The Stars", in a manner of speaking, and Suzanne and I were both thrilled to have her perform her magic on us! (Yes, I also got a cut... soooo coool!)

From Sedona, we headed east to Meteor Crater, a spectacular hole in the ground where a big meteor had struck about 50,000 years ago. That's even older than My Good Friend Bob Blythe, back in The Villages. (Hi, Bob!) There is a great visitor center here, but the hiking trails were closed due to Covid... really???? Are the rocks contagious???

On a bike ride near El Prado, New Mexico, we happened across this nice specimen of Aphonapelma Vorhiesi (Grand Canyon black tarantula). I wanted to bring it home and keep it in a covered bowl, but I was overruled...

We spent several days in Taos, NM, where I received two very beneficial healing treatments for my lower back pain from Linda Carr, an expert in holistic healing and pain relief. Linda relieved a lot of my pain, and I would recommend her highly! (You can see that Nellie loves her, too!)

We also had a chance to hike along the Rio Grande Gorge near Taos. Here you see the bridge of the same name, 650 feet above the Rio Grande, and the second highest on the US highway system.

Suzanne enjoyed walking this labyrinth located right along the Rio Grande Gorge trail....

A short trip to Taos Ski Valley gave us a chance for some alpine hiking along the beautiful Columbine Trail at 9,300 feet... lots of aspens beginning to change colors here!

Finally, this sign was on a restroom in the ski valley. I am too old to even understand (much less care) what it's trying to say...

No Whining!!! Smokejumper and Hot Shot??? An Intermittent Spring; Tire Repairs; An Antler Gift; Moose! 36 Degrees in August; Park City, Utah; Lake Powell; Flagstaff; Ebike ride; Bear! CRISIS!!!

 It's now late September, and Your Faithful Correspondent has another blog post to share... we will start with a little humor provided by a refrigerated truck company from Kenosha, Wisconsin. This was posted on the side of the cab of one of their trucks... good advice for all of us!

Leaving Montana, we scooted down to Freedom, Wyoming, in the Star Valley, to visit Darcy Robinson. Darcy had contacted Suzanne and offered to show us the area, and we couldn't pass up the chance to meet a woman who was a former smokejumper and Hot Shot firefighter! Darcy showed us around Jacknife Ranch, which her family has run for five generations. We also learned how tough it can be running a herd of cattle, especially when calving time comes in February, and ranchers have to get up twice during the night to check on their cattle and help them give birth.

Darcy also took us to nearby Afton, Wyoming, on a hike to the beautiful cascading Swift Creek, which is fed by the largest intermittent spring in the world.

The trail was steep and rocky, but we weren't going to wuss out with our smoke jumper guide, Darcy!

Here are Darcy and Suzanne at the top of the cascade when the spring has stopped for a 15 minute "breather". Note that there is no water around the rock cairn....

Here is that same cairn with the spring running a few minutes later....

So here is the deal... it was one of the coolest hikes we have had this summer. Thank you, Darcy!!!

While in Thayne, Wyoming, we had a problem with a leaking valve stem on one of our big tires, the same type that semis use. We found a tire shop that could remove and repair the tire in an hour, but you can see by the size of it that it's not something that we could have fixed ourselves on the side of the highway!

Our next stop in Wyoming was Pinedale, where our dear friends Gina and Bob live. When they heard how much our puppies loved the four inch long elk antlers that we get at the pet stores, Gina said, have I got a gift for you... Gina and Bob had been riding out in the high country a few years ago when they watched a big bull elk shed this antler. After the elk wandered off, Gina rode over and picked it up, and graciously gave it to us for Rusty and Nellie. Thank you, Gina!!! It will have a place of honor on our living room wall at home in SC!

Pinedale has beautiful American Legion Park right downtown, along Pine Creek, with lots of grass for the puppies to run through, and benches for visitors to sit on while enjoying the scenery. 

The scenery isn't just trees and flowing water... right after taking that photo, Suzanne pointed across the creek; at first all I saw was a big brown blob.... 

But then the blob resolved into a big cow moose, and her calf who is almost totally hidden in the tall grass just below her rear legs. One thing I've learned is not to try to take a close-up selfie with a cow moose guarding her calf!

Pinedale is at 7,182 feet, on the west side of the Wind River Mountains. It can get snow any month of the year, so we were relieved to only have lows in the 30s during our visit in August. It has gotten to -49 F in January here, and residents are tough.

From Pinedale, we headed to Utah. Suzanne had an event in Park City, and this would be our first long visit there. Our office staff worked filling folders with handouts, but Rusty gave up early, complaining about not having thumbs to make the job easier...

After the event, we met some friends for dinner - here are Nicole Reilly and her daughter Aubrey, MLB, Karen Crawford, and Monica Trepagnier, who graciously made the cute bandanas for Rusty and Nellie in the following photo.

We stayed at a campground in Heber City near some great mountain biking trails, but there were numerous deadfalls that made biking slower than normal. 16 year olds may be able to hop their bikes over these downed trees, but it's a skill I haven't yet (or likely will ever) develop... sigh...

While in Park City, we were fortunate to spend time with our friends and nearby neighbors Kim and Tom Kennedy, who were visiting from Hilton Head, South Carolina. Meals with them are always accompanied with much laughter, as this photo shows!

We also visited the Hill Air Force Base Aviation Museum with Tom and Kim. Here we are in front of a B-52 bomber. The Kennedys were much better at finding fun things to do than were we... they researched thoroughly, and always found unique places, like the Homestead Crater, where you can scuba dive, SUP or float in an underground warm mineral pool. 

Our next stop was Page, Arizona, where we camped at Wahweap Marina Campground. A bike ride brought us to an overlook with this spectacular view of Lake Powell and in the distance, Glen Canyon dam, built in 1964. The lake level is down 125 feet from its high, due to the Colorado River being sapped by ever-expanding large cities in California and evaporation due to a decades-long drought in the West. Lake Mead near Las Vegas is suffering similar low water levels. It is a sensitive issue for locals here and all along the Colorado River.

As many parents are aware, getting school age girls interested in science has always been a challenge. We have all read about STEM programs (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), but in this age of political correctness, evidently art teachers decided that they could jump on the STEM bandwagon, so now we have STEAM.....  (I hope I don't get hate mail from the art community for this...)

From Page, we drove south to Flagstaff, Arizona, where we would spend two weeks. "Flag" is one of our favorite places, and meeting up with our friends Janean and Jack Quigley for an ebike tour around Mormon Lake was a highlight. 27 miles later and we were TIRED! Their ebikes gave us a boost when needed going uphill, but they still had to be pedaled, if for no other reason to keep Jack in sight (he is an ANIMAL!). Janean is no slouch either; she does high elevation trail runs that would kill most people. Flag is also at almost 7,000 feet elevation, and coming from sea level in the Lowcountry of South Carolina put us at a disadvantage. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Another day found us hiking with Janean and her energetic doodle dogs Luna and Dobby on the Sandy's Canyon trail, part of the Arizona Train that runs from the border with Mexico to Utah. It is a beautiful hike, ending (at least on this day) at a stunning cliff and cave; on a previous visit we had hiked up to the overlook, which has panoramic views toward Walnut Canyon.

We took the puppies for a walk at Northern Arizona University (NAU), a beautiful campus with lots of cutting edge features, like this robot that delivers food and coffee to dorms and campus offices. Rusty didn't like this mechanical devil for some reason...

Nellie asked for equal blog time; she chose this picture of her with her favorite pillow... she loves to bury under it and the blanket while Suzanne does readings or her radio show.

During our time in Flag, Suzanne and I both got out for overnight backpacking trips, separately because of the puppies. One of our favorite trails is Passage 34C of the Arizona Trail, near the San Francisco Peaks. The weather was perfect....

Here is Hiker Chick with her new backpack, stuffed with 35 lbs of gear, including a new inflatable sleeping pad, lots of water, and her favorite trail meal, dehydrated Chili Mac. I had hiked with her for an hour, and then had to return to the bus to take care of Rusty and Nellie. You can see the orange top of a can of bear spray just behind her arm, and a Marine Corps K-Bar knife on the other side of her pack, but I insisted that she wouldn't need them because at this time of year bears were at higher elevations. She replied, "Ty, we ARE at higher elevation... over 9,000 feet right here!" I dismissed her concerns... not my best decision, as time would tell.

Our campsites were set up in exactly the same spot - shaded by aspens and pines, relatively soft ground, and near Bismarck Lake, which is really just a big mud puddle this time of year. I was alone during my visit, but there was a group of 4 other backpackers about 50 yards away when Suzanne was there. 

She was out watching this spectacular sunset after dinner, enjoying the solitude, and when walking back to the tent passed the other campers who said, "Hey, you just missed the big brown bear that walked past our tents..."  "Ty, you are in such trouble..."  She sent me a text with a note about the bear visit, then shut her phone down to save battery power; I was worried all night that the bear had returned and she had had to fight off the bruin with bear spray and K-Bar, but was relieved to get her morning text that she was fine.

So when I hiked in to meet her in this aspen grove, I was somewhat chagrined to have been so cavalier about bears. I may have put my foot in it by saying, "Well, he was probably lost, and just trying to get back to higher elevation...", but she just laughed it off. 

But Suzanne got her revenge on me... she ordered this cool tee shirt that has a couple in a tent with bears outside, and the husband is saying, "Honey, you have to stop thinking that every sound you hear is a bear." She has such a sense of humor...

Finally, I have to show what a crisis looks like in our household.... here is My Lovely Bride trying to get the last miniscule crumbs out of a container of Locatelli Peccorino Romano cheese. Thanks to Irene Vouvalides, we are addicted to it, and evidently it is only available east of the Mississippi River. (I wonder if UberEats could deliver us some in Sedona?????)