For you wake one day, Look around and say Somebody wonderful Married me. - Fred Ebb

Charlie and I were married 22 years ago yesterday, July 1. Because of our schedules, we had a certain window of time to get married. Charlie was in postgraduate school in Monterey, California. He had two weeks off in June/July.

Our families were spread up and down the east coast, so we decided to get married in Virginia Beach. That way, most of them could attend the wedding.

It just so happens that my birthday is June 30. There was a possibility that we would get married on that date. But, it was on a Friday and we had the chapel for Saturday, July 1. It’s not so bad though. We celebrate for two days each year. One day is MY day and the other is OURS.

Charlie was busy this year thinking up things for my birthday and our anniversary. He gave me a portable ice maker. We don’t have an ice maker in our refrigerator so we have to make sure we keep several ice trays in the freezer. Neither one of us uses a lot of ice, but sometimes we have friends over who can really go through it. Which reminds me that Patti and Bob are coming over in a couple of weeks to stay with us a couple of days. Coming from Palm Springs, they are both big ice consumers! We’ll be ready for them.

He also gave me a gift certificate for a massage in LaJolla! Now that is something I can appreciate. My appointment was for 1:30pm yesterday. Then we were going to go to lunch at Georges, which is right on the oceanfront.

The massage was great, of course. Lunch was on the “ocean vista patio”. It was pretty crowded, but we got a nice table and I don’t think there were any views of the ocean that weren’t good. Oh, and did I say the food and company was great?

It was a very nice day. Later when we got home, we had some champagne and I gave Charlie a gift that I’d had made for him. A friend of mine does custom quilting and I really can’t think of a nicer gift or a more personal gift to give someone than a quilt which projects their personality or memories.

A few months ago when we were cleaning out closets, we came across Charlie’s plaques and commendations from his Navy days. We decided to find out if one of the charities would take them. We didn’t want to throw them away. I called AmVets to see if they would take them and they said yes.

Before we gave them away, Charlie took pictures of them. He was going to make a collage and frame them, which was a good idea. But, I know how things are around here. The collage thing may never materialize.

So, I thought about the memory quilt. After checking with my friend about it, I took a picture of each plaque, etc. and sent them to her to create her magic.

Sure enough the quilt was done on time and I picked it up Tuesday. When I gave it to Charlie last night, he was really surprised. It turned out really well. I also re-introduced him to a clock which had been given to him from his last command. It had been packed away and had never worked. We were going to put it out with the plaques. But, I took it to a clock shop and had it fixed instead. Oh, and I kept one plaque only. It was the one from the USS Arthur W. Radford (DD968). That is the ship he was on when we met in June of 1987.

Charlie's Awards in a "Whimzie Quilt"

So now his clock and his ship’s plaque hang together in his computer room. Poor thing. He’s never been able to have a real “love myself” wall, but the quilt, clock, and plaque are on the wall now. Just outside the door in the hallway hangs a shadow box of all of his ribbons, medals and a flag which flew from his first ship, the USS Nassau (LHA4). I’d say that’s something he can be proud of. I know I am.

Oh, and a final anniversary gift for both of us is a trip to Las Vegas. We will be staying three nights at the Wynn/Encore Hotel/Casino. Ever since we went to Las Vegas with our neighbors a few years ago, I have been wanting to go back to the Wynn. We didn’t stay there, but we did have a drink on the very serene terrace called “Lake of Dreams”. Although it was February and kind of cold, we really enjoyed it.

One more birthday is over and another anniversary. We’ll have to start planning something really special for our 25th in three years. I wonder where we will be then.....

More later–

There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full. - Henry Kissinger

Me with Toby and Mr. Creme on the day they
were going to go to their new home
They were 8 weeks old
5/19/00

I’m still putting things away from the trip. Yesterday I was going through my store coupon wallet to pull out expired coupons and add the new ones I had clipped. There were lots of expired ones.

The last time I used the coupons were a few days before leaving on our RV trip, which was May 10. I had shopped at the Navy Commissary. Can you imagine my surprise to find my “lost” military I.D. card in with my store coupons? I would never have thought to look for it there. Now I have a back up in case I lose the new one I got the other day.

We have requested a copy of the medical report on Toby, which his surgeon, Dr. Aiken, will write up. In the meantime, we had a couple of questions about Toby’s condition, etc.

Yesterday Charlie called VSH and left a voice message for Dr. Aiken to call us back. In less than an hour, we received the call back from him.

We have wondered if Toby's polyneuropathy (his back leg weakness) could in any way have been related to the tumor in Toby's lungs. Dr. Aiken confirmed what Dr. McClemmons had said, which is that there was no link between the two.

We also wanted to know as much as we could about the tumor. Both Chelsi and Taz died of cancer, and Toby became the third pet of ours to die from cancer. Grady also passed away unexpectedly with no symptoms and we regret not having a post-mortem done to try to determine the cause. So we wanted to know as much as we could about Toby.

Dr. Aiken described the tumor as a primary lung tumor in the right lobe of the lung. Such tumors are generally slow growing. The tumor extended much farther up the airway than usual and pretty much filled the right lobe. In addition, there was fluid in the body cavity which was pressing against Toby's left lung.

Since the tumor was slow growing, we thought we should have seen signs that Toby was having trouble even before we left on our trip, May 10. The Dr. said that it was common to find what he called "silent tumors" in the lungs during exams for which there were no symptoms. Cats compensate quite easily and can live with only half a lung with no problems, and given that Toby was mostly sedentary because of the polyneuropathy, he likely rarely exerted himself so much that his reduced lung capacity would have been noticed. The labored breathing symptoms which finally became evident seemed to be a result of the still growing tumor and the more rapid fluid accumulation which began restricting Toby's good left lung.

Dr. Aiken did not do a biopsy on the tumor since the results would not have changed the treatment, but he said that there was no question it was a cancerous growth. When he called us during surgery, he said that he could still remove the mass, but that he could not ensure that he could remove 100% of it, making it almost certain that the tumor would return. Toby’s right lung was collapsed and no longer functional. The Dr.'s prognosis was that should Toby survive the surgery (15% mortality rate) he would have only his left lung, and would need cancer treatment should the tumor return. Patients (even human patients) had a 5% survivability rate in those circumstances.

I received the full medical report via email this morning. This information had also been forwarded to Toby’s primary veterinarian, Dr. McClemmons.

Yesterday I also talked to Dr. McClemmons to get the results of the blood test she ran on Toby last Friday afternoon. I was just curious to see if he had any other problems. The blood test checked out fine. If we hadn’t been looking for something in his chest and took the X-rays, we would never think anything was wrong with him.

Last January, before Toby turned 11 in March, I took him in for a “senior” blood panel. He was having no symptoms of illness, I just wanted to make sure his organs were all functioning well and no diabetes, etc. He was over weight and also had history of urinary tract blockage. He was on a special diet for that. That blood panel showed that he was a very healthy, (almost) 11 year old, senior cat. So, you never know.

Oh, and yesterday morning when I turned on my garbage disposal, it just buzzed. It had done that a couple of days ago and then I pushed the reset button. It started working again. This time, the reset button didn’t work, so I called our plumber.

When he came out he took a “special” tool and manually turned the blades in the disposal. Then he asked if I had ever heard of the "ice treatment". (I've heard of the "cold shoulder") Puzzled, I said no. He wanted some ice to put into the disposal. When the disposal was full of ice, he turned it on. It made a huge racket, but apparently the ice was sharpening the blades.

We had been gone for about 6 weeks and the disposal had not been used during that time. Normally, I use it at least once a day. The plumber said that a disposal will freeze up if it’s not used (I'm sure no pun was intended). I didn’t know that, but then, I really use my disposal. He left the “special” tool with us to use if it happened again.

Also he suggested the “ice treatment” every couple of weeks. Our refrigerator doesn’t have an ice maker, so I’d better start keeping plenty of ice trays in the freezer!

More later.....

The difference between friends and pets is that friends we allow into our company, pets we allow into our solitude. ~Robert Brault

We’ve been home almost a week. The RV has been unloaded. I’ve done laundry and I’m trying to get back into a routine. There are so many things around here that need to be done. I still have a bathroom to paint. All in due time.

Charlie is glad to get back to his computer and he really never seems to have to adjust like I do! I wish I could be more like that. I can find so many things to do during the day and my day just flies by. I don’t know how I managed to do everything I did when I was working full time!

On Monday, we went down to the base pass and I.D. office to get a new I.D. for me. We didn’t have an appointment and it really didn’t take long. Charlie then went to get a haircut. It had been a month since his last one, and he was looking a little “shaggy”. I don’t think he’s ever had “long” hair and that’s fine with me.

The cats are getting used to us being home. Jezibel has continued to sleep on our bed each night. I’m a little amazed to see that she is actually asking ME for attention. She is almost 12 years old. We’ve had her since she was 6 months old. She has always been Charlie’s cat. They bonded right away.

Charlie and Jezibel

Jezibel was pregnant when she came to us. She would lay on Charlie’s desk while he was on the computer. As her little tummy started growing, she loved it when he rubbed her little basketball- shaped belly. Over the years, she has never given me the time of day. If Charlie was around, I didn’t even get a look as she walked by.

Of course, I had Taz then and he and Jezibel were always rivals to see who was going to be the boss. It was a draw. I think Jezibel knew that I was “Taz’s property”. It’s a good feeling to belong to a cat.

Taz

I was a little surprised when our neighbor, Bridgit, who was caring for the cats while we were gone, told me that Jezibel looked forward to seeing Sara, Bridgit’s daughter. She said that when they came over to care for the cats, Jezibel would run upstairs to look for Sara.

I received an email from a friend, Pat, who asked if I could babysit her new cat, “Princess”. She is the friend who owned the little black cat, “Reda”, who we had kept a few months ago. “Reda”, unfortunately, passed away from complications due to diabetes.

Pat has had “Princess” for about a month now. She says she is very sweet and friendly. The picture of her shows a pretty, blue-eyed, cat. Of course, I told Pat we would keep her. She will bring “Princess” on Monday. We will keep her on the “cat patio”.

Next week I’m also going to be “babysitting” for my friend, Kim. I will go to her house each day. She has 5 cats and I’ve taken care of them many times. Her oldest cat, “Pinto”, is one of Jezibel’s kittens. He was her first cat and the rest is history. We all start with one cat.

Kim also came by our house and checked on our cats while we were gone. She knows our cats so well. A few years ago Charlie and I went on a two week cruise to Hawaii. We has asked a friend to care for the cats. She had never done it before and we hoped she could handle it. Kim had not been able to come by and check on the cats every day. We assumed everything was going well.

We were getting ready to cruise back and it would take 4 days. Before we left the islands that afternoon, (we were about 3 hours earlier) I called Kim to see if she’d been by the house lately. She said she was planning on stopping after work that afternoon. Imagine my surprise when we called our “petsitter” and found that some of the cats had escaped the house! They had gotten out the day before and they thought all were back in. Mr. Creme had been allowed in the house and heaven only knew what damage he’d done while in (he sprays at the drop of a hat).

When Kim got there, she did a head count and discovered that Grady was missing. They all went out to look for him, but couldn’t find him. We called back and forth and then Charlie told them to look up on the hill, near the yucca tree, to see if Grady was there. That’s where he liked to hang out. Of course, with strangers looking for him in the yard, he stayed hidden.

Sure enough, they found Grady and brought him in. If Kim had not stopped by here to see who was missing, Grady may have stayed out another night. We were relieved when we heard they were all back in the house. We still can’t figure out how they got out. We were told that one of the cats pushed the screen out, but I know that to take the screens out, you have two spring latches that need to be pulled first.

It makes a difference having someone who actually knows your cats so that if one is missing, they know which one it is. Over this past month while we were gone, Bridgit got to know each one of the cats well. Kim and Bridgit told me that Toby was a favorite. He was more like a dog than a cat. When you petted him, he would take his paw and pull your hand to him. He never could get enough petting. What a love. We really miss him.

Charlie and Toby

More later..........

Another Farewell at the Rainbow Bridge

Toby
3/22/00 - 6/18/11

It was 1:11am late Friday night, early Saturday morning when the phone rang for the second time. We had expected the first call from the emergency veterinary surgeon, but had hoped that the second one would not come. That would be the one we'd get if there were complications.

About 45 minutes before, we had received a call from the surgeon who was going to perform surgery on our 11 year old cat, Toby. The surgery was supposed to be for to repair a hernia which was pushing his liver into his heart. The doctor went over the procedures and the risks. We were aware of them and had agreed.

Earlier that day, Friday, I noticed that Toby didn't seem to be feeling well. He was breathing a little hard and seemed to have lost weight. Toby is a 17 pound cat, and losing a little weight is not necessarily a bad thing, but he'd lost two pounds when we checked his weight. This was around 1:00 pm.

We also noticed that Toby was having labored breathing. I called our vet and could not get an appointment earlier than 4:15 pm. We suspected that he needed help before then.

Toby's breathing got worse, and we were really starting to worry. We tried to get an earlier appointment at the local vet and at another vet we used to use, but the Friday calendar was booked solid. We have two local emergency vet offices, one in South Bay, 10 minutes from us, and the other in La Mesa. We had heard horror stories about the South Bay emergency center, and didn't want to take him there. We'd never been to the La Mesa center for an emergency, but we had taken Toby there in 2007 for an ultrasound. We decided to take him there.

We had just returned home yesterday after a month-long vacation. Our telephone was not working and we had the repair man coming between 1:00 and 3:00pm. Charlie stayed home to wait for him, although he offered to come with me and cancel the repair guy. I said no, I would be okay.

I called my neighbor who had been caring for our pets while we were gone. I wanted to see if she noticed that Toby was not eating or if he was having a breathing problem. I had to leave a message.

When I got to the La Mesa emergency center Toby was still breathing in short, quick sips. He was alert, though, and not in any apparent pain. In the office there were a couple of other people in the waiting room. I gave the receptionist a short summary of the problem Toby was having. My cell phone rang. It was my neighbor. I excused myself and went outside to talk. My neighbor said she had noticed no unusual behavior in Toby. She said that he had not been wetting his puppy pads as expected in the past few days, but thought he was probably doing it outside. She also noticed that he might have not been eating as much in the last three days or so. She hadn't noticed any labored breathing. When I got off the phone and went back inside, Toby was gone!

The technician had left with Toby. Without me. When the technician came back (without Toby) she had paperwork for me to sign and a bill for $400. To say that I wasn't happy ... well. I told the technician I wanted to see Toby. She brought a doctor in who then told me that Toby needed urgent care and that it was very likely that he would die, citing his labored breathing and that his legs were not functioning. I have to admit that the fear and shock sent me ballistic. I demanded that she bring Toby back to me, and when the technician started arguing about it, I called Charlie.

When Charlie was done with her she fully understood that we were not authorizing anything until we had Toby back. They had not bothered to get Toby's history from us and assumed that his leg problem was part of the emergency and I can only imagine what they must have thought - massive trauma, stroke, whatever.

At this point we wanted nothing to do with this place. Charlie suggested that if Toby had not gotten any worse, we should take him to our local vet, even if it meant waiting another hour to get him in. I had to sign a release form stating that I was taking Toby over the objections of the doctor before they would allow us to leave. I got Toby back, paid $58 for an "office visit" and a little oxygen they'd given Toby to help his breathing, and left.

It was still only 3pm, we could not get into the local vet any earlier than our 4:15pm appointment, and poor Toby had to pee in his kennel. So I took him home, cleaned him up, and let him rest at home until his appointment. We thought about going to the emergency center in Sorrento Valley (a 20 minute drive) where Taz had gotten such wonderful care, but since Toby seemed stable, we waited and then took Toby back to the local vet.

It was crazy busy at the vet's, but we are well known there and the doctor made time to see Toby, bringing us into a room where she could examine him with us present. The news was sobering. Toby's labored breathing was potentially life threatening. She explained that many of the things she needed to do to diagnose the problem could agitate and worsen his breathing (blood work, x-rays, etc). Despite the scary news, though, it was comforting to have a doctor walk through all that with us as she examined Toby. She, too, wanted to get Toby on a little oxygen so that he could breath easier, and then took x-rays to see if she could spot the problem.

The results from the x-rays were not good. Something was either filling his lungs, or something outside the lungs was pressing up against the lungs. Toby was essentially breathing with only a small part of his lung capacity. The vet also took blood work, but would not get the results until the next morning. We had two choices. The vet offered to give Toby medication/shots that might help Toby breath better in the hope that it was something treatable that way, and then get him home where he could rest. The vet was most concerned that the more agitated Toby was, the harder it was for him to breath. The second choice was to take a sample of whatever it was that causing the pressure on the lungs, but for that we would need to go an emergency center where they had the full facilities for 24 hour care. We decided on the shots and rest and took Toby home.

Two hours later Toby's condition had gotten worse, not better, and we took Toby to the Sorrento Valley emergency center.

Unlike La Mesa emergency, who had stolen Toby away without me and presented a bill before even talking to me, Sorrento Valley technicians got us into a private room with Toby, got his history and symptoms, examined Toby with us present, and then ASKED us if he could take him to the on site doctor for a more thorough exam. Toby was in good hands.

Shortly after that the doctor came in personally to talk to us. He'd put Toby on oxygen and he was resting comfortably. We talked awhile, the summary being that the doctor believed that Toby had a hernia, and that hernia had caused Toby's liver to get pushed up into the chest cavity and was now pressing hard against Toby's lung. It would take surgery to fix the hernia and move the liver back where it belonged, plus restore what was essentially a collapsed lung. The surgery would take one to two hours. The doctor told us that many cats recovered quite well from this type of surgery, but that there was always risk that Toby could die. He would need at least 48 hours of hospital care after surgery as well. Toby had no chance for survival without the surgery, so we agreed to go ahead with it.

Since it would be several hours before we would know the results of surgery, we went home to wait.

So, the call came at 1:11 am from the surgeon. Toby did not have a hernia. He had a large tumor that filled half his lungs. The surgeon said he could try to remove it, but because of the size and placement he said there was high risk that Toby would die during the procedure. He also said that it was almost impossible to remove all of the tumor, and that chances were very high that the tumor would return even if the surgery were successful. And if the tumor did return, the survival rate of cancer treatment for this type of tumor was only 5% and not recommended, even for people.

Toby was still under anesthesia. We knew we couldn't put Toby through the suffering that would follow even if he survived the surgery. We asked the surgeon to let Toby go peacefully in his sleep.

Now Toby joins his brother Grady, his “brother by a different mother”, Taz, and his dog, Chelsi, over the Rainbow Bridge. We love you big guy and we're going to miss you terribly.

Toby at about 7 weeks old

More later.........

“One small cat changes coming home to an empty house-- to coming home”

Thursday, June 16, 2011

We were up at 6:00am. But, today, the cats were wrestling on the bed and playing. I think everyone knows it’s the last day of travel.

I made breakfast. As we were eating, Sheila begged for a bite of toast. She doesn’t really “beg”, but sits and stares at my food. As I take a bite of toast, she watches. I was talking to her and she never took her eyes off of my food.

Charlie said that when we get home, her “bites” will be cut back severely. We’ve been more lenient with giving her food from the table on this trip. While visiting, we allowed her to have handouts. He said we were going to weigh her too. She reminded us that we needed to weigh ourselves! He said, “Yes, I will weigh myself so I will scare myself into doing something about it”.

We decided that we would officially declare our vacation over on Sunday night. Then next week will be soup and salad week. We are planning a trip to our favorite Mexican restaurant before the vacation is over!

We paid $4.39/gal. this morning before getting on I-15 for home. Driving along we saw a sign for gas at $3.89/gal. It seems to be all over the map here. What is waiting for us at home?

We were driving for about 20 minutes and up ahead we saw something that looked like either smoke or fog. I guessed smoke until we got closer. I rolled the window down and the air was really cool. Then when we got closer, we could see it was fog. Not so thick that we couldn’t see. The sun was shining through too. I turned the A/C off and the vent on and it was pretty cool.

The fog did get a little thicker as we drove through it and it blocked the sun. Charlie officially declared the end of OUR summer!

We came to Temecula and stopped for gas. It was 68 degrees. Gas was pretty normal: $3.89/gallon.

We arrived home around 12:30pm. Mr. Creme met us at the front yard. He was glad to see us. Since we’d been gone so long, we decided to leave the three cats in the RV until we went into the house to say hello to the cats we left behind. Sheila came in with us. She was so happy to be home.

The cats in the house, Jezibel and Lexi were fine. Ellie was hiding upstairs between the bed and the wall. We checked on her and tried to get her to come out, but she wouldn’t. We saw she was fine.

In the garage, Debby was in her cat tree and was agreeable to being petted. Toby was in his bed on the patio. Bridgit had been putting him out in the yard each morning and then back in the garage in the afternoon.

After giving each cat attention, we brought Jonesie, Jason and Kaci inside. Almost at once, it was as if they had not been away for a month. Mr. Creme came in the back door and as I herded him through the house, Jonesie ran along beside him and tried to ride on his back, just as he’d always done.

Bridgit came over when she saw that we were home. We were very happy at the job she’d done, taking care of our babies. She genuinely seemed to have enjoyed it. The only problem she had was a broken sprinkler head in the front yard, and she and our other neighbor, Mr. Pat, took care of it.

Ellie started meowing loudly from upstairs and I went up. When she saw me, she ran to the door, apparently finally believing we were home. I picked her up and she was really congested. She has asthma. We gave her one of her pills and Charlie held her for a few minutes to calm her down. She then went into my closet.

When I fed the cats later, I went to get Ellie out of the closet and feed her. She was breathing freely and ate all of her dinner and wanted more. We feed her as much as she’ll eat because she does not have a weight problem. Her metabolism burns it off pretty well.

Charlie started going through the mail and came across a jury summons for himself. He was supposed to report for jury duty this week! When he tried to call them to let them know he had been on vacation since May 10 and didn’t get the summons, he discovered our phone was dead. So he used his cell phone. They re-scheduled his jury duty for December. Thank goodness they had not sworn out a warrant for his arrest for not reporting!

We called to report our out of order phone. They couldn’t fix it by resetting it, so they will come out tomorrow. While we were gone, they upgraded our equipment, so I think our phone got messed up. Our DVR is also messed up. We tried unplugging and resetting it, but it didn’t work.

So, we are home and it’s nice to be here. The weather is cool, typical June gloom. It’s overcast in the mornings and the sun comes out in the afternoon. Temps run around 68 degrees. Quite different from the 90's and 100's we just came from.

We had such a nice visit with our families. It already seems like so long ago since we were there.
We had no more problems with the RV. Since the gas gauge no longer works, we kept a close eye on the odometer and started looking for gas when we had reached 80-90 miles. We did average around 9 miles/gallon coming home. There was quite a bit wind in the desert.

More later.........

“If you come home as happy as you leave, you have had a good vacation”

Jonesie and Jason on the dashboard

Wednesday, June 15, 2011, California here we come

I woke up this morning around 2:45. The cats were quiet, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. I went to the couch and layed down. Of course, the cats started stirring.

Jason and Jonesie chased each other back and forth. Kaci stayed in bed with Charlie.

Little Girl (Kaci) in her 'happy place' while we are moving
She stays here until we stop for the night

From my place on the couch, I was treated to the “cat show”. As the cats would run through, Sheila also wanted to play with them. She went into her kennel and when the cats ran by, she came out, tail wagging. Jonesie had enough room to get on top of the kennel. When Sheila came out, he swiped at her head and ears. We all finally went back to sleep until 6:00am.

Before leaving the campground, we took some pictures. Since Holbrook is near the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, there was a big petrified wood log near the entrance to the campground. We took some pictures and also got a picture of the “Cowboy Café” cook and me.

Then we saw a little rabbit stretched out nearby. He was very still. With all of our walking and running around, he didn’t move.

We passed the exit for the Meteor Crater. Information from the internet: It is the world’s best preserved meteorite impact site just minutes from Interstate 40 in Northern Arizona near Winslow. Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 miles per hour and planet Earth approximately 50,000 years ago.

Today, Meteor Crater is nearly one mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 550 feet deep. It is an international tourist venue with outdoor observation trails, air conditioned indoor viewing, wide screen movie theater, interactive discovery center, unique gift and rock shop, and Astronaut Memorial Park at the modern Visitor Center located on the crater rim.

Meteor Crater's "Collisions And Impacts" movie allows viewers to experience the thunderous sound and explosive fury of the meteor's super-heated trip through the Earth's atmosphere. Then, the spectacular result of the collision that rocked the American Southwest with the energy of more than 20 million tons of TNT can be explored first-hand just outside the Visitor Center at Meteor Crater Arizona.

We have been there several times. I’ve always wanted to hike to the bottom of the crater, but it is no longer allowed. Just to see the size of the crater is breath-taking.

In Williams, Arizona, a train takes you to the Grand Canyon. Maybe one day we will come back and do that. We have been to the Grand Canyon a couple of times, south rim, and we went to the north rim once. Both are awesome, but the south is the most popular I think.

Gas prices were pretty reasonable in Arizona, usually around $3.59 - $3.64. When we crossed into California, we stopped for gas. It was $4.79/gallon! Welcome back to reality? If this is the price now, then it means that gas has GONE UP here in California and we found that elsewhere, the gas prices had decreased by as much as $.20/gallon. Go figure. And they are certainly not using the taxes to keep the highway in good repair. We went over some of the roughest roads today—in California.

We have stopped for the night at the KOA campground in Barstow, California. Most of the people we have met, who run the KOA’s across the country, really have been helpful, friendly and seem to really enjoy their jobs. The lady who waited on us this afternoon was “not a happy camper”.

Of course, the temperature here is probably in the 100’s! The office/camp store’s door was open. There seemed to be something running, but probably not A/C. We had to wait for a few minutes to buy some iced tea. It was so warm in there, I thought I was going to have to go outside.

This campground is near the "ghost town" of Calico. They have a nice campground there as well. We stayed stayed there a couple of nights a few years ago. It was in March, so it was much cooler then. Calico is a neat place to go and walk around. It isn't open after dark though. We won't be visiting there this time.

Calico was a working mining town at one time. We still can't imagine what it was like to live there back in the day. No A/C! The heat here is just unbearable.

But, we are happy to be so close to home and tomorrow we will be home. I plan to post from there tomorrow night!

More later……….

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. --Lin Yutang

Tuesday, June 14, 2011, leaving Tucumcari, New Mexico

We were up by 6:00am, but the cats had nothing to do with that. I think we are all getting anxious to get home. After our day at the garage yesterday, home is sounding pretty good.

We left the campground at 8:30am. Charlie says the RV still doesn’t seem right. I think we’re still burning up the rest of that low octane gas. As we got on the freeway, I could see the pink building where we were parked all day yesterday. So long, Tucumcari!

We stopped for gas about 40 miles east of Albuquerque. After going a few miles, Charlie said we needed to stop to see if he had put the gas cap back on. He hadn’t. We got off at the next exit, planning to go back to where we got gas. Then we saw an Auto Zone and stopped there. They had one gas cap. Is our luck starting to change? Our original gas cap will stay in New Mexico….oh, so many memories here!

The RV ran fairly smooth, although Charlie said he still went into overdrive more often than he thought it should. We were steadily climbing though, approaching the Continental Divide. But, then after several hours and some stops for gas, the engine started acting normal. We relaxed enough that Charlie wanted a chocolate shake and I wanted a hot dog when we stopped for gas near a Dairy Queen.

We got to the KOA campground in Holbrook, Arizona around 3:00pm. We are back in our time zone now. Arizona is on Mountain Time, but they don’t go on Daylight Savings, so California catches up when we roll up one hour.

This is a very nice campground. When we drove in, Charlie said, “I doubt we will have a site in the shade here”. But, our site had the biggest tree in the park and all the shade we could want.

There is a “Cowboy Café” here which serves breakfast and dinner. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner.

Holbrook is not far from our property in Show Low, Arizona. We are not going to stop there this time because we really are getting tired and want to get home. Maybe we’ll come out to Show Low for the 4^th of July weekend—in the car, just us and Sheila. There is a motel we like staying in. On the 4^th of July there is a parade right down main street and it goes right by the motel.

More later……….