This made me cry.

 My last post here was in 2019.  I am nothing if not consistent.   It seems half my blog posts are Apologies for not having posted in so long.

I didn't even remember I had a blog.!  This morning I decided to lounge in bed, something I rarely do,  and browse pinterest which is always a rabbit hole for me.  One link led to another and before you know it I was reading a fun sculpture blog about cement balls and trees made of flashing.  While sharing one of the links in a "lets make this" message I noticed that the blog app "knew me".... Always  Oz.  I clicked to see and found all these old posts that I had completely forgotten about.

What a treasure to read these memories,  especially the brief travel notes of our  ( John and I) great RV adventure in 2019.

Memories dating back over a decade captured in snippets and tucked away in a nearly forgotten archive.  Reading them gave me such joy and brought tears to my eyes too.

No promises but I'll try to post now and then. Meanwhile, here is an update.

Update. 

 2020 we sold our island home and moved to TN

2020 = Covid

2021 John has been sick for months with back pain, indigestion, etc.  He died unexpectedly in Oct from heart failure.  Six months earlier his Dr said his heart was strong.  I believe it was the Covid shots and boosters combined with his weakened self.  He died content, happy with our move and his last conversation with me he was enjoying a beautiful evening on the porch.  What the ...? I'm still shocked he's gone.

2022 = adjusting.  John's parents care offers a distraction and sadly life goes on. Rv sold, Raven camper purchased, truck sold, jeep sold, life is weird and subtractive mostly. I put one foot in front of the other and just " keep trucking".

2023 = finding me. Visiting friends and family, new art adventures, house renovations,  Art Studo! Family visits and caring for John and Minnie. ( John's parents who relocated to Assisted Living 2 miles from us just a couple months before he died)  Asha moves here and stays with me.

2024 = Minnie passes in April. Sue  and I take a 14 day cruise from Florida to San Diego.  I go for two weeks in Spain to celebrate with Olivia, Ann and Kerri.  My Miss O has graduated college! A rough summer of health issues with Dad.  Asha moves out. September creative visit by my bestie Kasey. Front walkway renovation  3 year anniversary of John's death. A purple couch.  Really?  

Today, Nov 16.  I'm good.  I've got so much great in my life. I love my home. I love my friends. I love my family. I can do this.

Love!

Always , Oz

Oz, or Auz.... no matter which way it's awesome.

So, it's amazing that as much as I love Facebook and as chatty of a person as I have turned out to be, that I'm not so good at this blogging stuff.   I'm not sure if its because I keep forgetting my password (tee hee), or if I just haven't quite figured out the point of it all, but... I'm going to continue the attempt.  Maybe I'll get the hang of it.  I absolutely adore other people's blogs.  Why not mine?

So let me tell you the story of how I got the name Oz. 

I have no children.  That's another story too, or, maybe not a story just a series of decisions, but, the fact remains I have never had a child of my own.  However... I've had the privilidge of being an auntie to many.  The first close relationship I  had with a child would have to be that with my nephew Aaron.  He was six and a kindergardner or first grader at Caribbean School.  I was a senior that year (still a child myself really).   In a sea of strangers, I was his only family face and even though I was in separate building 'far far away' from his classroom... when the going got rough Aaron ran to his auntie Laura. :)  We saw a lot of Aaron in the senior lounge that year!  We were close before, but that year the relationship changed an got a little tighter.  We were buddies.  I liked it.  Actually,  I was close to all three of my sister's children growing up.  Aaron, Amber and Ammon never really had a nickname for me.  Just Ti Ti, which is spanish slang for Aunt (Tia).

After College I moved west to California and I lived with my brother David and his wife Charlene.  They have two sons, Brian and Davey.  (Sorry Davey, I just can't call ya Dave).  Those boys and I became fast buddies too.  Brian was just learning to talk the first time I lived with them, and he had some difficulty pronouncing my name.  Laura is a bit of a tongue twister for kids.  With him, it came out Yayee.  (Oh, did I mention my brother David is one of the few in my family who called me Laurie?, thus the yee).  Anyway.. I was Yayee .  And I liked it.   I haven't had the pleasure of really getting to know the grand-nephew and grand-nieces that Davey and Brian both have now, but when Brian and Aimee visited last year, their little ones knew I was Yayee. 

So TiTi and Yayee were nicknames given to me by little family members with love.  I still adore being called either one of those.  But, at the time I was given those names I was a young woman starting out on my life's adventure and I still had dreams of someday hearing the ultimate nickname of love; Mom.   I love children.  I love the way they look at the world.  The simplicity of their emotions.  The honesty of their expressions.  As much as I loved them, I really never thought about not having any of my own... it would always be later.

 I got older (notice I didn't say grew up), I got married,  I worked.  Things happened and I never made having children a priority in my life.  Due to life choices and health related complications, by my mid 30's I knew that children of my own were not going to be an option.  Oddly, I believe having had young children factor significantly in my teen years made me less inclined to hurry up and have the american dream of 2 kids, 2 cars, and a white picket fence. 

In 1998 we moved to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands.  I was 39.    But, by 39 I was pretty positive that that wasn't going to be the case. 

2024 edit....did I seriously never finish this?

Off-Road Adventure near Gunnison

Now this is what I'm talking about.   Less that 10 minutes from our RV park in Gunnison was a county road and we decided on our first afternoon of exploration (Sunday the 28th) to follow it up to see where it leads.   Wow.  Great trip.

For the most part the road was smooth and did not require any 4WD.  That was a dissappointment for John I think but a relief for me.  I'm not the best off-road buddy.  Just sayin.   I was glad that at the top of this trail there was a brief 4WD road that actually required us to drop in to 4WD Low to get out of.   It might of been short but it put a huge smile on John's face to conquer it and I'm sure he gets a kick out of seeing me squirm too.  He is so looking forward to some "real" 4WD trails but I can tell you that this trip was fun for all of us.  We only wish we had packed a picnic!

Tucker was the biggest winner on this trip though.  He got to run free, see cows, chase bugs by the lakes and generally just enjoy the fact that he was not at the end of a leash.   That dog is the cutest thing EVER.

Enjoy these pictures.  John and I both love love loved this beautiful piece of country.

First of two lakes!  Gorgeous.

The vistas were spectacular.  You could see nearly forever.

Second lake.  This was at the bottom of a very rough drop off.  Jeep had to work to climb out but so worth it

Cows at the second lake, around the other side.  If you look in previous photo you can see them across the lake.

Two old people and their dog... This is reversed... John is driving. Tucker refused to look.

July 27 - Let's talk about RV parks. Reality vs Expectations

OK.   It's true.  I had a dreamy expectation of what RVing were going to be like.  The reality is a bit different.

Our first RV Park was in Phoenix after we purchased this rig.  Eagle View RV Park.  I remember I was underwhelmed when we got there.  It was basically a parking lot.  Each parking space was about 15 foot wide with very little buffer space between.  There were no trees for shade.  It did have some great amenities that I know now are rare.  They had a pool and a gym, nice laundry, great shower facilities and good wifi and cell service.   They picked up trash at your site every morning.  The park was very close to Fountain Hills, a very nice community with all the essential shops.  But, it was really really hot in Phoenix in June and after spending a month there we were happy to move on.

We moved to Moon Crater RV Park next.  It is the middle of the desert and the middle of nowhere so I was not surprised that it was also a parking lot.  Gravel sites, side by side.  No amenities to speak of, no pool, no gym, no trash pick-up.  We weren't going to be there long.  Cell service and wifi were adequate.

Monument Valley RV Park was our next stop.  Finally a park that was pretty!  The red rocks of Monument Valley were in sight from my perch at the front of the bus and I enjoyed the view every morning.  The sites were way to close again, our firepit area was literally two feet away from the septic of the RV next to us.  We did not spend any time at the firepit. :)   They had a pool for guest use, but none of the other amenities.  No cell service because we were on Navajo Nation land.  They were trying to encourage trees to grow but there was minimal shade as yet.  The dusty red silky soil of Monument Valley stayed with us for days after we left. 

From Monument Valley we moved into Colorado and chose Lightner RV Park to stay a week at.  While the sites were really really close together, this park finally lived up to my expectations.   We were nose in to a nice wooded area with a small creek running by within 10 feet!  These were large trees on both sides and the campground was very nice to walk around in.  It had the feel of a park not a parking lot.   Yay.  We loved our stay there.  We loved our neighbors while there, Chuck and Tammy, and we loved Durango.  Day trips were great.

We left Durango and headed east.  We stayed one night in South Fork, just to break the trip up into two days of driving.   South Fork was a big park but was definitly a parking lot.  Zero cuteness factor.  Thats ok, it was just for a night.  We arrived  at Grape Creek RV on a Thursday and stayed until Tuesday (4 nights).  The managers were really nice.  The lots were beautiful and green with nice trees.  We were dissappointed again that the wi-fi was non-existant.   John has made good use of his wi-fi hotspot until now but ATT service was iffy here too.

Next stop was Buena Vista.  Geez.  I loved the town of Buena Vista but I am beginning to doubt our ability to find nice RV parks, or maybe they don't exist.  This RV park , Arrowhead Point RV , was a parking lot.  We only stayed two nights.  Cell and Wi-fi were good but I again was not impressed by the close sites, no trees, the only "park" like feel to this park was "parking lot".  I'd have stayed in a real parking lot to be able to spend that time with Lee, Robbie and Jennifer but I really had hoped for a cute site that we could have had a fire at and enjoyed some camping like feel.  Oh well.

Gunnison Lakeside RV sounded amazing and the videos online looked pretty nice.  We had a good site (again very close to our neighbors) but the long view was gorgeous.  The big sad part of this place was that it had zero cell service, zero wi-fi service (although they say they do have it) and while we were there the cable was out too due to a collapsed sewage line and the backhoe cut the cable.  It was so frustrating.  John and I are BOTH wi-fi dependant and not having any wi-fi really sucks.  We decided at this point that we must verify cell and wi-fi functionality when making reservations.  We may not learn fast, but we are learning.

So, here we are in Oletha at the UNCOMPAHGRE RIVER RV Park.  So far, its my new favorite.  The spaces are wide and there is about 20 feet between rigs.  Thre are some trees that give shade to most spots (ours a little) and the amenities are good.  It has excellent satellite service for all RVrs.  We are on our first day here and the wi-fi is out but they assure us its just temporary and we will have service within a day or so.  ATT cell service is awesome - 5 bars.   I also really like the people we have met so far.  Very nice.  They had a happy hour gathering last night, a corn cook-out today, and bingo and art classes planned during the week.  Cool , I have a social side to satisfy. :) The one really bad thing here is that it is a 50 and older park.  That would not be a problem normally for us, and actually would be a plus as some of these parks are overrun with young wild kids having fun while the parents relax ... but it puts a damper on some plans I had for my niece to come visit.  I am going to talk to management on Monday to see if over night guests are permitted.  We shall see.

That said... no park has yet lived up to my dream.   We have yet to have a fire pit.  We have yet to set around a campfire and tell campfire stories... lol.  I'll keep you posted as we go on the search for my dream site.  Ahhh nostalgia. 

July 26th ?  I've lost track of my days.

We've got issues.  Health issues.  These issues require medications and both John and I were down to our last two days of "drugs".  We had our prescriptions transferred from our friends at Mt. Welcome Pharmacy up to Walgreens while we were in Phonix.  There is a Walgreens on every corner in 'Merica we thought.  Not so.   The closest Walgreens now that we need one was in Montrose, which was 60 miles further east so the first thing on our agenda after landing in Gunnison was to drive the next day to Montrose.

The drive over the remainder of Monarch Pass to get to Montrose was a lot more relaxing in just the jeep. :)   It gave us an opportunity to see what we were going to have to travel on the next travel day and was a pleasand day trip.  We left late in the morning, made the hour plus drive, got our meds all filled, had a great Mexican meal, got some groceries and headed back.  It actually was a full day.

Mission Accomplished.  We have the meds we need for the next month or so.

July 25th - Travel Time - Monarch Pass

We really were a bit nervous about getting over the rockies.  These are mountains baby... not hills.   Buena Vista was on the east side of the rockies and we decided we wanted to spend more time on the westside. (Remember we left Durango and went south and east to visit friends in WestCliffe, but we still had things to see north of Durango).  So, we needed to get across the Monarch Pass.

Pretty much right in the middle of the state of Colorado, on US50, this pass reaches an elevation of 11,312 feet.  It is basically climb climb climb then down down down then climb climb climb and more down down down.

Mom (Minnie), if Dad is reading this to you, I want you to know that I thought of you a hundred thousand times while on this one and a half hour trip.  I remember how you used to tell John and I (20 years ago) that you were so tense on these trips and how nerve wracking they were.  I remember how I thought that so funny and knew that you had to be exaggerating,
              "They couldn't be that bad, Dad had it under control",
              "Why didn't you just relax?"   "Just enjoy the scenery".

Ummmm.  No.   I take it all back.   Fear and Worry are real and they are very hard emotions to just talk yourself out of.  No matter what,  when you are barrelling down the road in a 10 ton bus, towing a 2 ton jeep and the road drops off thousands of feet to your right (hello canyon!)  or makes hairpin curves as you descend . . . well, no matter what,  Fear and Worry sit on your shoulder and just won't leave.  John does not appreciate my help at these times either.
 
   "Watch Out for the white line!",  "There is a curve coming up!"  "Slow down!"  "John!!!"

... nope, he doesn't appreciate my help at all.   LOL

We did great.  The rig had absolutely no problem climbing and John did great on descending.  He did not kill me because he could not take his hands off the wheel, but threats were made and I did quiet down but I thought of my Mom Minnie and all she endured in 15 years of crossing these mountains.  She is a saint!

We arrived in Gunnison Colorado on the afternoonn of the 20th.  We stayed at an RV park called Gunnison Lakeside RV about 9 miles west of the town.  This will turn out to have been a bit of a mistake, which I'll tell you about later.

After this short trip, I think we both felt pretty happy with the rig and its performance.  No problems.  If it can get over that pass that easily, well we probably can go wherever we want.  Sorry no pictures.  It was beautiful but I was not really able to enjoy the scenery.

Always, Oz

July 25th - One last look at Buena Vista.

Before we leave Buena Vista, let me just say again that this cute little Colorado town is worth traveling to.  The 'age defiant' me was wanting to take a river rafting trip down the Arkansas river that passes through town.  The 'you are too old for that' me decided maybe not today.
The town does have a lot to offer.  Great food at the two restaurants I tried and lots of other options.  On Friday nights they have live music in the cute little 'new' section of town by the river and the shops nearby were cute.  Seems to be a lot of growth and renovation going on there.  I particularly liked some of the mosaic work in the square. That's a rockclimbing wall in the background and this park is just steps from a gorgeous river that Jennifer was explaining to me was modified (boulders rearranged) in order to make it premium water-rafting material!   So Cute.