We fully anticipated that there be diversity and variety throughout this trek. We arrived at Kenny and Sally’s mid afternoon Wednesday. The drive through the LA suburbs to reach their home west of Disneyland was about as easy a drive in that area that I can recall. I405 which abuts their backyard has been under construction for many years but now the sound barrier wall is complete and their backyard is again theirs. The wall is very effective but for those of us who live where there often is total silence in the evening, the constant din of traffic is notable.
Kenny, one of Gail’s three brothers – she had three sisters also – will be 89 years old this weekend. A farm boy as a child, a young farmer as he started a family, and an animal nutritionist for a career Kenny has been faithful to the Presbyterian church and fully opinionated on all topics. His hearing has waned to the point that only robust direct comments can be heard. As a Luddite on matters of cell phones and as an old-timer regarding the use of computers for determining the rations for cattle, he lives in a world of the past. Among the blends of virtues and vices, he and his wife Sally are the only remaining siblings of Gail’s who remain married to their original spouses – 64 years. The other remaining two lost there spouses to death.
Unfortunately Kenny's basketball team, the Lakers, lost the evening we were there. He does enjoy watching sports in his world.
Thursday evening we drove out of the "city" and parked in WalMart's parking lot near Palm Springs. This gave us a clearly needed head start because the journey through more desert to our Alaskan friends' home in Patagonia was an all day exercise. Having seen 28˚ the morning we left Salt Lake, it was a shock to see 97˚on the thermometer in the van. When we stopped and chatted with our friend Dave, he got out his calendar and explained that it was 22˚ that morning and had reached in excess of 90˚ by that afternoon. We were pleased with the 45˚ the next morning and continue to anticipate the high 90's this afternoon.
We've known David and Sondra 45 years and would probably declare each other on the list of best friends. Dave worked through a bone cancer many years ago in a hospital in Seattle. Sondra also fought off cancer about the same time. They decided that they didn't need to fight off Alaskan winters any longer and purchased a winter home here just 20 miles from the Mexican border. Now the short season is in Alaska during the summer and their temporary shack is a beautiful home only minutes from where their son, daughter-in-law and only grandson live. They too are aware that they no longer have the energy and drive we all had when homesteading in Alaska bush.
After having grown up in small town North Dakota, living mostly in remote Alaska and now having a home in the foothills outside small communities in Oregon, traveling Interstate highways in southwestern United States is always a shock. On the highways the constant bumper to bumper flow of semis moving something to somewhere else is hard to conceive or understand. I contrast that with our life in small town areas, and also with the settlers a hundred and fifty years ago, and it totally astounds me. Watching civilization evolve through the movement of stuff is an encyclopedic story in itself.
Here in a bit after a little rest while we occupy the home of our friends who had to leave on an afternoon errand, we will head north to Phoenix to set the stage for visits with nephews - three of them.
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