The Drive to Utah

July 14, 2016: Crossing through the Navajo Nation.

Yesterday we made the very loooong drive to Midway, Utah. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get myself ready, load the ice chest, and pack up last minute items. Since Mark had his heart procedure three days earlier and wasn't allowed to lift anything weighing ten pounds or more, Sarah, Dylan, and Jake arrived extra-early (by 4:40) to help load everything into the back of my car. We were on the road a little before 5:30.

We got into Utah around 9:30 (or 10:30 Utah time).

It was exactly 6:30 when we left I-40 and entered the Navajo Reservation, which dominates the whole northeastern corner of Arizona, as well as extending into New Mexico and Utah. The lands of the Navajo Nation are incredibly vast and visually striking. We passed ridges with colorful exposed layers as bright as any found in nearby Painted Desert and distant formations as distinct as those located in nearby Monument Valley.

Mary is behind the wheel, as usual.

Unfortunately, our pictures don't quite capture the beauty we found all around us. Mark handled my camera while I drove, but he isn't really into the whole camera thing like Dylan and me, besides being unfamiliar with my camera. Plus most were taken through my dusty, bug-spattered windshield. And Dylan slept away most of that first leg of our trip, so he missed a ton of gorgeous photo ops.

We stopped for lunch at the Kane Springs Rest Stop south of Moab.

We made two quick stops before we reached the Arizona-Utah border, once for a restroom break and once to fill the tank, but overall it took us three hours to cross the Navajo lands before we reached the state line. That's how huge the reservation is. Even after we'd crossed into Utah, we were still on reservation land until we'd passed through the adorable little town of Bluff, Utah, which is located in some of the most amazingly picturesque territory I've ever seen. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures there or of the nearby, also-very-gorgeous San Juan River.

Sarah hauls some of our lunch supplies to a covered picnic bench,

It was just after 11:00 ( or noon in Utah time) when we came upon a nice little rest stop just south of the town of Moab, Utah. It was surrounded by incredible red rock hills and formations. We decided it would be the perfect place and time for lunch, since it had been six hours since breakfast. I'd prepared a big tuna salad, so we enjoyed tuna on French rolls and the tortilla chips Sarah provided.

Jake and Dylan goof off during lunch.

We were back on the road a little after 11:30 for the very loooong second half of the trip. By now I was very tired and perhaps even a little bit loopy... I took a couple of wrong turns along the way (I knew I was supposed to go right at a fork, but there were a bunch of other possible "forks" until we finally reached the correct one in--wouldn't you know it--South Fork, Utah) but we got right back on track.

Dylan, Jake, and Sarah in South Fork, Utah, filling the tank.

We were also slowed by several batches of road work, one of which halted traffic altogether for about fifteen minutes and then created a log jam of one-lane traffic dominated by slow-moving trucks for a long while before it finally broke up. It was a little after 3:00 (4:00 Utah time) when we reached South Fork and stopped for gas.

Entering Provo, Utah, via University Drive. The Angel Moroni spire

of the beautiful Provo City Center Temple is visible on the left, ahead.

A wedding party was posing for pictures on the front steps as we drove past.

From that point, the drive went fairly quickly. Even with more road work along the way, we only had about 45 minutes of driving left to do. We drove right through the center of Provo, right past the campus of Brigham Young University, and through the middle of gorgeously rugged Provo Canyon, following the small but rushing Provo River.

Lovely historic buildings in Provo, Utah.

One funny little side note: While we drove through Provo, Dylan remembered that one of his best friends, Mary, had grown up in Provo. So he sent her a "Guess where I am" text. Well, guess where she was? She was also in Provo with her family, visiting her old home town!

Deer Creek Reservoir was filled with boats and skiers.

Again, if I hadn't been driving, there would be many pictures of the breathtaking area through Provo Canyon, beside Provo River. Along the sides of the highway, many cars were parked, disgorging people armed with fishing gear, kayaks, and other water-worthy accoutrements. 

Our WorldMark resort in Midway, Utah.

Finally, we came upon the wide blue waters of Deer Creek Reservoir. Mark's eyes lit up and he grabbed the camera without being asked. This is his chosen environment. He loves fishing, boating, skiing (water and snow), and swimming. In fact, he's such a powerful, fearless swimmer that I always thought it was a shame that he never trained for the Olympics. And I'm not even exaggerating.

Here, of course, are the obligatory pictures of our unit.

We'd never stayed at this resort in Midway before, so it's new to us.

Mark looks out the living room window at the golf course below.

As we rounded the far end of Deer Creek Reservoir, we found ourselves in the tiny, picturesque town of Midway, Utah, where our resort for the next five days was located. The town, and our resort, looks very much like a Swiss village. Check-in time is 4:00, and we were there to check in at 4:30. At least, it would have been 4:30 if we were still in Arizona. In Utah, it was 5:30.

The kitchen in our resort condo.

Naturally, our visit coincided with several remodeling projects going on at the resort. For instance, they are repainting the exteriors. In the photo of the resort above, it appears that the brown paint is smeared messily into the white paint, but when we got closer we could see that the white walls were covered with plastic, so the paint job will be perfect when the plastic is pulled away.

The dining area in our unit.

Also, to Mark's dismay, the pool is being redone. I reminded him that he isn't allowed to swim for a week after his procedure anyway, but he insisted that he's fine enough to swim. Since the pool is unavailable, the resort has arranged for guests to have free use of a nearby pool facility with slides and a lazy river. Dylan was excited for that.

The master bedroom, which I shared with Sarah since Chris 

wasn't able to join us. He had to stay behind and work.

For the next hour, we got moved into our "home" for the next five days. Then we finalized our menu and a shopping list. Just after 5:30 ( or 6:30), we headed to Walmart in the neighboring town of Heber to get all the supplies we'd need for our stay. Sarah literally pushed me out of the way at checkout, insisting that she was paying for the groceries since I was paying for all the gas on our trip. She wouldn't take no for an answer. Sweet girl! Finally, we stopped at a KFC/Taco Bell to buy some dinner "to go" and returned to the resort to put away the groceries and eat our meals.

The master bathroom.

By now we were all dragging, exhausted from an early morning and a long day of uncomfortably crunched sitting.  The guys were all asleep before 10:00. Sarah hung in there awhile, watching America's Got Talent on her phone. I tried to stay awake to write this blog, but it just wasn't happening. I was in bed at 10:30. Sarah gave up just a few minutes after I did.

The second bedroom for Dylan and Jake.

Mark used the Murphy bed in the living room.

Thankfully, WorldMark's beds are the most comfortable in the entire hospitality industry. I slept like a baby until 7:30 this morning. But that starts a whole new day and a whole new story...

The guys' bathroom.

Our balcony, outside my bedroom window.

View of the golf course below, from our balcony.

A view of Mark from our balcony!

Mark's Ablation Celebration

July 12, 2016: When I arrived to pick up Mark at 11:15 this morning,

he was dressed and ready to be discharged from the hospital!

Monday morning my alarm went off at 1:00. That's 1:00 a.m. Then at 2:01 a.m. Mark and I left our mountain town and drove to Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix so Mark could check in by 5:00 a.m. With almost no traffic on the highways, we made the 3-hour drive in just 2 hours and 45 minutes.

July 11, 2016: Mark gets prepped for his procedure.

It was finally the day of Mark's heart procedure, an ablation, to correct his atrial fibrillation. In a treatment that normally lasts 1 1/2 to 3 hours, Mark's cardiology specialist spent more than 3 hours burning and/or freezing areas on the walls in the chamber of Mark's heart where the crazy electrical impulses originate.

He had three nurses, all blondes!

We arrived at 5:00, as ordered, and then we waited. Finally, at 7:00 he went to pre-op, where three nurses fluttered around him for about twenty minutes, getting him prepared. At 7:30 he was wheeled back and I was shown to the waiting room. I expected maybe a two-hour wait, but it stretched on for four and a half hours before Dr. Bahu finally came out and reported how it went.

This staircase leads up to cardiology. Pretty, but we took the elevator!

The doctor told me that Mark had a lot of spots that needed to be burnt out, but as he worked through each tagged area, Mark's heartbeat corrected itself beautifully. The operation was a success! And he's doing great.

The hospital offered only this little cafe for dining.

Thirty-eight types of coffee, but not much else!

Mark was extremely tired and mostly slept for the next two hours. Gradually he expressed that he was thirsty, then cold, then hungry. The new nurse, a very attractive young man, brought him water, a warmed blanket, soda, and a box lunch. The hardest part for Mark was having to lie flat on his back for three hours until the groin incisions (where they threaded in the catheters) had clotted closed. It caused a lot of pain in his lower back, since he wasn't allowed to even bend his knees. He was also less than thrilled to learn that he couldn't have a cigarette until he was discharged today. More than twenty-four hours without nicotine!

At the cafe for breakfast, I had the Chicken Alfredo in a plastic cup.

Made it kind of hard to mix the sauce in with the chicken and pasta!

I had  lots of time to explore the medical center while waiting on Mark's results. It's a very large but clearly older facility. Very interesting. I took lots of pictures, as you can see. The cafe was a tiny hole in the wall that was a huge disappointment. Even our little rural hospital has a full cafeteria with real food.

Landscaped courtyard in the hospital near the cafe.

After eating my breakfast, I spent four hours in this waiting room.

I stayed with Mark until almost 3:00, but once he was up and eating and able to get around on his own again, I had to leave to take some important documents to the post office for mailing, grab some lunch (I'd decided not to go back to the hospital cafe), and get checked into my hotel room. After I was settled in, I made the 15-minute drive to visit my dear friend Gwen--for almost four hours! I am so blessed with great friends. I'm always amazed that we can go for long periods without seeing each other and then pick up right where we left off, never at a loss for things to share, and knowing we always have each others' backs: Gwen, Peggi, Wyndie, Debbie, Trudi, and so many others I love and appreciate more than I can express!

This cute little aquarium was stuck in a corner of the waiting room,

away from the seating, making it difficult to sit and enjoy.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped to pick up a few items at Walmart before holing up for the night. I read for half an hour and then retired at 10:30. After being on-the-go since 1 a.m., I slept like a rock. I woke up long enough to visit the bathroom around 4:30, but slept in this morning until 8:30. It was awesome!

The curtains around the patients' beds reminded me of carnival tents!

This was looking out from Bay #8, where they put Mark after his procedure.

I spent a leisurely morning on my laptop while nuking and eating the microwaveable breakfast I'd picked up at Walmart. Then I got myself ready, hauled my bags out to the car, and left the hotel fifteen minutes before the 11:00 checkout time. Then I headed back to the hospital, twenty minutes away in Phoenix, to be there for the seven pages of instructions that were part of Mark's discharge.

This was my third time in four months to stay in this same hotel! My room

was on the second floor, the room at the end of the walkway, on the right.

(That far right window upstairs was mine.)

I'm grateful that this time our visit to the Valley didn't coincide with a heatwave, like it did when we were in Mesa last month, but even without a heatwave it's always HOT in the Phoenix area if it's summertime. The thermometer topped out at 110 degrees on Monday, which is too warm for me, but noticeably better than 117 degrees! You know how it feels to open a hot oven when your face is too close? That is literally how it feels to walk out of an air-conditioned building into temperatures 115 and higher.

Mark was glad to say farewell to Banner University Medical Center!

When we left home at 2:00 a.m., the mountain air was a crisp 52 degrees. By the time we hit the outskirts of Mesa at 4:30 a.m. it was 99 degrees outside. That night, when I returned to my hotel room at 10:00 p.m. it was still 102 degrees. When I left at 10:45 the next morning to pick up Mark, it was already back up to 104. You don't even get a cooling break overnight during this time of year in the Valley of the Sun.

Banner University Medical Center

After Mark was discharged from the hospital, he said he was ready for lunch. Understandable, since they'd fed him breakfast at 6:30 and it was now almost noon. So we stopped by our usual Carl's Jr. on the way out of town. By the time we got back on the road headed north at 12:45, the temp was already at 106. I was happy to be on my way back to cool country.

I had to take a picture of these pigeons trying to avoid the heat

by finding shade in the plants. There are four birds still here in the photo,

but three or four others fled when I got too close.

This is some of the beautiful country we pass through on our way home.

By the time we'd climbed to the top of the Mogollon Rim (elevation about 8,000 feet), beyond which our communities in the White Mountains are located, the temperature was a lovely, breezy 85 degrees. I can handle that!

That's part of the Mogollon Rim up ahead. Up there is where we live!

Thank goodness the temperature was pleasant, because at the top of the Rim we also encountered roadwork that stopped traffic for quite a long time, close to 30 minutes. It was long enough that we all shut off our engines, and many people got out to stretch and wander and visit. I'd known about the road crews and delays, but we'd been lucky enough to miss it all on our way down. We'd left home so very early that the road crews weren't on the job yet.

As soon as we'd climbed to the top of the Rim, we were stopped for roadwork.

For a very, very long time. This is the line ahead of us...

...and this is the line behind us.

And so, instead of getting home at 3:30 this afternoon as I'd anticipated, instead it was 4:00 when we pulled into the driveway. It's always wonderful to be home. And now it's time to pack for our Utah trip...

At least we had a beautiful view to enjoy while we waited, 

as well as much cooler temperatures.

July So Far

July 7, 2016: Debbie and Mary, together again!

So here we are, at the end of the first full week of July. I've been so focused on the summertime deep-cleaning of my house, now that I feel fairly healthy again, that I haven't thought much about blogging. Still, there is life outside housework, and I've enjoyed the little moments and events that are the best reasons for living.

For instance, today my good friend Debbie and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Indian Pine Restaurant in the Hon-Dah Casino, located on the nearby Fort Apache Reservation. The food was plentiful, but the company was even better! Since Debbie, a fellow educator, lives in the Valley most of the year and only resides in Show Low from about May to September (now that she's retired, lucky!), we always have so much to catch up on during our luncheons that we now have to get together at least twice every summer to get it all in!

My brother Jeff and his wife Dana put on yet another outstanding 4th of July

cookout and fireworks watch this week, this time at their new house.

And, of course, this was the week of Independence Day. My brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Dana, have always hosted a barbecue get-together at the big house they built back in 1997-98, which just happened to be right across the field from Show Low High School, where the big community fireworks extravaganza is held. At the end of a fun afternoon of grilling, eating, visiting, and slurping down luscious homemade ice cream, we'd have front-row seats while sitting in their driveway.

I got a few decent shots of the fireworks.

This year was a little bit different because Jeff and Dana decided it was time to downsize. Nine of their thirteen children are now living on their own, leaving just the four youngest still at home. So at the end of June the family left behind the huge house and moved into a slightly smaller one. They didn't go too far. Their new home is just a couple of doors down and across the street, so we still had pretty good views of the colorful fireworks, as I tried to capture in the photos below.

The really astounding part is that they spent a whole week getting moved into their new place and still had the energy and generosity to invite a mob of family and friends to join them for their celebration of the Fourth!

July 1, 2016: Mark is on the job!

On the first day of July, I drove my new son-in-law Jake to work at the WorldMark Resort in Pinetop around 2:45, and then I headed right back down the mountain toward Show Low to pick Mark up from his job at Denny's. I usually wait for him to call before I go after him, but I figured the timing was exactly right to get me there just as he got off work. He usually gets done by around 3:00, and I got there right at 2:59. Then I sat and waited for the next hour...

Heading into the 4th of July weekend, when our little resort towns explode with tourists and bumper-to-bumper traffic, Denny's kept Mark busy from 6:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. getting everything ready for the crowds. Although he is officially a dishwasher, Mark helps with everything from busing tables to taking out the trash. It just so happened that I arrived as he was standing outside the back door of the restaurant, breaking down dozens of cardboard boxes and carting them to the dumpster (as seen in the above photo), so I got to watch him bust his butt on the job. I saw him haul about ten large trash cans to the dumpster, then go inside the large, open backdoor and lift boxes onto shelves. Then he disappeared for a while before coming back for the big mop bucket and haul it off--to mop something, I'm sure.

I could have been all impatient as that hour passed, and I admit I did think wistfully of all the other things I could have been getting done, but I felt it was a blessing to see him doing what he works so hard at each day despite the constant and severe back pain he endures. And the voyeuristic aspect was kind of fun, too. Even though I was parked in plain view, Mark never noticed me as I snapped pictures from my car. Washing dishes may not be a glamorous job, but it's honest, necessary labor and Mark is valued by his employers for his diligence and dependability. In fact, they just gave him another raise this week. I'm very proud of him.

Now, this is a sexy car!

Mark and I also went to see the movie Independence Day: Resurgence. It was an awesome film! As we headed toward the theater entrance, we passed this Corvette and I just had to take a picture. My son Dylan is always telling me about various cars on the road, "Look at that car, mom! It's so sexy!" I'm afraid I don't get the connection between vehicles and the word "sexy." Except Corvettes. Corvettes are definitely sexy.

When I'm a best-selling author, I will own a Corvette, just for fun.

I've loved them since I was about fourteen years old...sigh.

Nineteen

Dylan with his birthday presents at his party, two days after his actual birthday.

July 3, 2016

We didn't get to celebrate Dylan's nineteenth birthday on his actual birthday, which was on Friday the first day of July, because he had to work that night until 7:00. So we decided to have his party at our weekly Sunday family dinner instead. Unfortunately, even that presented problems since Mark worked from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. while Jake worked from 2:45 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Work schedules can be so disruptive!

Dylan's pile of gifts.

We ended up doing his party in two sessions. Around 1:00 we all got together, except Mark, to watch Dylan open his presents so that Jake could be there for that. Then, in the evening, we barbecued and had cake and ice cream so Mark could be there, but then Jake missed out (although we did save him some of my homemade chocolate-chip cheesecake and homemade strawberry ice cream--both sugar-free, of course).

First, Dylan opens the gift from his dad, a Firetek Bow that lights up,

with screaming-whistle, light-up arrows. I gave Dylan the receipt so

he can exchange the bow for one that's any non-pink color!

Lastly, Dylan opens the remote-control Battle Boxing Robots from his mom.

Dylan got a lot of fun things this year. His dad gave him the Firetek Bow. I gave him the Battle Boxing Robots, a 3-D puzzle of the Eiffel Tower, and a new Rubik's Cube to replace his broken one (he's able to solve it in a minute or less). Jake reserved him a new video game Dylan wanted that hasn't come out yet. Sarah and Chris gave him a gift card. And Jacob and Danielle said he will get his present from them when we see them in Utah, just eleven days from today.

I love cards. Sometimes you find just the perfect card, like this one.

It's such a perfect illustration of Sarah's offbeat relationship with her brothers.

They give each other a hard time, yet it's done with real affection and good humor.

They truly enjoy each others' company, as much friends as siblings.

Sarah's note inside. I rest my case.

Here's the perfect card I got for Dylan. You simply cannot

raise two boys without farts being part of the fabric of life.

Dylan and Jake try out Dylan's new Battle Bots.

Dylan with the cheesecake, as he prepares to eat a second slice.

We finished up the party with the dinner Dylan had requested: grilled burgers, with chips and dip and a bowl of coleslaw. Then Dylan napped for an hour. Unfortunately, he has to work overnights, 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. for the next five nights, something he's never done before. Our Walmart is undergoing a lengthy remodel, and they needed Dylan this week because he's "the only one who knows how to do modules." (Whatever that means.) 

He told us tonight that the store manager is grooming him to become a department manager very soon, and he's preparing to take the required management tests over the next few days. Dylan just turned nineteen, so I'm impressed!

We finished up the night with my homemade chocolate-frosted, chocolate-chip, sugar-free cheesecake, which was also requested by Dylan, and big cups of homemade strawberry ice cream. Then it was time for Sarah to take both Dylan and Chris to work. Chris is also working the overnight shifts at Walmart, as part of the regular remodeling crew, so this week they'll have the same hours.

Despite the odd party hours, it was fun to celebrate with my youngest son that wonderful day when he surprised us by becoming part of our family, after I'd given up hope of having more children. I'm so grateful he chose us!

Happy birthday, Dylan!

Another round of the "Happy Birthday" song, the third in two weeks' time!