WHEW! I thought that Mountain Martha was kapoot!

 I baptized my cell phone and was OFF LINE from the night before Thanksgiving to TODAY.  Thanks to my patient husband ALL IS WELL!!

I had sent this memoir to a contest,  but heard nothing so I didn't win!!  It is now "published" for your enjoyment!

 

 

FLAMINGOS, FLAMINGOS

 

When I was a child with too much energy, one of MY JOBS was pasting the blue and green trading stamps in the booklets to be redeemed at the STAMP STORE.  These stamps were given at gas stations and even grocery stores to entice shoppers to choose to do business there.   When Mom had acquired several books, she allowed me to accompany her to the Redemption Center to choose the “FREE?” gift.  I insisted she get the grinder for making sandwich spread of the bologna rather than the pair of gaudy pink ceramic flamingos and their pond in which to float flowers.  Mom loved her flowers - whether roses, cosmos, or marigolds, and she did have a “green thumb.”

I was the oldest of four children plus a few extras – my cousin Tom, and Claudia a daily child care kid whose Mom had to work.  I knew those flamingos wouldn’t last long.

Mom went ALONE to the Redemption Center when she next managed to fill the number of books required for the Flamingos, and they graced our coffee table for years, long after I married and moved to California.  They survived the children and even some grandkids.

Fast forward many years, Mom died, I went from California to Colorado for her Memorial Service.  I wondered how I was going to get the piano, “my” bedroom set of twin head and foot boards, tall dresser, two nightstands, and a dressing table and bench with the “Hurricane lamps” that always sat on the sides back to California.  Oh, and the four door dark brown and beige Chrysler sedan that she had left me!  My brother had convinced Mom to make a list for the disposal of her STUFF, and being a “child of the DEPRESSION” she had plenty of stuff!  She was especially fond of kitchen equipment with cords attached - she had TWO three tier carts full of electrical appliances!!

Imagine my surprise when I found the lone Flamingo was in a drawer in one of  “my nightstands.”  I was going to share a chuckle with my siblings, who had all left for the day when I returned from my trip to the mountain cabin where my bedroom furniture was stored.  So I left the bird on the table in the kitchen of Mom’s apartment and my aunt and I left for the day, locking the door.  We would return the next morning for more sorting and deciding.  Mom surely had the LAST LAUGH on me by gifting that still bright pink flamingo to me!!

But that was not the end of Mom’s Flamingo Story.  I was the first to open the apartment door the next morning.  That bird had the audacity to disappear!!  We searched everywhere and I frankly expected it to reappear as a gag gift from one sibling to another.  Didn’t Happen!

Now what was the lesson to be learned by a disappearing Flamingo?  Not to be so bossy, so opinionated, so practical, or maybe beauty is in the eye of the beholder?  Take your pick! OR TAKE your Flamingo and be GRATEFUL!!  Hey, maybe that was the lesson!!  BE GRATEFU! “ Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy” and that is a LIFE LONG lesson to be learned!   Thanks Mom.

THE WORLD is full of STORIES

We have met some amazing people - survivors of numerable tragedies.  A child born with not enough oxygen causing brain damage and blindness,  but with a happy and inquisitive personality.  His father skillfully showed us photos of the 23 year old who was not supposed to live over 90 days!!  Trips on motorcycles that became life changing; the doctors who could not understand how the person even survived the brain trauma unchanged, and with no infection after "drowning" in a swamp with open wounds.  Our host in TX backed into a tree, a dead tree, while doing yard work which caused the tree to pin him to the riding machine with the blade on the front. As his blood loss continued - from the branch impaled in his scalp - he drove up to where his wife was so he would not die out back with no one aware of what had happened.  THEN at the hospital his wife noticed that he was STILL BLEEDING as his pillow was saturated!!  His hair had been sewn into the incision closing the wound!  Perhaps they should have waited to have the head shaved?  Messy as it would have been to do so!

 It reminds me of Joe Friday of "Dragnet" fame who said the same of Los Angeles.  "Everyone in Los Angeles has a story and I know them all, I'm a cop!"  Like Joe, we feel honored to be able to listen to the stories and see GOD's hand at work in OTHER LIVES as He has been in OURS.   Friendly people doing their best to be thankful for each day that GOD gives them, sharing their lives and resources with others.  It amazes us how many church potlucks we are invited to share in,  how many Communion Sundays and back in Canyon TX a baptism of a young girl in a Methodist Church by immersion!  The Pastor and her father rolling up their sleeves and tucking their ties inside their dress shirts while joking about her getting them WET.  The liturgy was the same as in our Methodist Church, but the JOY of the LORD was evident to all including BOTH SETS of grandparents.  The organist at that particular church was exceptional as was the choir!!  

Oh, and then at that Canyon Methodist Church there was a CHILI Cookoff by the college-aged youth,  and a fundraising AUCTION!!  The most money was raised by a German Chocolate cake in a 9 x 13 pan.  It sold for $2,000.00 thanks to two gentlemen who were bidding against each other up to $1,000.00 each agreeing on the $2,000.00 bid and splitting the cake. Everyone laughed when a pan of "Italian Meat CAKE" - aka Lasagne - was put up for auction!!  Actually all the cakes were shared (except the Italian Meat Cake) as there were plastic knives and small plates on each round table. We enjoyed small slices of Swedish Creme Cake, Death by Chocolate Cake, and Dolly Parton's Coconut Cake.   The auctioneer had been raised in that congregation and was just amazing!!  He asked one young man if he had baked the cake he was offering?  "No, just a WalMart purchase,"  he answered - like could he lie at a church function?  It brought a bid of  $125.00!!

We enjoyed lunch yesterday at a restaurant in Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border which was built in 1928.  Excellent lunch and a tour of the free museum next door. There were all kinds of STORIES shown there,  the famous and the not-so-famous,  the natives and the visitors.  The Depression was so hard on the reservation there that the owners of that RESORT went to Hollywood and convinced the movie industry to come and film Westerns there.  What a God-send and the monuments have not changed all that much.  Tom actually thought that we had seen them before as we made the annual trek to or from Southern California in the 1960s but we always took the road that passed through the 4 Corners to Cortez and Durango Colorado, not the one up to Moab Utah.  I told him he had seen it often in the Western movies!!

The winds are still blowing here at the Blue Mountain RV Park so we will stay until at least tomorrow.  That is one thing we learned as pilots all those years - do not travel if the weather is uncooperative.  That is a good way to live to hear more stories!!

REAR VIEW MIRROR

How often have I heard or read, “I know God is all powerful and was ABLE to heal my child, (mother, husband) But, why didn’t He?”  Timing, affect/effect, loving care, opportunity for growth, trust, lack of obedience on the part of the shooter, driver, or doctor…

Many books have been written on GRIEF – the steps and how to navigate the journey through grief.  Words to say and words NOT to SAY!  Presence and Prayer are Powerful.  But I heard a pastor say:  “People who speak in their hearts through what they say GOD DIDN’T DO, lack the discernment necessary to speak into their MOMENT.”  (whatever the need of the moment)  Our unspoken thoughts about GOD’s lack of empathy toward us do affect the outcome of the future.  Our understanding of His omnipotence is clouded by our anger and resentment about previous times of grief, previous times of unanswered prayer, previous times of frustration.

The devotion in The Upper Room this morning was from Isaiah 43: 16-21, and especially vs 18 – “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”  Every little town that we have visited, or parked at, has a museum with knowledgeable docents anxious to discuss their memories, or the glory days, or the historical significance of their corner of our country.  The Israelites in the Old Testament down to the practicing Jews of our day keep the feasts proscribed in the Torah, remembering GOD’s faithfulness and great acts of mercy in rescuing their ancestors from slavery in Egypt.  Walking on dry land, water from a rock, manna for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, quail - when they complained about the unimaginative food choices!   Gratitude was not their daily mindset. 

Jesus at the Last Supper told the disciples to break bread together, drink the wine together to REMEMBER his sacrifice until He returned.  Perhaps it is a fine line between REMEMBERING and DWELLING, between learning from your history and REPEATING it?!  Remembering the good deeds and forgetting the hurtful ones is never easy, but certainly necessary.

The rear view mirror in our GMC is actually a camera image, showing what is actually behind you without the distraction of what is going on in the back seat!  Obviously, it is one of those “well turn it off if not helpful” devices.   I am not sure how that relates to my maxim that “if you spend too much of your time checking the rear view mirror, you WILL run into a TREE.”  I may have to rethink that based on our newer technology.

 I will continue to chew on that statement of the pastor about blaming GOD when prayers are not answered the way I wish them to be.  When we recite the negatives we have a hard time being grateful for the blessings and noting GOD’s perfect timing and care. 

HAPPY TRAILS!

SMOKEY'S PETS / PLAYMATES

   

Smokey was a grey-striped cat.  He was given to our daughter as a companion or pet when we moved to the little cabin on Tanager.  He became an excellent mouser but he was very gentle with those mice or chipmunks he caught, considering them pets or playmates, not dinner!  He would EAT nothing but the special dry cat food from the Vet!!

One day after noticing telltale signs I set the mouse traps -  after putting Smokey to bed on his fluffly pink towel atop the washer in the bathroom and closing the door. Next morning we had one dead mouse.  However, the stupid cat started “guarding” the arm of the sofa?  He must have been part pointer because he only left “his post” to eat!

After a few days of his strange behavior my curiosity got the better of me and I slit the upholstery behind the pillows and then even I could hear the mewing sounds of the three little mice!!  Momma Mouse had delivered them in the hideabed   ( all the bedding headed for the washer@! )  then she found a SAFE place to leave the three baby mice – the wooden frame at the base of the arm made a perfect “playpen” and Smokey the cat was the babysitter.

Three blind mice, Three blind mice,

See how they run, See how they run. 

They all ran after the farmer’s wife, She cut off their tails with a carving knife. 

Did you ever see such a sight in your life AS THREE BLIND MICE. *

 

Smokey, we need you!!  We acquired some hitch hikers while parked in the “perfect place” in a grassy field beyond the barn for five nights with water and power!!   We caught two in our newly acquired mouse traps, but I was awakened last night by my husband knocking on the wall as the three blind mice were playing and making too much noise!!

How long does it take for three blind mice to starve?  Hopefully, the mouse bait made it into their systems before we caught the parents and it will be quick!!

ADVENTURE CALLING, AS WE GO FORTH TOMORROW!!

 

*I got them out with a pair of tongs and tossed them outside to fend for themselves or be lunch for a predator.

MORE or ENOUGH

 Traveling the highways and byways we have discovered an "alternative universe."  We discovered that we have traveled MORE miles in our two and a half years than most people travel in their life times.  MORE miles than most RVs travel before being traded in or sold in order to purchase a newer, larger, MORE spacious model.

In camping with other "drifters" we have realized that many are not retired like we are, but work in industries that MOVE where the next contract is.  So an RV is a necessity for their line of work  MORE mobility!  Those are the Monthlies at about any RV PARK.

Then there was the couple with only one child of their four still at home, he was ten years old.  They realized that the suburban three bedroom two bath house was no longer their choice of lifestyle and they signed up to work at KOAs.  Arizona in the winter, and Montana in the summer.  The son did school on-line and met children and adults from all over, even Canada that winter!  Their trailer, side-by-side, and bikes were ENOUGH for them.  Since a good portion of the campground there in Arizona came back year after year, they were a community, but friendly and welcoming to "newbies" like Jessie and Noni as well as US!

We have certainly seen MORE gorgeous scenes, taken lots of photos, and met some very interesting folks like us.  Many do have homes that they consider "home base" but not all! There are an amazing number of seniors on the road having lived the settled life, worked their vocations, raised their families and taught a couple of generations of children.  Meeting in the Laundry rooms at RV PARKS beats reading a book, and most laundry rooms even have book exchanges!!  The lady from Frankfort KY was just passing through, heading home from a visit to Jackson Hole where she had worked summers a few years while in college. She had taught third grade for 30 years, at an elementary school named for the creek that ran through that community east of Frankfort.  That was, in fact, the name of the RV Park that we had camped in back in 2020 on our way to the EAST to see the BEAUTIFUL leaves on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

She said that Jackson Hole is NOT the place it was when her grandfather grew up there!   I immediately thought that it is much like Estes Park CO, Keystone SD, Lake Tahoe CA, Cody WY, Casper WY, any gateway to a tourist attraction.  They just outgrow the inspiring scenery that brought the tourists there in the first place. MORE, MORE, MORE until people wonder why they drove so far to see more TEE shirt shops and more ice cream stores?   Museums are in every small town as people are proud of their history and attempt to remind people that life was different,  but in many ways the same, all those years ago.  People were moving about then as they are now - to find work, seek a different environment, be near family, be away from family, seek adventure,  always MORE something.   And they live life and are proud of being the fifth generation to graduate from the local high school,  proud of their ancestors and their perserverance in making a place in the wilderness.

There is still MORE wilderness - if you can find a way to live there and many folks are - whether the deserts of the Southwest or the forests of Idaho and Montana.  People are restless by nature, or at least some are!  Living "off the grid" and being self-sufficient are the new trends for these folks who are tired of MORE.

When we have had ENOUGH of the open road, where does one settle?  GOOD question?!  Near children, grandchildren, near siblings, in a place with the services that "easily bored" seniors need?  I remember one couple, a bit older than us, who frequented the movie theater weekly until their two story home became all the exercise they could handle and caring for their "wee dog" all the extra activity they were able to do?  ENOUGH!

Like Tom's Dad, who lived in his large home until he was 95, with a caregiver twice a day, and housekeeper once a week for fifteen years after his wife of 60 years died.  That was ENOUGH for him!

I read of a family whose "Adios!" or "Safe Travels" or Goodby" was "MAY YOU HAVE ENOUGH!"  Enough what?  Oh, maybe food, gas, a roof, a parking space, a LIFE!?  

May YOU have ENOUGH!  Adios! for now...

ROCKY ROAD IDAHO

This is NOT about the famous ice cream known as Rocky Road – a concoction of chocolate ice cream, fudge swirls, marshmallows, and walnuts.  I am sure that they must make it the same in Idaho as elsewhere.

While exploring Hiway 13 from Kooskia to Grangeville, we decided to check out Hiway 14 even if we would have to return on the same highway as it just wanders off into the wilderness, turning into a dirt/gravel road.  We never did find the end of the paved road, turning around at a NEW, still dripping pitch LODGE which unfortunately is CLOSED on Monday and Tuesday for want of employees willing to work 46 miles from nowhere.

The south fork of the Clearwater River follows the highway from Milepost 11 where the road peels off from Hiway 13.  OR rather the highway follows the river; with signs at regular intervals saying “NO SHOULDER”   DUH,  the river is right next to the roadway and driftwood – tall trees complete with ROOTS lay atop the rocks in the river often ten to twenty feet above the water level in mid July!!

What a lovely area and on a Tuesday nearly deserted.  No rafters (we didn’t even see any rafting companies but they could easily bus their customers and the rafts into the area.)  Unlike the Payette River closer to Boise where in just an hours drive we saw FOUR SEPARATE companies offering this exciting recreational opportunity!    There were a dozen USFS campgrounds and several picnic grounds in the 46 miles and we counted more than a half dozen streams and creeks feeding into the Clearwater along the way.

What made this the ROCKY ROAD you ask?  THE BOULDERS many the size of the old chest type freezers, and even some the size of TINY HOUSES or 35 foot travel trailers!!.  The dings in the guard rails from crashing boulders, not to mention the WATCH FOR ROCKS signs were a clear indication that gravity WORKS!!  The landslides on the far side of the river and the fenced areas next to the road were numerous!   We discussed the reason for the many pot holes, often in a row stretching 10 to 15 feet; a falling boulder would create an earthquake all by itself, causing damage to the crystalline structure of the asphalt as well as fracturing the road base UNDER the asphalt.  So if there was one pothole there would be a whole line of them.  Tom was much better, when he was the down river driver, at swerving around these places of road damage than I was on the way up river!  RVers are often called “white liners” because of their propensity of hugging the white line side of the highways.  Today we were classic white liners, except when avoiding the white line cracks in the asphalt, then we were YELLOW LINERS, if possible, to straddle the line of potholes!! 

So on the upriver stretch Tom took photos of the river rapids and “smooth as glass” quiet sections, and on the downriver trek I tried to get photos of the rock formations.  We came to a dead stop at HANGOVER ROCK where the rock jutted out over the downhill section of the road a full cars width and the sign proclaimed the clearance as 14 feet 5 inches!!   After dodging the potholes for 46 miles Tom found the first wide spot he could on Highway 13 and declared a “driver change!”

We even had a “small world” experience when we asked the young owner of the newly built LODGE at Elk City where he was from.  “Born and raised in Southwestern Colorado,” he said. 

“OH,” I commented, “Durango?”

“Yes, yes I was!” he exclaimed.

“We were raised in Denver,” said I.  “But I was born in Nebraska and Tom was born in San Diego.”

“My grandparents were born in San Diego and Denver Colorado!”  said the surprised young man!

They had been open seven days a week last summer, but he couldn’t find enough employees to do that this year, and yes, the traffic was down from last year.  Price of gasoline and everything else has had that effect.  We have had NO PROBLEM getting places to park the rig so we can check out the area in just the pickup.