Heathrow Goodbyes

October 8, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Carol and I had to unexpectedly fly home yesterday. Flights were quickly changed, activities canceled, and Carol and I hugged goodbye, several times…

This brought back memories of our trip to Europe to see Richie.

We were set to fly from Dublin, Ireland, to London, England. Once there we would split up. Richie would fly back to Hamburg and grad school.

Carol and I would fly to Munich and start hiking through Bavaria.

But, there was huge computer glitch that disabled the majority of air travel in western Europe. Long story short, it was a mess.

We finally got to Heathrow and hoped to make our connecting flights.

Richie and I hugged quickly and said our goodbyes. I was crying because I wouldn’t see him for at least a year…

Alas, our connecting flights were canceled. I think we set up a rendezvous spot just in case that happened. So we met again.

We got in line to try to find a hotel room for the night. The cheapest we could find was over $300; way too much for maybe six hours of sleep…

Richie called his friend Simon who lives in London. Simon said we could all crash at his place, but I was too worried about making our morning flight. So Carol and I decided to spend the night at the airport along with oodles of other stranded passengers.

Once again I said a tearful goodbye to Richie…

After a rather sleepless night, I mistakenly walked into the men’s restroom to brush my teeth. 🙂

As I was walking back to join Carol, guess who I ran into? Yep, Richie, looking fresh and relaxed after a wonderful night’s sleep in Simon’s flat.

So for the third and final time, I bade Richie a tearful farewell. It was excruciatingly bittersweet.

Yesterday, Carol and I went through goodbyes two times.

Richie called me while Carol and I were saying our second goodbyes when he was on a layover in Chicago on a business trip.

Carol told him it was like Heathrow all over again…

People, Places

Medal by Default

October 7, 2014 kathygetto 4 Comments

Las Vegas, Nevada

Carol and I are in Las Vegas to visit and play some pickleball.

Yesterday we played in Women’s Singles. The majority of pickleball players don’t play in singles and just compete in doubles, but Carol and I like singles because it’s a good way to get a lot of exercise and sweat a ton in a short period of time.

There were only four women in our age bracket, so we played each other two times for a total of six games.

M.J. is from Chicago and a former killer tennis player. She’s incredibly good. Jan lives in southern California in the winter and trains with some amazing players. Even though she’s only been playing a little while, she’s also very, very good.

These games are arranged by age bracket, not by skill level. I prefer skill level because I am not that good. While I’m fine with losing, it can get rather disheartening to continually get whooped… 🙂

M.J. lost to Jan once, and she beat her once by a one point margin. They both beat Carol and me. And Carol beat me twice.

While pickleball is incredibly fun, scoring is weird so I won’t go into the mechanics of it all here… And you’re welcome. 🙂

The day ended with M.J. first overall, Jan second, Carol third, and me fourth.

But it turned out that M.J. was younger than the rest of us, so she won the gold medal in her own 50-54 age group. Jan won the gold, Carol the silver, and I got bronze in our 55-59 age group. Oh, and because Carol was the only one from Nevada, she won a gold for Nevada.

I told you pickleball scoring was weird. Ha ha…

Cerebrations, Memories

Old Couples

October 6, 2014 kathygetto

Boise, Idaho

I was sitting in the Boise Airport yesterday waiting for my flight to Las Vegas to visit with Carol. Within ten feet of me there were two couples who are in their late seventies.

Oh my goodness! There’s something so special about couples who have been together over three decades. And come to think of it, Carol and I are a couple who have been together for almost six decades. 🙂

There’s a succinctness in dialogue spoken in front of others that’s usually not there when they are alone.

Dialogue is often missing words and even whole sentences. and yet each understands what the other is conveying perfectly.

Another phenomenon that I’ve noticed with couples who have been together for many, many years is that they often talk like there is no one else listening to their conversation regardless if there are two or twenty people in the same room.

So in addition to being succinct they also tend to say exactly what they want with no filter.

Carol and used to talk a lot like that when we double dated. One would start a sentence and the other would halfway finish it. There was no reason to completely finish it because each of us knew what was unsaid. Used to drive our dates nuts!

My favorite story showing old couple communication involved Rich’s aunt and uncle Sis and Howard Winder. Howard rarely went to Reno, so he hadn’t seen his son James for a while. On a trip from their home in Fallon to see doctors in Reno, Sis and How stopped by to see James at his new home.

Howard was a dyed in the wool cattle rancher–cowboy hat and boots and silver buckle on a hand told leather belt.

James is a sophisticated doctor who is now a university professor.

They were very different, but their love for each other knew no bounds.

Howard stepped out of the pickup, looked at James, and said to Sis (as only someone who’s been married over 40 years would), “Jeeeesus Chriiiiist! He’s got a pony tail!”

I don’t think that it ever occurred to Howard that James could hear his comment just as Sis did…

(This picture isn’t of James; it’s just to show a man’s ponytail…)

James didn’t take offense. He just giggled when he told me the story.

Memories

Cue the Deer

October 5, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

While we were in eastern Idaho last week, Rich and I took a drive to tour Driggs, Idaho.

We hadn’t been there in almost 14 years. Wow, has it changed.

We were there for a long Thanksgiving weekend in November of 2000.

Richie was a senior at Montana State University. Melissa was a freshman at Boise State University. And I was a junior at University of Nevada, Reno.

This was the second Thanking we were going to spend on our own, not with any other family, since Rich and I married in 1977.

Rich and I drove from Fallon up to Boise and picked Melissa up. Richie drove down from Bozeman.

We rented a log house on a working cattle ranch just outside of Driggs. Located at the base of the Grand Tetons, Driggs is the cheap Idaho side of the Tetons, not the expensive Wyoming side.

It was a very special holiday. For lots of reasons…

I went for run once we unpacked. The ranch was so close to the state line that I literally ran to Wyoming. That’s the first time I ran across a state line. 🙂

George W. Bush and Al Gore were in the middle of battling over hanging chads.

We had no television at all; radio reception was very spotty because the ranch was so remote and the weather was bad. In 2000 there was no Internet available other than dial up, and the house didn’t have any connectivity. We drove miles and miles to try to find a newspaper with current national news, but we never did find one.

Richie and I were going crazy because we wanted to know what was happening. Rich and Melissa could have cared less…

It was freezing cold. Rich was in heaven stoking the fire in the huge masonry fireplace.

It snowed a little on Thanksgiving night, adding the perfect ambiance to the weekend.

Have you ever seen the Chevy Chase movie “Funny Farm”? It’s a great comedy about a young couple that moved from New York City to a farm in Connecticut.

One of our favorite scenes involves sending a deer across their yard when prospective buyers are looking at the farm. The deer is released with the now infamous line, “Cue the deer.”

While we were there, someone kept cueing the fox because it ran across the yard multiple times. (Not my photo…)

That was our best Thanksgiving ever, and driving to Driggs brought all those happy memories back.

Cerebrations

Things You’ll Want to Know

October 4, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Because we made our decision to buy a motor home and travel for a year in a nanosecond, there are a few (dozen) things we didn’t know about full timing that would have been beneficial to know before hand.

Here are a few of them…

Business Cards ll

Most full timers (those who live in their RV 365 days a year), snow birds (those who go south in the winter) and seasonals (those who go north in the summer) use business cards printed with their various contact information to let others know how to reach them.

Some include their snail mail address, but most just include their cell phone numbers, land line numbers, and email addresses. Those who maintain a blog or Web site usually include that as well.

Then as they receive cards from others, they race back to their RV to make notes about where they met, what they have in common, etc…

This is critical because we’re all getting older and have CRS. 🙂

South Dakota Residents

It’s common to look at RV license plates while traveling and whenever parked in a resort.

There are a disproportionate number of plates from South Dakota. Either there are a lot of RVers from South Dakota or something else is going on…

Turns out that South Dakota has special laws that make it easy for full timers to establish residency in a state with no income tax and other tax friendly reasons to live there.

So when you see a South Dakota plate on an RV, it’s not a guarantee that the driver actually resides there.

It Pays to Talk

It is beneficial, very beneficial, to talk to and with others while RVing.

Most people are ready and willing to share routes, ideas, and knowledge with others.

We’ve visited some amazing places we hadn’t thought to visit based on the recommendations of others.

We’ve learned how to pick RV parks better based on lessons others have learned. (If the main photo is playground equipment, expect kids, kids, and more kids.)

And there’s always equipment talk. Which tire is best? Does your generator run when….? Where is an easy place to get diesel?

What I’ve noticed is that men talk to and with one another much more than women. About 90% to 10%. At first I thought it was just me because I’m not particularly social, but apparently neither are most of the other women in the parks.

Cerebrations

Aaahhhhh vs Oh!

October 3, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Sophie gets lots of petting from random strangers whenever we are at traditional tourist stops. Most tourists don’t take their dogs, and they are in need of a petting fix.

Doesn’t matter if she’s soaking wet, covered with stickers, or jumping into their laps. They just want to pet a dog. Any dog.

That’s perfectly fine for Sophie. She’s more than happy to stand in as a substitute for their dogs. I can almost hear those petting her say, “Aaahhhhh!”, as they think of their dogs at home…

While we were in Yellowstone, we joined a crowd looking for wolves. A young twenty-something who works for the Yellowstone Association came up and asked she if she could pet Sophie.

While everyone else was searching for the wolves, she had made a beeline for us. As she was bending down to pet Sophie, the young woman asked if she was a Welsh Terrier.

Her parents had just had their Welshie put down at the ripe old age of sixteen.

The minute she laid her hands on Sophie, she said, ” Oh!” Short and forceful, like she had just put her hands into something disgusting in a pitch black Halloween haunted house.

She looked up at me and exclaimed, “She doesn’t feel like Jack!”

I calmly explained that Sophie’s about 10% overweight. We’re working on it, but living in a motor home and traveling through biblical amounts of rain have cut down on her exercise…

The young woman continued to pet Sophie a couple more minutes, but her heart wasn’t in it. She never did let out an, “Aaahhhhh!”

But Sophie did… 🙂

Places

Mackay’s Hill Mine Tour

October 2, 2014 kathygetto

Boise, Idaho

After we visited Craters of the Moon the other day, we traveled to Mackay, Idaho.

Based on the recommendation of our RV Park owner, we took the self-guided tour of the Mackay’s Hill Mine area.

Mackay is a fun little town with a quirky sense of humor…

That’s evident at the first sign we came across on the tour proclaiming the way to The Company Crapper.

The outhouse had room for eight. Yep, eight at one time. The posted sign says, “Not designed for comfort. The idea…just do what you have to do and back to work.”

No doors on the stalls probably helped speed things along.

There are a few exhibits to walk through and they are excellently displayed and labeled.

Not to mention the ambient lighting caused by hundreds of BBs…

From there were traveled up the mountain to view the mines, the ghost town, and spectacular scenery.

There was an amazing series of trestles that moved or carts up and down the mountain.

It was surprising to see how little vandalism there was. Some of the buildings still had tools in them–and there are no locks.
Of course, the buildings are nearly 100 years old, so there is some wear and tear.

And the view out over Mackay is lovely…

People

On the Way to Buy a Car…

October 1, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

Melissa bought a new car the other day. And she is very happy!

Rich helped her by going to multiple car dealerships, researching options, and talking with salespeople.

Over the course of three days, they visited three dealerships as least two times each.

Interestingly they never met with the quintessential car salesman: fast talking, slick haired, and just a tad slimy…

They did, however, meet a few characters.

At one dealership, two lesbians tried to sell them an SUV. While that might not sound that odd, the funny thing is that Rich had no clue BOTH of them were females. He’s still arguing that one is a guy… 🙂

He developed a good rapore with a young man at another dealership. Let’s call him “Colby”. They talked several times on the phone after the initial on site visit.

As all four of us (Rich, Melissa, me and Sophie 🙂 ) drove to the dealership, our phone rang. We were a bit surprised when it was Colby because Rich had just called him ten minutes earlier to let him know we were on our way. Colby said he had to leave unexpectedly, so he told Rich to talk with Jason when he got to the dealership.

Long story short… Colby was fired in between when Rich called Colby and Colby called Rich.

The fun part for me was to listen to the same stories only with different emphases and flavors from Melissa and Rich, especially about the lesbians. Melissa can mimic Rich’s surprised, “That’s a woman?” perfectly. 🙂

I am so lucky to be able watch them interact with each other. They have a special bond that showcases their love for and enjoyment with one another.

People

Counting Sleeps

September 30, 2014 kathygetto 2 Comments

Boise, Idaho

About ten years ago, Carol and I took the trip of a lifetime. We went to Europe to visit Richie who was going to grad school in Germany and to do some hiking.

It was a wonderful trip. We saw so many amazing things, and hiked, and biked, and hiked some more.

We met in London, England, and hiked in the Lake District. Stunning. (I love this picture and have always wanted to turn it into a jigsaw puzzle.)

Then we flew to Galway, Ireland, and rode bicycles across the green countryside along streets lined with fuscia walls.

Richie went back to school and Carol and I flew to Munich, Germany, and hiked along Mad King Ludwig’s Trail to Castle Neuschwanstein.

We were hiking between eight and twelve miles or bicycling between 20 and 30 miles each day.

We ate yogurt and fruit for breakfast, made a sandwich for lunch, and had a candy bar for dinner.

I never felt better in my life, and I was never so miserable…

When Rich and I travel, he does ALL the worrying. I’m footloose and fancy free to enjoy everything.

When Carol and I travel, I assume Rich’s job and do it quite well. While Carol was having a blast, I was obsessing about each little thing that could go wrong.

Between that and being terribly homesick, I couldn’t wait to get home.

Every night, most of the night, I laid awake and counted the ‘sleeps’ until it was time to go home. (Melissa used to have difficulty understanding time, and so we used to count the number of sleeps until Santa Claus came. It worked better than counting days. 🙂 )

I didn’t tell Carol how miserable I was until many years after our trip.

Now I’m counting sleeps for a different reason although it still involves Carol.

In five more sleeps we are meeting in Las Vegas to play at a pickleball tournament for the Nevada Senior Games.

Well, really we are meeting to visit. It’s been way too long since we’ve had a twins retreat.

I can’t wait… Tomorrow it will be only four more sleeps. 🙂

Places

Big Lost River

September 29, 2014 kathygetto

Boise, Idaho

During our drives around Arco, we saw some amazing scenery.

My favorite was the Big Lost River Valley. (This picture is hijacked…)

The Big Lost River is a large river that basically gets lost. It starts in the Pioneer Mountains, a subrange of the Rockies. It is 135 miles long, and its surface flow does not reach any other river. It disappears from the ground and vanishes into the Snake River Aquifer.

Some call the Pioneer Mountains the Idaho Rockies, and the name certainly fits. They are very pretty. (Another stolen photo…)

Borah Peak, the highest in Idaho, tops out at almost 13,000 feet.

The mountain range is long and has many valleys. Here is someone else’s photo of the Upper Pasherimoi Valley. Awesome.

The valley is home to multiple farms and ranches. It’s at about 5000 feet in elevation, so we guessed that the alfalfa tests high for protein content because of the shorter growing season.

King Mountain, which is close to Arco, attracts hang gliders. (Another hijacked photo.)

This is one area I’d love to come back to to explore some more.

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Cosmic Kicks

Heathrow Goodbyes

Medal by Default

Old Couples

Cue the Deer

Things You’ll Want to Know

Aaahhhhh vs Oh!

Mackay’s Hill Mine Tour

On the Way to Buy a Car…

Counting Sleeps

Big Lost River

Cerebrations of Life