Road trips aren't supposed to be EZ.

In the U.S., we have a tradition of ‘road trips’ that reaches back over 100 years. Zócalo Public Square, a magazine of ideas published by Arizona State University, as reported in Time magazine, calls the road trip the signature all-American adventure⁽¹⁾. Indeed, it has long taken an adventurous motorist to complete a truly epic road trip. Such trips were long much more arduous, uncomfortable, and dangerous than the drives we normally complete today.

A proper road trip can be made alone but most often includes friends and/or family members. The road trip is the embodiment of the ‘hero’s quest,’ which is an essential part of Western literature. The drive, regardless of length, may provide adventure, awe, great fun, hardship, suffering, despair, fear, and joy. All on one trip! A good road trip will build character. As with the hero’s quest, there should be a reward at the end.

It has long been my belief that there ‘must needs be opposition in all things.’ In other words, you have to experience discomfort to truly appreciate luxury.

My eldest son, Derek, along with his wife, Jillian, and their son, Ian recently completed a road trip that surely includes the primary essential elements listed above and fine-tuned their appreciation for the finer things of life, such as air conditioning, comfortable seating, and quiet transport. Their quest was to return Jillian’s father, Manny, to his home in Silver Springs, Nevada after his weeks-long visit in San Antonio. The nearly 1,700-mile trek was part of the second half of the story, as they had made the reverse trek after flying to Reno from Texas several weeks earlier, driving Manny, in his early-‘90s Ford Econoline van, to their home for an extended visit with his family and old friends in Texas. You see, Manny won’t fly. As Manny is a senior citizen, his family doesn’t trust his ability to drive great distances alone.

The earlier trip to Texas in May had involved all the normally expected inconveniences of a long drive, plus some minor adventures, with the van showing a tendency to overheat, but the intrepid travelers were able to overcome that problem and thought they had accomplished a permanent fix. The old van may not have proved the most comfortable way to travel, but the trip was accomplished with a minimum of difficulties and in an expeditious fashion. The trip in July to return Manny to Nevada was going to be a bit different, as the vehicle’s air conditioning had recently failed. Their schedule did not leave time for repairs before the trip.

The portion of the journey that brought them to our home in Mesa, Arizona, was accomplished safely. The adults took turns driving and sleeping, so the total elapsed time was a little less than 20 hours. Twenty hours without air conditioning. Twenty hours with the windows down at 60 mph, wind whipping against sweaty skin and roaring in tired ears. There would be a shower, a meal, and a night’s sleep in cool quarters for them on their arrival in Mesa, and, Boy! Did they ever need it!

From Mesa, they made the decision to drive the remainder of Arizona at night hoping it would be a bit cooler. They also decided to change their route from the most direct route to one that would take them to higher altitudes and cooler temperatures by going north to Flagstaff and then west on IH-40 to Nevada. That routing choice may have been less advantageous than expected. The route from Phoenix to Flagstaff is a gentle climb of over 5,000 feet in less than 150 miles. The van didn’t like the climb and overheated several times during the cool, night-time, climb up to Flagstaff.

I’ll let one of the road-trip participants, my son, Derek, tell you a bit about the trip in his own words:

15:11 July 5, 2021 – We made it safely to Silver Springs. We didn’t think the van would overheat in the cold weather, we were more worried about climbing the hills near Tonopah (Nevada) during the day. Turns out that having to stop a few times while climbing up to Flagstaff made the 5 hour trip to Vegas take about 8 hours. The weather was good while we were up there, though. I got some sleep after getting to Kingman, maybe 4 hours of broken sleep in the van while Jill was driving. We made Vegas by sunup, and then we swapped drivers again in Tonopah. We did also have to baby the van up the hill to Tonopah, and the rest of the way to Silver Springs, though, and that was not fun. We had to run the heat in the cabin to keep heat off the engine, and turn off the engine and coast down the big hills to help the coolant stay cool. Turns out, the internet says 100% engine coolant^* boils at about 388°. We did that twice. All this while driving across the desert without working A/C. Still, all in all, a safe trip, although long and tiring.

* Note: Most mechanics recommend a 50% coolant/water mix for optimal cooling.

 The road-trip is something that my family has been well-trained into from their youth. We have endured many at my hands. Some we may have enjoyed. Without fail, they yield awe and adventure. The best ones leave us all feeling a bit like we’ve completed an epic quest.

  

(1(1) Blodgett, P. J. (2015, August 15). How Americans Fell in Love with Taking Road Trips. Time. https://time.com/3998949/road-trip-history/. Accessed July 6, 2021.

Therapy begins easily

I took Glenda to her first appointment for the Mind for all Seasons Enhance Protocol today at the Summit Memory Clinic on Signal Butte Road in Mesa. We earlier had her blood and urine collected for the laboratory panel at LabCorp in Queen Creek. 

Glenda on Light Therapy device.

Glenda on O2 saturation test machine.

I think it went very well. They did some more comprehensive cognitive testing (we get results with roadmap in a week or so), we've had the specimens all collected for the lab panel, she did very well, indeed, on the exercise machine with O2 monitoring -- Robeson Flynn, her memory coach, was impressed at how well she did on that test. She had a bit of anxiety with the chilling in the chair with the optic therapy headset, but once she understood that all she had to do was relax for 30 minutes and I put on some soft music for her (I sat in the room with her), she was fine. Afterwards she said it was good. We may take her earbuds next time so she can listen to a book during that 30 minutes.

The daily EZ, August 11, 2021

Cool and rainy today. Unusually cool and rainy. Today's high will be in the 80s with lows in the 70s. We have had over an inch of rain today by 9am. Yes, it is the monsoon season in Arizona, but this year is proving to be exceptionally cool and wet. That's OK, the first two years we lived here proved to be exceptionally hot and dry. Essentially no rain at all during the 2020 monsoon season. We'll gladly take this.

Today I will meet with Mr. Robeson Flynn at the Summit memory care facility near our home. 

They are offering an outpatient program called the Enhance Protocol which shows promise of delaying age-related memory loss or even allowing improvement for some already experiencing cognitive deficiencies.

The purpose of the meeting is to enroll Glenda into the Enhance Protocol. The program is not inexpensive, and will likely involve some additional expense in the form of dietary supplements for hormonal and vitamin balance, and so on. But we (the family) are hopeful that the treatment will extend the time that Glenda and I can live independently in our own home. 

Pray for us and wish us luck.

Family loss is never EZ

While we were enjoying our travels and visit to Moscow, Idaho, I got a message from my Niece, Jeannie Newman. Her sister, Karen, had suffered a massive heart attack and was in the hospital ICU near Blackfoot, Idaho, where Karen resided. She had been revived but was on life support. Having been without oxygen for many minutes, the doctors were reporting that she was essentially brain dead. The family, her siblings and children, were being asked to make a life or death decision for her. 

In the end, they decided to remove the life support and Karen passed at about 10:20pm local Thursday, August 5, 2021. 

Karen and Jeannie were daughters of my eldest sibling, Sarah Leane. Jeannie is the youngest of six. Karen was a middle child, and is the second of her siblings to pass. Her eldest sister, Lauretta, was killed along with her husband Bruce Thain and an infant, Jeremy, the result of a horrible car crash in July of 1975. 

Jeannie and her remaining siblings, Michael Jensen, Jolinda Cox, and Keven Jensen are making plans and arrangements for Karen's final needs. I may, or may not, travel from Phoenix to Idaho to be in attendance. The family will need financial help and it may make more sense for me to send them the money I'd spend on travel.

R.I.P. niece Karen.

First air travel in the time of COVID was almost EZ

We left home Wednesday, August 4, 2021. After driving from home to Pre-Flight Parking near the airport, we rode by shuttle to Sky Harbor where we boarded a Southwest Flight to Spokane, Washington, by way of Las Vegas with a plane change there. In Las Vegas we met up with Glenda's sister, Carolyn, who was flying to Spokane from Boise with a similar plane change in Las Vegas. In Spokane, we got a rental car and the three of us drove to Moscow, Idaho, to visit with Glenda's sister Jannie, who lives there at 919 Orchard Ave. Carolyn lodged on Jannie's couch, but Glenda and I had an AirBnB reservation for the two nights of our visit at Paradise View bed & breakfast, hosted by Mike and Lynn McCollough. Our lodging was on Moscow Mountain, about five miles north of town, and truly beautiful. The lodging was clean, private, and comfortable and offered a stunning view of the Moscow valley below. Lynn provided pleasant conversation over an outstanding light breakfast. Highly recommend. 

Paradise View BnB, 1005 Joyce Rd, Moscow, ID 83843

The three sisters had a very pleasant reunion catching up with each other. Laurie, the fourth sister, was missing as she had just spent a week helping Carolyn pack to move from Idaho to Pennsylvania later this year so as to be able to care for Mark's mother there. Laurie didn't feel up to making the trip north from Twin Falls. 

Much gabbing was done, several meals were enjoyed, and hugs around. A morning journey to the countryside let Jannie share the presence of her horse, Sonny, with us. 

Jannie, Sonny, Carolyn, Glenda, Dan at Sonny's boarding near Moscow, Idaho.

We left Jannie's Friday morning, August 6th to return to Spokane and fly home. All went well, except...as we were exiting IH-90 to take the Spokane airport exit, as I slowed, a truck flew by us in the near lane. As he passed, a rock flipped up from the highway which broke the windshield of the rental car. Oh, well. There goes $600.

The rest of the trip was pretty unremarkable. Of course, due to Covid, we were in face masks all the time in the airport and on the plane – same as during our earlier travel north from Phoenix. Our flight was a 2-hour direct non-stop to Phoenix. Southwest had routed Carolyn to Boise by way of Phoenix, so we were all three on the same flight out of Spokane. At Sky Harbor, Carolyn generously treated us to dinner at Zinc Bistro before we left for home. We were home by 4:30pm, retrieved our dog, Dak, from Chandra Buchanan who kept him for us, and relaxed. Carolyn reported later that she made it home safely, as well.

 

How are you? Fine, thanks. That's the EZ answer.

Today I realized that 'fine' is a very subjective concept.

As Ms. G ages and has had various health challenges, family and friends often ask how she is doing. Often, my response is, "Fine." And most days she is fine, based on the current subjective definition of 'fine' in the objective situation we live in.

A fine day for G means that she woke up feeling good and relatively alert. After arising, she walked safely to the kitchen. Hungry, she ate from the breakfast prepared for her. On a fine day, she can (and will) shower and dress herself and take care of her dental hygiene. She can get her morning medicine from the daily dispenser with only needing help to remember what day of the week it is. She will want to listen to the audio version of her scriptures for at least 30 minutes on a fine day--she can't read them anymore due to failing vision. A fine day may find her spending most of an hour in our community gymnasium working on the stationary bicycle and the exercise machines, after safely walking the 100 yards from our front door to the community center. Later, on a fine day, she may enjoy the lunch prepared for her and then an audio book before a nap. She may call her sisters or one of our kids. On the occasional days that she is better than fine, she may unload the dishwasher or fold a basket of laundry. 

On a fine day, she doesn't ask what city we live in, or what year it is. Or how many children we have or if her father is still alive. She doesn't faint from orthostatic hypotension on a fine day, nor stumble and fall while walking. On a fine day she doesn't sleep for 18 hours, or get lost in our yard. 

Not all of our days count as 'fine.' But most do.