Memorial Day: Not just for grilling hamburgers

 

We have had so many Veterans in our family.  

Both of our grandfathers in WWI.

Both of our fathers, in WWII.  

My brother-in-law Dennis in Vietnam.  My nephew Paul. 

And most salient to us:  Owen in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Memorial Day is for our fallen soldiers who died, young, giving us the life we have enjoyed.  My cousin, Guy Alley died in WWII before he had a chance to have a life. 

As King Priam, in the film Troy, expressed it:  "War is young men dying and old men talking."

 

The Quail has joined our Turtle in Pine

The temperatures in Mesa are now in the high 90’s to low 100’s every day, so today we closed up Nuestra Casa for the summer.  We hooked up the Quail (our teardrop trailer) to the Desert Rat (our Toyota 4Runner) and headed to our cabin in Pine.  

The Rat and Quail as we left Nuestra Casa:

Driving out of Leisure World:

In the middle of April we brought the Turtle (our slide-in camper on the F350) up to our cabin.  

But the Turtle was getting lonely.  Now the Quail is nestled in next to the Turtle, and they are both happy!

This summer we plan to take the Turtle and go camping far up on the Mogollon Rim where there is endless hiking deep into the cool pine forests.  

Then as the temperatures cool down a little in the fall, we will take the Quail and camp on the north side of the Grand Canyon.  We have a special spot high up on the edge of the canyon, overlooking the Colorado River,

And in October, we plan to travel deep into Death Valley, in areas that are inaccessible to most vehicles—areas where only small, nimble, 4wheel drive rigs can maneuver.  

The Desert Rat and Quail will take us to these wild remote spots in Death Valley.  We’ll be in the middle of  this beautiful desert, all alone, hiking during the day, and at night, sleeping snug in our little Quail with the coyotes serenading us.  We can hardly wait.

Meantime, we have an entire summer ahead of us to play together in the tall cool pines at our cabin.  Life is sweet for us.  We are so very lucky.

Potato Lake

It seems that there are over a thousand lakes in Arizona, but only FIVE natural lakes.  Potato Lake is not one of these.  The natural lakes are Mormon Lake, Stoneman Lake, Ashurst Lake, Kinnikinick Lake, and Upper Mary Lake.  They are all located in the Coconino National Forest, just a little north of Potato Lake.  

We rode Roadrunner and Wily E on a beautiful mountain dirt road on the Mogollon Rim to Potato Lake.

The forest service has done a good of protecting this little lake from all vehicles.  We left our bikes and walked the rest of the way to the lake.  

It is accessible by foot for all who want to enjoy this little gem that is nestled under tall pines.  It’s a good place for a picnic.  Also, rumor has it that there are tasty crawdads living in this lake.

Just as the lake came into our view we spotted a coyote on the far side of lake.  It didn’t seem to notice us.  It was a beautiful sight to see this wild animal running freely, lite up by the morning sunlight.

It was a sweet place for a sip of coffee and a lovely photo.

But the question remains…..why is it called Potato Lake?  All we could come up with was because it is shaped like a potato and is the same color as a potato.  

That’s good enough for us.  In honor of beautiful little Potato Lake, we going to have potatoes for dinner tonight!

Dan and Vicky on May 20th through the years…

2011 at Ebey’s Landing on Whidbey Island, Washington:

2013 at Ebey’s Landing:

2019 at Ebey’s Landing, just a few days before we moved to Arizona:

2022 on Hardscrabble Mesa above Pine, Arizona:

Where will Vicky and Dan be next year on May 20th?

 (all we can say for certain is "together, somewhere, outdoors") 

Dan says that we’re old

 ……but he doesn’t act old!

Look at him climb, just because there’s a ladder on the back of this old railroad container in the middle of the forest.  He will always be a boy at heart.

And I don’t feel old either, at least not when I am with my Danny!

The beauty we see!

It makes no difference how many spectacular things we have seen during our many road trips, on our hikes, and by cycling across this wonderful country that we live in.  It seems that every day we are amazed and in awe of all the natural beauty that surrounds us.

This morning we cycled together on the Mogollon Rim through a maze of old forgotten dirt roads.  Look at what we saw….

All this excitement, fun, and beauty in just one morning, in one little section of this 1,856,038 acre national forest! 

And we didn’t see a single other person….we were embraced by nature.

We will never have enough time in our life to explore all the hundreds of miles of road and trails that are in our backyard in the Tonto and Coconino National Forests.  This is a very wonderful thought!

Addendum by Dan:  One aspect of experiencing this beauty is that the cycling is frequently quite challenging.  The above photos do not do justice to how difficult some parts of these roads are.  They are rocky and steep in places, but usually not as pretty in those spots so we don't stop to take photos.  At times we simply have to turn back on rarely-used side roads, as we have learned where falls are likely to occur.  These are 85-pound bikes, and hitting a rock at the wrong angle can cause a tumble.  Also, at times, we get off the bikes and huff and puff as we walk them up steep, rocky stretches. 

We are always pedaling.  The electric assist is necessary on uphill stretches, but the motor is not the main source of movement.  It is our legs. 

My point is that part of the experience of enjoyment of these outdoor areas is that we have to work for them.

 

As I ride along on these roads, looking at Vicky ahead of me, I frequently ask myself:  "Who is this 72-year-old grandma whose back was severely damaged 27 years ago when her car was rear ended and who still wakes up every night in pain from that, yet who is out here in the middle of nowhere doing this difficult and challenging cycling, and enjoying every minute and all she is seeing?   72 years old?"

This is why we have a summer home in Pine!

 Nuestra Casa, our home in Leisure World:

Our cabin in the mountains:

God’s greatest gift to Earth….

  Dan’s Mother’s Day gift to me….

I love being a mother, and I always have.  And I love being a grandmother.  I have been blessed with many children, step-children, and all our lovely grandchildren.

Me with my little children 36 years ago….

This year I didn’t have a Mother’s Day—instead I had a Mother’s Day Weekend!

And it was simply indescribably wonderful! 

Dan and me on our Mother’s Day hike….in the middle our mountain grasslands.  We saw no one else during our five mile hike, and basically never have seen other people on our hikes.  Amazing to find such solitude in the midst of such beauty!

Candice, Marina, and Stella came to our cabin on Saturday, so we could celebrate Mother’s Day together.

The weather was perfect—sunny and warm, so we spent all afternoon outside and had dinner on our front porch.  

We also had a surprise Stellarina birthday party, with the family favorite from my childhood—Crazy Cake cupcakes.  This winter Stella turned 14, and Marina celebrated her 17th birthday.  

Marina and Stella had requested family heirlooms for their birthday gifts.  So we gave both girls porcelain plates that I had displayed in my homes for over thirty years. 

What a happy day!

As the sun set and it started to cool off at our mountain cabin, we came inside.  And we all talked and laughed long into the evening.

Stella, Marina, and I crowded onto our LITTLE couch to look at photos of the themselves when they were children.  You would think that they were the grandmother too, as they were thoroughly entertained by all their silly and cute childhood pictures.

In fact, we laughed and ooohed and aaahed over each picture so much that we had to show them to Dan and Candice so they could join in on the fun.  And it was more fun than anything else that we could have done.

Dan finally went to bed.  Then we four girls talked long into the night about boys and all kinds of girl things that are not meant for boys' ears.  

Mother’s Day morning, I got to be a true mom again.  I prepared an enormous brunch for my family.  I was in heaven!

I had loving phone calls, emails, and cards from our children, grandchildren, and family. Thank you.  This means the world to me.

After brunch we opened gifts.  Dan had found a Seattle Police Department Manual that that was issued in September 1975–the same month and year that I joined the Seattle Police Department!   

What a find and a super great gift that is very special to me….thank you Danny.

Candice, Marina, and Stella overwhelmed me with fun, yummy, and useful gifts….every gift was clearly chosen with love and care.  Thank you for your thoughtful gifts.

We gave Candice a framed photo of her from 2008 when she was a new mother and her girls were still babies.  This seems like just yesterday.

And here Candice is today, on Mother’s Day, with her girls as teenagers—14 years later. Where did the time go? I’m so glad that we have all used each day of all these years wisely.

We gave our granddaughters pictures of themselves with me, their grandmother, when they were little girls….

And another photo of them from 2011 with both Grandpa and me from our first Christmas together!

Grandma on Mother’s Day with Marina and Stella taking a walk around Pine….

Mother’s Day weekend was over and we said our goodbyes.  So sad to see them go…our cabin felt so empty without their positive, loving energy.  But we will always have wonderful memories of this weekend and all the love that we shared with our whole family.

Grandpa with two of his granddaughters and dear Candice:

Three generations of girls….grandma, daughter, and granddaughters:

Here I am in 1990….another one of many wonderful days with my children:

I think that the greatest of God’s gifts to Earth is our children and grandchildren and all the love that they bring into our lives.