Pre-4th of July celebration

 Here we are, nestled in the middle of the tall pine trees on top of the Mogollon Rim in the middle of the Coconino National Forest.  We are all alone in the wilderness, less than an hour from our sweet cabin in Pine.  And we are simply loving the peace and solitude and wild beauty that surrounds us.

We are celebrating that we live in a free country where we can pursue the kind of life that we choose, where we there are unlimited isolated exquisite places to roam through forests, mountains, deserts, and grasslands in our beautiful country.

….where we go to sleep to the lullaby of a family of coyotes and awake with the birds singing as morning is breaking….

…where we can see elk grazing peacefully in a ravine as we hike up East Clear Creek...

 

and witness a different large herd of elk running across a grassland meadow in front of our bikes….

 

….where we can cycle and hike in wilderness so vast that we have seen coyotes hunting on the opposite side of a lake, a LARGE bear running through the forest as it chases it’s prey, and, this week, have discovered footprints of a bear walking on the same path as us—in fact the prints are so enormous compared to our boot prints that we are not sure if it was a bear or Bigfoot!

…..and we are celebrating living in a country where there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of unbelievable beauty available for all to discover and explore in our lovely state of Arizona from the Mexican border up into Utah….

Dan's note:  A 73-year-old Grandma, with a surgically repaired back that gives her pain every night, is doing this.  I ride behind her every mile in amazement.   The road shown below and in the video are about the easiest we ride on.  In fact, sometimes we have to go cross-country when trees have fallen across roads (a frequent occurrence).  Many roads are much more technical where a simple mistake can result in a fall (and we should know!).

 

We don't even see kids up here cycling on 80-pound bikes.  All we ever see, when we actually see anyone else, are people in OHVs.  Sometimes I wonder what they think when they pass us.  We do notice that they almost always smile, wave, or yell something friendly.   When they are camping they always wave. They usually slow down when in OHVs so as not to create dust for us.....which is nice, huh?

 

  

Watch this video of her riding.  Feel free to applaud loudly!

 

 

My Danny and I are celebrating all the love that we have for each other, our children, grandchildren, and family.  And that there is so much love in our beautiful country that we can be hiking off-trail in the middle of thousands of miles public lands and find this tribute to love that somebody created….

….we are celebrating that we are fortunate to live in a country where men and women (generations of those in our family starting with the Revolutionary War)) have fought and many have died to preserve all the freedoms that we enjoy.  And that our children, and grandchildren—and all of those who live the USA enjoy. 

Many people criticize our amazing and wonderful country, but we are old enough to have seen tremendous changes and progress in the United States, which allow in everyone to enjoy our freedoms.  

There is no other country where we would rather live.  We are thankful to be Americans….and we are celebrating the 4th of July with pride and joy.

Happy 247th Birthday AMERICA!

Our entry in The Atlantic

 

Some sources claim that as many as 5% of children (Pew Research) have this type of gender confusion (we have found studies that indicate that up to 9% of children do).    5% would be 1-2 kids in EVERY classroom in America.  That's more children than have depression and as many as are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  This seems impossible.  We wrote this to The Atlantic because we are concerned that all of us GET IT RIGHT.  We're talking about children, and we owe it to them to get it right. 

Wish we could say that the scientific research will inform us, and it should.  But the scientific research currently is woefully inadequate to guide decision-making.   Further, with something that many people say affects so many children (i.e., 5%) the fact that there are NO scientific theories explaining why transgenderism happens is hard to believe.  Further, some people are saying that 5% of children experience this gender dystopia, and that we should be using drastic treatments for it, but we don't have ANY scientific theories about what transgenderism even is and what the cause or causes are.  

(and we know the treatments are drastic because Dan took the same hormone blocker for his prostate cancer that young boys are taking, and the effects were AWFUL, much more widespread than we see reported in the literature, and frequently not reversible after the treatments are stopped)

That is not good science and not good medicine. 

We feel good about writing and submitting this to The Atlantic.  We hope it sparks some discussion.  If our concerns were crazy or ugly The Atlantic would not have published our entry.  Both of us are parents and grandparents.  We have had so many children take up residence in our hearts.  But in addition to our families, we have seen so much hurt, trauma, abuse, abandonment, and so on of children in our professions.  Our position isn't a political one.  All of those years where we focused on improving children's lives will never go away for us. 

Father, son, grandfather, husband

Today was father's day, and what a day it was.  

As David French said:  There are few better purposes than helping the people you love walk through life.

I have so many people to love.  I am blessed.

Vicky.  She started my day with my father's day bottle of wine, a sweet card, and BACON!  Real, thick-cut bacon.  Yum.

 

 

 Then I got a call from Emily, and as usual we had a terrific visit.  I love her so much.   Here is a photo of my talking to her:

Then we took a nice walk through our funky town of Pine.  We saw other fathers out walking with their children, and it was fun to yell:  "Happy Father's Day!"  They all glowed when we did this.

Then we danced.  Here are some of our dances.  We dance to old music.  If we ever come across a new song that is as beautiful as our old songs are we'd jump to adopt it.  But (OLD PERSON ALERT!), they don't make music like they used to.

 

Dancing the One-Step to Edward Woodward's version of the 1962 song That was the Last Thing on my Mind. 

Dancing the American Bandstand Swing to the 1964 version of As Tears Go By, written by the Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger, and sung by Marianne Faithful.  This is a fun and exuberant dance.  We do all kinds of patterns called tunnels and pretzels.  Very complex and VERY fast.  We love it.

Dancing the Nightclub 2-step to the 1989 song Find Another Fool----written and performed by Marcia Ball.

Doing the West Coast Swing to the 1959 Burt Bacharach/Hal David song With Open Arms. 

Plus many more dances to oldies but goodies.    

Then I got more calls.  From Jules, Ian, Adam and Diane.  I love my son so much.  It was terrific to catch up with all of them.  Wish they could have been here. 

And then from Candice, Marina, and Stella.  I am very close to them.  Very close.  I love them so much. 

After we danced, Vicky opened my bottle of wine.  Yum.

And I got to open presents.  

She got me two "wooden nickels" from the Carson, Iowa Centennial celebration of 1981.  Carson is where my father was born and raised, and it has always held a place in my heart.  I really liked going there as a child.  My dear Aunt Hope and Uncle Wayne lived there, in addition to my grandma.  A small, now dying, town.  

But when my father was a child it was bustling.  The Carson cemetery is where my folks have their ashes buried (and in New Sharon, Iowa, where my mother grew up).  We will have half of our ashes buried next to them.  The other half will be spread over the grasslands on the rim--we have the place picked out and will show family when they visit.  

She also got me the sheet music of Tennessee Babe, from the John Wayne film The Alamo.  I used to sing this to Emily when she was a little girl, to give her a lullaby before sleep.  

When I opened it, I cried.

 

 

 Then we ate dinner.  I had requested Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, and some of Vicky's awesome Broccoli Casserole.  Yum, yum, and more yum.

 

THEN!  Desert.  My choice of ice cream:  Drumstick. 

I also got two Father's Day Cards.  Both of them didn't come until two days after Father's Day because....well.....because of two words:  Pine Arizona.  Even the postal service is funky here.  One was from Jules, and another was from Kathy and Bill. 

What a wonderful day in my life.  Vicky organized it all.  And worked hard to give me something that I will always remember.  

And as I did on Mother's Day, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my own father, who I love and miss so much.  I miss my mother and father more with each passing year.  Not a day goes by that I don't think of them.  I was blessed with good parents--parents who knew what they were doing and who loved me.   

Here is a note I wrote to them in 2007.  It obviously meant a lot to them because they saved it, and I found it after they died.  I'm glad I have it. They had written to thank me for coming out on Thanksgiving to help them decorate their house for Christmas. 

Strange animals in Pine

 While we were camping we left our security cameras running (of course).  They are Amazon Blinks.  We caught images of two strange animals. 

One was on the front porch.  It looks like the ghost of a combination of an aardvark and a duck or maybe Dumbo, the flying elephant:

 

The next one was in our new lot.  It does not look like a coyote.  It actually looks like the size and movement pattern of a mountain lion.  We have met people in Pine who have seen mountain lions in their yards and one person saw one on his roof, so this would not be terribly surprising.  (Frankly, it's kind of neat!  Do you have mountain lions in your yard?).

Seeing a mountain lion (not a zoo one) has been on our bucket lists for several years.  We've seen bears, but we finally got to see a mountain lion....in our own yard!  It's a pet!  Want to suggest names? 

 

So, dear contestants, what are your guesses for these two strange animal sightings?

Our personalized 911 reflective property signs

Even in the small funky town of Pine ,Arizona we are required to have standard-sized reflective address signs on our property.  It may be the only rule here.  This is what was provided by the Pine-Strawberry Fire Department and nailed to a tree in our driveway when we bought our cabin.

Kind of worn and tacky, isn’t it?  So we decided to have some fun with the required 911 signs and create our own signs.  We wanted our 911 signs to look good and say something special about us.

Here is our new sign for the cabin:

If we could have fit more letters on our sign, it would have said, “Dan and Vicky forever!”

Here’s our sign for the property behind the cabin.  My dear Danny bought me this lot for Valentine’s Day:

This sign is nailed to an apple tree on my Valentine Lot.  I am excited to make applesauce this fall….it will be a race to see who can get to the apples first--me or our resident elk!

Camping on the edge of the World.......the rest of the story

 We have just returned from 5 nights and 5+ days camping, hiking, and cycling on the rim.

It was wonderful.  (in fact, have we ever NOT had a wonderful time camping?)

The Mogollon rim is very different in different parts of it.  A month ago we camped on the rim and stayed in what we call the "Grasslands."    This trip we wanted to camp right on the edge of the rim.  

The first site we chose was spectacular. .......but we didn't stay there.  After a few hours we found we were hot (there was no shade) and the wind made enjoying the site impossible.

So we moved down the road a piece.  Here was our second site:

Pretty nice, huh?  And it was....except the wind was even stronger.  It was no fun sitting outside, and we couldn't find a way to position our vehicles to block the wind.  Besides, we were kinda worried about walking outside at night to go to the bathroom.  That first step is a doozy. 

So, we moved across the street after spending one night here.  About 100 yards away from this site, and what a difference that made.  Now we had sun and shade, and we could move our chairs to maximize our comfort.  And the 15-20 mph winds on the edge of the rim were just mild breezes now.

So here is our second site, where we spent four nights.

On this trip we took one really nice hike and two long bike rides. We also spent one day walking up the road and then dancing.

We took two 20-mile rides on the dusty, rocky, and gravel roads on the rim.  One has to really focus in order to not hit a rock incorrectly and take a spill.  But we are much better at this than we were a year and a half ago when we got these bikes.  

For our hike we took part of the General Crook Trail.  General Crook was a central leader in the Apache Indian Wars.   

We came across an old cabin:

Vicky did a re-enactment of the beginning of The Searchers in the cabin.

Vicky:

Martha, The Searchers:

Isn't it terrific that the Forest Service would maintain something like this cabin?  Great use of our tax money.

One day we danced.  

Our dancing is challenging on many surfaces we choose to dance on--i.e., when we aren't on a completely smooth surface like in our homes or on a dance floor.  Dance floors are built to be smooth and level.  This one was dirt, with branches, rocks, and pine cones.  It was slanted, uneven, and had small holes that one could step into.  We were wearing tennis shoes, not dance shoes.  

 Even with those challenges, we'd rather dance outdoors than dance indoors on a good surface.  I mean, how many people do you supposed have waltzed on the Mogollon Rim?  Think General Crook did? 

Frequently we could not turn as quickly as we needed to, but we know enough about what we are doing to be able to create a different pattern on the spot.  All of our dancing is lead-follow.   I lead and Vicky follows.  So it is all spontaneous and is never the same.  My "leading" is with my fingertips.  I don't "move" her, pull her, push her, twist her, etc. What we learned is that I basically "invite" her to move, spin, stop, twist, etc.  My goal is to make her look as beautiful moving to music as she always is.

Dance 1 on the rim.

Dance 2 on the rim.

Dance 3 on the rim.

We have also discovered a new singer.  His name is Edward Woodward.  His tenor voice simply captivates us.  He is singing 2-3 of the numbers in the videos in the links above.

We slept incredibly well.  This is our second camping trip this year, and we really are anxious to get out again.  We didn't camp at all last year, a first for us, because of how the medicine I was taking for prostate cancer affected my strength and energy level.  Vicky missed it, but never said a word to try to change my mind.  

I'll make it up to her.  By golly I'll make it up to her.  Even if I didn't feel I had the energy and desire to get out again (which, actually, I do), I would do it for her.  She has been so loving, so steady, so positive through this entire ordeal.