Mini Vacation in Phoenix

I recently told you about a new anti-anxiety medicine that I was hoping would help me enjoy traveling more. The first time I took it, it seemed to help. On my way to California in April, my flight was delayed and then cancelled, and I couldn’t get out that night. I took it all in stride, and I credited the medicine for that.

But on my subsequent flights – my flight out to California the next day, and on the way home from California, and on my way out to Ann Arbor, the medicine didn’t seem to work as well. Instead of making me calm, it seemed to just make me stupid. I don’t want to be stupid. I am already stupid enough!

I particularly didn’t want to be stupid after my flight from Ann Arbor to Phoenix because it was a late evening flight. It would be dark by the time I arrived. I’d have to figure out how to get on the correct shuttle to get to my car and I’m not familiar with the Phoenix airport yet, or the parking situation. My car was somewhere near the airport…I had a claim ticket…actually I had completely forgotten that I had a claim ticket tucked away somewhere, but I figured my app would tell me what to do.

And then I had to navigate on freeways in the dark to an Airbnb where I’ve never been, and figure out which place was mine and which door was mine and hope the keypad code works. And my hosts would not have been still awake to help me.

So I decided I needed my brain to be working more than I needed anti-anxiety meds coursing through my system. I didn’t take any meds on the flight back and I was ok. I don’t think I was any more anxious than I when I took the meds.

It got me thinking – I don’t think my problem is anxiety. I think it’s some sort of sensory overwhelm that’s different than anxiety. That’s probably why every anxiety medication I’ve ever taken has not worked.

Actually, my anxiety medicine did work when I had reason to be anxious – when my flight was so delayed that I was not going to my connecting flight to California. But the med didn’t help when everything was going smoothly. I was still miserable during the trips – but it wasn’t anxiety making me miserable. It was something else.

The closest I can describe it is sensory overwhelm. Everything is too loud and visually complicated and everyone is moving and the plane is moving. It’s just too much going on. But it’s not causing anxiety exactly, it’s causing confusion, which is different than anxiety. Although confusion can cause anxiety and frustration.

Anyway, I just took my time and tried to keep my head on straight. We landed, I found my luggage, I found where I needed to catch the shuttle, talked to a shuttle driver to figure out which shuttle I needed, talked to another shuttle driver to figure out which location I needed (the parking company has two or three near-airport locations, with different shuttles serving each one). I found my car, found the directions to my airbnb, managed to navigate in the dark on the freeway through construction (my poor eyesight doesn’t help me any).

I got to the address, dragged my suitcases through a patio gate (now remember, it was pitch dark at the time, not this bright happy sunshine of the next day)

…and discovered not one, but TWO doors, both of which looked exactly like the one in the internet picture I had memorized. Which door was mine? And for that matter, why am I standing alone at midnight in this total stranger’s yard?

It’s all quite cheerful in these pictures I took the next morning, but at the time it was dark, I was exhausted, and there’s always that lingering concern that if you’re trying to get in at midnight and you pick the wrong door, someone might decide to shoot you!

I went ahead and tried my code on the right-hand door, and it worked. Whew! I made it!

Turns out in the daylight it’s quite easy to tell which is the main house and which is the guesthouse. The guesthouse is the cute little square unit on the right, attached to the main house by a breezeway. But it was not obvious at night.

The next morning I was completely delighted to be there.

There was a park and a walking trail at the end of the cul-de-sac two houses down. I got up, walked outside, and it smelled like the desert, and it felt like the desert and I felt instantly at home.

I walked down to the fountain and was greeted by a man walking his dogs, who identified himself as my host, Phil. He must have seen me exiting the gate and standing in his driveway, holding my sunglasses aloft while I tried to decide whether they were dirty enough to warrant heading back inside to clean them, or if they were good enough. I judged them good enough.

“Why are you here?”, Phil asked. That wasn’t actually the first question he asked when he and his three overfed fluffy dogs spotted me walking toward the park. Phil’s first question was why my car had a New Mexico license plate when my Airbnb profile says I’m from Tucson? Well…yeah. About that. My husband hasn’t got around to registering our cars in Arizona yet. Lol.

I didn’t say that. I just told him we’re still getting moved. What I didn’t mention was that we’ve been moving to Tucson for over two years now, but we’ve been New Mexico residents until this month. The nuanced truth just gets too complicated for a brief sidewalk greeting. I’ll be so glad when we’re finally done with all this complicated not knowing where I live, and I have easy answers for friendly neighbors.

So why was I there? Partly because my plane arrived late at night and I didn’t want to drive 2 hours home in the middle of the night. I don’t see well in the dark, and I get tired easily. Plus, I thought it would be nice to decompress after my trip to Ann Arbor. Also I wanted to do errands in Phoenix.

I have been thinking of buying an exercise machine but neither of the brands that I was primarily interested in are available in Tucson. I could order them, but I wanted to try them first before deciding which to get. So one of my main goals was to visit a couple of fitness showrooms and try out some options.

After my walk, I started on my big-city errands. In addition to wanting to try out exercise machines, I also wanted to look for tile samples with a Southwest or Mexican feel. Visiting tile stores took me all over the city – and Phoenix is huge and sprawling.

You haven’t heard much about our remodel recently, but yes, we’re still slowly plugging away. Very slowly. Right now some smaller projects are slowly being done. Did I mention how slowly the projects are going? Neil drops by occasionally, but most of the time he is on vacation or working elsewhere. Slowly.

Later this summer I want to remodel the master bathroom. That will be a very disruptive job, so I hope to hire a bigger firm in order to get it done in a shorter length of time. There’s usually a several-month wait before a big firm can get to your job, but once they start, they’re better at getting it done in one big crush of activity. I do not want my master bathroom being remodeled in little bits at a time every few weeks.

Anyway, tile samples:

Haha, no, this was a bit much. It reminds me of a clown.

I ended up buying a few copper colored tiles for the master bathroom. The white tile behind it will be the primary tile, with copper accents to add interest. We did the hall bathroom in white with dark blue accents, and the master bathroom will be white with copper accents. (Note to self – we need to pick out new edging, the off-white that looked good in the hall bathroom will look too gray here.) There is always something.

I also ordered the tile in this next photo for our fireplace hearth and for accenting on our patio. The reddish-brown tile underneath is our floor tile, and our hearth will be the plain orangish-brown one on the left, accented with an occasional flower tile.

After I got done with my errands I sat out on the courtyard with my computer. I love courtyards, even in the intense Phoenix heat.

Some of the neighbor’s names for their internet accounts were amusing.

Speaking of remodels, I couldn’t help but think about how my hosts had remodeled their guesthouse. Phil told me that it was originally a studio with no kitchen. It had the main room plus the bathroom and a closet. Phil and his wife, Peggy, converted the closet into a kitchenette by adding a window and a sink, mini-fridge and microwave. I had guessed as much because there was a door to the kitchen with a mirror on the back of it, lol. It pretty clearly used to be a closet.

Their solution worked ok, but I would have taken that couple of feet of wall out; the doorway and that little bit of wall to the right of the doorway. That would open up the kitchen space which would then have enabled the kitchen to continue around the corner to where they have a clothes rack. Then they could have had the kitchen on two walls in an “L” shape and have twice as much (or more) kitchen space. There still would have been enough room for a small closet under the TV where this desk is:

And the desk could have gone between these two chairs instead of the little useless end tables:

If they had run the kitchen around the corner, they would have had room to include a full sized sink, modest refrigerator, stovetop and a dishwasher. The kitchen doesn’t need to be behind a door and a wall.

It wouldn’t have been very much more work and they could have doubled the size of their kitchen. The floor tile would need to be patched where the wall was. If they couldn’t find an exact match, they could do a decorative span across the threshold. That is a very common technique for visual delineation even if you have matching tile.

It’s possible they might have needed to do a little bit of drywall patching – but probably not, if they put cabinets and backsplash across the 4 inches where the unnecessary wall had joined the main wall. It would not have been very much harder, and it would have looked so much better and had been so much more useful than having shoved a tiny bit of kitchen into a closet.

See, I am incorrigible. Always thinking about remodels.

Anyway it was a cute little place. They allow dogs too. Maybe John and I will go back together someday. Phoenix is our nearest big city and there’s lots to do there!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Traveling to Ann Arbor

I’d had my trip to Ann Arbor scheduled for a long time in anticipation of my mom’s 80th birthday on Mother’s Day. It seemed like an auspicious time to visit. My oldest niece also turned sweet 16 the day before Mother’s Day. Time to visit family!

I had reserved a nice Airbnb because, many months ago when I planned the trip, I thought John was going to be able to go with me. Unfortunately, it turned out to be his first week on his new job. The trip was scheduled two days after his start date! So I had to go without him.

Ugh, airports are overwhelming!

I’m glad my brother, Steven, was able to pick me up. Flying is stressful for me and my brain gets fried. I was happy not to have to worry about navigating on strange freeways in an unfamiliar rental car after several hours of traveling.

On the way to my airbnb Steven took me to a grocery store. I rarely eat before flying and I was getting hungry! I had planned to buy food at the airport, but I followed everyone onto a tram, and it turns out the tram goes overhead, past all the food courts. I hadn’t even realized what happened; all I knew is that I never saw any food until I was past security and too far to turn back.

When Steven dropped me off, with my luggage and groceries, he helped me carry everything up the stairs from the street for me (the airbnb is on a hillside). While there, he met my airbnb host as she was giving me the key. He recognized her accent as being from a certain part of northern Germany. Steven was an exchange student in Germany when he was in high school – apparently he lived very near to where my airbnb host is from. It wasn’t just her accent – Steven also recognized a particular figure of speech. Instead of “uh” she would say something that sounded a little bit like “no” as a punctuation or pause noise, and apparently it’s a speech pattern common in only that specific part of Germany. It’s funny that both my brother and my husband speak German.

It was a big relief to get to my airbnb with my luggage and my groceries. Whew. The next morning I walked through a park to a local rental car location where I had reserved a car. They were short staffed and also running out of cars. I waited patiently. I could tell they were struggling to find cars for everyone, so I wondered if I would have to Uber to Mom’s house and back, and try again the next day! 

I had only paid for an economy car because I wanted a small one, but they didn’t have any economy cars left. They had given the previous woman a pickup truck, so I was wondering, what would be left after that? What could be even worse than a pick-up truck? I didn’t want some big monster car. 

At first the clerk was about to give me some sort of Volkswagen, I don’t know what because I didn’t recognize (and therefore didn’t remember) the model. He went outside to get it ready, because they were scraping the bottom of the barrel and the cars weren’t even washed and cleaned up yet. He came back in after a bit – there was some issue with that car and he wasn’t going to be able to give it to me after all. So now what was I going to get? More waiting.

Finally the manager grabbed a set of keys from a back board and gave it to the clerk helping me and said, “Just give her this, she’s been waiting too long.” That is how I managed to snag some sort of mid-sized Lexus hatchback or small SUV. Brand new and very fancy. One of those cars where you don’t actually have to stick the anything in the ignition. 

I pulled out of the parking lot onto a busy road and the new car immediately started beeping at me frenetically. It was a divided highway so I had to make a u-turn, pass the place and u-turn again, all the while the car was acting like it was going to self-destruct momentarily. I got it back to the rental place and realized, as I was turning it off, that the red hood icon maybe meant the hood wasn’t fully latched. Initially I had assumed the problem was under the hood i.e., the engine.

By the time a guy came out to check on me, I had figured out that it was just the hood latch. So I could have just pulled over and fixed it myself, but that car is intimidating. For example, later that day I unfolded the side mirrors manually, not realizing they fold in and out automatically when it’s turned on and off. The second time I saw them folded in, I figured ah-ha! It did it by itself!

The car also vibrated the steering wheel at me once, which was very startling and distracting. I was trying to give an oncoming car some extra space because he was heading toward the middle of the road to give a bicyclist next to him some space, and apparently my car didn’t like me going to the right of the white line, or maybe it didn’t like the oncoming car angled my way or something, but the last thing I needed while concentrating on the situation was the car vibrating the steering wheel and startling me. 

Also the dang car just seemed so big compared to my Mini Cooper at home. However, it was a very nice car and I was glad to have it.

Unfortunately the Airbnb was on the other side of town as my family. I originally had picked it out for John and I, and I knew he’d love the beautiful neighborhood and the wooded nature area with walking trails a block away.

I also knew John wouldn’t mind driving us across town every day to visit everyone. John likes to drive. But as it turned out, with just me, it would have been easier to have stayed somewhere closer. But it really was a beautiful place and I did enjoy it.

My unit is the lower one in this double decker house. It was a 2-bedroom unit and I didn’t use the second bedroom for anything. Mostly I used the kitchen and the front patio.

My only complaint was that the blinds on the bedroom window were very lightweight and let the morning sun shine straight through. I wouldn’t have minded too much if it was in the middle of winter and the sun was getting up late, or if I was on Eastern time instead of Pacific time. But in May that far north the sun gets up very early. Subtract another 3 hours for the time difference, and my brain felt like the sun was shining in the middle of the night. OMG COFFEE PLEASE!

I loved my patio underneath the owner’s balcony. That’s where I ate my meals and spent my free time.

The weather was downright hot. When I had checked a few days before I left, the highs were in in the 50’s, but there was an abrupt change right when I arrived. It was 79 degrees! I only brought sweaters! That’s what I get for trying to pack light. I end up not prepared.

I had brought too much luggage when I went to California in April, because I anticipated changeable weather and I had a variety of activities planned. I tried to pack lighter this time, but had expected colder weather and did not bring anything for hot weather.

I quickly went to TJ Maxx (a nearby discount store) after I got the rental car, and picked up a pair of shorts, flip flops, couple of blouses and a sundress, all for very cheap. I figure I can never have too many pairs of cheap shorts and flip flops, now that I live in Arizona!

The clerk at TJ Maxx was so deliriously happy that the weather was finally warm after a long winter, that she was singing! She serenaded me the entire time I was at the counter with a song that she was making up on the spot. It was all about how wonderful Ann Arbor was and how wonderful spring was. I was thinking, wow, how often are people willing to sing in public like that? Maybe she was on something, but I like to imagine she was just friendly and happy. Everyone I met in Ann Arbor did seem to be friendly and happy.

Here is my mom and dad in their backyard.

This is their house. I didn’t grow up there – they’ve moved several times in the nearly 40 years since I left home.

I also had fun visiting with Steven and his family. Here they are at the botanical gardens.

I have a tendency to forget to take pictures of people because it has to be arranged – people don’t usually just sit around, passively posing for a photo like a flower or a landscape scene, waiting for me to come across them and recognize the perfect shot. And most people don’t appreciate being snuck up on for a candid shot. If people would just stay still and not change their expression the instant they saw a camera pointing in their direction, I would take a lot of pictures of people! I like the thoughtful looks on people’s faces when they’re caught unawares.

Anyway, I was glad I remembered to get photos of my parents and Steven’s family, even though they were posed. The only unposed photos I ever seem to manage are the backs of people.

Here is Steven with his two daughters.

After visiting each day, I would come back to my airbnb to rest and work with my clients over the phone.

On Sunday morning we met at their church. I don’t usually like attending church services, but I figured that it was part of the day’s agenda, and I had gone out there to be part of whatever was happening, so off to church I went. Well, did I ever get lucky. It happened to be the Sunday that they held their service outside. It’s a little something special they do once a year in the spring, when the weather is at its very best. They held the service outside for Mother’s Day, which I really enjoyed.

Their church is very small. Here is the choir singing with an electronic keyboard as accompaniment. Mom is on the left in the white dress and hat, and Steven is on the right.

Steven was leading the service that day as well as being a quarter of the choir. Their pastor recently retired and they have not found a new one yet. Because of the lack of preaching, they did extra congregational singing instead, which suited me. I was hoarse by the end of the service because I’m very out of practice. I don’t usually go anywhere or do anything where I would regularly sing.

That afternoon we had a very nice meal to celebrate mom’s 80th. The savory sweet potatoes were a big hit, thanks to Laura for the recipe 🙂

The next day, we spotted these baby birds in Mom and Dad’s backyard. Both parents were flying around, screeching. We couldn’t figure out how the little birds had gotten there. We looked up and there was no nest in the huge tree above.

We were worried about them. Dad said he had seen them closer to the patio and they had somehow made it out a little further. You can see them here in the foreground, about 6 or 8 feet from the patio.

We retreated into the house to see what would happen. Over the period of an hour or so, they hopped all the way across the lawn to the bushes in the back corner, their parents tweeting at them the whole way. Sometimes the parents would bring them food. They would hop a foot or two and then rest for awhile. We believe they must have been nesting in a nook somewhere near the house where it was warmer and sheltered, and it was time for them to relocate. What a vulnerable time for the little baby birds!

I also went on a very nice bike ride with Steven on my last day there. Ann Arbor was a pretty town and the weather was perfect and my visit went very well.

Now all I had to do was make it back home again!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Buckskin Gulch, Utah

After giving up on the hot, slow, circuitous “official” route to the Buckskin Gulch, we went back to our campsite and decided to take the original route the next morning.

Our campsite was still available, yay. It’s not an official campground, just one of those pull-outs off the road with a fire ring. We parked in a slightly different spot this time. It took a little more work getting the van level. We don’t have a fancy leveling system or even those plastic ramps that look like big lego blocks. We just scavenge rocks that we find sitting around near the campsite, put them where we need them, and drive up on top of them. We were able to get tucked away in the trees a bit better than the previous night.

We found this dog gravesite near our campsite. Awww. The rock says, “Roz Dog, A Good Girl, 1999-2015” I bet Roz had a good life.

We were glad that we had our new Starlink internet connection because that afternoon our house sale in Albuquerque nearly fell through. It wasn’t our buyer’s fault – it was the fault of our terrible, horrible, no good, relocation company. It was everything we could do to keep them from cancelling our sales contract – a contract that both us and our buyers were happy with!

By the way, we still haven’t closed on that house sale. We were supposed to have closed yesterday but our relocation company has once again messed up. Now it’s Memorial Day weekend and our best hope is Tuesday for closing. But back to my Utah story.

That next morning we drove to the trailhead that is supposed to be for “The Wave” trail, but is also (we discovered) the original, and closer, way to get to Buckskin Gulch. The first little bit of the trail was a wide wash and we walked with a bunch of Wave hikers.

The majority of the hikers soon took the Wave trail to the right, leaving only me, John, and a nice young man whose name I forgot, to continue down the wash toward the gulch. Our new friend said he was a computer programmer from Austin, Texas. He had wanted to hike the Wave trail but hadn’t managed to get a permit; they had sold out. The number of people allowed on that trail is limited by permit because it is so popular.

I have seen pictures of the Wave, and I don’t see why it’s such a big deal. I think some landmarks get famous and others don’t due to tipping point dynamics more than actual virtue. We’ve seen some truly amazing formations that aren’t on the internet, so no one is ever there.

We walked with our new friend for a short distance, and sure enough, there was the gulch! It was beautiful. Here you can see our friend walking up ahead with Biska.

This next picture shows a drop off. It’s not that far, but it’s too far to jump down it, and not easily scrambled. There used to be a ladder but the ladder had washed out. We turned back, because there really wasn’t a way down.

As we started to hike back out, someone else on the trail pointed out the route around the drop-off. There was a tiny trail sign, easy to miss. Similar to our scramble on our first night in a different wash, we had to go up and around and back down past the choke point. Up we went!

The next few pictures are of us after we’ve scrambled up, and we’re looking at the route back down into the canyon. It was not particularly difficult, but it was steep and exposed.

Yep, that’s the way down.

If we wanted to hike the gulch, we had to get all the way down into that.

Uhhh. Here I am, contemplating it.

By that time, two more guys had joined us. John and I went down first. Well, Biska went first. She had no problem! Can you see her down there in the crack?

The two other guys followed us with no problems, but our friend from Austin just didn’t have the confidence to do it. We offered to help him down but he just couldn’t get up the nerve.

John went back up to help. Here’s a picture of John talking to our friend about how to do it. It looks pretty imposing from this angle!

I felt bad for the guy because I really sympathized. Although this stretch was really not all that difficult for me. John and I had done more difficult sections near our campsite on the hike we took the first morning. I realized that I’m not too bad out there myself. I always compare myself to John, but that’s not a very fair comparison. John is a mountain goat!

Here we are after we got down. We hiked the short distance back up to the choke point to see what it looks like from below. The people above are asking me how we got down there, and I explained they had to backtrack and take the trail up and around and back down. You can see some remnants of the broken ladder.

It was very beautiful in the canyon – and dry! Often these slot canyons are wet and muddy. People will wade through hip deep muck. Not for me! They are also very dangerous if there is rain anywhere upstream. Don’t ever go into one of these if there’s rain forecast anywhere nearby.

Uh oh, Biska needs help. Luckily she’s smart enough not to jump too far.

John to the rescue.

Here’s John giving Biska some water – you can see remnants of the washed out ladder stuck high up in the canyon behind them.

Then first slot canyon joined a bigger canyon. It was here that we realized why the trailhead had been moved. They were routing people around that initial side canyon that had the broken ladder. The main canyon is also a slot canyon – the actual Buckskin Gulch. The new trailhead that we thought was too hot and long on the previous day was the slow, easy way to get to the main Buckskin Gulch slot canyon. The way we went this time was a pretty little side canyon and a short cut – if you don’t mind scrambling.

Here we are in the main canyon, with the opening of the slot hidden in the shadow.

The two guys who had come in with us took our photo.

This is looking back at the entrance to the side canyon.

Here’s the entrance to the main part of the slot canyon.

I love this next picture of the back of me, peering ahead (taken by John).

John is a happy guy!

I love the lighting on these next two.

A small cave

It was a great hike and worth the scramble!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Who moved my cheese?

The next morning, we drove up the road to a trailhead. I was looking forward to hiking on a real trail. No more crazy steep rock scrambling! Our destination was a slot canyon called Buckskin Gulch.

When we reached the highway turnoff for the Buckskin Gulch trailhead, John said something about it not being right. He had been there once before, but it was twenty or more years ago. How could he possibly remember?

The trailhead signs were entirely clear. This was the Buckskin Gulch trailhead. So we put on our boots, and off we went.

And we went, and went and went. It was a pretty trail, and easy. But where was the slot canyon? There were nearby rock formations, so surely we were almost there?

Almost there?

Almost there?

We trudged along this valley and it started getting pretty hot.

Surely we’re almost there?

By then the sun was high, and we’d made it to a few cliff faces, but we still hadn’t found the slot canyon.

Biska was hot, and we decided to turn around. Even if we were almost to the cool and shaded slot canyon, we had come too far on the open plain, and we’d have to hike back through it in the heat.

Here’s John with his Garmin trying to figure out – where are we? Turns out we were just over halfway to the slot canyon. That made no sense. This was marked as the trailhead to the slot canyon. We should have had half a mile of hiking to the canyon, not several miles.

Time to turn around and hike back out. There’s always tomorrow.

After we got back out, we discovered that it was indeed an unnecessarily long way to the slot canyon. There was a closer trailhead to the slot canyon that John was remembering, but it was no longer marked as the trailhead for the slot canyon. It was only marked as the trailhead for some other trails.

Our initial guess was that they were trying to divert some of the slot canyon traffic elsewhere because the original trailhead also went to a very popular rock formation called the Wave. You need a permit to go on that trail. We weren’t interested in hiking to the Wave, so we didn’t need a permit, but we wanted to park in the same parking lot as for the Wave. Do they no longer let slot canyon hikers park there? Is it now only people with permits the hike the Wave?

The new trailhead they came up with for the slot canyon turned out to be 6 extra miles of hiking (three in and three out) just to get to the canyon. That’s not ok! Not when there’s a closer trailhead, a mere half mile from the slot canyon!

We decided to try again the next morning, and this time we’d try to park at the original trailhead – if we could.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Crazy steep off-trail scramble

The next morning, we set off up the same wash as the previous evening. This time we had the whole day ahead of us.

Here’s where we quit the night before:

Here’s where we’re going to go up and around it. Yeah…hmmm.

It looked do-able here, although it was a lot steeper than it looks in the picture.

Ok, so far, so good. But it’s really steep.

The van is waaaay down there.

Hard to tell in the picture, but that’s basically a drop-off there under the snag. I’m not sure how I get myself into these things. It’s my fault. John’s not egging me on. It’s just that somehow it looks easier from below? Or I think I’m almost there? Or I forget that heights make me uncomfortable? I keep getting myself into these situations and regretting it!

Stupid steep.

Pretty though.

We decided to go over the top of this ridge to the right, rather than trying to go back down the side of the wash, which was both steep and rough. There was a decent chance that the slope down to the road would be gentler than the sides of the wash.

Yep, there’s the road, way down there. And there’s fewer big boulders on this side. John’s happy.

But I’m crouched with my back against a rock, contemplating the drop-off. I can see the van down there. Now if only I had wings, it would be easy! At least, with fewer boulders, it’ll be more of a butt-slide down than a rock climb.

Whew, made it down. Home sweet home.

Next time, a trail maybe?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Evening walk from the campsite

We arrived in Utah a little later than expected due to our flat tire en route. This was the first camping spot we found near a trail we planned to hike the next day.

At first we figured it was a temporary spot just for that night, and we’d find a better spot the next day. But we ended up liking the spot better than we thought we would. Turns out there was good hiking right there.

These photos are from our evening walk. Or I should say, our evening rock scramble.

The sun was down and it was darker than the photos make it look like. We had a light on Biska in case she wandered too far.

Here’s where we quit. It was too dark to climb this. The next day we found a way around it, but we had enough evening walk/scramble for the first day.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Utah Trip – First Stop

Wait – that sign suggests we’re in between Flagstaff and Phoenix. That’s not Utah. Yeah, so we were driving along and several things happened, nearly all at once. First, Biska got up, farted, and looked anxious. I wondered if we needed to stop to give her a walk. At the same time, the van dashboard beeped and John said something about a tire, which I didn’t hear.

John said he was going to pull over (for the dog, I thought) and I objected; not along the side of a freeway (because Biska’s a good girl and she can wait), and then he said there’s an exit, and I said ok. There happened to be an exit nearly immediately – in fact, we almost passed it. He took the exit and started to park the van at the nearest possible location. I suggested he go a little further down the dirt road away from the freeway, and he said we shouldn’t. We had a flat tire! Oh. This wasn’t about the dog at all.

Yup, that’s a flat tire.

It was actually a great place to have a flat tire, assuming we didn’t need any amenities. Which we didn’t. I happily walked Biska on the dirt roads while John changed the tire.

Here is John, hamming for the camera. He wasn’t worried. He had everything he needed, including a full sized spare.

He also had a tire repair kit and and an electric air pump. He fixed the flat and stowed it away, in case we had any future issues.

Ironically, during the time that John was fixing our tire, a tow truck came for another vehicle. I’m glad that wasn’t us. That car was barely drivable. The tow truck driver was able to drive it a couple of feet to get it lined up with his trailer, but it was making some crazy engine noise.

We were soon on our way. Thanks John, for being prepared and saving the day!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

It’s a sock hop in the kitchen

Everybody’s in socks!

These are not actually dog booties. They do make dog booties for dogs to wear in rough hiking conditions, to protect the undersides of their paws. But they don’t seem to make them small enough for poodle mixes. Apparently only big dogs go on tough hikes?

Most of the time the trails we take are not a problem for dogs. But sometimes, on the ice or harsh desert rock, dogs paws can get rubbed raw. We’ve had issues with it on sandstone in Utah before. But how are we going to find dog booties small enough to fit such a little dog?

You won’t believe it but…these socks were made for chair legs!

They are designed to protect your floors from scratches. I like them because they dampen the screechy noise of the chair legs being dragged across the tile when people sit down or get up. I am quite noise sensitive. The chair socks have a firm stretch to them, to fit various size chair legs. They are actually quite small and barely fit over our chunky rustic furniture. They are designed for thinner, sleeker, round chair legs.

But they fit great on our dog! Now we’re ready for Utah!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism

Starlink

Packing and moving! Too much stuff! Organizing! Selling houses! Still remodeling! John’s new job starts! And…we’re going on more trips!?

After John got his job offer from Raytheon, everything happened fast. He had 29 years worth of work at Sandia to somehow wrap up and pass off to colleagues. And he has been mostly living in Albuquerque every since the pandemic restrictions were lifted and he couldn’t work remotely from Tucson anymore. So half our stuff was still out in Albuquerque.

John wanted to get fully moved to Tucson before starting his new Tucson job. Raytheon was eager for him to start, but he pushed back on his start date as far as he felt he could, and we scheduled movers as fast as we could. We shipped his 4Runner to Tucson – I don’t know if I mentioned, but awhile ago somebody turned down the wrong way on a one-way street and ran into him. Everyone was ok, but his 4Runner is all bashed up. There was a long wait to get it fixed in Albuquerque so he had it shipped on a truck to Tucson, and we plan to get it fixed here.

While this was going on, one day, in mid-April, I decided that John really, really needed some sort of break! Everyone advises taking a long vacation between jobs, but when you’re in middle of moving, that’s not often realistic. There’s no time! But surely we could do something to help ease the stress of everything? We considered a brief trip to Hawaii, but even that seemed difficult.

John’s happy place is southern Utah. Only problem – huge swaths of southern Utah have no cell reception. And we were putting our house on the market and we had a tenant leaving one of the rentals, and John was in middle of all the logistics of retiring from Sandia and starting a new job. We couldn’t be unreachable, with completely no internet or cell tower. Not with a house on the market. Not with so much going on.

I had an idea. Earlier this winter, when I met Laura in Atascadero, I spent the night halfway at a campground in Joshua Tree. I had no cell reception there at all. But a young man I ended up talking to (because his off-leash dog came over and made friends with Biska), said he had been at the campground all week, working remotely using a Starlink. It uses satellites to provide a wifi link. He was able to keep up with his email and even join his zoom meetings from his campsite. I could see his Starlink on his picnic table, gleaming in the sun.

I was very impressed and determined to buy one. But then John told me that his brother has one and was unhappy with it. They’re expensive, and I wasn’t sure how often we’d use it, so I shelved the idea.

Now suddenly, we needed one! So I bit the bullet and ordered it. But I didn’t think it would arrive in time. The website said it could be several weeks before it even shipped. Oh, well, we’ll have it for next time.

It arrived unexpectedly quickly – one day before we had wanted to leave on the trip. We could do our trip after all. We could have internet, from anywhere! Even Utah!

I took photos as I unpacked it. I needed to remember how to repack it, if we had to send it back.

Setting it up was surprisingly easy. There was no instruction manual. I downloaded the app on my phone and the app walked me through it.

Here I have it set up in the backyard to test it. It automatically tilts to face the correct part of the sky.

Wow, that’s a good read-out!

Utah, here we come!

My next set of posts are going to be a series about our trip to Utah. Some of you know I have also been to Ann Arbor and back since then. I’ll write about that later. Utah, then Ann Arbor. Lots to post!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Kristina’s Website: Life Coaching for Adults with Autism