On my way!

 A few hours after this is posted, we'll start loading the U-Haul truck to trek out to Colorado (about 1800 miles). My son will do most of the driving, and my other 2 sons helped by paying for his flight here, as well as the U-Haul truck. Great family to pitch in to help the mom hopefully live where the air is dry and one son is just an hour away.

Mum will take care of the food and gas, and pay the motel bills for probably 3-4 nights on our journey. Such an adventure!

Back in 2019, I drove with a friend behind the wheel out to Albuquerque NM and then rented a car to drive to Cortez CO. I'm not sure if we'll be going the same route, but planning on going west on I-40 for quite a while this time.

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You need to know when I travel I have to have nebulizer (inhaling 2 different drugs) to use morning and night, as well as the C-Pap with distilled water. These two devices go into one carrying case. Plus a gallon jug of water and the breathing drugs.

Now I am sleeping with added oxygen with the C-Pap, which means having the floor concentrator version (on wheels) brought in from car, then pulled back out each morning. This was part of the reason I decided not to fly out to Colorado! All of these devices need electricity to run!

I am so glad Tai will be with me for some of the hauling each night in motels. I always use my handy little cart to carry my various packs and small luggage. Now that I can read blogs on the iPad, I won't bother toting the laptop in and out of motels.

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Here's the target of the journey, myself to move into an apartment in Durango (on the right on this map). We'll overshoot it when we first get there to go to my son's and his wife's home in Cortez, 46 miles further west along the blue line. That's because I won't sign the lease till Monday morning at 10 am, and then we can unload the truck. We hope to arrive on Sunday, while the office is closed.

So I started working backward from moving in. What will I sleep on, since I gave away my 11 year old bed? I've got a nice queen size blow up bed, which automatically blows itself up. I even have bedding that size, including a mattress pad. Hope to purchase a new real bed within a short time.

Food will need to be purchased for fresh things, but I've 5-6 milk crates of canned and packaged things to get by on. Including boxes of almond milk for my granola! The trick will just be finding things...but I've packed food in those black plastic crates, and have a few bowls, mugs, spoons left for last packing and hopfully first unpacking!

I've traveled to visit my three sons and their families often ever since they've lived on their own...since they had bigger homes and I only had a guest air mattress if that. So I'm used to packing for the motel stops, the frequent stretch legs and use facilities stops, and driving driving driving! It will be nice to be the passenger. I need to remind myself to wiggle my feet frequently so my ankles don't swell up from lack of movements.

The main new elements are the coughing which happens most when I get tired, and the need for oxygen for sleeping, or when working on things that strain me. (I am ok getting a little out of breath but not a lot!!)  I have an appointment with my new pulmonologist just 3 days after I move in! Nice!

Of course I will have to use oxygen most of the time while unpacking, especially since the altitude of 6500 feet will also give less oxygen. Will move very slowly! No carrying heavy things!

So that's the plan, Sam. Get on the track, Jack. No need to be coy, Roy...

do you know the next part of the song by Paul Simon?

Just set yourself free!!

by Deseria Price, near Silverton CO

There's a narrow gauge railroad from Durango to Silverton CO...which runs along down the hill from my new apartment. Sometime I'll take that ride with all the other tourists!

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OK what's a post without a quote?

Yes, this is Durango CO...not my photo, but excellent to consider those mountains! When I've looked at Google maps, they just don't show the elevations worth a hoot!

Some photos of a hike by others

 Thanks for posting these,  (on Facebook) from Kentucky!

Jennifer Rice Sullivan - Indian Staircase (in Red River Gorge)

Jennifer Rice Sullivan- Indian Arch

Jennifer Rice Sullivan Adena Arch

Jennifer Rice Sullivan people on Indian Staircase, Red river Gorge KY

I recently watched (for the 10th time at least) The Last of the Mohicans. It was filmed around Chimney Rock NC (now a state park)...and many of the scenes of the mountains are familiar to me...though I never climbed around on the rocks!

The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, a heart of grace, and a soul generated by love.

CORETTA SCOTT KING

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Serendipity is the word for the day. Or at least it was yesterday! Unexpected wonderful things happening (my definition.)

The pulmonology visit was scheduled for 10 am...and I arrived early as requested, only to find no doctor. He had a family emergency. Do I want to reschedule? 

I did not become hysterical. I did not even laugh out loud. I looked at the receptionist who already was having computer problems on a day which had just turned challenging for her, and said no, I would be out of state starting tomorrow. The dear gal asked what time I was leaving and tried to get me to see a PA early in the day. I thought just a short moment, then said, no I'm ok. I'll get an appointment where I'm going on the 30th with a new pulmonologist. I had waited 4 months for this appointment, and pretty much knew what to do to keep breathing...and have started using oxygen more often (like while I was standing there!) I just wished I had had a chance to say goodbye to my long standing provider...not sure but perhaps the whole 19 years I've lived here in NC.

So what then? Well, I was carrying a wad of cash (from frequent ATM visits) that I wanted to take to the bank in Black Mountain to change into larger bills, less wad! But here I was in Asheville near my credit union. Ah ha, she thought, I could just go by and deposit the cash to that account, then use that debit card as necessary on the road.

Which she did. Well, I did. Don't know why I became royal wee there. Need more Americano coffee!

Serendipity!

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OK It's 6:30 am, as I just added that note. Time to move things around again to be more portable, and almost emptying the apartment. Let's start with the refrigerator!

The schedule for today is as follows:
Clean out refrigerator...give away as many condiments as possible, toss the rest!

Give away plants and planters 

Finish packing everything except my clothes/necessities for a 4 day trip. Plan food for tomorrow to be loaded in cooler before leaving.

Pick up my son Tai from airport early afternoon.

Go pick up truck and car-dolly at UHaul.

Come home and see where vehicles can be parked in the hilly parking lot.

Sometime in there eat lunch and dinner.  Tai will probably go visit his old college friends who live here and stay the night there...and they will come tomorrow to help load the truck.

My last evening entertainment will be listening to a story on iPad. Or just sleeping!!

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Whatever music you beat on your drum there is somebody who can dance to it.

CHINUA ACHEBE

Take a walk, choose love

 

Wordsmith gives this word today…rather appropriate

auspicate

MEANING:

verb tr.: To begin an undertaking, especially with a ceremony intended to bring good luck.

The Breakfast Place in Swannanoa. My friend treated me to breakfast a few weeks ago when she needed a ride from dropping her car off to be fixed.

Good hardy breakfast, being enjoyed by a lot of single older men...and  decorated for Christmas all year long!

A recently renovated home in downtown Black Mountain. the brick driveway gives you a clue as to the luxury it will have.

While next door is a new home built on a steep slope, which isn't evident until you drive to the other side of it..t.

 Erigeron eximius, splendid daisy

Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more.

RITA DOVE  Before and after - Habitat sent a young woman, Elizabeth, and a young man, Rick. They carted both these dressers, a bookcase and an antique oak dining room table out to their truck. They don’t take beds just the frames. So it will be sent to dump via city pick up.

 The cluttered shelf comes apart completely.

Eating on high!

 Our Mt. Mitchell trip had a pinnacle event, (groan!) to have a picnic at the picnic grounds..

Plenty of tables, even handicap accessible, plenty of nearby parking. We ambled along until we found a shady spot with a view, and a bit of sun, since it was kind of windy at that point. (Thank heaven for the wind, which not only entertained us, but kept the tiny flies at bay - at least no biting!)

I tried making a 360 degree video...it isn't that great.

There are many dead trees in one area of the picnic grounds. The woolly adelgid continues to knock out perfectly healthy trees.

Aside: Adelges tsugae, the hemlock woolly adelgid or HWA, is an insect of the order Hemiptera native to East Asia. It feeds by sucking sap from hemlock and spruce trees. In its native range, HWA is not a serious pest because populations are managed by natural predators and parasitoids and by host resistance. In eastern North America it is a destructive pest that threatens the eastern hemlock and the Carolina hemlock. HWA is also found in western North America, where it has likely been present for thousands of years (See Wikipedia)

Evidence of HWA or Hemlock Woolly Adelgid - white patches on underside of branches.

 I thought at first this small rodent was a chipmunk...but no stripes. and a long tail.

So a baby squirrel with interest in the next table visited us, but was skittish enough to take off when we started talking about her.

Our prerequisite selfie...not sure who's on Teresa's shirt. I'm sure going to miss spending days with her and her granddaughter. But fortunately we can text, facetime phone visit, and phone call each other daily still! Making new friends (see below) but keeping the gold ones!

Wonderful young balsam trees growing. I could watch shadows of clouds crossing mountains in the distance all day.

I stopped for a shot with Madison after we'd had our lunches.

I found peanut butter and jelly on brioche bread were delicious, with a Coke Zero and Key Lime yogurt. Teresa packed PB&J and pickles, some pretzels and chocolate chip cookies for them. I shared some cookies I brought all around as well.

We ate "above it all!"

Yes, one of these vistas will become my header, when  I get tired of looking at the shot of Lake Tomahawk, which I just put up. Let's see, maybe a week from today? 

Sharing with Saturday's Critters (do pest beetles [woolly ageldids] count?) at least I found a wild squirrel!

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And oh yes, the fun part of Saturday (yesterday) was meeting Mary Moon and her daughter Jessie. Such a lovely time, even though short. Mary is just as she is on her blog, only taller than I thought she'd be, and oh so sweet, trim, beautiful, loving, and just the kind of friend who I hope I move next to in my new home. Can't I take her with me? Oh dear, guess her hubby might have something to say about that!

Barbara and Mary at Four Sisters in Black Mountain. (Soon to be thousands of miles apart, but still right here on their blogs!)

And yes, by 3:30 the dining table, two dressers and a book shelf had taken off in the Habitat truck. I tipped the workers $10 each and a Coke Zero...hope that was enough. Probably not... But they saw how I live, so most folks won't expect much from me. Just big gratitude!