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| Loading the Triumph onto the trailer |
Mike
and I have just returned from a nine-day stay with our Colorado son Yancey and family.
The purpose of the trip was to finish the Colorado counties moto-caching
challenge (traveling to geocaches on a motorcycle and successfully logging one
cache in each county). I’m happy to report that this mission was accomplished.
It cost two years of intense planning, two trips to Colorado, 5300 miles on the motorcycle, beautiful scenery, and
experiences positive and negative.
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| Emmy and Bess |
Traveling
the interstate on a motorcycle is tedious, so this year Mike trailered his
Triumph, pulling it with our old Dakota. And so, it morphed into an opportunity
for me and the dogs to go. The family graciously allowed us to stay at their
house where I set up my sewing operation on their dining room table and walked
the dogs three and four times a day.
If
you check here frequently, you know that what I left behind was the muse. The
muse disappears in times of stress, and it wasn’t an easy trip.
We
left Thursday, July 30 – seems like a hundred years ago. The first day we
stopped in Twin Falls, Idaho, and as we settled into the motel, Mike discovered
he had inadvertently left his driver’s license at home. As luck would have it,
son Clint was in town and agreed to overnight it to Colorado. It was waiting
for us when we arrived on Saturday.
Okay
– so that was the first challenge. The second was a fire on I-80 that held us
up for 90 minutes on that hot Friday afternoon near Rock Springs, Wyoming. We
sat with the eastbound traffic watching from a distance as a semi burned – and did
it ever burn!
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| Bess and Nellie in Wyoming |
We
were going to spend the night in Rock Springs but decided it was too early to
stop. We drove a couple more hours to Rawlins. Checking email, I panicked when
I saw a message from Sears stating that they would exchange the refrigerator on
Monday, August 3. Frankly, we had given up on this since Sears had said they
would call us July 14 to provide a delivery date, and that didn’t happen. Of
course, we wouldn’t be home on the 3rd, but I was unable to log into
the Sears site to make changes and no phone number was provided. Eventually we
were able to reach Sears through the “800” customer service number. It wasn’t
easy, but by pleading with the rep, Mike was able to get the date changed to
Monday, August 17. (And now I have email confirmation of same.)
Well, as if that wasn't enough, we received a call from Mike’s sister advising us
that their mother, Bennie, passed away that day (Friday, July 31) in Memphis, just
16 days short of her 101st birthday. Frankly, she left us
years ago, so this was not unexpected or even sad. But –
arrangements had to be made and discussion ensued. As it stands now, the
memorial service will be Saturday, August 22, at her church home in Camden,
Arkansas. Mike and sons Murray and Yancey will attend.
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| Yancey & Mike prepare to leave |
Arriving
in the Denver area on Saturday, August 1, we discovered that Yancey had just
returned from a nine-day stay with a family member in crisis and would now have another
week away from work in order to travel with Mike. He had it all worked out, but
it was a strain on the family, and we’re grateful to all of them for making it
possible to continue the moto-caching trip.
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| Mike with the final cache |
We
left Denver at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 9, and drove to Rock Springs. We
reached Boise mid-afternoon on Monday, and Mike said he felt good and thought
we should continue home. I was overjoyed! “The dogs are being so good,” said
Mike. “They know we’re going home,” I replied. Upon arriving here, Nellie was so
happy that she actually ran. Bess also got out and explored but affirmed her
love of the pick-up by hopping right back in. KW
