One by one, many of the moving parts of our journey have fallen off by the wayside, like furniture and bedding lashed to the back of a 1923 Ford pickup driving west from the Dust Bowl, left by the side of the highway in our urgent quest for a goal with no known reward except… Continue reading Regeneration
The day after we arrived at Convict Lake, we spent time at the Wild Willys Hot Springs south of Mammoth Lakes. By the campfire at Convict Lake. Today at the city park in Bishop, CA waiting to drop dogs at sitter.
Mount Whitney and the high Sierras, viewed on our way north to Convict Lake campground.
Another snag overcome. The transmission in the camper failed just as we arrived in Chino Hills, so I rented an SUV to complete the trip to Mirror Lake while the camper is repaired. When I went to Enterprise to pick it up, I learned that someone broke into the car reserved for us, and instead… Continue reading Another Obstacle
Lauren utters a Primal Scream to an indifferent Grand Canyon.
I passed this place in the middle of the night with Diane in 1999. Who could forget the name? This time we stopped.
Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is covered with more than 10,000 mirrors, each the size of a small house, that track the sun throughout the day and focus it on a receiver filled with molten salt. The salt, heated to almost 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, stores the energy as heat, so it’s always ready when it’s… Continue reading Helios
Our official greeter at the entrance to Grand Canyon NP
Heidi wants to ride shotgun down the canyon.
We got the windshield fixed, had the BEST Indian lunch ever, went to the Goodwill in flagstaff (yes, really), and finally met my friend Ruth in person for great coffee and even better conversation! Thank you Ruth for your offer of hospitality and the stimulating chat. — Lauren
Just goofing around in Monument Valley.
So we are in the middle of a completely wireless desert in the middle of a Navajo reservation, no towns, no gas stations, and a truck passes and kicks off a huge rock which smashes through our windshield directly in my dad's face, shattering glass over us both and all the way into the back… Continue reading The Desert Rocks Us
Total and utter silence. No cars, no birds, no wind, one plane in all the time we've been here. Here in the high desert, our generator had issues. We are watching the last light, eating a cold dinner, toasting with dark and stormies and really listening to nothing.
We made it. Goosenecks State Park. Take a gander.
What a contrast between yesterday and today. Rocky Mountain National Park to Arches National Park in 2 days.
Always walk as far away from the campground as possible. Here is today's sunrise and some tracking photos. — Lauren
The Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park goes above timberline for miles, up to 12,183 feet above sea level, through 8-foot deep snow banks and wide open expanses of arctic tundra, surrounded by snow capped peaks at the same elevation. Mind-blowing. To see that in the High Sierras, you have to walk many… Continue reading Rocky Mountain NP
Van is fixed! Heading for Estes, then RM National Park to camp. Yay!!! Thank you Charlie K. for your help and your company, and for introducing us to your amazing GF. Please tell Erin thank you for her hospitality and the cbd topical oil!!! — Lauren
So that just happened. Dad and I left the interstate for US 30, the nation's first coast to coast highway, which his grandfather helped to build. I saw a cool rusted train stop, so hurriedly pulled over under an overpass. As I walked back toward my desired shot, I noticed a giant swirl, a cacophony… Continue reading Jacob
Back on the road towards Sutherland Nebraska then on towards Boulder Colorado!
A Song of Ascents. I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountains: From whence shall my help come?
Another milestone Boulder street scene
Lived here with my grandparents at an early age, and spent a summer at 18. My grandparents' grave in Grant, Nebraska The Truitt house, 2018.
Sunup in Iowa. Previous campers noted that this place was surrounded by a soybean field. The bean field is planted in corn this year.
I think it was my mom who reminded us all that we should never miss a sunset because we'd never know which was our last. My sister reminded us when my mom's memory faded. For the last few years of my sister's life, our extended family would send texts for sunset alerts. — by Lauren
Drive over for the day, after a brisk walk around the edge of the service area, it's reading time. This is why we don't need a satellite TV antenna.
Passed a billboard on PA Turnpike West: JESUS Live on Stage Some show that must be.
Rolling along
Sunshine and relaxation. Driver, more music!
We planned to travel by highway, driving the self-contained camper I bought in 2012 to travel with Diane. Our Roadtrek camper is a 19-foot conversion van. It contains two narrow beds eighteen inches apart, on opposite sides at the back. It has a generator, small refrigerator, propane stove, microwave, hot and cold running water, a… Continue reading How we started
Almost finished with the basic preparations. Tomorrow I will take the camper to the Dodge dealer, and have them check the brakes and a rattle that I don't like to hear. Today I finished replacing the battery inside the coach; it powers the interior lights, pump, and so forth. After this, just a matter of… Continue reading Getting Ready
These are the traveling carriers for Jennifer and Diane's ashes.
We leave in nine days. I have some anxiety setting in. I have been running from my emotions since my mothers death. My time is almost entirely spent preoccupied. I've realized I will be forced to sit quietly with thoughts and feelings I have shoved down quite deeply. I anticipate a moment at the grand… Continue reading Primal Scream
Here's a map of our hike. The trail starts at Whitney Portal, top right, at 8,200 feet elevation. We go to Mirror Lake, 4 miles and 2,400 feet higher (highlighted).
Some good news for us, not necessarily for Californians. The snowpack in the Mount Whitney area is less than 15% of average. That means the trail should be clear of snow as far as we want to go.
While Diane was alive, I kept myself in good physical condition for two reasons. First, I knew I would have to be in good health to give her the care she would need. I had gradually assumed more and more of the role of caregiver as her health problems multiplied, starting with autoimmune disease in… Continue reading A new stage in life
We conceived this trip as a twofold purpose: One, to take Diane's ashes back to the place where she and I met more than 50 years ago, to complete a sacred circle. Two, to undertake a journey of discovery, a pilgimage, prefatory to beginning new lives in the future in which we have been thrust… Continue reading The journey
I thought about the last words Diane wrote to me, when I went on a solo trip to Vermont in July, 2017. She wrote on a birthday card for me, in her shaky hand, "Ron, I love you. Thank you forever. I hope you are in good condition. And come home to me soon." Then… Continue reading Diane’s words
Well, that's a long story. I hope to bring it to you in a way you'll enjoy. The impetus for this blog began in 2018, when my wife Diane left this world after a prolonged struggle with vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. I cared for her at home full-time for the last six years of… Continue reading Who Am I? What is This All About?
— by Diane March 18, 2008 I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 11, 1939. Years later, I found my parents marriage license which had the year of their marriage as November 1939 but it was scratched out and over written with the year 1938. So my mother was an unmarried woman when she… Continue reading As Darkness Falls
— by Diane It was a time when we each believed ourselves to be exactly what we then were. He, more accomplished than I: having served in the army, parachuting out of airplanes, ex-high school football player, GI Bill college student, tall, maybe good looking, looking, lonely and horny-for the right girl-looking. Me: more worldly,verbal… Continue reading Who We Were
— by Diane My mother got pregnant with me after the death of her mother, three months before. The relationship between my father and my mother was probably based on my father's strong sexual attraction to my mother, and by her need to fill the empty space in her life when her mother, the last… Continue reading My Beginning
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