Vancouver.

Vancouver is my home away from home. This is the place where I spend my summers. It's a good thing, since Oklahoma is so hot at this time of the year. Though, the past couple of days Vancouver has been experiencing it's own heat wave. And, without the aid of air conditioning, it is uncomfortable. At this point I am wishing for cool breezes and rainfall!

I arrived in Vancouver yesterday, after a frustrating day of driving. I have decided that Washington state drivers are the worst drivers in the United States. They really don't understand the concept of using the left lane on the hi way for passing slower traffic. They just stay in the left lane driving really slowly. People in Oklahoma do that too, and it annoys me to no end. They do it especially on the stretch of I-40 from OKC to Shawnee. My drive from Portland to Vancouver was long, the border crossing took almost an hour and then just trying to get to my family's home was an adventure in itself. I expressed some road rage as a young Chinese driver muscled his way into my lane, rather arrogantly. Usually I am accommodating towards people who are in the wrong lane during a bottle neck. But, this young man was rude in his behavior towards me. He not only got ahead of me through sheer force but also neglected to thank me for allowing him to get in front of me. I find lack of road etiquette to be disconcerting.  

Arriving at my family's home and being greeted by my two sisters melted away the stress of the long drive. Getting to eat homemade Indian food was even better! There is nothing like an evening spent in the company of loved ones, reminiscing about days gone by. Laughing, teasing the younger family members about childhood memories. Good times.

Tomorrow, I am going to spend time with my brother, sister in law, niece and nephew. We are planning on going to one of my favorite restaurants, eating as much as I possibly can. After lunch I will spend the rest of the day in their home, catching up.

Day at leisure.

Today, Sara and I went shopping downtown Portland. Every time I come to Portland Sara and I take a day out just for the two of us. We stop and have tea and just walk downtown, window shopping, looking at art galleries. I enjoy finding little treasures that will remind me of my visit here. More than that it's time spent with Sara that I enjoy the most. Since they live so far away, I don't get the opportunity to have quality time with her. We have great discussions about philosophy, politics and general musings about people. Both of us are people watchers and we have similar tastes. 

I always enjoy my time in Portland, I am looking forward to going to Vancouver, at the same time I am not anxious to leave Portland.

Portland at last!

I reached Portland today during the thick of the rush hour. After having had a great Indian dinner with my precious son and daughter in law, I feel very full and very sleepy right now. It was a long and tiring drive. When I am anxious to get someplace I find the journey gets to be less interesting and the destination becomes more important.  Even though I saw my son in May, it's always great to get to spend time with him. 

The drive to Portland from Boise was along the Columbia river, at times the mountains were lush with trees and other times quite barren. The day was hot, it felt uncomfortable. I always associate the northwest with cool temps and cool breezes. Neither were present. So, I drove with the top up and tried to get to Portland as quickly as possible. I may have enjoyed the scenery more if I wasn't in such a hurry to see my son.

I was only going to spend one evening here but as soon as I saw "that boy" as he is affectionately known, I decided to stay another day. Fortunately both my son and daughter in law were happy to have me stay an extra day. I am going to see them on the way back to Oklahoma too. I think tomorrow, a day of shopping is in order with Sara, my daughter in law. She is an artist too. We both enjoy going into art galleries and just plain window shopping.

More tomorrow...

Boise, Idaho

Well, this entry is being written from Boise. Tomorrow I will be in Portland to visit my son and daughter in law. The weather was mild enough today to have the top down for the entire day. The breeze was cool and the sky was clear and the road stretched out in front of me towards the horizon.

I left Porvo, Utah this morning headed west towards Salt Lake City. Most of my journey today was on the interstate hi-way, during the summer months these roads are always under construction and bottle necks are a plenty. It took quite a while to get out of Salt Lake, but once away from the city the traffic was minimal. The terrain was barren, lots of high hills but no trees. Just prairie grass. 

As I got close to Twin Falls, I decided to take a side tour to see the Snake River up close and personal. After all that is the reason one goes on a road trip, to make the schedule as one goes along. I took the exit for a small town called Rupert, I drove through the town looking for a way to get closer to the river. The very first rafting trip my children and I took was on Snake River. It was just a short two hour rafting trip, we enjoyed that so much that as a graduation present for my daughter Reina, we rafted the Colorado at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Now that is a rafting trip!

Well, today I wanted to see a different face of the river. I ended up at Walcott Lake, from there the ranger pointed me in the right direction. I found it meandering along through fertile farm land. I was able to drive along this pristine river. At one point I was able to go right to the bank of the river and put both my feet in. The water was clear and very cold. The river reminded me of the holy river Ganga in Haridwar, India.  I sat on the riverbank drank a cold Coke and ate fried potato wedges. The only time I allow myself to have junk food is on road trips. The rest of the time I am a model vegetarian!

I was able to share the moment with my daughter via phone, she called me as I sat on the riverbank. I marvel at the ingenuity of cell phones! I took pictures so I can show her when I get home where I was when we spoke. Sometimes it's really hard to be alone on the road, moments like today when you want to be able to turn to a loved one and marvel at the beauty before you. Other times-- I am fine about communing with nature by myself. After my brief sojourn, I drove along the river and headed back into town, from there I went onto Twin Falls  and took another detour towards the falls. Another spectacular image. An abundant amount of water rushing over large rock cliffs, falling with tremendous force.  So different than the dessert, arid landscape of yesterday. In only a day I have witnessed amazing variety. I am always dumbfounded by the beauty of this country. 

Arches National Park

Today was an awesome day! I did get up early... every so often it's not a bad idea to get out of bed early. I was on the road by 9:30 a.m. now-- by some standards that is not really early, by my standards it's early! I had already filled the car up the night before and had all the essentials ready i.e. camera battery charged up, phone battery charged, clothes laid out. Anticipation was high in the air. I started westward on 491 and then caught 191 north towards Moab. The two lane hi-way offered many passing lanes along the way and the little roadster was more than happy to kick into high gear and overtake everyone. I love that car! 

I stopped in Moab, this town is famous for more than one reason, Butch Cassidy and his wild Bunch stayed here. It is frequently the back drop for many movies. I picked up my lunch in Moab, the only handicap of being on the road in this country is my choice for breakfast, lunch and dinner is often limited. I pulled into Subway ordered a veggie sandwich to go. I took no napkins, no bag to carry the sandwich in. I am determined to add less trash to the world on my account. I carry a cloth napkin with me in the car, it's much more civilized!  Soon after leaving Moab, I took the exit for Arches National Park, paid my ten dollar fee to enter the park, stopped at the visitor center to ask pertinent questions from the rangers. I had allotted about six hours for the park and it seemed like it would be enough time to catch all the highlights of this amazing sculpture of mother nature.

This park has the largest number of natural stone arches formed by the weathering of openings in vertical slabs of sandstone. Magnificent is one word that comes to mind in describing this park. I am so glad that we have set aside natural treasures such as Arches for the citizens of this country as well as visitors. I was impressed by the fact that there was no trash floating around in the park anywhere. People were being respectful towards this natural treasure.

No matter in what direction I looked I was greeted with amazing views. I think I am at a loss for words. My spirit was refilled today. My eyes drank in the mesmerizing sights. I felt I was on another planet, maybe Mars looks like Arches National Park ? The red sandstone is so fine and so fragile and yet so imposing. The rocks stand guard against the wind, sun and rain, but slowly and gradually the rocks will succumb, and the terrain of Arches will change with time.

I saw giant boulders holding to their position precariously atop a monolith. Only a matter of time before it topples. At least the visitors today got to take a picture o balance rock, balancing! I hiked up to see "Delicate Arch" I saw it from a distance. I didn't have enough time to take the hike to the arch. Though, I was able to see other arches up close and personal. 

I have decided, this park is not really that far away from Oklahoma, and I do want to come back and devote some serious time hiking and taking my time to visit some of the places I was not able to see. So, I see another short road trip in the future to this destination. I do enjoy being outdoors and surrounded by beauty that has been formed by the elements. It's as if a giant sculpting tool in the hands of the immortals was responsible for the panorama I witnessed today. I am humbled.

Cortez CO.

I am in Cortez Colorado, near Mesa Verde National Park. I am not going to be able to go to Mesa Verde. I had to pick between National Arches Park and Mesa, so I opted for the Arches park. I will get there around noon tomorrow, most likely I will spend the entire day there and then head north towards Salt Lake City.

It was a good day of driving. After leaving Tucumcari this morning I headed west on I-40 towards Albuquerque, from there catching 550 north towards Cortez. This road is a four lane hi-way, the good thing about being on this road was not too many large eighteen wheelers. I was able to overtake everyone cruising at about a hundred miles per hour. The top was down in the car today, since it was a high of only 88 degrees. It felt good to have the wind blowing through my hair.  The road wove through mesas dotted with pine and pinion trees. Sage brush growing abundantly. The clouds hung low over the plateaus looking almost like snow topped mountains.

I do wish I had kept on driving and got a little closer to Arches, but I think I was ready for a break. I had not stopped for lunch, and I think that dictated my decision to stop. I will get an early start tomorrow, so that I can spend more time in the national park.

I had dinner tonight at Nero's here in Cortez. It's an Italian restaurant, the food was fresh and well prepared. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. I am always amused when the host or hostess is about to seat me, they ask, if I am to be joined by someone. Traveling alone, I often eat alone. I am used to eating alone. I have been single for a long time now and have traveled by myself often. I never think it's odd to eat alone. But, people do look at you in a strange manner. I always take that time in a restaurant to be one with my thoughts and observe people and wonder what their story is? I am dismayed when I see a married couple sitting across from one another hardly saying a word to each other over dinner. Maybe because I consider communication to be one of the greatest gifts one can give to another, I look upon silence as a lost opportunity. Or, perhaps losing two brothers and my father, I look at life in finite terms. I do look at time with a loved one as precious. I do see moments gone by as lost time forever. Time that can never be recaptured. I live my life by the rule: make every moment count, let the ones I love, know how I feel about them. And, whenever I do have someone sitting across the table from me, I always converse with my dinner companion-- no matter what.

Tucumcari NM!

This entry is coming to you from Tucumcari. My first memory of Tucumcari is the summer my sister and I decided to take a road trip from Oklahoma to Vancouver, Canada.... with three young children in tow all under the age of five! We stopped in Tucumcari to have lunch. It had to be at least a hundred degree day, very similar to what I am dealing with today. We came back to the car to find all the crayons they had been colouring with-- had melted! We found puddles of a rainbow of colurs. Needless to say I never did get wax colour or the smell of melted wax out of that car!

As, I look over the dessert plain of Tucumcari, I am transported back to when my children were so young. How quickly they grow up. I did want to retrace the original journey, but then decided, I needed to go to other areas of this fantastic country. Also, more often than not, nostalgia takes me to a sad place and I have to remind myself that children grow up, get married and begin their own lives. Just as I did when I moved away from my family in London. I now understand my mother's heartache. But, I am grateful for being able to talk to both my children often. And, with technology, I am able to stay in touch with them via the internet. For my mother and I, the only form of communication was letters, via snail mail!

Tomorrow, I am going to go to Mesa Verde National Park and then onto Arches National Park. Both places I have seen on the travel channel but didn't have the opportunity to explore before now. I do love the dessert vistas. I can see why the artist Georgia O'Keefe chose to live in New Mexico. As an artist, I can understand her desire to be surrounded by a bounty of beauty. It's rugged beauty. The sky here has such a different hue of blue, against the red dirt and sage bushes. Truly magnificent. The Mesas and Buttes jut from the ground as if to call attention to their stark presence. I would be very happy to stay anywhere in New Mexico or Arizona and paint all day long. Even if no one bought any of my paintings, I would be happy painting. However, it would be good to have unlimited funds in my bank account! 

As I was driving through the panhandle of Texas, I enjoyed seeing the flat plains. There are no gently rolling hills of Oklahoma, it's just plain flat!  The eye could see in a perfect 360 degree circumference. And, it was also easy to spot the Texas rangers in their speeding police cars. No way am I going to be surprised by a hi-way patrol car!

Well, I will write more tomorrow, It's good to be on the road again. I am singing the Willie Nelson song in my head.... good job, since I really don't know how to carry a tune! Until tomorrow...