SHOES

AAugh! I just paid $250 for shoes, and they're not even pretty! I'm not sure what happened, I took the truck into the shop for an A/C fix. Then, I think I walked across the street to the shoe store, and the owner started measuring my feet, then telling me what I needed. He explained how my feet have grown, my arches have fallen, and showed me the ugliest sandals I've ever seen. I felt like I was just cruising to 80 instead of my mid 50's, and kept looking longingly to a pair of cute sandals on a nearby stand.

After I tried on the ugly sandals, yes, they were comfortable but eeww! So then he sprung the trap, he pulled a pair of cool tennies out of the box, slipped a pair of arch supports into the sole, and put them on my feet. I stood up, walked around, and oh my heavens.... I realized I couldn't take them off. I tried to figure out how to walk out of the store in them. They are shiny, which is good, and have air conditioning fabric, and now I have to walk every day to justify buying them. Yes, I bought them without any hesitation! What was I thinking??? Oh yeah, that it was the most comfortable my feet have been in years. Well, off to my very expensive walk!

Back to the Grind

OK, OK, I really don't have much of a grind, I don't have to be at work at 8 a.m. any more, no dealing with irate attorneys, explaining to judges about what is happening with probationers, fielding a myriad of phone calls. I don' t have to tell a probationer to 'drop a UA' (yes, I did that at least once a week), get a job, go back to court. It's not that kind of grind... but laundry, cleaning the kitchen, feeding the dogs, creating a life without work can still be a grind. Trying to figure out a daily routine without a job is weird. I know, I haven't worked for four years now, but I still haven't figured out a routine. I do manage to sleep every day, that's just a necessity of my life. Sometimes it's a quick nap, other days it's a couple hours in the morning, another in the afternoon. Some might think that's luxurious, I know I used to dream about getting enough sleep, but I'd rather be working, or sewing, hiking, etc.

One of the reasons I love to knit is that I can accomplish something every day, even if I can only sit in my recliner and knit. I don't like being useless, and for many years, the fibromyalgia has given me the sense that I can't do very much. I've been so tired for the past 20 years, it was an effort to get out of bed, and yet I worked, held leadership positions, raised 3 kid, loved my husband and tried to be a good friend. I haven't always done them well, but I've given it my best effort. It's nice to be able to take better care of myself the last few years, but I still hate to be tied down to my physical reality. Yet, there are so many people that have it worse, I can't complain. I'm very blessed, I have a great husband, children, home, friends and family. I love them, and thank God every day.

We spent the weekend at Mom's place, south of Maricopa. Saturday David and Nic finished the duct-work for the cooler, then we had dinner at Hap's. He and Sandy are amazing cooks, and have built an outside kitchen! They got Tyde an above-ground swimming pool for his birthday, and it's right next to the kitchen, so they can cook, socialize, and watch the kids in the pool. Hap had caught Sea Bass last weekend in Mexico, and grilled it, along with homemade sausage. Debbie and Kim came over, so it was a nice family party, except Allison and Eric couldn't be there. One of these days they plan to move to AZ, I can't wait, I miss her so much. It was a great family get-together, and Mom's cooler works really well. It's already 103 degrees there, so she's pretty happy to have it all put together. All in all, a very nice weekend!

30 seconds of Fame

Well, I got mine! Yup, I was on TV tonight, and not on the 6 o'clock news, thank goodness. PBS aired "Arizona in the 70's", and my thoughts were actually included! All together, I had about a minute of time throughout the one hour program, so I must be famous, right??

Considering that I was still recovering from 2 major surgeries, I didn't look too bad, although my voice sounds awful... cackly sounding, really. Oh well, it was fun and I'm glad I had the chance to be part of the program. A clip of mine was right in front of Alice Cooper, so I was in pretty heady company! I fit right in with Wallace, Ladmo and Gerald....

My only complaint is that they didn't talk about the Prescott 4th of July Rodeo, we talked about that quite a bit, and I was trying to plug the rodeo. They stuck to the typical 70's fare- hippies, rock and roll, Phoenix and Tucson. There wasn't much about the rest of the state, as usual. But they did use the pictures of the ranch, and Dad with a horse, so that's something outside of the norm, I guess. One fun part of the program was about tubing the Salt River. I know a lot of us shared that experience and have great memories of it.

Midwest meandering

Well, I'm home now, but here's some of the happenings from the road. We didn't have much internet access the last week of our trip, so I couldn't keep the blog updated. I found the Samuel and Sarah Cramblit's headstone in the Shaul Cemetery in Ottumwa, Iowa. It was a beautiful headstone, and a beautiful cemetery too. I was so moved by the experience of walking where the family walked, paying respects to the resting place of my ancestors, and standing where family that I've never met have also stood, paying their respects. We went right before Memorial Day, and there were flags, flowers and other momentos on many graves. We left flowers as well. Samuel and Sarah were the only Cramblit's in the whole cemetery, I don't know if anyone visits them or not, so I'm glad we could leave flowers there. We went to Des Moines that afternoon, and I obtained a copy of Richard H. Matthews death certificate, so I accomplished that goal too. I was so worn out by then, and it was raining, so we didn't look for the cemetery for him, but I felt I met my objective and was really ready to stop doing research.

We were all ready to move on, and took I-80 straight west to Omaha, Nebraska. That is an LDS church history site, where many pioneers stopped for the winter before making the last westward trek to Salt Lake. We camped right near the Missouri River in a city campground. The area was beautiful, and someone came around every night selling firewood. They sell walnut and oak, split and dried. We had a cozy, occasionally smokey, campfire that night. I decided not to sleep outside, and about 2:00 am I heard a terrific crack of thunder. It started on the right, and split the night all the way across the left side of us, for miles it seemed. Julie had been sleeping on a cot outside, and came busting through the door while that clap of thunder was still rolling across the countryside. There was a helacious storm that night, it really rocked the place. We were lucky, we just got rain, wind, lightening and thunder. A tornado touched down in Windsor, Colorado that wiped out miles of homes, killing one person, from the very same storm. Friday it was still raining, and we decided we'd had enough. We left Omaha, heading west, determined not to stop until we found the sun!

Speaking of storms, we were in the thick of some crazy weather the whole trip, but the Lord looked out for us throughout our journey. We were 60 miles north of tornadoes while in Ohio, just missed the flooding in Ohio, Iowa and Illinois. While we were traveling across Nebraska
there were tornadoes in Iowa, where we had recently left. We drove into Ft. Collins, which is just a few miles from Windsor, the day after that terrible tornado. It was a mile wide, and plowed through 35 miles of land and houses before it finally died. Throughout our trip we had a lot of rain and some wind, but amazingly nothing more serious than a little hail.

We spent Memorial Day in Albuquerque, NM. Julie's daughter lives there, so it was a good place to stop for a day. We were all ready for a break from the non-stop driving, and I didn't want to be on the road on the holiday. Monday Mom and I found a casino, and she played there for several hours. They had a great lunch buffet, and I took a luxurious nap. Julie, Laurie and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie- pretty great day overall. We were up and gone at dawn, and arrived in Cottonwood safe and sound on Tuesday. It's been a wonderful experience! I love traveling with Mom, she is so much fun, and nothing really fazes her at all. Julie is always a blast to be around, our friendship has only strengthened over the many years. I have so much research to organize and document on my computer! Some will go onto my ancestry.com site, a lot of it will go into my notes until I can put the families together, a piece at a time.

Although my corral-on-motorhome idea didn't pan out, Arizona actually got rain in May too, not a common experience. I'm glad that the sun is shining, I've had quite enough rain for this spring! By July I'll be wishing there was just a little bit more, but right now the weather here is perfect- high 80's, 10% humidity and lots of sunshine. I'm a desert rat- Long live Arizona!!

Greetings from Iowa!

Wow, have I been busy the past few days! And, I haven't had internet service, that's awful! It's not as critical as, say, water... but please, my life has become so much better with internet. We have been in every county courthouse in the area. Today it is Wapello County, and we found some great family records. It's a beautiful old, turn-of-the-century stone building, so elegant. Mom spent the morning helping me, and Julie worked the afternoon shift. We found my great grandparents' wedding license and certificate. Turns out, they had to hurry, because my grandma was born 7 months after the wedding. I can almost see the shotgun in the wagon as the nuptuals commenced at the courthouse. All four parents had signed an affidavit confirming that they consented to the marriage, and the original affidavits are attached to the marriage license, darkened with age, but I can still read everyone's signatures and the printed form. Pretty cool!



Some people have asked who Julie is. She is one of my oldest and dearest friends, we met in high school when her folks moved from hustling LA area to backwater Prescott. It was a tough change for her, from surfer-girl to nowhere-ville. But we hit it off, and have been chums ever since. When she learned about our trip, she wanted to come along, so she flew into Columbus Ohio on the 12th, and came along for the adventure.



Ottumwa is a charming midwestern town, it's not quite a city, although it's a bustling place. We are staying in the Ottumwa Park, which has a lot of electric sites. Today we are visiting the Shaul Cemetery here, then off to Des Moines to find Mom's great-grandfather. He's hiding up there somewhere, and I'm determined to find him...