NORTH AMERICAN ROAD TRIP 2023 PART II

I finally left Benicia on June 1st and drove my Kia to visit Aleks and Michelle at their sheep ranch in Fiddletown. Their border collie, Polly, had had puppies and two of them were still unsold. They intended to keep one of them to help with the sheep, but were looking for a home for the second one. Sharkey, as he was called, really needed his own person and attached himself to me. He was adorable, but I really couldn't have a dog. I spent several days with Aleks and Michelle. It had been too long since I'd seen them. I helped them run the farmer's market on Sunday morning, collected eggs, and wrestled goats that had got their horns stuck in the fence. It was a relaxing interlude.

Fiddletown Moon

Near Carson Pass

On June 5th, I left Fiddletown and drove over Carson Pass and into Nevada. There was still a lot of snow on the mountains and I had plenty of time to admire it while traffic stopped to allow equipment for road work to be delivered via helicopter. I was headed to Meadview, AZ, to visit my friends, Jan and Ramona. I had expected to drive down 395, but Google took me a more direct route through Nevada. It was very hot. It had been chilly in Benicia, so I didn't realize my air conditioner wasn't working until I drove across the desert. It got so hot in the car that I had to put my phone in the ice chest to keep it from overheating. When I got out of the car to buy gas, it was 100 degrees outside and felt refreshingly cool. It had to have been 120 degrees in that car.

Driving Across Nevada

Meadview, AZ

I drove all day through the heat and finally arrived at Jan and Ramona's just in time for dinner. My mission for the following day was to get my air conditioner fixed. The Kia dealer in Kingman, AZ, agreed to look at my car that afternoon. They told me that the driver's side condenser had leaked and needed to be replaced. It would have taken five days to get parts to Kingman. I took their parts list and decided I would order the parts when I managed to make a repair appointment somewhere along my route. By the time I got back to Meadview, it was too late to call around. I spent another pleasant evening with my friends.

Ramona and Jan

Sunset in Meadview

The morning of the 7th, I left Meadview and drove across Arizona and New Mexico to Albuquerque. It was hot, but at least I was prepared and had remembered that my car had ventilated seats, which helped to cool the phone. I had agreed to meet my cousin in Oklahoma City on Friday, the 9th, so had booked two nights at an AirBnB in Albuquerque. My hosts were friendly and accommodating and I enjoyed talking with them and their other guests. They rented three rooms in their suburban home. It was comfortable and the air conditioning worked.

My AirBnB in Albuquerque

I spent a large part of the next morning calling Kia dealerships along my route, trying to make an appointment to fix my A/C. All of them reported being booked up two weeks out. I finally managed to make an appointment in Durham, NC, during the time I would be there. I ordered the parts to be delivered there so there would be no delay, or so I thought. With an afternoon to kill in suburban Albuquerque, I went to see Disney's live action The Little Mermaid and visited Trader Joe's to buy a salad for dinner and snacks for the road. I spent the evening watching Netflix. It felt good to be alone for a change.

Driving Across Oklahoma

Tiffany Collects Great Pyrennes

My drive to Oklahoma was uneventful. I hadn't seen my cousin, Tiffany, since she visited me in La Cruz in 2015. I had never met her partner, John. He was also a west coast liberal and I could see how they had gravitated to each other. Tiffany, who is a social worker, had agreed to take care of client's three-year-old for a few weeks a year before. The child was still living with them and Tiffany had petitioned for custody. Between the active little girl and four dogs, Tiffany's house was a busy place.

The Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City`

Inside the Cowboy Museum

Saturday, we went to the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City. Tiffany had never been there and it was the only suggestion she had for entertaining a visitor. We arrived on the day of the annual art show and all the artists with pieces in the exhibit were present. The place was packed. Each year, one piece was selected from the annual show to be included in the permanent collection. It was interesting to look at the selection and compare it to the pieces in the permanent collection. It was apparent that some of the pieces in the collection had been selected during slow years, as some of them were quite mundane. There was a lot of Native American art and I was surprised to see a Huichol Darth Vader included in the display of Native American beadwork.

Huichol Darth Vader 

Tiffany and I went out for salads after the museum and had a chance to talk. It was good to see her and I enjoyed meeting John, but I felt like I was in the way. John's three children were due to return on Sunday night, so I left a day earlier than I had planned and continued on to my brother's house in Henderson, TN.

Abigail, the Parrot

My brother, Jim, lives in a rural area with his girlfriend, Diane and his parrot, Abigail. Abigail dominates the house as parrots will. She is quite the talker, although she never deigned to speak to me. My brother had just bought a new Corvette the day before I arrived. There is not a lot to do in Henderson, TN. We cruised the Corvette into town to pick up the mail and do errands. One day, we took Jim's offroad vehicle for a drive around Chickasaw State Park. It was very green, since it had been raining.

My Brother's New Corvette

Chickasaw State Park

My Brother in His Polaris

My brother feeds the local birds, squirrels, and even a young raccoon he calls Bandit. We spent an entire day sitting on his deck, watching the animals, and talking. Diane worked during the day, but we spent time together in the evenings, eating dinner, and watching TV. I hadn't seen my brother since Christmas of 2015, so we needed time to catch up. I realized that I should visit more often.

Me, Diane, and Jim at Brenda's Kitchen

Saturday morning, we went out to breakfast at the local cafe and then I took off for Asheville, NC. It was a pretty drive across Tennessee and up into the Blue Ridge Mountains. My friend, Cynthia, had nowhere to put me, so I booked a hotel for the night and agreed to meet her in the morning. I needed to visit an ATM. I walked to the nearest one, about a mile from my hotel, and found it closed for repairs. I backtracked to a Chipotle, ate dinner, and then returned to the ATM. Fortunately, it was then operable. I got cash and walked back to the hotel. It was the most exercise I had had in weeks.

Sunday morning, I met up with Cynthia. We visited for awhile and then took her dog, Zia, for a nice walk around downtown Asheville before eating a delicious lunch at a vegetarian restaurant. It had been many years since I had seen Cynthia and there had been many changes in both our lives, so it was good to catch up.

My Niece's Guest House

I was going to North Carolina to see my niece, Renee, but she had gone on a cruise and wasn't due back until Monday night. I had arranged to spend the intervening time with my former sister-in-law, Gaylene. While we had always maintained a family connection, any time we had spent together had always been in the presence of Renee and/or my mother. This was the first time we had ever spent any time alone together. While Gaylene is five years younger than my brother, he and I are 16 years apart.  This has  always made him seem like an older generation and I guess I had lumped Gaylene together with him. Left to ourselves, Gaylene and I felt more like peers and had a good time. Gaylene installed me in the guest house on Renee's property. Gaylene lived in a charming remodeled house on an adjoining piece of property. The establishment's thirty acres and the rain made it necessary to drive from house to house. I was given the use of Renee's car.

My mission on Monday was to deliver my Kia to the dealership in Durham. After charging me $299 for a diagnostic, they informed me that the trouble with my air conditioner was not a leaky condenser, but a damaged air conditioner radiator. Repairing it would require four days to get parts and another $600 in parts, not to mention $1100 in labor. They did not want to refund the $600 I had already paid for the parts recommended by the dealership in AZ. I pitched what I would describe as a very quiet and polite fit, eventually convincing them to exchange the parts I had already purchased for the correct ones and to expedite their delivery. I needed to leave Durham by Friday because I had non-refundable reservations further down the line. Gaylene and I spent the afternoon touring Renee's impressive home and going through the photos I had mailed to Renee before I left for Mexico in 2021. She made me a nice salmon dinner and we enjoyed a glass of wine and relaxed. Renee's flight home from Miami was cancelled due to bad weather and not rescheduled until the following night.

Walking Path at Duke University

Tuesday, it was still raining and we decided it would be a good idea to go to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. When we got there, we discovered they were closed on Tuesdays. It rained so hard that we were trapped in the entry until the cloudburst passed. We headed back to Durham and ate lunch in a roadside cafe/specialty grocery store that served up delicious chicken soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. We took two slices of quiche with us to have for dinner, but the lunch was so filling that we just ate a little salad when dinnertime rolled around. Later, it stopped raining enough for us to get in a nice walk around the Duke University grounds.   Renee's flight was, once again, cancelled.

Wednesday, Gaylene took me to her excercise class on the campus of Duke University. Renee and her husband, Ralph, employ a Mexican couple to care for their property. I had met them the day before and they were surprised to meet a family member who lived in Mexico and spoke Spanish. The wife, Silvia, and her two children picked me up from the gym and took me out to lunch at the local Mexican grocery store and cafeteria. It was a little early for lunch for me, but I couldn't resist ordering one lamb taco. We chatted away in Spanish and the whole experience felt like a little slice of home after having been away for six weeks. Silvia returned me to Gaylene's house and we all agreed to meet for dinner at my house, later that night.

Gaylene and I paid a more successful visit to the art museum that afternoon. The featured exhibit was Ruth E. Carter's Afrofuturism in Costume Design and included the original costumes from Black Panther as well as other films. The costumes were amazingly detailed and some elements had actually been 3D printed. We were very impressed.

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The Family in "My" Kitchen

Back at my place, Silvia, Rafael, and their two children arrived bearing chicken mole and rice. We contributed a salad and sorbet for desert. Silvia even made a pitcher of Jamaica to drink. We had a boisterous family dinner and then I played some music for everyone on my guitar. Renee was still trapped in their condo on Fisher Island, but we were making do without her.

We drove Renee's car to the airport to fetch Renee and Ralph on Thursday morning. Ralph had managed to step on a piece of wire while on their cruise and it had become imbedded in his foot. We left him at the Duke University clinic and took Renee home. We collected the quiche we had never eaten and shared that with Renee for lunch. She needed a nap, so we left her, picked up my poor car from the Kia dealership, and reconvened later to go through the family photos with Renee and Ralph. Renee, Gaylene, and I went out for a Greek dinner.

Me, Gaylene, and Renee at Dinner

I had originally intended to drive to Wilmington on Thursday to see my nephew, Philip, but Renee's flight delays made that impossible. He and I both had other places to be on Friday and so we had to scratch getting together, which was a disappointment.

Renee and I got together for a walk on Friday morning before saying goodbye to everyone. I hoped it wouldn't be another eight years before I saw them again. Durham wasn't any farther from Mexico than California and I urged them to visit me, also.