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.

NORTH AMERICAN ROAD TRIP 2023 PART I

Judy Jensen

I usually only write when I am traveling, so my silence might have been interpreted as my not having done anything interesting, lately. That couldn't be further from the truth. I drove about eleven thousand miles over two months, from Mexico to California, across the United States as far as Georgia, back to California and then back to Mexico. Then I turned around and sailed from Mazatlan to Ensenada.  Unfortunately, on the day following my departure, my dear friend, Judy Jensen, suffered complications from spinal surgery, fell into a coma and ultimately succumbed to the cascade of organ failures that played out over the next month. I just couldn't bring myself to write about my adventures while this was happening. Instead, I was glued to my phone, praying for hopeful updates. It was difficult to be so far from my home and circle of friends during this time. I couldn't bring myself to write about the situation, either. Her husband Fred's eloquent and anguished posts said it all. It seemed wrong to suggest that my own sorrow even mattered in sight of his tremendous loss. I remained silent.

I didn't realize it until she was gone, but Judy was the person with whom I spent the most time. We saw each other at the gym, played cards and dominoes, and raced sailboats. Her smile dominated a room. I can still hear her unique voice in my head. Being away from my every day friends just made me miss her more. Judy always let her friends know that she loved them and I loved her, too. She was irreplaceable.

Ollie in My Truck

Ironically, my trip started out as a mission to see the friends and family I hadn't seen in years because we are all getting older and tomorrow isn't guaranteed for any of us. I also needed to register my truck and wanted to bring another load of family heirlooms back to my home in La Cruz. I drove my truck north, ferrying a load of personal belongings and a silver lab named Ollie back across the border for an acquaintance who had just sold his boat. We spent the first night at my now favorite Mission Motel in Guasave where we were able to park the truck in a garage between our rooms. We couldn't shut the garage door, but backed the tailgate up against the wall, successfully preventing access, as I had reinstalled the plywood sides on the truck. We had to pull the truck out a few feet to get our luggage back in. As we were driving up the steep driveway that led directly to the highway, we noticed an elderly man madly bicycling after us. We had left the tailgate down! We were very grateful for his notification. Our gear could have easily been spread all over Highway 15.

On the second night, I left Mike, Ollie, and the truck at a hotel in San Carlos

Marina Real in San Carlos

and spent the night with my friend, Marie-Pierre, on her boat in Marina Real. It was Mother's Day in Mexico. Marie-Pierre and I shared a lovely dinner at the somewhat fancy restaurant in the marina and then went for a walk along the beach. I had never been to Marina Real before and the setting was lovely. I could see why MP liked it there, although it was pretty deserted at that time of year. MP was glad to see a friendly face. Ollie, the dog, greeted me enthusiastically, the next morning, and we continued on our way, crossing the border at Nogales. It was the day that Title 42 expired and doomsayers were predicting crowds of migrants at the border. We saw no one and were across the border in under 15 minutes. 

 I drove Mike to the Tucson airport where we somehow (barely) managed to cram all of his things into a rented Toyota Highlander. He set off for California and I continued on to Glendale, AZ, where I arrived just in time to have dinner with my college friend, Diane. I spent two nights with Diane, resting, visiting, and shopping. It was nice to take a break from driving.

View from Tom & Cary's Patio

My next stop was Cathedral City, CA, (near Palm Springs) where I stayed with my friends, Tom and Cary, from Dragon's Toy.  I wanted to get my truck legal before heading into the Los Angeles area. I had started getting hassled by the police in Mexico because my registration was two years out of date and I did not have a front license plate. Unfortunately, neither of these problems could be corrected without returning the truck to California for a smog check. I arrived on a Saturday. Because my truck was old, it had to go to a special testing facility that was not open until Monday. I spent the weekend visiting with my friends, Trish and Charles, who both lived in Indio, and accompanying Tom and Cary on a drive to Idyllwild and Lake Hemet. It was nice to get out of the heat. We ate lunch at an outrageously overpriced ($84 for two lunches and three drinks) outdoor cafe and listened to live music.

Lake Hemet

Monday morning, I was at the smog check station when it opened. The truck passed with flying colors and I proceeded to the DMV in Palm Springs where I was able to renew the registration, get new license plates, and order a replacement title for my Kia. I had paid off the loan on the car months earlier but the title had never arrived at my mailing address. I needed to sell the car before returning to Mexico, so acquiring the title was crucial. I hoped that it would arrive before I completed my circuit of the Southern United States.

Having completed my tasks at the DMV, I was then free to drive to Marina del Rey and meet up with Greg on Scout. Soon, we were joined by Sally and Adrian, some English friends who were visiting on their way to Hawaii. We all went out for dinner at Killer Shrimp. In the morning, we were joined by our friend, Brad, and the five of us set sail for Catalina Island on Scout. It was always a treat to see my Mexico sailing friends during the off season. 

Cat Harbor from the Top of the Hill

We sailed to Isthmus Cove and picked up a mooring, there. The following day, Sally, Adrian, Brad, and I went for a hike and climbed to the top of the hill overlooking Cat Harbor. Later, we met Greg for drinks at Doug's and then made dinner on the boat. On our last morning in Catalina, we conducted experiments to determine the best method for preparing one-eyed jacks, our gang's favorite breakfast item. We investigated different shapes for the hole cut in the center of the bread and learned that a "B" shape, rectangle, and random "Blair" tear were all equally successful. We agreed that future investigation should include the use of larger bread and/or smaller eggs. We took careful notes to share with the absent members of our gang. Our sail back to Marina del Rey was uneventful. It had been chilly and overcast for our entire time at Catalina. We saw a huge flock of cormorants on our way back to the mainland.

Sally, Brad, Greg, and Me at Doug's Harbor Reef

The next day, I said goodbye to my sailing friends and continued north to Paso Robles to pick up my mail and visit my friends, Midori and Curt. It was a weeknight and they had a busy schedule. I was whisked off to their choir rehearsal. I hadn't sung in a choir for decades and was reminded how different that is from singing as a soloist or duet. I had to pay much more attention to my breathing because it would have been very noticeable if we had all breathed at once. I spent the night with Midori and Curt and then continued on my way to Benicia in the morning.

Both of my rental properties were vacant, so I was able to stay in my former home. There was no furniture, so I blew up my air bed and dragged in a couple of resin chairs. Fortunately, I had left my barstools for the tenant, so I had somewhere to sit and eat or use the computer. My first mission was to call AAA and get my Kia started. After sitting in the garage for a year and a half, the battery was quite dead. AAA didn't carry the type of battery I had, so I drove straight to the dealer to purchase a new battery and get my oil changed.

Where Was My Gravel?

My townhouse was in good shape except for a window that had been broken when a tree fell through it during a storm. The property manager had already ordered the window, so all I needed to do was to scrub some mildew off the ceiling in one of the bathrooms. The big house was a different story. While the interior of the house was in good condition, the landscaping and irrigation had been completely destroyed by the tenant's supposedly calm and well-trained "emotional support" dog. Neighbors described the dog as "mean" and "a tornado." It had knocked over the elderly fence by lunging at the neighbors on one side. I had re-landscaped the yard just before I left, removing the lawn and carrying yards of decorative rocks and gravel up a ramp built over the stairs. When I returned, the large area under the big tree, which had been covered in pea gravel broken up by a faux stream of river stones, was nearly completely bare. All of the river stones and most of the gravel were gone. I was horrified. I no longer had the lumber for the ramp or the wheelbarrow. I had no idea how I was going to replace the rocks.

My Irrigation Was Toast

My sprinkler system was a total loss. The dog had torn up the drip irrigation system, gnawed off the sprinkler heads, and chewed through the electrical wires controlling the valves. It also turned out that the dog had been a digger. I eventually located my rocks. Rather than returning the dirt the dog had excavated to the holes, the tenant had filled the holes with my rocks. It took me ten days to sort the rocks from the gravel and painstakingly reconstruct what I could of the landscaping. Many of the plants had died, since nothing had been watered for at least a year. I pulled up dead shrubs and did not replace them. It was apparently too much to ask tenants to water, so my property manager suggested I not bother to repair the sprinklers or replace any plants. I bought a truckload of rubber mulch to cover the dog's earthworks and the bare spots left by removed dead bushes. It looked tidy when I was finished and I guessed that would have to do.

It Looked OK After I Was Done

The other unpleasant surprise I received upon my return was the fact that my wooden garage door had sort of melted in all the rain. It had been made of wooden panels glued to frames. It faced south and had suffered from sun exposure. I had kept it well painted to try to extend its life, but the glue had dissolved in the rain and the whole thing had sagged. I couldn't put it back together and had to order a new garage door. The state of California, in its wisdom, had decreed that garage doors couldn't be replaced without replacing the garage door openers with one containing a battery backup, so I had to shell out an additional $675 for a new opener. I had planned to paint the house over the summer. I met with the painter and got a bid but, between the houses not being rented for a few months and having to replace the fence and the garage door, the painting would have to wait.

Gover, Mark, and Me Reunited

Not all my time in Benicia was wasted on house repairs. I got to spend time with friends and even got

together to play music with some friends from my high school mountaineering days, one of whom I hadn't seen in over 40 years. I also got a chance to play Celtic music with the Benicia Session. It was very good to see everyone. I spent more time in Benicia than I had intended, which put me a bit behind schedule. I still had 9,000 miles of driving to complete and many more people to see.

FREEZING IN LONDON AND WALES

 December 2-6, 2022 London, United Kingdom

I arrived at Gatwick Airport and took a National Train Service train directly to Finsbury Park in London where I was due to visit friends. My friend, Ingrid, had a professional engagement, that evening, and wasn’t free to pick me up for a couple of hours. She had suggested that I wait in a large bar/restaurant near the train station. My phone wasn’t working in England, so we needed to plan where to meet ahead of time. It was raining when I came out of the station and I was glad that the bar was nearby. Unfortunately, it was Friday night at happy hour and the bar was packed with millennials celebrating the end of the week. I was barely able to get my suitcase inside the door. There was nowhere to sit and I was ignored when I tried to order a drink at the bar. I think I finally asked, out loud, “Is there something wrong with me?” before I was able to get a pint of Guinness. Juggling my suitcase, backpack, mandolin, and a pint of Guinness, I managed to find a single seat at a bar near the door. I stowed my luggage under the bar and sat there for a couple of hours until Ingrid and Andrew finally came to get me.

My friend, Ingrid, is averse to social media, so my coverage of my visit with her will be sparse. I wasn’t planning to do any sightseeing in London, anyway, being rather tired of traveling and sick of museums. London was very cold and dark and not inviting. I was happy to hang around the house, huddling under blankets and drinking tea to keep warm. Due to the war in the Ukraine, the cost of energy had gone sky high in Europe. Heating a drafty, Victorian house was impossibly costly. We curtained off the downstairs and nested down there, working on our various projects.

The Foreshore

The Thames

Saturday afternoon, we went to the Thames foreshore to see a performance art piece. It was frigid. At 16:00, it was nearly dark. The tide was low and the piece was performed on what remained of a former barge bed. It made a very atmospheric setting with river traffic passing by and kicking up wakes that splashed against the stone pilings. We ate Turkish food on the way home to warm ourselves.

Sunday, we stayed in until mid-afternoon when we went out to do some shopping. Traffic was hellish. London was like a maze, with no through roads. Once again, it was dark by the time we got home. I was feeling even more than usually grateful to be able to live in Mexico where it was warm and energy costs were extremely low. I could power my home for a month on what it cost my London friends for a single day. Likewise, I was grateful for the slower pace and open spaces. The Thames was romantic, but nowhere near as beautiful as my views of Banderas Bay.

Magpie in the Crab Apple Tree

I spent Monday morning watching the wildlife around the bird feeder in Ingrid’s back yard. Little birds enjoyed the seed until a magpie scared them away. The magpie and a squirrel had a protracted argument. Pigeons pecked the seed spilled on the ground. In the afternoon, Ingrid and I walked across Hampstead Heath to Parliament Hill, the highest point of London. It was only 16:00 when we got there, but it was already getting dark and some of the gates were locked. We had to hustle to get home before it got too dark.

Men's Bathing Pond in Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath in Autumn Colors

View of London from Parliament Hill

Christmas Decorations in Finchley Road

Buying shoes in Mexico has turned out to be impossible for me. High quality shoes with arch supports are almost non-existent and there are never any in my size. I learned there was a Naot (my preferred brand) shoe store in London, so I set off, alone, to take a bus across London to the store on Tuesday. All the shops were decorated for Christmas and it was very festive. I couldn’t get exactly what I wanted, but I did manage to buy a new pair of black sandals. My old ones had started to disintegrate during my travels on the ship. Days are short in London and it was dinnertime by the time I got back. We walked a few blocks to a nearby pizza restaurant for dinner.

December 7-13, 2022 Dolgellau, Wales

It took us until nearly 13:00 to organize our departure for Wales. The car was small and we had a lot of luggage, provisions, and household items to take to Wales. Andrew packed while I stayed out of the way.

We drove north from London and across the Midlands, through Birmingham and north into Wales. Unfortunately, darkness hid the mountains as we made our way through Snowdonia National Park to Dolgellau where my friends had bought a former schoolhouse as a second/retirement home.

We stopped for a few minutes in the town to check on the rental cottage that Ingrid had recently bought and not yet rented. She wanted to make sure the heat was on enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The town was incredibly quaint with winding streets twisting between 18^th century stone buildings. Parking was a nightmare as the place had not been designed for cars.

The heat had been turned on remotely in the schoolhouse, so it wasn’t impossibly cold in the house, although it was still chilly. The place was beautiful with gothic arched windows and a nice, modern kitchen. It had been substantially renovated, but the layout was impossible, with much space devoted to corridors and utility rooms and only a tiny living room. We made pasta from sauce that Ingrid had made in advance, had a nice warm meal, and lingered over port and cheese before retiring to our fluffy duvets in the icy bedrooms. Only the tiny sitting room in the center of the house ever got truly warm. The kitchen was bearable, but the ancient windows leaked heat as fast as the radiators could produce it. My hands and feet never got warm unless I was under the covers.

The Staddle Stone

Ingrid and Andrew are not early risers and the dawn came late, anyway. Even I slept until 8:00 or so before reluctantly making my way to the kitchen to put the kettle on. I was very thankful for the insulated mug I had bought on the ship that kept my tea warm for hours. I drink warm liquids very slowly. We took our time over breakfast and didn’t leave the house until after noon. Ingrid and I went into town to shop for food. Then we spent a couple of hours clearing weeds from a flower bed and installing the staddle stone that we had brought from London. A staddle stone is a vertical stone with a circular stone balanced atop it that looks like a toadstool. Hundreds of years ago, they were used as foundations for storage buildings to discourage rodents from getting into the grain.

We all went for a hike in the afternoon. We left about 14:30 and returned after dark. We started out across the neighbor’s pasture, climbing over stone walls on various types of stiles. My favorite was the wall with stone steps protruding from the side. The Welsh mountains are not particularly high, but manage to be spectacular, nonetheless. The bracken had all turned a deep, rusty, orange and the estuary wound between the mountains to the sea. A few minutes walking from my friends’ home found us in a very wild place.

Hiking Through the Neighbor's Pasture

The Mawddach Estuary

Looking Towards the Sea

Friday was a repeat of Thursday. Ingrid and I did errands in town, stopping at the butcher’s to buy faggots, a sort of cross between a meatball and meatloaf and utterly delicious. The town was decorated for Christmas and looked downright Dickensian.

Downtown Dolgellau

After shopping (no need to get the groceries into the refrigerator when it was freezing, outside,) Ingrid and I did the Torrent Walk. The path led alongside a stream as it descended a mile and a half or so down a ravine. A bridge at the bottom took you to the other side where the path led back up to the road along the opposite side of the stream.  Frost had rimed the leaves and whitened the pastures. The sheep were wooly and looked much cleaner than Californian sheep, there being no stickers in the pasture to sully their wool.

Clean Sheep

Frosty Leaves

Ingrid wanted to show me the cottage where they had stayed for years before buying their own place. It was located high on a hillside, a short walk from the nearest road. It was a steep and treacherous climb and, with all the frost about, I was a bit concerned we’d encounter ice. We made it, however, and stomped through the frost covered grass to the stone cottage. The view was incredible. I could see how they had fallen in love with the place.

View from Ingrid's Former Cottage

Highland Cattle Surrounding Our Car

The farm surrounding the house belonged to the National Trust and they had decided to re-wild it. Part of that process involved replacing the sheep with highland cattle. The cattle must have been accustomed to someone bringing them feed because, when we returned to the car, they had us surrounded and were not easily discouraged. One heifer refused to move from in front of the car. I got out and tried to shoo her away, but she wasn’t having it. She took a few steps backward, but I was reluctant to scare such a large, horned animal. Eventually, we managed to edge around her and escape.

We were chilled after our adventure, so we repaired to the local pub, the George III, for a bowl of hot chips and glasses of beer.

The George III

Front Garden Under Snow

Saturday, we awoke to a blanket of snow covering everything. Ingrid went into town to go to the hardware store and was unable to get back up the drive. It was very cold. We, however, were intent on getting some gardening done. I hacked blackberry vines off the stone wall until it started to rain. It was very cold and the bases of the vines were buried in the snow. My jacket was not waterproof, so I hunkered in the house until the rain stopped and then resumed my battle with the blackberries until it got too dark to see (about 16:30.) Working in the garden kept my core warm, but my hands were wet and half frozen. I do not recommend gardening in the snow.

A friend came for dinner and we had a jolly evening watching France defeat England in the World Cup. He left fairly early, fearing the icy roads, and then we repaired to the sitting room to watch television, drink Bailey’s, and eat chocolates.

We spent most of Sunday rooting blackberry vines out of the garden in the snow. In the afternoon, we went for a walk through snowy fields, scattering sheep as we went. We watched the light fail on the local mountain from the vantage point of the local cemetery and met our next door neighbors’ elderly guest, there. He had gone hiking in the snow in dress shoes, so we lent him a walking stick to help him get back down the icy path. Ingrid cooked chicken thighs and mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner and we finished the evening by watching Harry and Meghan with the rest of the UK.

Andrew Hiking Through Snowy Bracken

A Snowy Wall

Through the Wood

The Local Cemetery

Light Fading on the Local Peak

It dipped well below freezing on Monday morning, leaving us without running water. The pipes in the house hadn't frozen, but the intake from the stream had.  Poor Ingrid stood in the freezing stream, passing buckets of water up to us to fill a trash can with water for washing and flushing. Andrew went to the neighbor’s to fill bottles with drinking water. The temperature never rose above freezing, that day.

We spent most of the day hacking at blackberry brambles and finally installing the staddle stone on a bed of chipped slate to keep it from toppling over in the wet earth. We planted what bulbs we could and then Ingrid and I went into Dolgellau to pay the electric bill before making a quick dash to Fairbourne so I could see the Welsh coast. The sun was setting and the wind was icy. The sand on the beach was frozen. We didn’t stay long. We could see the town of Barmouth on the other side of the Mawddach estuary.

The Mawddach Estuary

Barmouth

The Frozen Beach at Sunset

Our Wash Water

We stopped at the Fairbourne village store to buy a supply of bottled water (they were out in Dolgellau) and then scurried home because we were expecting guests for drinks. The party had been organized to welcome one of the neighbors home from a visit to Germany, but she got stuck at the Frankfurt airport due to a security issue relating to the attempted terrorist takeover of the government. We had the next door neighbors and their houseguest and two other neighbors. Everybody brought snacks to share and we had such a feast that we convinced the next door neighbors not to brave the icy roads to go out to dinner in Dolgellau. Ingrid whipped up a pot of tasty soup and everyone stayed for dinner. After dinner, there was poetry reading and singing. The neighbors were surprised that I, an American, knew their folksongs. Eventually, it came out that I was a singer and I performed a couple of tunes a capella, not having a guitar with me. It was a very congenial evening and we even got the kitchen warm.

The trouble with having eight for dinner when you have no running water is the washing up. The water can was frozen over and we had to boil the ice water to wash dishes. By the time that process was complete, we were happy to retire to the sitting room for Bailey’s and chocolate before hitting the hay.

Tuesday morning was just as cold and the water was still frozen. I got up early, packed, and stripped the bed, not wanting to hold up our departure. We made toast and eggs, not eager to try to wash congealed porridge off of bowls with ice water. The ice on the water can was three quarters of an inch thick when I went to get water for washing. I did the dishes while the others prepared to depart. We had intended to temporarily plant the bulbs we hadn’t been able to get into the ground in compost, but the bag of compost was frozen solid. We had to take them back to London with us.

We couldn’t give the house a proper cleaning without water, but it still took us until 12:30 to hit the road. The roads were mostly clear, but the mountains were white with snow as we drove up the pass. At one point, the road was thick with pheasants and scavengers eating pheasant roadkill. It was snowy all the way to the Welsh border. We passed through one area where we could still see green under the frost and then entered another zone of snow. Traffic was heavy. It took us five and a half hours to get back to London.

Snowy Wales

Wintry Welsh Scene

The Pass Was Covered in Snow

Frosty Midlands

A friend of Ingrid’s was waiting for us when we returned and we all went out to Thai food for dinner. There was more singing (this time with a guitar) after dinner and then we took advantage of the running water to bathe before bed.

Snow in London

Wednesday morning, we had porridge for breakfast and then I said goodbye and Ingrid drove me to the tube station. I took the tube to Heathrow Airport. It took about an hour. The airport wasn’t too crazy and I was able to check in without incident. The trouble with Heathrow is that they don’t announce the gates until the last minute. I had about 45 minutes to kill before they announced the gate. I needed to use the restroom and had to walk about a mile to find it as there is only one (very large) facility in the cattle pen/shopping mall where people are forced to wait until their gates are posted. It can take up to twenty minutes to walk to the far gates and they only announce the gate 30 minutes before boarding. It is a stressful system.

Fortunately, my gate was only ten minutes away and the boarding process went smoothly. I was soon settled on my flight to Charlotte, NC. Time passed quickly. They fed us a hot lunch and I watched a few movies, missing the last five minutes of The Beast when they abruptly shut off the video feed for landing.

The Charlotte airport did not qualify for my list of favorite airports. Despite being all in one building, I had to go through security a second time after passing through immigration and customs. I had a four hour layover, so had time for the red tape and a $21 fast food dinner. The flight to Dallas boarded so quickly, I missed my boarding group. Just after midnight, we arrived at DFW.

DFW, despite being immense, is a very well organized airport. I was able to take a train clear to the other side of the airport without ever having to go through security a second time. When I finally got to my gate, it was cordoned off for carpet cleaning, so I proceeded to the next gate and settled in for the night.  I didn't get much sleep.  The carpet cleaners kept setting off a door alarm and, as soon as they finished, the public address announcements started again.  I grew very tired of being welcomed to DFW by the mayors of Dallas and Fort Worth.  It was a relief to finally board my flight to Puerto Vallarta and get home to balmy temperatures.

My First Dawn at Home