Colorado trip during the Pandemic

Dan and Marilyn stayed home and sheltered in place three months and she'd always say to me, "we don't really want to go anywhere, we just want to be with our family."  Karlee and Grafton cancelled their trip to Spokane in late March and the grandparents just could not take not seeing him any longer.  They invited me to join them on a 10 day road trip to Denver and I thought to myself, "well, yes, I'll go, I have nothing else to do."  Dan drove every single mile as Marilyn and I read, played games on the IPAD, listened to books on tape, and just enjoyed the beauty of Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho.  They agreed to take a risk and stay in an AirBnb basement apartment in Billings.  We had separate rooms and showers, quiet and cool for sleeping.  My dear friend, Marcia, hosted us in Pocatello on our way home.  We actually had minimal contact with strangers and precious time with our families.  Thank you Montana for your clean, modern, and safe rest areas!

I enjoyed precious time with the Gaeke's - lots of walks and hikes, sewing, playing Yatzy on the IPAD.  They make the most wonderful meals and we ate outside several times.  They learned the squeaking coming from the chimney was a family of racoons!  Of course we enjoyed the baby who cried for the Mama and tentatively stepped out on a tree limb, but never made it away from the chimney. 

Grace and I made face masks and she used the leftover strips of fabric to make scrunchies for her friends and all the girls in her girl scout troop!

I noticed a huge bag of garbanzo beans compliments of the Essers in Maureen's pantry.  Paul roasted red and yellow pepper and we made hummus one day while she was working.   It totally disappeared by the end of the week.  I think she's convinced it's a great snack!  I experienced the challenges preparing meals presents for Maureen.  Two kids have allergies, Paul has Celiac disease and Maureen prefers not to eat wheat products.  Every label must be studied!  Grace can eat everything, but Ryan cannot eat dairy products and PJ can't eat eggs.  I had no idea how many prepared foods include those ingredients...salad dressings, pasta, ice cream!  They rarely go out to dinner or treat themselves at Baskin Robbins.  I cleaned up the kitchen one morning and Paul noticed later in the day that the frying pan had a bit of pancake in it.  he said, "who put a dirty frying pan in the drawer?"  Well I owned up to it, not realizing that it would contaminate the sausage he planned to cook!  They have two toasters for the same reason.  My goodness my cooking life is so easy compared to theirs.

Thursday we drove to Boulder, parked at Chautauqua Historical Park and hiked a bit up to the Flatirons!  Hiking Trails recently opened up in Colorado so we felt rather fortunate to find a place to park and an empty picnic table for lunch.

We finished off the day at the Ice cream store, Ryan was happy with a soda and although I'd planned to buy the treats, they would only accept a credit card!  Ahh, the joys of the Pandemic.





The three kids have been home for three months, doing homework, completing chores, and choosing a favorite Bible verse.  One evening I felt privileged to listen to their Bible verse of the day and why they chose it.  Next day Grace asked me about my favorite verse.  She looked it up on some app and pasted it onto a lovely background and sent it to me via text message! 

Impressive for a 12 year old!

 Marilyn loaded their car with all kinds of toys for Grafton - he loved riding to the park in this wagon!

The car was much lighter coming back home. 

Even though Marilyn and I admitted to being lonesome today it is good to be home.  I had a brand new furnace and A/C unit installed today.  Thank God because it's 94 degrees in Lewiston right now.  I have lovely AirBnb guests, new grandparents here to visit their 21st Grandchild. 



And, I received a great gift in the mail today from my cousin, Lucy Hewing.  It's a letter written by my mother to her sister, Celia, just two weeks after I was born.  Mom wrote thousands of letters, but rarely dated them, so this is quite the treasure.  Gratefully, Mom's sisters in Illinois saved some of her letters and our cousins have sent them back to us.  But, we've often commented that most of Mom's letters were full of facts only, she shared very little emotion.  But this one is much different and I'm touched by her words...even admitting that she's tired of sitting around.  And, I'm delighted to know how the Kopczynski's celebrated my birth! 

Also, the thoughtful gift of a Bendix automatic washing machine for their first wedding anniversary.    I'd never heard the story of how they acquired their bedroom furniture - my goodness there is a lot of information in this letter.  And, sisters, Celia and Bertha, sharing how cute their babies are!  That would be me and my cousin Lucy!  

Never again will I despair at having saved letters, cards, and anything handwritten.  I wish one of my siblings had saved a letter I wrote after Duane or Karen was born.  Back in those days we did not talk much on the phone - long distance calls were really expensive.  We just did not know which letters to save so we saved all of them for awhile and finally had no room to store them all, so most of them got thrown away.  Sad!!!

Thoughts during self quarantine

Our country's leaders asked us last week to stay home, self quarantine, social distance ourselves from each other.  We can't visit anyone in nursing homes.  There is no Mass today.  Toilet paper disappears from store shelves as soon as it arrives.  Events and trips are cancelled every day.  Washington's governor ordered all restaurants, dental offices, hair salons, and many other businesses to close.  Everyday something new happens!  California residents can only leave their homes to shop for groceries or pick up medicine at local pharmacies.  School teachers struggle to set up online learning and teach from their living rooms.  Schools are closed, graduations cancelled.  Even our local hospitals are preparing for the CoVid-19 crisis.  St. Joe's closed outpatient surgery and plans to isolate respiratory patients in that section of the hospital.  I'm grateful for the prayers and ways to be hopeful that that are showing up in my daily Email.  I continue to find solace in my daily reflection books, both from scripture, Richard Rohr, or OnBeing posts.  Today's readings are about Jesus curing the blind man and subsequently about light.  From Ephesians 5:  

Live as children of the light, for light produces every kind of goodness....

Thank God for all these people!

AARP suspended all tax preparation, so I've basically been out of a volunteer job since March 14th.  Yesterday I learned that the IRS delayed the filing date until July 15th, so there will be time to produce goodness again for our seniors and others who can't afford to pay to get their taxes done!

My brother, Don's, been using his quarantine time as Lenten penance to organize Mom and Dad's old photos.  He's been sending all the siblings a photo a day and here's the one for today.

Dad had a small piece of paper taped to the wood paneling in the basement bedroom which read:

 Deep in the heart of everyone is the old town, where they first went barefoot, got their first licken, traded their first pocket knife. Grew up and went away thinking they were too big for that little burg, but that is where your old heart is.  Will Rogers

My Magnolia tree is beginning to bloom!  Yesterday I hiked with the LCValley hikers and we noticed many trees blooming as we looked across the river to Asotin.  Today God blessed us with a beautiful sunrise.  I try to notice God's presence and LIGHT in many moments throughout the day.

It's been quite a challenge for me to shift gears and find things to do after our spring break trip was cancelled.  I've been working on refinishing my bedroom door and putting together a Grandmother Fan quilt.  Seaport Quilt Guild members made these blocks for me in 1991 when I moved to Boise.  Now I have the time to put them together and celebrate the goodness of these creative women.

Speaking of goodness..... my friend Regina brings so much light to my life.   She sends me a text every morning asking if I'd like to walk.  She finds ways to reach out to those suffering from cabin fever and this week she surprised me with this lovely gift from St. Vincent DePaul.

Our family embraced some new technology last week - this came  from Maureen on Wednesday:

If I set up a free conference call for later today with the family would one if you lead us in a rosary?  Mom told me to do this and my voice sounds horrible.  I missed the conference call because I was hiking with Duane, Anne, and Colin.  But it led to new apps suggested by Marilyn and Karen, House Party and Marco Polo.  Last night Marilyn figured out a 3-way phone conversation with Allan, so we could find out how our California family is dealing with social isolation!

Anne told me she and her friends are teaching their children Home Economics and Life Skills.  Colin learned how to sew on a button, change a tire, use jumper cables, turn the water off to an overflowing toilet and then he memorized his social security number.  

I'm digging into my fabric scraps and making cotton face masks for Karen and her co-workers.  There is a shortage of face masks to protect our healthcare workers and these might help relieve the shortage.  The project reminds me of women who rolled bandages to support the war effort.  The Coronavirus is an invisible war....I want to do my part.  There's certainly more time for me to be on my knees and I love this prayer and encourage all the have a listen!

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/03/02/coronavirus-prayer

Utah Hiking, Part II

More glorious pictures as we made our way to Capitol Reef National Park and the fruit orchards planted by Mormon settlers that later became a part of the park.  We started the day by visiting the historic Gifford house where we bought cinnamon rolls and coffee, which we enjoyed in the warm sunshine, all the while appreciating the view of one of the huge reefs.
We then took a walk along the Fremont River, alongside the orchards, and watched a family of deer enjoying the fruit that had fallen on the ground.  Visitors are encouraged to pick fruit and we certainly found our share of wonderful apples and a few pears.

We did enjoy our hike through the Capitol Gorge, noticing names carved into the rock at various points, mostly farmers using the great wash as the way to peddle the hay in a small town, Loa, at the end of the wash.  A volunteer guide told us the name carvers were standing on ladders on top of the hay wagons.  I imagine it took a long time to carve a name into the sandstone.  

I like this photo of Ann with the new hat she bought at the Gifford House gift shop.

Sunday morning we hiked to the Hickman Bridge, a natural rock formation.  It's a famous site in this park and we had lots of opportunities for photos.

We met, Don, the volunteer guide again on this trail.  He gave us all kinds of information about the park, where to eat, his job as a Parole Officer, and how best to hike along Sulphur Creek.  

We had to ford the creek seven times!  My shoes were really wet, but the water was surprisingly warm.

At the end of the hike we saw a small waterfall, quite unusual for this time of the year.

Utah Hiking Trip

I often took a deep breath and whispered prayers of gratitude while hiking or admiring God's glorious creation throughout the two week trip I was privileged to take with my sister, Karen, and our friends, Christine and Ann.  Those three people planned the trip, researched the hikes and assigned people to make night time reservations.   We put 2500 miles on Christine's van, hiked over 60 miles and took 150,000 steps in several state and national parks in Utah.  We stayed in small towns - a manufactured home in Hanksville, a two story cabin in Torrey, a cabin near horses, sheep, and llamas in Tropic, and a cottage in an orchard in Virgin, Utah.  All delightful owner-owned spaces with friendly hosts and far away from the maddening crowds!

How blessed I am to have a younger sister willing to have me tag along on these great adventures!  Notice that we are not wearing our hiking shoes in this picture.  She had a brilliant idea to spray our hiking shoes with some water repellant spray our first night in Salt Lake City.  Then she stored them under the kitchen sink and neither of us remembered to retrieve them so it was quite an ordeal to get our AirBnb host to have her cleaning person overnight them to our next stop in Torrey, Utah!  I hiked for 5 days in my new Clarks walking shoes and she in her Keens!  Our hiking shoes finally made it, not to Torrey, but to Tropic because no overnight delivery on the weekend.  

We visited Goblin Valley State park and took our pictures among the HooDoos!

Our first big day of hiking in Little Wild Horse Canyon turned out to be our favorite for the whole trip.  We loved the challenge and the way the light shown throughout our trip on the canyon walls.

Lots of challenges over and under the boulders

This woman worked for AARP, now retired, she volunteers to take trash out of Lake Powell every year.  She and her husband spend a week on a houseboat and clean up all around the lake.  We liked her shirt, Trash Trackers!

Karen managed to capture a rainbow in this picture of rest!  I think it was near this stop that a young couple from Belguim showed us a little video on their phone of a rattlesnake! 

We loved the wildlife!