LUV-in-February

28 Feb:  Overnight low in Atlanta was 28 degrees, so Ron was in no hurry to commence the ride to Texas.  Instead he called for financial information and prepared precious recycling.  Finally he was ready to ride and was out the door at 11:30 when it was a balmy 55 degrees.  By 1:00 PM he was in Montgomery, Alabama and the temperature had risen to 64 degrees warm.  Asleep in Missouri @ 10:01 PM  (Notice that Cynthia experiences difficulties understanding telephone conversations.  Ron stopped at the Diamondhead Inn in Diamondhead, Mississippi because raindrops had wetted him, it was getting dark, and the temperature had dropped to 59.)  So the mileage for today was 415 miles in 7 hours.  Dinner was from the grocery, turkey and pretzels.

27 Feb:  Another early 5 AM start to this day.  First order of business was to pack one box to return the items shipped in four big and bigger boxes from Texas.  Next was to pack the things for the motorcycle trip (including recycling).  Then Ron had to find the WiFi security key and locate a shipping company.  Both FedEx stores and one nearby UPS store had only bad reviews, so Ron strapped a big, heavy box on the back of the motorcycle and the wind blew him everywhere on that 10 mile trip, routed by the GPS poorly to the UPS store in Decatur.  They declared themselves happy to accept styrofoam peanuts, so Ron returned to Don's and strapped the monstrously HUGE box of peanuts to the back and was again blown everywhere, this time with much less weight and much more anxiety.  In the evening, Don allowed Ron to use his neglected desktop computer and scanner to scan his complete copy of the Vacher manuscript.  The HP multi-purpose machine was so automated that it scanned a stack of papers without intervention and without "eating" any.

26 Feb:  Ron's day dawned at midnight.  Lots of things needed re-arranging before his possessions left at Greg and Donna's were sufficiently well "stored" out of the way.  The forecast rain arrived exactly on time before dawn, so Dick drove Ron to breakfast at Lizard's Thicket (waitressed by a very busy Susan).  Dick had to suffer through another Smooch conversation before returning Ron to Greg and Donna's to pack the motorcycle for the trip to Lithonia, GA.  Although the rain arrived on time, it departed late and ended at 2 PM; Ron finalized packing by 3:30 and stopped briefly at Dick's to borrow some compressed air for inflating tires to optimum.  The ride started nicely enough at 70 degrees in Columbia but rapidly turned chilly and was soon only 58 - then 53 in Augusta, GA.  By 7 PM when Ron stopped at Walmart, the temperature was only 44 degrees, and upon arrival in Don C's driveway at 8:30 PM, Ron reported a temperature of 41 degrees in a phone call to Smooch Smooch.  The boxes of  "stuff" we left at Don's will be shipped to Texas.

25 Feb: Happy Birthday John B in Santa Fe!!!!  After packing bags and walking with Dick, Ron motorcycled Cynthia to the airport on time.  The red bud trees were glorious on the airport drive.  After boogying over to the Archives to look at a 1798 Bankston land grant and hustling back to Greg and Donna's, there was just enough time to box Cynthia's gear and FedEx it to her in Texas.  Her flight was fine.  After several early mornings, Ron slept early but not long enough.

24 Feb:  The day dawned earlier for Ron than for Cynthia.  It is expected that a pleasant 9:15 AM walk with Dick will be punctuated by mutually enjoyable verbal sparring.  We hope that Cynthia will arise in time to eat the free breakfast omelet at the Hilton Garden Inn where we are staying.  (She did!)  We arrived 20 minutes late for the walk with Dick and Jim but caught up on the bike.   (Cynthia is always ready on time, but as we walked towards the bike, Ron suddenly remembered that he needed the garage door code, and as he was certain where that was written, he dashed back to frantically search EVERYWHERE without success.  Hence the delayed departure.)  In the evening we walked to the Bonefish Grill for a lovely dinner with Dick, Clark and Elizabeth.  The evening reminded one of us of our "anniversary" Ron proposed on his knee three years ago.  Refusing offers of a ride, we walked the 1.5 mile return to the hotel.

(CFB: Pondering en route to TX:  I always told Jim, my son-in-law, he was my favorite.  Julie started dating Jim when she was 16; they married right after graduation from Iowa State University.  Such devotion...  he ironed her blue jeans while she was working on her PhD.   Jim was a kind, loving outstanding father and husband.  What a blessing to have had him in our lives for so many years.   The power of the resurrection carries us through the pain of grief and loss to thanksgiving.)

 23 Feb, Sun:  The six hour ride from Richmond, VA to Columbia, SC went by pleasantly enough for Interstate travel; temperatures were pleasantly warm in the 70s; traffic on I-85 was light most of the way; and very few cops were working the Interstate during daylight, so fastest traffic was indeed very fast.  This was the most distance (380 miles) that Cynthia has ridden in a single day, and we were overjoyed that her back tolerated it well.  Cynthia flies to Texas tomorrow; Ron will follow by motorcycle, looking for an enjoyable route.  We will stay in TX until the end of April.  This death in the family reminds us that our lives are short and precious, not to be wasted, and reiterates the necessity of healthy habits.  Ron's turn to deliver a sermon: "Cynthia needs to return to Texas to support her family & vice versa following this death; Ron has no desire to spend time in Texas but feels that it is very important to support Cynthia while she deals with this huge loss; so he will happily ride cross country in winter and stay in Texas knowing that it is the 'right' thing to do for his beloved WeeFee."  Following good advice to always compress any statement into a single sentence, that sermon condenses to: "Sometimes supporting people you hold dear is far more important than mere personal preferences."

22 Feb:  The Virginia Historical Society has a marvelous repository of Rambo items plus the very information Cynthia needs for her book.  The staff was pleasant and most helpful.  Dinner at the Can-Can French restaurant on Cary Street was delicious, but it was a challenge to find food on a busy Saturday night in a trendy French restaurant that is not previously prepped with butter.  YES!? - French, duh.  Cary Street is like 6th Street in Austin, TX, crowded with people, cars and musicians.  It was an experience, but the congestion and noise gave us both a headache.  Riding back to the hotel, on complained of a lack of good interchange planning.  We received the following sad news which changes our lives from enjoyable unscheduled travel back to a scheduled life.  Cynthia booked a direct flight Tuesday from Columbia, SC to TX because:

Jim, her son-in-law, husband of Julie, father of Corrie (Alan Thetford) and Eric, new grandfather of Abigayle Elizabeth, died late yesterday afternoon, apparently from a heart attack, while hunting with Eric near College Station.  Jim complained of not feeling well and passed out.  EMS attempted CPR but to no avail.  Jim has had cardiac issues for several years, including a heart attack and by-pass surgery.  Corrie and family arrived in SE China a few days ago; now they are making arrangements to return stateside ASAP.

21 Feb,  Friday, Departure for Richmond is imminent; severe rain is forecast for 11:00 AM.  The plan is to stop at  the first sign of sprinkles for lunch at a restaurant during the storm that is forecast to last for two hours.  And the rains came!  When the first two drops hit, Ron immediately started looking for a restaurant; two minutes later we were drenched !!  Two traffic light stops and three minutes later we pulled into a shopping center and inquired of the GPS for a nearby restaurant, but a Ferrari driver gave us a better suggestion, the Weathervane and further said that we had to browse the adjoining Southern Specialities shops as being truly unique (and they were).  The wait staff had to wipe up our puddles while we waited two hours for the storm to pass.  Two hours later, after our uneventful arrival in Richmond, VA we heard about the tornados Richmond experienced this morning.  The Hilton Garden Inn accommodated us nicely.

20 Feb, Pittsboro, NC: A beautiful, balmy day with a high of 74 degrees, we had a pleasant ride to the Wilson Library at UNC Chapel Hill.  Interesting to see piles of dirty snow alongside the road left over from last week.  Our eyes became exhausted from reading the fine print of Wilhelmina Lea's Diaries from 1872-1935; it was also disappointing to discover pages cut from a critical portion of her last diary.  Yellow Fin tuna for dinner at Squid's was tasty.  The couple dining next to us was decked out in the UNC school colors, insignias and buttons that read, "Beat Duke." They doubted they would win the big game.  Everyone must have attended since Wally World was almost empty.  Our bags are packed, breakfast will be at 8:00 AM tomorrow for an early departure to Richmond, VA unless it is raining.

19 Feb, Pittsboro, NC:  We awakened early at the 58 West B&B, only 36 miles from the NC State Library in Raleigh.  Host Houston had coffee ready to brew.  Many thanks.  A thunderstorm rolled through at 5:30 AM while the coffee brewed.  Breakfast was good, and we enjoyed chatting with another couple until nearly 10.  As we walked towards the motorcycle at 10 AM, we felt the first hints of a spritz of water in the air ... with more thunderstorms anticipated by the forecasters.  Ron hates to start riding when rain is falling, so we hurried to start while it was only mist ... and got lucky enough to arrive at the State Archives in Raleigh absolutely dry !!  It is always fascinating to see steamy fog rising from the ground, from Lake Jackson, and from the snow and ice alongside the highway.  All told, the 45-minute ride this morning was more interesting than anything we saw during our 5 hour ride yesterday.  Our primary objective for this entire trip was to see the back cover of the Alexander Rose Bible, and all the pages of that Bible with annotations are there, but that cover is NOT; apparently it is still attached to the Bible in the possession of the heirs of Ben Rose.  Ron was happy to see a transcription of Lorenzo Lea's family genealogy; Cynthia was happy to find the Montgomery County 1782 tax list for Pat; and we were both happy to find out that Mrs. Grear was granted a judgement nisi over the villainous Henry Fuller.  Dinner at Perkins was a bit better than the Golden Corral.  At this point we are a day ahead in our "unscheduled" Lea research agenda.  The trick will be to get to Richmond on Friday when there is an 80% chance of rain. HA.

scheduled - 17 Mar:  Smooch & SmoochSmooch will again separate; Cynthia flies from Atlanta to Texasunscheduled solo motorcycle trip to South Carolina to collect things for storage, to Illinois to see sistah and dump things in storage, and onwards to Texas by April 5; any guesses about spontaneous diversions?
scheduled - 5 Apr 2014: Rachel and Ryan's wedding.
scheduled - 23-24 Apr: Cynthia honored as the distinguished alumna of 2014  by her seminary in Austin, Texas

18 Feb: The Ball and Cue in Georgetown fed us a fine breakfast earlier than our normal rising and shining habits.  Packed and ready to roll after egg white veggies, our next food stop was (yuk!) a Golden Corral in Johnson, SC.  Everything is soaked in fat except the salad bar.  Even there, danger lurks. The good part of a view-less day along old U.S. Hwy 17 and U.S. 501 & 15 northbound was the balmy, beautiful day.  We are ensconced in a B and B south of Chapel Hill, NC until Friday morning when rain is forecast.  We expect to check out and get our first soaking of the week.   Dinner this evening was at the highly recommended Oak Leaf Restaurant.  Cynthia does not complain about food, but disliked the rockfish and thought the water tasted funny.  Awesome ambience.

17 Feb: The ride to Georgetown, SC was pleasant until after lunch at the Boone Plantation Cafe in Mt. Pleasant.  The sun disappeared and the wind whipped enough to make us chilly.  Interesting to see broken tree limbs scattered alongside the road as reminders if the ferocious storm that left thousands without electricity last Wednesday. The hotel was filled to capacity upon our arrival about 5 PM because of many homes without power.  We hiked through the historic district admiring the charming old homes some with side entries that seemed quite peculiar.  Once we arrived at the historic old waterfront, we strolled the length of the dock and, upon bellying up to the rail, saw a great blue heron standing almost directly below, only 15 to 20 feet from us.  The restaurant was located on the dock: Dinner at the River Room was sumptuous for the same price as two salad bars at Ruby Tuesday's.  Tomorrow the plan continues:  Archives in Raleigh, NC and on to the Wilson Library in Chapel Hill for the remainder of this week with the next target the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA).

16 Feb, Sunday:  lovely, effervescent cousin Sharon and her new beau chauffeured us to the Hilton Head Country Club for a brunch 'till you burst good time.  The food was fabulous. Don is a delightful guy.  Feeling fat we returned to the Nature Reserve to  hike about five miles.

15 Feb, and what a Happy Valentine's Day we had right down to the hand designed card.  We hiked about four miles in the Nature Reserve spotting a Great Blue Heron on the wing who later perched picture perfect for our camera.  Ron saw a large turtle.  Our dinner with Gene W. was immensely enjoyable.  Thank you once again for the treat, Gene.

14 Feb, Happy VALENTINEs Day:   I LOVE YOU.  Smooch, smooch, smooch  (Awwww!  I love you, too!)  My goodness, Valentine's Day on the road without a confirmed reservation for lodging; perhaps we will discover an unexpected gift (says the eternal optimist).  At least the day "dawned" at 4 AM with temperatures above freezing.  Forecast departure - after it warms to 40 degrees at noon.  The plan is to ride towards warmer temperatures in Hilton Head, SC.  *** The plan worked. We rode towards HH for five hours arriving at the Hilton Garden Inn at the crack of dark.  The sunset near Savannah was magnificent.  Tired, but hungry, we dined at Neo's (described as a fresh farm to table restaurant) a five minute walk away.  The salmon was delicious.   

13 Feb:  Here in Atlanta, the "sunny south," we awakened to a winter wonderland of white & tan fields, mostly white roadways, and white falling from the sky.  However, the temperatures rose rapidly, so the black of roadways (or black ice) contrasted nicely by the time we finished breakfast (think of finishing breakfast as 10 o'clock).  The ice on the rental car was over an inch thick in places.  Traffic was exceptionally light as we drove on I-285 and I-20 to deposit stuffs at Don's and later on I-20 and I-75 to return files to Pegram and even during the 4 PM rush hour - Amazing.  Pleasant times and scintillating conversation was enjoyed by all.  Ruby Tuesday fed us with salads and baked sweet potato fries again.

12 Feb:  The forecast of 70% chance of rain & freezing rain was accurate.  It is already turning the landscape frosty and the roadways into ice rinks, so we are not going anywhere today.  Several members of the hotel staff inquired about our motorcycle (which will remain parked all day and which will slowly become an ice sculpture).  Ruby Tuesday was apparently closed, and we decided against slipping and sliding outdoors, instead exercising at the hotel fitness center on treadmill and elliptical machine.

11 Feb: Scheduled measuring of Smooch for tuxedo?  Good God, what is the world coming to?  But the rainy weather prompted the tailor to cancel, so we spent the day at the hotel reviewing James Lea, the Bankstons, DNA, and Rev. Cynthia's biography.  Our only outing and exercise was the usual half-mile hike to Ruby Tuesday where the staff is considering us "family."  Martin was pleased that we did indeed mention him on this blog earlier.  Not bad, this blog shows up on the first page when Googling  Atlanta Ruby Krystal Martin

10 Feb:  Monday we drove to Lithonia to visit with cousin Don C. and to collect the remaining goodies that Cynthia had shipped from Texas.  For half of the things, my little SmoochSmooch said, "What was I thinking when I shipped that?"  After discussing the Bankstons (and discovering that we've all forgotten whatever we once knew about them), we all piled into the rental car seeking lunch and decided that Panera Bread was closest best choice for our dietary limitations.  From thence to Staples for copies of Lea stuffs, to WallyWorld for bread & Healthy Choice cusine (for Don), to GNC for protein powder, to Kohl's to check Don's work schedule, and finally to Radio Shack for antenna cabling advice.  We returned Don home and scurried to the hotel ahead of the rain with enough time to walk to Ruby Tuesday for too much food.  Krystal remembered us and was excited to see the blog.  If I were a little more motivated, I'd Google Atlanta Ruby Krystal Martin
several times to see if I can get the blog to show up first for that search.

9 Feb, Sunday in Atlanta:  Ron is again updating the blog while Cynthia sleeps.  We will be at the hotel until Sun late AM; pick up the rental car, drive to visit cousin Pegram, tell tall tales, gossip, chase a wild goose, not necessarily in that order, nor limited to those pursuits.  Our day with Pegram and his lovely wife, Ann, was most productive. Pegram had a file of correspondence with Ben Rose that details the location  of the records we want to see; the best part of the day was enjoying their hospitality and conversation.  We bid them adieu and discovered the Oceanaire Restaurant on Peachtree Street, a real treat, the fine dining that my beloved SmoochSmooch enjoys; quite a surprise to learn that they are also owned by Landry of Texas.

8 Feb:  A day of Rest!  Cynthia is sleeping in whilst Ron updates the blog.  We are in Atlanta at the Hilton Garden Inn Airport, in a nice room with coffee in hand.  E-mail has been checked (imagine).  Now back to transcribing notes & scraps of paper into the computer so that they can be found when wanted and the paper recycled.  We enjoyed a nice, lazy day.  Cynthia has been enervated due to pain and lack of sleep ever since the misbegotten suggestion that she see a personal trainer at the health club.  Who could have known that such an innocent suggestion could have such dramatically nasty results?  We walked about a half mile to Ruby Tuesday for lunch and dinner today and had marvelous service from Martin.  The first TWO vegetable sides were obviously buttery/oily, so he asked his manager, and Krystal steamed broccoli from the salad bar for us.  Now we have to tell Martin to Google Where is Ron?  Before dinner, Ron borrowed scissors from the front desk and proceeded to cut his hair in preparation for tomorrow's first impressions.  While doing so, he reflected upon the notion that you never get a second chance to make a first impression and realized that, as one ages and becomes forgetful, second and third chances abound.

7 Feb, Smooches Reunion Day, Atlanta:  This should become a new national holiday, the day Smooch and SmoochSmooch resume their life of travel and fun together.  Cynthia's flight to Atlanta arrived mid-afternoon without incident; cagey Ron brought flowers on the shuttle to surprise her, but the shuttle driver dropped him off at "Arrivals," and by the time Ron had walked to the pick up area, the driver had spilled the beans.  We asked to be dropped off at the Ruby Tuesdays near the hotel and were pleased that he accommodated us.  Huge coincidence that as we left the restaurant, he was waiting at the first corner and took us back to the hotel.  It is so nice to be "home," back to our life of travel together.

6 Feb: Riotous living???, Ron asked about my 2:30 AM hotel changes.  We will be at the hotel until Sun late AM; pick up the rental car, drive to visit cousin Pegram, tell tall tales, gossip, chase a wild goose.  Ron spent the day trying to resume computer projects, but became depressed by the unsettled state of his projects.  The nearby Subway provided a tasty foot-long turkey sub with all the veggies except olives, known for oil.

5 Feb: Whereabouts: Columbia, SC and Montgomery, TX.  Ron and Dick walked on drying pavement and breakfasted at Lizard's; unfortunately it was Susan's day off.  Returning to the  Gowdy's by noon, he finished packing and departed for ATL by 3:30 PM, stopping first at American Eagle Outfitters to redeem the American Eagle gift certificate, found at the eleventh hour of packing, only to discover that the gloves had been sold.  DRRat!  It was warm and pleasant to start the ride, but within 20 miles the temperature had dropped to 58, brrr.  After eventually stopping to add a coat, hat & gloves, the temperatures dropped another 10 degrees in the next few miles.  The gusty winds made everything worse.  Since the light was now fading, Ron "sucked it up" and kept riding chilly until dark before he finally stopped again to pull on another, wind-proof layer.  Now in Atlanta, Ron discovered a veritable mountain of boxes Cynthia shipped to Don's house, after all, you never know when a girl will need cute shoes and accessories.  Well!  Obviously Cynthia isn't wearing motorcycle gear on the flight.  Security might have a problem if she wear a helmet.  Plus, Ron needed dress shoes for taking measurements for Rachel's wedding. (Yes, Cynthia had mentioned such an event, but Ron was clueless that it was scheduled for this coming Tuesday in Atlanta; Somehow that one little item was omitted from the thorough schedule keeps moving up on this blog.)  Life is so simple when we are traveling; Ron is in charge.  He makes certain we only schedule food and fun.  We are eager to be together again.  Good night!

4 Feb:  Cynthia loves Tuesdays at the lake.  The nice restaurants open after Sunday through Monday





Tuesday Morning Moment

closings.  Dinner promises to be excellent (it was).  Even on this gray day,  I love the lake.

A trillion-zillion flocks of water-fowl frolicked, flapped and fluttered across the lake, dancing, diving, hovering and swirling.  Mesmerized, I could not think to reach for the camera.  Once they passed by, I rushed outside zooming the cell phone camera on the flotilla nestled in the cove;  aha, iPhoto.  (Note: watch: Ron will change my sentences...  hahaha)  Since it was a dreary, rainy day in South Carolina, the morning walk was postponed until after breakfast at noon.   Each time Ron and friends have dined at Lizard's Thicket, Susan is so busy she has not had time to visit.  Ron, Dick and Jim walked in the mall today where Ron discovered some interesting, 

Body Rests While Spirit Soars

fingerless gloves, with mittens tops attached, for 50% off at American Eagle; now he's searching for an old American Eagle gift card; if he finds it, he will have new gloves.  Smooch did RETURN the nearly-three-year-old year old briefs and tee shirts his sister gave him for a wedding gift (sitting in a box at the Gowdy's all of this time); J C. Penny's refunded with a gift card which he will re-gift to said sister.  Two bags packed, the Gowdy's house is once again presentable.  Tomorrow,  Ron will ride to ATL.  I arrive Friday mid-afternoon.  Today,  a magnificent heart-covered card arrived in my mailbox.  Awww and Smooch!! 

Cynthia stopped at Scott's Grove; it is a two acre private family cemetery created at the request of her son Scott when he was dying from Leukemia in 1998.  Not even the cows in the near pasture noticed a weeping mother.  Scott's widow,  children, siblings, nieces and nephews take marvelous care of the Grove (now a non-profit.org).

3 Feb:  Awake at 5:30 for no good reason, Ron had to await daylight to begin yard work; Mary Lou needs pine straw.  The plan, successfully completed, was to walk with Dick, breakfast (lunch at 11:30) at Lizard's to see waitress Susan, and decide whether to ride to Atlanta today or later, depending upon rain.  The color radar map looks ominous, but this internet connection (from the next-door neighbors through a couple of brick walls) is ungodly slow.  The rain indeed came, light and brief, during the morning walkathon with RonFriend, Dick.  After returning to pack, Ron discovered that the early start and insufficient sleep has left him a bit lethargic - absolutely unfit for motorcycling to Atlanta, so "tomorrow" it is, and updating the blog is first project, before organizing and recycling.   Cynthia has an early morning medical appointment in the Woodlands, noon at the

4 Generations of Strong Women

aesthetician in Tomball, and then the drive to Stewart Title to close on the property in Hempstead (someone bought the contract in the midst of foreclosing on
 the current buyer).  Cynthia's heart hurts for daughter Julie's family (as well as for the doting great grandmother); her daughter Corrie and husband Alan, plus new baby Abigayle, are in the throes of preparation for departure to the mission field in SE China 15 February.  Three years  absence seems like forever.  Poor great grandmother.  I love you. (Awwwww! Sweet! Sweet! and Sweet Smooch, I love you, too! )

2 Feb, Sun:  After breakfast at Lizard's Thicket with Dick, Ron continued recycling & cleaning out his "stuff" at Greg & Donna's, but is planning to leave behind two packages of new undershirts and shorts given to him from the E-Vile older Sistah as a wedding gift (plus several computers and a few other items).  Oh what fun!!  Now Greg & Donna will be able to entertain in their formal living room without Ron's stuff leaving only Greg's Atari collection stacked to the ceiling in one corner.  Cousin Don in Atlanta will be happy to accommodate Ron upon arrival, who knows when.  We may rent a car in ATL so Don won't have to be tied to the top case of the motorcycle as we ride to dine out.  SuperBowl Sunday weather in Dallas is cold, raining and an ugly gray.  SmoochSmooch is pleased with her dress fitting; the five pounds seems to have disappeared; the silk charmeuse dress is elegant.  She left Dallas in heavy rain as the temperature dropped towards freezing every few moments. The traffic was not heavy, and drivers moved cautiously as warnings  of ice on bridges flashed alongside the freeway.  Smooch's soothing words were but a phone call away.  EXACTLY the time Cynthia turned onto TX SH 105, he phoned to find out if his beloved SmoochSmooch had arrived.  Such a sweet Smooch!  It is nice to be home.

1 Feb:   Ron spent the day having waaay too much fun transcribing metes and bounds from Spartanburg deeds on microfilm at the SC Archives, hoping to reconcile Laurance Bankston's purchases with sales.  Cynthia drove four hours in light rain and little traffic to Big D for a dress fitting tomorrow, Sunday, after which she will drive home again, home again, jiggity-jig.  There is little between Lake Conroe and Dallas except for the Blue Bell Ice Cream plant in Brenham and Corsicana fruitcakes. The Hilton in Highland Park is lovely; the nice staff  immediately upgraded my room.  (No,  Smooch, the super room does not make up for the absence of said Smooch.)   We shall see if Mr. Smooch departs for ATL tomorrow or Monday.  Sooo many big decisions.

JaNEWYEARy 2014

31 Jan, Fri: Two missed vox messages by 10:01 AM because Smooch Smooch slept.  And slept.  How great to sleep without being awakened by pain or the phone.  Ron (in SC) had a 5' high stack of recycling from the "formal living room" READY to go to the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump.  He finished the third proofreading of 208 pages, about half of Vol. 6, walked with Dick R. this AM, and explained punctuation, the use of comma or no comma with a compound sentence, to his WeeFee, his beloved SmoochSmooch.  Cynthia, with CDO (a little like OCD, but in proper alpha order), reports the plan to lose five pounds is progressing perfectly, although it is distressingly difficult to abstain from diet Coke; Auuughhh.  The rest of the wedding party is also losing bunches and is delighted to do so.  The WeeFee walked five miles in 72 degree temp this afternoon, stopping at the golf clubhouse for an early dinner of grilled Snapper, steamed asparagus and spinach salad.   Tomorrow afternoon Cynthia drives to Dallas (4 hours) for the second dress fitting, Sunday at one PM, in preparation for Rachel's wedding.  Simply too much driving (8 hours) for one day, so she will overnight in Dallas.  Tonight, the SC RonFriends are partying: Vince, Mary, Tom, Cheryl, and Dick sent cheery hellos from a very noisy Ruby Tuesday.

30 Jan: 12:01 AM vox message from the competitive Smooch, DETERMINED to win those critical points for the first I LOVE YOU of the day.  This morning he reports a scheduled walk with Dick  at 9:30 AM when the temp reaches 29 degrees.  The roads are clear of yesterday's ice.  After the walk they breakfasted at Lizard's Thicket, but favorite waitress Susan was too busy to talk.  Ron is spent the day proofreading Vol. 6 and found only punctuation errors.  Now he needs several answers from Kim-Eric.  Prayerfully, Vol. 6 will go to press in May.  Ron counted about  a zilion and a 78th 1/4 boxes of HIS stuff sitting in the Greg & Donna's formal living room.  The mix of stuff includes magazines & books that Ron rescued from Greg's discards since, in an earlier life (before marriage), Ron thought he might enjoy reading them.  SmoochSmooch will be greatly surprised if Ron recycles the boxes of old magazines.  (HA, you doubting WeeFee, they are already gone.)  Cynthia reports from Texas that the sun has been shining intermittently, but the temperature did not reach the forecast high.  Life is good.  There is always reason to be thankful.  Yet, my heart hurts over the Italian verdict reversal today.

29 Jan:  No satellite!  No internet!  No weather reports during Ron's sojourn in SC; Greg & Donna disconnected cable and internet during their "Christmas" in MinnaSNOWda.  (Hi, Dick, Please tell Ron the ten day forecast for SC: wintry mix today,  warming on the weekend, with rain to follow during the days he will ride to Atlanta.)  Cynthia will arrive in Atlanta the 7th during a predicted snowfall.  The traffic reports from ATL yesterday are horrendous; the  Atlantans drive on snow like Houstonians.  The airport in ATL is my least favorite.   Delay after delay.  Fortunately,  we will stay at the Hilton Garden Inn one mile from the airport, and the airport shuttle will insure that my "Precious Cargo" arrives intact.

Ron ate breakfast at Lizard's Thicket with Dick and Clark & Elizabeth; Elizabeth brought Ron some Dave's Insanity Ghost Pepper Sauce, since his stash of HOT sauce has disappeared.  Ron is is on the move recycling old papers left at the Gowdy's for the past trillion years (since our marriage) plus visiting Mary Lou, whose eyesight suddenly deteriorated beginning last November.  He dined with Clark & Elizabeth and Dick R. at Ruby Tuesday's.  The grocery shopping completed, he has food to survive the next couple of days of winter.  Ron had a nice nap around dinner time.  The recycling is ready but the center was closed today; maybe tomorrow, too.

Our 23 and Me DNA test results returned tonight.  Good news for the two's of us: neither one has  Parkinsons's or Alzheimer's genetic issues.  I do not have genetic breast cancer genes, but I have a slightly elevated risk for colon and lung cancer (still minimal); Ron does have male inherited baldness  (hhahaha; what a surprise!).  The cardiac/thrombosis risk is elevated, but certainly not news for his family of origin. Ron and I have an elevated risk for gout.  We have the same elevated risk for macular degeneration.  Ron has an elevated risk for prostate cancer but his PSA's are perfect.  Atta boy!   Ron has a high metabolism; now that is news! hahaha.   Ron's 23 and Me DNA family results are not completed.  Mine returned over 1000 DNA cousins with Norwegian names.  Uff da!  (Hallingdal, NOR inhabitants married second cousins; the DNA is puRRRRe.)

 Our Texas forecast warmed to the mid-forties today with 70's predicted by the weekend.  I will be preaching two Sundays in March, meaning two sermons to write. One cleaning project remained; finished it this AM.  I am mystified the Norwegian parish record books are missing from the upstairs library book shelves.  WHO would take four Norwegian language volumes out of the library?  Weird.  Sleep has been great once again, the back is almost pain free; the next ten days will focus on physical activity beginning with the 2.5 mile walk to the fitness center.  Ron reports good sleep last night, too.   I can't believe anyone reads this stuff,  yet, 1091 page views reported for January!!! The walk was 5 miles RT!

28 January, Tues: winter returned to Texas.  Wintry mix of ice, sleet, rain, snow means a quiet day at home.  23 degrees forecast with schools and businesses announcing closings.  Ron (in SC) is walking with Dick R. And petting Yodel (the cat ) while proof-reading Volume 6.   The internet is turned off at the Gowdy"s.  Perhaps he will use one at a public library.  From MN Ron's genealogy cousin writes that the temp is 50 degrees below zed with a blizzard bearing down and yet mystified they close schools in MN when it gets below freezing.

The day is quiet and peaceful; the Sappington database has been updated; now to format the book, the Sappington Spirit (Good Grief!  FIVE books.)   The Sappington's are included in my book, the Spirit in the South, now prepared for a second printing, but it will also include the new research from England.  The Sappington's database is very large beginning with colonist Nathaniel Sappington of Maryland whose great grandson Richard Sappington and his wife (Rebecca Jarrett) became  parents of all Georgia born Sappington's for 150 years.  I really detest formatting!!!  I can organize easily, but do not like writing the Foreword or bibliography, etc.

Good news via a phone call moments ago: the Hempstead property closing will proceed on Monday next.   The paperwork is in order.

I took a break to read a (tiny) favorite, "The Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson.  "I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled him down the arches of the years; I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind; and  in the midst of  tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter."  Of course the upshot of the story is He catches us when we have no place to turn only to discover everything we were running from and towards we find in Him.   Hey! Its not even Sunday!

27 January, Monday morning waiting for Ron's phone call watching white-tipped waves dance across the lake as the palm trees shook their heads in response. Ron RODE through the night to SC, "because it was warm and the cold front is coming,"  Is that a surprise? No!  Donna and Greg are in MinneSNOWda while Greg recovers from recent heart surgery.  Yodel, the kitty, is certain to enjoy Ron's company although he is yet to be seen.  Ron said he will turn the vacuum cleaner on and Yodel will come running.  Ron enjoys the SC friendships, bantering with Dick R. on morning walks until 7 Feb. when CFB arrives in ATL.   Cynthia sent four boxes  of her motorcycle gear by UPS to Don C. in Lithonia with her motorcycle gear; Don said one of the boxes was so large he thought he should check to see if she had shipped  inside the box.   While Ron is getting into stride in SC,  Cynthia has been working on foreclosure of a property she sold in Hempstead; Texas has easy foreclosure regulations which she did herself.  The situation became complicated when a buyer appeared hoping to transfer the contract between he and Cynthia; it fell through because the current contract holder cannot clear his TX corporation issues so the closing fell through and now it is back in foreclosure but this time with an attorney doing the two notices twenty days apart, then an 18 day wait to see if the current contract holder can find the full balance due.  Wouldn't that be nice if he did pay off the contract?  I am surely owed a trillion zillion thirty-eight one-third of a fifteenth percent in late interest.

26 January,  Sunday early morning:  Sunlight sparkled like diamonds on the blue Beamer as the golden orb arose in the eastern sky; Ron is rolling towards Tupelo.  The temperature is 40 degrees.  (Smooch! Be warm).   Two phone calls by 9:30 AM (south of St. Louis, MO) reward Cynthia with the news Smooch IS indeed warm, albeit, the wind is gusty.  7:31 PM phone call from Birmingham; temperature is 55 degrees.  With a Turkey sub in his stomach Ron is ready to ride on this evening while the warm weather permits.  Once he turned east the wind was no longer a problem.   Cynthia, OTOH is impressed with her day, too.  The closet/drawer cleaning out process is completed; BOXES of stuff have been given away, yet, her finest accomplishment was cleaning genealogy files/records. The records are inventoried to be delivered tomorrow to a print shop to be scanned onto flash drives, thus they will be archived permanently in storage.  The edits on two of the books are now completed.  Formatting will follow over the next two weeks.  YES!  She dun good!  Four books.

1.) James Lea, 1790 Caswell County, NC  (which one is he?)   2)  The Spirit Runner (Extensive Norwegian genealogy dating to 1100 AD, Hallingdal, NOR, the farm still in the family),  3.) The Prussian Spirit of Wagner-Schulz, 4.) Contemplative Bible Studies, "Living with Questions."

25 Jan, Sunny day on the lake in Texas, cool weather requiring jackets.  Winter is over.  Maybe.   Cynthia has accomplished miracles cleaning closets, drawers and files in preparation to move items into storage when the lake house sells.   Housing is selling so well; building is everywhere.   But, Texas economy is so diversified the ups and downs are not so severe as areas with narrow fields of employment or business interests.   The tech industry in Houston rivals southern California.

24 Jan: ICE in Texas.   Cars in ditches.   Businesses closed. Ron and Sistah Carol looked out the sliding door in the early AM to see and count 24 geese amongst the grape arbors. Such fun!

23 Jan, 6 AM:  Ron is awake and fueling with coffee.  We should get more activity soon.  It was 1 (one) degree warm this morning after sunrise, another "cabin fever" day.  Biological sistah Carol is educating Ron about his DNA charts, fascinating to learn that the charts over-emphasize the miniscule ranges that are used for genealogical DNA studies and slyly misinform since all 23 chromosomes are actually inseparable pairs, so the same area on my 8th chromosome matches my mother's brother and my father's sister --- only because that "one" chromosome is actually a pair from my father and mother.

22 Jan:  Ron and Carol spent the day indoors even though the forecast high of 30 degrees wasn't nearly as cold as the day before or the day after.  The two of us only drank two pots of coffee; we're cutting back.   After dozens of searches, Ron has exhausted the possibility that Volume 6 of the Colonial Records can be completed with information from the computer-scanned files of the Craig Collection.  Poor little Smooch Smooch was severely traumatized by postpartum separation; her brand-new, twice-held great granddaughter is leaving with her parents for missionary work in China.  It was just too sad that so many miles separate the comforting Smooch from the distressed SmoochSmooch.

Grandmother Cynthia and Abigayle

21 Jan:  Ron awoke early but so did his sister, so they spent the greater part of the morning chatting and drinking coffee until she got the shakes.  Sistah Carol reported that Little Carol Ann is quite a pistol now that she's discovered how to pick locks.  Lord help us when she enters the experimental phase of cooking.

20 Jan:  Ron finished shrink wrapping the pallets at 5:30 AM and slept an hour and a half in the back of the U-Haul truck on the Big Agnes pad with wonderfully warm down sleeping bag.  That he felt rested after so little sleep is a minor miracle, and he drank far too much coffee quickly during breakfast at Denny's.  It was a substantial relief that RoadRunner Trucking answered the phone at 8 AM (on Martin Luther King holiday) and invited Ron to come on down with his shrink-wrapped-by-hand pallets.  I, Cynthia, am so proud of Smooch!  I deserve applause, too, after walking 4.5 miles!  We are having glorious weather at the lake, but leaving the doors open wasn't the brightest idea as two birds got loose in the  house.

19 Jan, Sun:  Oh what a day !  The forecast was not far off, so the motorcycle was flashing a snowflake warning at 8 AM, and its temperature gauge reported 26 degrees as Ron rode towards Highland and

A barely visible blue heron near the green tree

Edwardsville.  Ron and sistah Carol are having way too much fun digging boxes out of storage; those boxes await shrink wrapping in the 17-foot U-Haul truck Ron rented for this great adventure.  I (Cynthia) cannot imagine his storage unit less 220 board games and every piece of computer equipment he has owned since its purchase 3000 BC.  Boxes of games were extracted from high, low, over and under; requiring much muscle as well as bending, lifting, and squatting.  Several of the heaviest computer boxes were the most awkward, being extracted from under a train table.  Ron is convinced that it is Herculean effort like this that developed the collateral circulation

The rear view of our lake house 

that keeps him alive despite TWO totally blocked arteries.   Cynthia, OTOH,  arose late, arrived at worship during the sharing of the peace so no one noticed her sneak inside. Lumbar injections worked great - she is almost perfect again.  Today... is a gorgeous but cool day on the lake.  ( Ron: I forgot how to wrap text!!!!  Is it like shrink wrapping pallets?  Not much.)

Lake Conroe - almost back to normal depth

Rachel's Bridal Shower

18 Jan:  Ron says: Briefly, Don and I are visiting his grandson Brent in Highland, Illinois on this chilly Saturday.  Brent was a lot of fun and a good conversationalist at age 8.  Forecast for tomorrow promises a good day to yank games & computers out of storage & load them onto pallets for shipping Monday morning.  Carol has volunteered to photograph the process.  Cynthia says: Rachel's bridal shower on Saturday was magnificent.  Holding new baby Abigayle was the best.

The Moon Rises at Lake Conroe

(For those of you unfamiliar with the familiaritywith which we blog, this is a personal aside that can be skipped:  Hi there my beloved Smooch Smooch.  I'm updating the blog as we speak.  I love you (and she replies,"  AWWWWWW!  My eyes are dripping.  I love you, Ron Beatty!  Here is the start of sunset tonight at our lakehouse; smooooooch, g'nite")

17 Jan:  Ron again arose far too early (5:01) to start drinking coffee and attending to his projects.  With 21 degrees forecast for today's high, there will be no walk and no excursions.

16 Jan:  The computer called this Thursday at 5:51, so Ron was up drinking coffee, checking the weather forecast, and typing.  Today was filled by another trip to Highland for shopping with Ann and another lunch at the Family Restaurant.  Don and Ann enjoy the card game Liverpool Rummy, and Ron had forgotten that he never wins and doesn't care for the game.  Eventually he remembered that his favorite strategy is to "buy" the discard pile frequently to achieve his melds although that strategy makes it impossible to win.

15 Jan:   After going to bed at 10pm, Ron was awake from 2 to 5am working on the computer.  Don's approach at 7am was quite a surprise, but the two of us joined Hank for a long, early morning walk around the farm.  It was only a bit cold and icy until we turned to face the north and felt the full brunt of the wind and chill; that cut the walk "short" in a hurry.  Ron and Don drove to Highland to shop for groceries and to print a bill of lading at the library.  Ron was quite happy with the library time and was able to print both of the needed bills of lading.  Although the library holds NO books about coaching baseball, Don discovered one librarian who had worked in naval intelligence, and the two of them talked for hours.  We tried the Family Restaurant (Ann's favorite) for lunch and were pleased that their salad bar was good enough to satisfy Ron.  Today was the day for Cynthia's epidural lumbar injections.  All went well.  Son Jon delivered her to First Surgical Woodlands, and daughter Julie took her mother home.  Children are life's blessings, and grandchildren are the best of the best, icing on the delights of life.  Now - sleep is imminent for Cynthia!  Ron, on the other hand, has finished shopping in Highland, Illinois for blueberries and bread and responded to mandatory e-mails, so his next project is to describe the sunrise and the ride from there to here.  Then his Ron Beatty web site needs attention, then he will be ready to look for the other four documents needed for volume 6 of the Colonial Records of the Swedish Churches, searching through 200,000 scanned images for handwritten materials.

14 Jan:  The night did not go as well as hoped.  Ron's feet were cold ALL night, so he did not fall asleep easily nor sleep long.  Yes, he knew the sleeping bag was old, worn out, and was not designed for freezing temperatures, but he intends to leave it in Illinois in storage, so it was his (inferior) choice.  At 5:00am, he was surprised to be unable to get back to sleep, so he arose early despite dampness, packed and was riding in the early light of morning.  WHAT a MORNING.  The sunrise was astounding, starting with a fiery red brightening the horizon, which gradually turned orange as the light brightened.  Morning rush hour in Little Rock was the only part of this trip where there was much traffic.  Most of the time the roadways were nearly empty allowing me to enjoy the scenery, my philosophical thoughts, and all the hawks.  Fortunately Ron misread the GPS and fortuitously took the circumferential Interstate 440 instead of plowing through downtown on I-30 with rush hour traffic.  As the sunrise segued past a truly golden yellow towards a faded yellow against a pale blue sky, the sparsely-trafficked roadway crossed a long bridge over the Arkansas River and presented the marvelous vision of an outbound fishing boat in the center of the river scene surrounded by streaks of reflected color.  WOW !  Throughout the entire sunrise display, the effects were heightened by the enchanting accents of skeletal trees in winter garb against the sky and by continual glimpses of water reflecting the colors from all the swamps.  The final hurrah was a faint halo of reds and purples surrounding the final white against the pale blue seconds before actual sunrise.  Deer were the wildlife of choice last night, but daytime brought out the hawks.  All day long hawks were hunting from trees, power lines, and the air.  Apparently they get very, very hungry when winter warms and dinner starts moving around on the prairie.  It was still mid-morning when the first waves of fatigue washed right through me.  It seemed peculiar that there had been no places to eat appropriate for my diet of no oil, no butter, no fat, no cheese; no IHOP, no Denny's, only Waffle Houses and McDonalds.  Chevron gas stations were also mysteriously absent throughout Arkansas, so Shell gasoline is second best, $10 at a time (for half a tank - 140 miles).  It was nearly noon before there was at a Perkins restaurant in Blytheville, AR, just south of the Missouri border, where I drank a pot of coffee and ate an egg white veggie omelet, one of the smallest such omelets ever, and at $12 for the meal, one of the most expensive.  My American Express credit card was refused by the Shell there, so Visa, second best, paid Shell, second best.  The Missouri state line is mere minutes later, so I exited to don a helmet and, since gasoline was 40 cents per gallon cheaper in Missouri, again tried to charge Shell gasoline using American Express and was told to see cashier.  I did, and she authorized me for $10 on the American Express after asking me (slightly nervously) to remove my ski mask.  All that breakfast coffee did next to nothing to awaken me.  As soon as I resumed riding (on that boringly straight slab of interstate), my eyelids again became impossibly heavy.  So it was a bit of relief to run under dark clouds from which raindrops soon fell.  Since the duffel behind me was full of papers inadequately protected from water, I was forced to exit the highway and espied a grain elevator with an unused, sheltered "carport" where I parked the bike and immediately laid down to rest.  After only a half hour Ron arose much more alert and "rested."  The rain had apparently extended only to that locale because the roadways were immediately dry when he resumed riding.  It was a puzzle that the GPS guided me off the interstate and across the little bridge over the Mississippi at Chester, IL to Illinois Highway 4 north (where a Super Walmart in Sparta provided bread & cereal) and a few tiny, rough farm roads through New Memphis, past New Baden, and into Trenton just before 5pm.  27 hours door-to-door.  Don and Ann and I enjoyed a pleasant visit for several hours before my exertions left me unable to attend to anything but sleep.  Cynthia writes:  The wet and weary traveler is proof the Boy Scout still exists.  An amorous, magnificent card arrived in Smooch Smooch's postal mail today making Cynthia a very happy girlie.

13 Jan:  Ron's departure is delayed a day - nothing unusual there.  He has gotten only three or four hours of sleep each of the last three or four nights trying to get everything, cleaned, organized, reviewed, and segregated into stuff destined for storage in Illinois, stuff left in Texas to deal with in April, and two absolutely full motorcycle loads of recycling to the Montgomery County recycle center hidden on Friendship Road in Magnolia.  Cynthia is still suffering with back pain for the tenth day now after doing too much for the personal trainer at Walden fitness club.  Obviously the guy is far too young to have any experience helping people with chronic injuries.  Lots more to say, but even more important is getting miles down the road while the sun shines.  Bye.  Early in the morning, Ron and Cynthia parted company without joy, one with tears, the other glumly waving good bye through the car window as Cynthia drove towards her doctor appointments.
Cynthia's day was spent at the oncologist who assured her she is  the least likely to get a recurrence of breast cancer, so she is freed from tamoxifen.   Her weight was up five pounds from the bad food we have eaten enroute home to Texas. -- SOOOO WITH THE WEDDING THREE MONTHS AWAY, Rachel is going to the same doctor tomorrow who uses the Ideal Protein Plan that Cynthia started today, hoping to shed 15 pounds by the wedding.  The best part for Cynthia was learning her body is 15 years younger than her biological age, solid, rock-hard muscle !!  Four phone calls later I (Cynthia) learn he (Ron) did not depart until 2 pm; SO NOW i know what awaits me in the house:  Flowers everywhere, the house is immaculate, carrots are peeled for my snacks, and the vitamins are bagged for morning.  (Before leaving town, Ron thought to surprise his beloved bride by dropping an "I miss you" card at the post office in Montgomery.)  After dark Ron calls from U.S.Highway 59 heading towards the Arkansas border (and Atlanta, Texas).  Ron has been surprised by the amount of water visible in the fields and ditches; it looks like Texas was flooded while he was preoccupied with packing.  He has "warm clothing," bike freshly serviced, new tires, everything is looking GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!   Oof and SmoochSmooch is ready for sleep... smooch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Today's route took Ron through the major cities of Trinity, Lovelady, Crockett, and Avon, Texas on various Texas highways and entertaining farm roads.  The GPS chose Texas Highway 30 for quite some miles, but as the evening darkened, Ron was happy to intersect a much larger road, U.S. Highway 59, because the danger from wildlife, especially deer, would be much reduced.  The relief lasted only a few miles a few deer appeared here and a couple of deer there close alongside the roadway.  Ditto alongside Interstate 55.  There must have been thirty deer on the shoulder in one 20-mile stretch along I-55.  Approaching Benton, AR, west of Little Rock, seemed like a good time to find a place to sleep close to a place for breakfast, so I exited the interstate and followed Arkansas highway 5 which parallels I-55 until I discovered a small church abutting a wetlands and woods.  My fingers were already showing signs of abuse, being painful when unclipping several fasteners on the luggage.  Maybe heated handgrips deceive me to believe my fingers are OK because my hands are warm.  (It took two days of Neosporin to alleviate the pain.)  Towards midnight Ron called Cynthia to say that he is near Little Rock ready to sleep, hidden outside behind a Pentacostal Church.

12 Jan, Sunday:  Ron and Cynthia ate brunch with Jon and two grandkids, Steven and Samantha. (Cynthia's deceased son left behind his two darling babies who are now college grads and in grad school.)  After brunch, Ron changed his mind about leaving today since the forecast high of 29 degrees for Edwardsville on Thursday was unappealing.  In addition, he prefers to complete several projects first.  One of those projects was to download our wedding pictures onto the SD card for the photo slide show picture frame that Walt and Pam gave us for a wedding present.  The current slide show has memorable moments over the centuries with friend Ron wearing never-to-forget clothing and shoes (gold-digger repellant).  Now Cynthia can watch Ron while he is absent - departing tomorrow instead.
11 Jan: more prognostication, better forecast, but not in Memphis or Joplin. Sunny warm day.  Recycling completed, nice breakfast with a Cynthia's daughter.  More packing to complete tonight. Ron rolls to Illinois tomorrow morning after church and brunch.  He and Cynthia will joyfully re-connect in Atlanta the first week in February.

10 Jan: rainy day brought the lake almost to normal for the first time since the big drought.  Busy day packing stuff from the storage closet to recycle.  Cynthia's back is not better, awaiting epidural lumbar steroid injections next Wednesday.  Sleep deprived.  Lesson learned : go slow in re-starting fitness training.

9 Jan: rain forecast.  But look at this cutie:

Abigayle with Julie (clone of mother Cynthia)

8 Jan, Wed:  Ron Brrrrrrrrraved the Arctic blast by riding to Wild West Honda in the SW corner of Houston at 7:30 AM.  (Cynthia exaggerates, it was a balmy 45 or 48 degrees for the two-hour ride, with a stop in Magnolia to drop off another load of recycling.)  The plan was to arrive at Wild West Honda before 8am for the 30,000 mile service.  In actuality Ron was just leaving the house at 8am that foggy morning.  The roadways were thoroughly wet as if it had recently rained, and perhaps it had.  Wet roadways always make me nervous, so I rode cautiously on my chosen route of lessor roads.  The scenic, foggy-morning bonus was the "smoke" arising from a sun-lit field which looked exactly as if a fire had burned there leaving a field full of smoking embers causing wraiths to rise into the morning sun.  In the last mile in Katy, a light rain developed so that the bike was sloppy wet when the shop got it.  The big surprise was that another low beam bulb had burned out, needing replacement, the third time in nine months ownership.  As often happens, Ron left his cell phone at home, dangling on the wall charger.  Ron stayed busy reading junk and working on Volume 6 of the Colonial Records of the Swedish Churches with satisfying results.  Cynthia was delighted that a property, which we sold on contract two years ago that was now three months in arrears and in foreclosure, will be purchased by a new buyer.  Oh joyous news that the new buyer will close next week and will assume the old contract, which pays us good interest.   Our Las Vegas guests departed at noon.  The house is quiet.  In Katy, the rain continued all day, and the prospects for a pleasant ride home seemed gloomy.  With Hooters next door, one would expect Ron to brave the rain, but he was too much absorbed in his computer project - obviously over the hill.  Maintenance was completed about 3 PM, and everything was still wet when Ron started homewards.  A mile later, the rain abated, but another motorcyclist took a spill while turning at an intersection; the rider picked himself and the bike up and resumed riding, leaving Ron aware that the roads are slick.  The roadways were drier and drier through Cypress, Tomball, and Magnolia until 3 miles from home when the drizzle resumed until Ron parked the bike in the garage, at which time it ceased.  After sending e-mails and updating this blog, I should go to sleep.  G'night.  Cynthia has tossed and turned in pain all night for five nights now.  She is looking frazzled and behaving like a zombie in training.  I'd dearly love to see her sleep soundly.

7 Jan:  Jayden's riding lesson, niece Kelly prepared a fabulous dinner for us with Lauren, Rachel and Jon as guests.  Cynthia went to bed early with ugly back pain.
6 Jan: Ron hardly worked preparing recycling while Cynthia and gang hit Houston hot spots during the day until getting together again for dinner at Phil's Roadhouse.  She was excited to see her daughter-in-laws expanding waistline.  Baby is very high risk, will be delivered C-Section about a month early.  Too soon for the sex report.

5 Jan, Sunday:  While our guests slept "late", we went to 8:30 worship at Grace Lutheran.  Ron is happy that XYWrite now works within 32-bit Windows 7 on both the Toshiba and in a VirtualBox on the MacBook Air.  Brunch with family at the Yacht Club.  Cynthia took Jayden for another excellent horseback riding lesson.  Too bad that the horse dust gives Cynthia a big head-full of allergies ... as if the back pain weren't debilitating enough.

4 Jan:  we are still alive.  That is the news of the day.  Jayden did an outstanding workout with grooming and caring for her horse, learning the movements for guiding her horse by herself.  Family party is planned tonight at the Yacht Club.

3 Jan:  Dr. K. Lance Gould provided his professional opinion that "We are still alive" and gave us good reports.  He is a research scientist who was the pioneer in using the PET scan for cardiology.   He is one the leading cardiologists in Texas and was Walter Cronkite's physician.  He is always delighted to see us among the living.  Ron's weight was 170..., but Cynthia does not tell hers.  Ron has made great strides to become heart stable.   The prevailing issues remain, but he can tell that he is stronger and has more stamina, and Cynthia thinks he grows more handsome daily.  Ron took Cynthia to the fitness center; she is a purpose-driven woman.  The back hurt but she stayed the course.  Ron removed the old Windows Vista system files from the Toshiba and regained 27 GB in order to install 32-bit Windows 7 for the purpose of using XY Write.  His concern about registration was for nought; apparently the former 64-bit system used the same upgrade disk.
Our guests arrived about ten PM after ridiculously long security - FOUR HOURS -  caused them to miss their flight from Las Vegas.  As their headlight swung into our drive, they were thrilled to see 5 or 6 deer in the yard.  Jayden did not see a deer with a red nose, so it was not Rudolph; Santa was not running late.  We chatted until the witching hour when Cynthia falls asleep. The adorable five year old has boundless energy no matter the hour.  Aunt Cynthia gave the five year old the note Santa left under our Christmas tree, the gift of horseback riding lessons; she can be a REAL Texas Cowgirl.

2 Jan:  We are off to the Clayton Library today to research, followed by an over night at the Rotary House in the Medical Center for our 8:00 AM appointments with the cardiologist.  Wonderful that the Clayton Library had three of Ben Rose's books about the Lea families of Caswell County, NC.  Now we know that the family Bible record we wish to have examined is likely to be laminated at the State Library in Raleigh, NC.  Road Trip !!

1 January, 2014:  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  Can you believe it?  Wasn't it just yesterday we were worried about Y2K and entering a NEW CENTURY!!!!!!!   Now, 14 years later!  Much has changed, much is still the same ol' same ol' and we are no longer the same but we are NOT OLD!  Cynthia had an excellent workout yesterday with her fitness trainer who called the set of ten body lifts, "Awesome."  It must have worked muscles that had been idle awhile, since she woke up this morning at 2:30 with back pain.  We went shopping today for groceries to feed a five year old for five days.  On friday, Cynthia's niece and spouse with their five-year-old, the great niece, arrive for a visit.  Santa left a note for the little girl under our tree with the gift of lessons to become a Texas cowgirl.  The horseback riding lessons begin Saturday at one PM.

Merry Merry Merry December!

30 Dec:  Only three more recycling days before doctors appointments.  It was fun to see Zack again at IHOP and to meet someone at the fitness center who remembered "Where is Ron Now."  Unfortunately the IHOP kitchen was a worse disaster than previously; they got our order wrong twice.  I told the new manager that I'd rather cook at home.  My knees again complained after the walk on concrete sidewalks to and from the fitness center.  Cynthia scheduled twice a week with a personal trainer to keep her on track and safe from injury.  (She is an over-achiever.)  Cynthia's goal for the end of April is to have everything in storage or given away, so I hafta get all my recycling out of the house and all my junkish keepsakes moved to Illinois.  (You all know about my compulsive hoarding which extends all the way to garments needing mucho mending.  My sister says I inherited the junk collector gene.)  Next on the agenda is to install 32-bit Windows System 7 on the Toshiba laptop after another backup.  Hmm, now I need to Google all that - bye.

done - departed from Sedona 21 Dec  - despite snow flurries in Sedona
done - arrival in Dallas 27 Dec - visited Dorothy Dec 26

29 Dec, Sunday:  When Ron awoke this morning, he was unmotivated and still is.  However, the sunrise was marvelous with purplish reds reflected in the clouds and on the lake.  We arose and hustled off to the early service at Grace Lutheran, where we enjoyed recognizing the pastor and parishioners and they recognized us.  We neglected resupply on our way home from IHOP, and are now underprepared for dinner.  We walked on concrete sidewalks to the Health Club to work out, but using the elliptical machine and walking on concrete makes my knee ache.  So now we are home again, and Ron ate cereal w/ berries for dinner.  Cynthia found soup & wine, so she's a happy gourmand.  We are both recognizing that it is time to part with our stuff (and junk), since we are now car-less and fully committed to a life of travel by motorcycle.  Ron foresees multiple trips to recycling.

28 Dec:  Sunrise finds us in Montgomery, Texas, in Cynthia's lake house, somewhat confused as to how we arrived here so early before doctors' appointments and wondering what to do next.  Ron discovered his checkbook exactly where Cynthia remembered it - amongst the Bankston genealogy papers !  First things first, we picked up a rental car for Cynthia at Enterprise and breakfasted at IHOP.  After breakfast, Ron found good prices for everything on his shopping list at Kroger and immediately decided to spend the remainder of daylight in the genealogy room at the Montgomery County Library, where he was delighted to find a few new Bankston tidbits.  Dinner at the Yacht Club and home to bed by 9:30.  Ron has been telling Cynthia for months that he didn't need to replace the moth-eaten underwear he has been wearing because practically brand spankin' new undies are at the lake house.  And indeed, this second sought-after item was located quickly in the storage closet.

27 Dec:  Cynthia's dress fitting at 12:30 was east of I-35E, and our hotel was 40 miles west at I-35W.  Ron had wanted to visit the genealogy room at the Dallas Public Library, but the library closes at 5 PM on Fridays.  Rather than travel cross town multiple times and get stuck leaving the library in rush hour, we simply headed south after the fitting, taking U.S. 75 to I-45.  Towards three in the afternoon advertising for the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana was simply irresistible, so we stopped to enjoy forbidden treats.  Cynthia's soup was delightfully tasty, and Ron's fruitcake was worth the dietary transgression.  Sunset again enthralled us, this time the horizon was clear allowing the sun to light the bellies of the clouds overhead.  It was not yet dark when we arrived at Pappadeaux for a salmon dinner.  Prudence suggested picking up some diet cherry cokes and egg white veggie omelet fixings as we passed by WallyWorld.

26 Dec:  Early this morning my blue motorcycle was painted white with frost, a surprising sight in Dallas.  We are happy to report that 97-year-old Dorothy is still doing well in Denton, Texas.   Her Cynthia has lost so much weight as to be unrecognizable; attagirl Cynthia !  (My Cynthia also deserves an attagirl for muscle tone and STRONG, hiker-chick legs.)  The ride from the Hilton Garden Inn to Denton at noon was chilly at 46 degrees, but the ride back at 5:30 seemed much warmer due to a fantastic orange-yellow striated sunset on the western horizon below crescent streamers of red in broad brushstrokes high in the sky to the south.

25 Dec: Today the big surprise was discovering a substantial dew covering the motorcycle in the early morning - in the desert !  The ride from Odessa to Fort Worth was a chilly and windy one.  The bike may have a permanent leftward list after riding all day at a slant.  The landscape and the odors became consistently more pleasing with each mile eastward from Odessa/ Midland.  It was quite a change to see green fields of winter wheat after seeing desert and winter colors for the last month.  High temperature for the day was only fifty degrees, brrrh.  Cynthia was mostly warm enough in her electrics, although she did need Frog Togs for wind-proofing  after lunch.  The winds tore her light-weight Frog Togs apart; we'll hafta replace them.  Google reviewers of IHOPs and Dennys gave strong negatives for Odessa and Midlands, so we suffered through the continental breakfast provided by the Comfort Inn and saved our appetites until the IHOP in Abilene.  This IHOP lived up to its strong recommendations and provided me a good omelet (after returning the first one for a cheese violation).  Cynthia forgot to explicitly specify no oil, no butter on her chicken dinner, so it arrived more oily than we like.  I-20 & I-30 were less busy than expected on Christmas Day, and the proportion of trucks was surprisingly high.  I expected more truckers to be home with their families.  The rates at the new Hilton Garden Inn were pleasingly low, and their chef fed us a wonderful dinner.

24 Dec: We packed early (for us) and breakfasted at the nearby IHOP while the early morning chill dissipated in the bright sunshine.  As we started riding south through El Paso, the sun was a nuisance, but we soon turned east and enjoyed a very pleasant day.  The scenery changed from absolutely flat, barren desert to sparsely covered mountains to mountains with vegetation to smelly, flat oil lands.  That smell of crude oil is somewhat sickening and goes on for hundreds of miles.  Just before sunset the bike reported a temperature of sixty-five degrees !  Then the bottom dropped out, and the temperature dropped a degree every few minutes until we stopped at Odessa shortly before dark.  The clerk at the Comfort Inn recommended Harrigan's, where we enjoyed an excellent dinner.  After a fuel stop for the cycle, Ron walked from the hotel for a couple of hours through an industrial area and observed several mechanics and truckers still working on Christmas Eve.

23 Dec: Ron thought to surprise Cynthia by riding to Van Horn, Texas to spend the night at the historic hotel there, but we enjoyed visiting Cynthia's nephew Robbie in El Paso all afternoon.  Instead of reclaiming our luggage at the Comfort Inn, we returned to the St. Clair Winery & Bistro for an excellent dinner of salmon and stayed another night in Las Cruces.

22 Dec: We've come to rest in Las Cruces, NM at a Comfort Inn within a couple of blocks of the third St. Clair Winery & Bistro of our trip.  This one was not able to feed us as well as the other two, but the meal was excellent and the wine wonderful.  We started the day in Casa Grande, AZ at Mimi's Cafe which has not yet disappointed us.  It was so peculiar, in the vicinity of Tucson, to come out, first thing in the morning, to a motorcycle covered with dew.  The scenery today along I-10 was marvelous, especially with the highlights provided by snow on the mountains.  First mountains started as an indistinct steely blue-gray as we approached and morphed into clay and green sharply distinct as we passed; wonderful transformation.  The next noteworthy mountains were the dull rust colored "hills" covered with a dusting of snow resembling lace doilies.  And our final spell binding mountains came towards us at sunset, the mountains beyond Las Cruces appeared to be blue, were capped in brilliant white snow, and accentuated by the deepening blue and violet in the sky.  The sunset in the rear view mirror as a repeat of yesterday.

21 Dec:  Yes !  We were up early, thanks in part to the roofers who arrived at 8 AM, finished packing by 9:30, and were breakfasting at Reds as the snow started falling.  Yup, we departed Sedona in light snow at 35 degrees.  The red rock is even more spectacular with wispy foggy tendrils rising sporadically amongst the spires and mesas.  The snow didn't affect traction, although the nail in the rear tire did nothing to reassure us of our safety.  The roadway dried out by the time we passed through the Village of Oak Creek, and the tire continued to reassure us by not losing any pressure all the way to the GoAz dealership (which the GPS failed to locate correctly).  It was quite amusing to see the elevation markers decline steadily from 5,000 feet to 4,000 feet to 3,000 feet to 2,000 feet almost as regularly as the old Burma Shave signs.  Somewhere around 3,000 feet another elevation indicator became predominant - huge stick-figure saguaro cacti everywhere.  As we got closer to Phoenix, we began enjoying the sight of tall palm trees.  Words cannot express the awe and wonder that accompany these changes in scenery.  We had to stop in the Victory dealership to pee and ask directions, but that had a very interesting benefit: an older guy with trimmed white goatee and snowy white hair struck up a conversation saying that motorcycling keeps the inner child alive.  I responded that it helps the outer child too.  He shocked us both by saying he is 90-years-old, and his big Harley was through being serviced as we waved goodbye.  NINETY.  Scott at GoAz is entertaining rider of a GS, he gets pumped up watching the video "Long Road ..." The important thing is that he put us on a K1600LT loaner while our tire was being replaced, so we were able to ride to visit Kenneth and Jewel for wonderfully pleasant two hours in the afternoon.  Kenneth turned 98 in Oct. and Jewel will be 100 in June next year.  We retrieved the R1200RT from the shop at 5:30 and immediately rode out of town on the 101 Loop to witness our second spectacular of the day; sunset was astounding, and we had a front row seat as we rode south.  The horizon glowed in orange and yellow striations as if emulating the very rocks in Sedona.  In the "foreground" were rock monoliths or saguaro cacti, shadowy outlines in the orange/yellow glow.  This lasted nearly an hour, and interest continued until the horizon was nearly dark and it was possible to see the glistening puddles in the fields to the right.  At Casa Grande we stopped at a Comfort Inn and were pleased with the price and the availability of a good meal at a Mimi's Cafe nearby.

20 Dec: It rained last night from 8 PM non-stop until 5 AM this morning and has been intermittent since.  Ron arose at 3 AM to continue rinsing & cleaning things for recycling; mission accomplished: two boxes ready to go to UPS (I'm guessing 15 lbs for the one to Texas; turned out to be 13) and all motorcycle luggage full of recycling from cereal boxes and bags to packing peanuts to coke cans, soup cans and wine bottles plus another small assortment of corks and foil, etc.  The house is already looking empty.  Cleaning is the next project after breakfast at Reds, pedicure & manicure for my beloved Smooch, UPS drop off, tire repair, and recycling drop off. (A preposition should never be used to end a sentence with.  Is drop off guilty, or is it a noun?)  And the rains came again after lunch, so we didn't hike, and the roofers didn't finish.  Bill at Red Rock Auto and Cycle won't plug tires and hesitated to patch mine but recommended instead that I ride it as is with tiny nail and slow leak to Scottsdale to the BMW dealer to replace the tire.  OK by me.  So why is Ron wide awake in the evening after getting up at 3 AM.  Perhaps the six cups of coffee at lunch was not such a good idea.  Cynthia drank a glass of wine and fell asleep at 6 PM, a better choice.  Three bags fully packed and not much will go into the last one since we will be wearing nearly everything we own for most of this ride to Texas.

19 Dec: Today the roofers showed up about 10 AM, and we DID hike INTO Sedona for lunch at Reds.  We are so happy to be able to hike 6 miles every other day without physical discomfort; thank God.  Ron was up early and on the phone early to place trades and "take profits" from the mutual funds that are up for the year.  Asset allocation accomplished, although checking the results has to wait until "tomorrow".  Our hike usually leaves us tired and ready for bed early, but today we stayed up past midnight (and Ron got points for first "I love you" of the day on the stroke of midnight).  Red Rock Auto and Cycle will look at the tire in the morning and might have sourced a replacement locally (Michelin Pilot Road 3).

18 Dec:  It is amazing how little is left to pack.  Leaving the cottage yesterday, Ron spotted a Great Blue Heron in the vacant lot next to us begging to have his picture taken.  We obliged.  The photo is small/cropped because he blends in to the trees so nicely:

We hiked our favorite two-mile loop twice, morning and evening.  Since the GoPro video of her sermon is MP4 and will not play on older DVDs, Cynthia downloaded an MP4 Converter for the Mac.  With the new converter downloaded and installed, she was delighted to burn her sermon to DVD for friends and children.  Cynthia's list of Christmas cards, letters are mailed or emailed, plus her class newsletter is printed and posted.  Interesting to learn that many do not use a computer; but the classmates that do are very impressed with the website that contains the DVD's from the last two reunions.  Ron spent the afternoon washing and waxing the motorcycle because he wants to reduce the weight of the polish in the luggage.  The unforeseen benefit (?) was discovering a small nail in the rear tread.  Ron called Jim to ask advice and left a message; Jim called back and sent an e-mail to Cynthia.  Now that the cat is outta the bag, we gotta get it fixed.

Stick your tongue out ...

17 Dec: A new day dawned at 3:30 AM, and Ron noticed moonset about 6:15, but forgot to check out  the pre-dawn light with moon on western horizon and sunrise glow in the east; maybe tomorrow - (nope slept in).  More voice recording transcribed already and the veggies are ready for cooking, so my chores are nearly done.  Today we plan a big hike; 68 degrees are forecast, so we will need more water than recently.  We will again watch the markets to decide whether to "take profits" today or not, and the final projects for the day are packing & reorganizing, recycle preparation and cleaning.  The 21st is drawing quickly near.  And hike we did!  Someone is very proud of herself for that 4-hour, six+ mile hike to Sedona Recycling (actually three blocks from 89A).  As we left the house, Ron spotted a great blue heron in the vacant lot towards Oak Creek.  The heron stayed put long enough for Cynthia to get a good photo, but flew off after Ron circled the house and was jockeying for a view without intervening branches or bushes to confound the camera autofocus.(Ron hasn't taken the time to figure out how to get the photo repositioned to the right here)  After re-visiting the vanishing arroyo ice (14th & 15th) and a coke and apple snack stop, we saw two coyotes practically identical to the ones we saw a few days ago, i.e. robust and healthy looking.  These two seemed a bit more wary as they trotted off into the brush.  Today Ron packed his luggage and discovered that it will not require much to pack for the trip.  Finishing with recycling will be much more challenging.

16 Dec: After Breakfast at Reds and goodbye to Claudia, we dropped the 40-pound box of clothes at UPS, a full load of recycling, and refurbished supplies of vital necessities: egg whites and jelly beans.    Since the 40-pound box had displaced the top case, when I accelerated Cynthia was quite startled to lean back against - nothing!  She is convinced that I almost lost her, although I reassured her that I would have noticed her toes rising and would have grabbed a foot or the brake.  Our hike this afternoon was intentionally short to allow the feet and bodies to recoup after yesterdays 4.5 hour excursion.  The weather is looking good for departure the 21st.  Wish us luck.

15 Dec, Sunday: Wowie, zowie, was it ever a cold ride in to church; 27 degrees at first, warming to 30 briefly as we passed through town then dropping a bit by the time we turned, frozen fingered, onto Chapel Drive.  Cynthia's heated gear kept her toasty except for the cute boots lacking the heated sockies.  The sermon was well worth the ride, and pastors David and Gwen and several of the parishioners wished us a safe journey.  After another delightful breakfast at Reds, we commenced an industrious hike following Oak Creek as usual and up the hill to Ridge Trail, then touching toe in Sedona near the Recycling (which was open on Sunday!) and out to a brief respite and a diet Coke.  Recommencing, we continued on the Old Post Trail back to Red Rock Crossing Road where we took Zane Gray until crossing the arroyo close to home.  (Ron was delighted to show Cynthia the slightly smaller piece of ice in that arroyo.)  We slept very well after that exertion, although Ron did fold the clothes to fit in the box and trimmed it to size before beddy-bye.

14 Dec:  We woke thinking that Santa Claus brought us good kiddies warm hiking weather.  Well, the weather was nominally warm although the wind from the North Pole trumped the temperatures.   16 MPH wind was tolerable in the few sheltered sunny places.  We were home again, home again, jiggity jig.  Ron left Cynthia working on one of her manuscripts while he hiked the extensive route to Sedona originally planned.  He chatted on the phone with first Ed then Greg and Donna as he sped up to the high point of the Ridge Trail in a mere 30 minutes, into town in roughly an hour, and returned sans flashlight in the dimming twilight; two hours fifteen minutes - two and a quarter to hint at a family joke.   Highlight of the day was finding half-inch thick ice in one steep, rocky arroyo just before getting to Sedona.  Clothes are ready to be boxed and shipped back to TX Monday.

13 Dec: Two happy hikers here!   Super hike up the Ridge Trail and onto the Carroll Canyon Trail which connects to the Old Post Trail to make the wide circle almost into Sedona and back through the arroyo to home.  Once again we enjoyed a delightful conversation with Bob Piper as we all stood at the "threshold" of his uncle Charlie Smith's household (only the footings survive).  Imagine, another guy who likes to tell stories!!

12 Dec. Thurs: Imagine!  Bankston/Rambo cousins sitting for 8 hours eating, laughing and talking DNA.

Becky, Ron, Cheryl

Becky, Ron and Cynthia

11 Dec Wed. We had dinner with the pastors (plural) and the Seeleys tonight at Judi's.  The ambiance was excellent as were our good size servings of delicious salmon and hearty pasta.  Most memorable was the delightful company of these new good friends.  We will miss Sedona.

10 Dec: Great hike and good conversation with a 76-year-old cowboy who asked Cynthia if we were from around here.  He wanted to know if any of the Chavez family was still living here.  With no knowledge that they are, the talk continued to be long and interesting.  He grew up as one of the Piper 5: five Piper brothers whose folks owned the Piper Ranch we were staring at.  Cynthia had been curious about the site of the movies filmed locally.  Turns out it was their ranch.  John Wayne was a frequent visitor at their family table.  His favorite western actor, Ray Milland, drew a mustache and goatee on his face for a photo he wouldn't sell for a million dollars.  He and his brothers carved the ranch brand RX into the mountain above where the RC Church is today.   Lots of stories have grown up about the initials on the mountain; one of the most outrageous stories being aliens left their mark.  Mr. Piper lives in Prescott taking care of 22 horses that belong to his niece and her husband who are roping champions. His oldest brother is 88, those two remain of the Piper 5.  As the gold and silver GMC pickup truck drove off we read the license plate: Piper 5.

I'm in a hurry this morning because I hear Cynthia in the bedroom, and the omelet veggies are not yet prepared, but, before I forget,

On the ride into town for a late breakfast Sunday, the snow covering and contrasting with the red rock was awesome.  Seeing snow accumulations in the shady areas beside the road vindicated the decision to NOT ride the motorcycle to church at 8 AM.

That afternoon while hiking on the dirt road near the top of the hill, a coyote came strolling downwards and paused as soon as he saw us, from only about 50' away.  He was a big, handsome, well-fed critter with a tawny, diamond-shaped face much resembling a wolf.  During his pause, he apparently decided to bushwhack rather than squeeze by us and left the roadway into the desert scrub to skirt around us by 30'.  We watched his progress through the vegetation, and he watched ours.  Once he was safely by, I expected, and he did indeed, return towards the road, pausing behind a bush 5' from the road.  If Cynthia, with her hands gloved, had fumbled to extract her phone from her pocket earlier, the pictures would have been awesome.  No doubt the phone's tiny hands were clutching fabric, refusing to be extracted into the cold without a struggle.  One coyote seen so close was marvelous, but it gets better.  He crossed the open roadway and watched us skeptically for a full minute before turning to continue his downward stroll.  As soon as he began, another, bigger coyote emerged from the hillside onto the road about 100 yards further down.  The two coyotes eyed each other, no doubt evaluating the likelihood of a confrontation.  This standstill lasted another minute, during which time Cynthia was snapping photos fast and furiously.  Finally the downhill coyote turned and proceeded down the road, and our closer friend followed.  Monday was ridiculously cold, with a high of 33 degrees.  My sister and friends tell me that sounds warm to them.

One coyote watching us watch him

Two coyotes

9 Dec, Mon:  Usual cold weather morning routine: Ron up early (4 AM) to transcribe AT voice recorder and chop veggies for omelet.  We opted for a much longer hike and decided to hike the Ridge Trail to the Table Top Trail to the Airport Loop Trail with the intention of adding the Loop to our longest hike to-date.  As we neared the airport, a small private plane took off directly overhead, so I shielded my eyes from the sun to see the plane and discovered instead a marvelous sight: one cloud nearby to the sun was technicolor in the sunlight.  Clouds are usually some shade of white; this one had that, but the upper quarter had shadings of violet and purple with some additional red and yellow highlighting.  That cloud was a first for me.  The Airport Loop Trail was a bit too much rock for Cynthia's arthritic feet at present, so we turned around at the end of the runway after watching one plane take off and one land.  Of course we were outside the fence, but it is only 30' from the runway.

8 Dec., Sun:  The rains (not snow for us) came and quickly decorated the trees with perfectly formed tear drops of ice dancing, shimming and glimmering in the sunlight.  The snowfall on mountains has turned the red mountains into a winter wonderland.  Sedona Police dispatcher reported a slick roadway near the bridge after initially being unwilling to divulge road conditions; she seemed to think I shouldn't be bothering her, so I had to badger her by rephrasing my question five times before she finally gave in and answered sensibly.  Icy roads precluded church attendance but they dried enough to ride to Reds for a late breakfast and to stock up on food at Safeway.  Cynthia's class Christmas letter is finished and mailed. We hiked for an hour and made plans for our departure the 21st of December or a few days earlier depending on the weather between here and Dallas.  Whatever day we depart we will visit Ron's 97- and 98-year old Mechem cousins in Scottsdale and perhaps have dinner with Rambo cousins Kay and Tom.  Weather is the big topic!

7 Dec, Sat:  Good news from Texas: Abigayle Elizabeth arrived at home in a midwife delivery at 5:00AM weighing 10 lbs and 12 ozs., 22.5 inches long.   It was a rough delivery requiring immediate hospitalization to stabilize the new mom.   Feature photo is Cynthia's daughter and son-in-law and Baby Abigayle.  It was too frigid to attempt the drive into Sedona, but not too cold to hike doing the loop trail.  Ron continues transcribing the voice recorder from his AT hike and remembering stories he forgot to record.  This will be the next best seller!  Cheryl (the Bankson cousin who winters in the Sun City area heard from another Bankson cousin who plans to drive from CA to meet us this coming Thurs.  Snow is predicted tonight 100%.

6 Dec, Fri: Despite frigid temps the Smooch Family boogied to breakfast at Red's by 10:15 AM.  Mrs. Smooch took the cure: mani at 11:30, omitting the pedi since I was pleasantly surprised with a reminder a Bankston genealogy cousin is meeting us for lunch at Red's at 12:30.  We left the house in heated gear at 32 degrees, with the bike loaded thirty feet higher than the top case containing Ron's prized treasures for Recycle Heaven.  The Christmas postcard project was ready to pick up after an absolutely delightful afternoon with a Bankston cousin, Cheryl.  She enjoyed Ron's stories.  Just look at those happy faces!  Cheryl has commandeered three Bankstons for the YDNA project including a 90 year old uncle.   The inclusion of the three Bankston males brings to four of the five sons of Lawrence Bankston (b. 1704) who are tested in the YDNA project - most of them to 111 markers.  Ron's YDNA article about the Bankston project was in the las tissue of the Swedish Colonial Society Newsletter; Cynthia is in charge of the Bankston YDNA project with the unique results recently published in a Swedish YDNA periodical.  I will have to ask Google Translator tell us what we said.

Ron and Cousin Cheryl Having Waaay Too Much Fun!

Dec, Thurs:  The outside temperature is supposed to reach freezing by nine AM.  Cynthia doesn't do cold and opted out of morning; please awaken her at noon.  He did;  the super delicious omelets were prepared by sous chef Ron.  Our hike started at 3:14-ending at 5:00 PM.  Great sunshiny day despite cold.  Ron was delighted to discover Dr. Craig's code for the strange notes on the family group sheets.   We enjoyed a quiet night; he mending after completing the Great Recycling Project for delivery to Recycle Heaven tomorrow.  Cynthia mailed her revised Spirit in the South manuscript via Dropbox for its second printing.  As her class correspondent, she writes the annual Christmas newsletter.  Three pages to go and the Mac balked; it is hung up.   Good night!

Watch for the 7 Habits of a Healthy Relationship written by the Beatty Funny Beattys

4 Dec, Wed:  It is too weird when neither of us knows the day of the week.  Is this Tues. or Wed? We do know the temperature is very cold and rainy.  We spent the most of the day in the cottage, yet, we managed an hour hike.  The hike was not long enough to burn energy that led to sleep which happened at the late hour of midnight thirty.

3 Dec: It feels pretty cold already, although worse is coming.  Ron is up early to transcribe Appalachian Trail voice recorder before resuming honey-do Christmas postcard mailing project.  Cynthia wore her heated coat as has become usual for the ride to Reds for breakfast.  I'm guessing that Ron will cook omelets at the cottage for the next several days of cold snap.  It will be interesting going to church at 8AM Sunday morning when the high is forecast to be 37 and the low 18.  We reversed direction of our longest hike to date, starting along Oak Creek (with pause for cutting & killing poison ivy), up the hill to the road, and on to the Ridge Trail uphill and down to the Carroll Canyon Trail connector to the Old Post Trail (hard to imagine driving a team with wagon on that trail) and downhill from there into the arroyo to our "home" in the trailer park.

2 Dec, Mon: DRAT!  HikerWeather.com reports three more days of good hiking.  The next ten days (TEN!)  43 degree high is forecast.  That's as cold as Ron keeps the inside of the cottage.  We were up late, into breakfast late, hiked late, but still had a good day.  Amazing to see that the pools in the trail had dried up entirely so quickly after the diversion gate from the ditch was closed.  Trail maintenance today involved clipping and brush killing more poison ivy.  The Christmas postcard honey-do project is nearing completion, and Cynthia was delighted by arrival of DAR James Lea information (which is bogus) and of DNA results pointing to a new cousin.

1 Dec, Sun:  We made it to the church on time; brrr it was cold.  Breakfast at Red's ended past noon.

   

View next to our Cottage

Cynthia napped while Ron typed.   At 3:50 we started hiking returning at 5:30.  The canals needed re-routing; Ron fixed by opening the main gate and closing the diversion gate.

Cynthia here lest you think Ron is writing about Advent.   Today is the first Sunday in Advent marking the first day of the new Christian year.  December marks the last month of our calendar year;  the end is drawing near:  24 shopping days, Christmas cards to write, three weeks to hike!

Stephen Covey is credited with the phrase “begin with the end in mind.”  He included this maxim among his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.  I first read that book at the suggestion of one of my favorite cousins who was a motivational speaker for Stephen.   Jim is one of the most delightful, up-beat persons I know.  I wanted to be like Jim; hence I immediately bought and read the book.   I have been chasing those habits since then.  Beginning or ending, especially shopping, writing and  hiking, begin with the end in mind.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

1.  Be proactive. Don’t stand still. Take the initiative and be responsible.

2.  Begin with the end in mind. Start any activity, a meeting, run, day, or life, with an end in mind. Work to that end and make sure your values are aligned with your goals.

3.  Put first things first. Prioritize your life so you’re working on the important stuff.

4.  Think win/win. Not everything has to be “I win, you lose”.  Creatively find ways so that everyone wins together.

5.  Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Listen to empathize, obtain information, and understand the other person’s point of view remembering the rules of debate. 

6.  Synergize. Work to create outcomes that are greater than the individual parts.

7.  Sharpen the saw. Cultivate the essential elements of your character: physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual.