Early Fall 2018 continued through January 2019.
We now have moved down the road further west. To get into Utah, we had to decide on either an easterly or westerly route to circumnavigate the big hole in the ground, otherwise known as the Grand Canyon. We chose westerly to squeeze in a stop at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, neither of which I had seen even though had been close a few times while visiting Las Vegas.
We stayed a few days to take in the sights and enjoy a change of scenery and climate. What a change it was too. It was 108 degrees the day we visited Hoover Dam. Thankfully, most of the visit was inside and much cooler. We did get cooling breezes and comfortable temps in the evening when the sun got low on the horizon from our spot right on Lake Mead.
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| Our view of Lake Mead from RV site |
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| Second part of view |
The tour of the dam was very impressive with all the history and impact it had during a tough time in America. The sheer size and magnitude of the project is mind boggling. Today standing on the dam and peering over its side, it is hard to even fathom how it could be conceived and brought to fruition by the blood, sweat and sheer determination of the workers.
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| Water outlets at bottom of dam |
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| Standing on top looking down at water outlets |
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| Deep in the dam where electricity is generated |
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| Standing on top-behind us is a six-lane bridge |
Moving
on from the desert, we headed into canyon country in Utah. Our goal is to see at least two different
national parks and visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon before heading back
to Texas. We have our sights set on Zion
National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.
We managed to view these two but opted to bypass the visit to the north
rim.
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| Talk about being sure-footed, these guys are! |
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| Zion view |
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| Another view of Zion |
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| Bibi showing the scale of the cliffs in Zion |
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| And now... A look at Bryce photos |
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| Another Bryce look and wow, just wow! |
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| Beautiful, all descriptions miss the magnificence |
Bibi
asked me as we headed back to Texas which one was my favorite. I have thought about that many times and can
honestly say, there is not a favorite.
All are unique and have differing aspects that appeal to me. Even though the pictures do not adequately
give the scale and depth of what our eyes see, they do provide a glimpse into
God’s magnificent artistry. If we have
access to such things here for the short time we are on earth, I can only
imagine what is in store for the believer when we get to heaven.
It is time to move back into Texas. As we leave our traveling companions it is with both regret and anticipation. When we get to Texas, we plan a short visit in Odessa where our oldest grandson is enjoying his first year of college. We have a nice visit and get a tour of the campus and his room while we are there. It is hard to fathom he is this age already. Now I will fast forward to the end of the school year, when I asked him if the year passed slowly or fast for him. His response, it passed very quickly, and I had to relay the sad information to him that each and every year he lives from now on will get faster and faster. Time really does fly, doesn’t it?
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| Even the view from the windshield driving back to Texas defy words |
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| Our almost grown grandson at college |
Leaving our college freshman, we headed to our next volunteer opportunity with TBM Camp Builders in Royse City, TX. This put us in close proximity to our other grandchildren and allowed us to catch up with family during the next three weeks. By family, we mean both blood relatives and our adopted family of TBM’ers.
We moved from here to another camp project with TBM at Latham Springs outside of Waco. I posted on Facebook we were working there to which a comment was made from a former employee that when she was growing up, she spent several camps with her church group at Latham Springs. We do indeed live in a small world, don’t you agree?
After this camp we returned to our ‘home park’ in Longview. And this is when the next chapter of our lives began. My mother has vascular dementia and unknown to me, at the time, my stepfather has memory loss related to a differing diagnosis. These two diagnoses came together in dramatic fashion for the first time one weekend when she took him to the hospital emergency room. I found out about it on the following Monday morning and when I asked them why they went and what they were told, neither of them could relate details. All they could remember is they went to the emergency room. In fact, they went twice and after telling them on Monday they did not need to go again, they went a third time Monday evening.
This led to a sequence of events where physically and emotionally both of them were in terrible shape. It was during a visit by my sister that our mother told us she felt it was time to move from independent living to assisted living.
As things progressed, we moved them and tried to get them situated. Unfortunately, a steep decline in memory and cognitive ability resulted in the following months that have consumed a lot of our daily lives. We were able to volunteer with TBM at a camp or two for short periods of time as the parents adjusted to their new environment. But issues of unhappiness and messing around with finances cropped up and required our attention and intervention.
This is an ongoing struggle for everyone and one of the reasons why I am late in getting these updates to the blog posted. It is extremely difficult to concentrate and focus when you are constantly distracted by occurrences requiring attention. As we journey through this stage of life, we are learning a great deal about memory related disease and the effects on us as well as our loved ones. We are happy our parents are still with us but deeply saddened by the loss of their former independence and self.
We now move into the future with nervousness about what will happen next. We are hyper sensitive to just how quickly daily living can change and are more determined than ever to continue our adventure for as long as physically and mentally possible. We have a loving, supportive group of folks we call ‘family’ that is our privilege to share both laughter and burdens with as we all walk this road we call life.
See you again in the next posting of our latest adventure.
