More About Our Trip Out East

Written on 10-25-26.

        I am lying on our bed waiting for the Denver Broncos game to start.  They play Arizona today, so I will be writing during the commercials.  Amanda and Eric will drive home today, and then they will decide whether they will go to Wooden Shoe tonight or tomorrow.  They might decide not to go after all the flooding, but it subsided yesterday.  My bet is on tomorrow.

I want to give some more details for our trip.  This was nearly as great as our trip to the Redwood Forest and Crater Lake last year.  We spoke about it a couple of days ago, and we decided that Crater Lake was our favorite.  Even with the horrible news we had gotten on the way there from Danielle, it still ranked highest.

We used up most of our Hilton Honors Points on this recent trip, and because of that, we were able to stay at most of our hotels free of charge.  That saved us gobs of money.  We paid just over $1,000.00 for the flights and the rental car using Priceline.  I like how they bundle stuff for more savings.  We did pay Guy for our part of the AirBnB for the weekend when we watched ShyShay play, but we felt we did pretty well saving money on this trip.

We wondered what the rest of this trip might be like after our first leg, the ride to the Sunport with John, our Uber driver.  He confided that he was divorced and he was a locksmith, too.  He was...

Bad News and Big News

Written on 10-24-26.

        We have had a ‘once in a generation’ amount of rain and flooding here in the Four Corners.  A storm came up from the southwest across Arizona and dumped records amounts of rain swelling the San Juan and Animas Rivers.  Many people I know, including myself, were asking for rain this past summer, and this is an ‘ask and you shall receive’ moment for all of us.  I haven't heard of anyone dying, but many people were evacuated from their homes in Aztec, Bloomfield, and Farmington.  Some had to be rescued by helicopters! 

Closer to home, two of our friends and their families evacuated their homes, too.  Carol (last name) and her husband and the Trevor (last name) family live on the river.  We saw a video of Trevor’s home that his wife, Megan, sent, and they had placed sandbags all along their garage door.  The water had not reached their home, but we could see it surrounded by water.

Even closer to home, Belinda and I just came back from checking out the Egerton’s property.  They are on their way to Albuquerque for Mel’s (Kyle’s girlfriend) 30th birthday party tonight. “Pier 7” was surrounded, and many of the coffee table-sized stumps had been floated over to Dori’s property and pinned against the fence.  We could smell the beginning of the musty and dank odors of sitting water already.  It was a lot to take in.  This was the sight of Matt and Becca's and James and Casey’s weddings and multiple family get-togethers, and it was inaccessible. 

Big news!  The Edgertons have made a major move by putting that property on the market.  It’s no secret, so I can write about it here with no stress.  They hope to sell it and move to Albuquerque.  They plan to keep the house up in Vallecito, though, as a ‘get out of the heat and go to the mountains’ vacation home.  Amanda has said they are getting burned out on all of the upkeep that their property requires.  That makes sense.  I know they want to be closer to family, also.

    Belinda and I are torn with this development.  She wants to stay close to Jessica, my mother-in-law, and we have made so many fresh, classy improvements to our ‘less maintenance’ home.  However, I understand the reality of how lamentable things can become if Belinda is separated from Amanda.

I Play at Golf Envy-Anybody Jealous?

Also written on 10-14-26. 

On to golf…

        I played 18 holes with Troy at Golf Envy in Albuquerque.  He has an expensive membership there, and he invited me to join him for one evening.  He chose a course from Japan that had King, Queen, and Prince courses.  Let me research it. 

Okay, there are many!  No way to find out unless I ask Troy, and I don’t want to bother him about something so unimportant.  I don’t know which course it was, but I know it was the Queen, and we played from the whites.  We only had to putt into a ten foot circle to concede the next putt.

On the very first hole, he got an eagle, and I got a birdie.  I thought this was going to be an easy round, and I was picturing scores like Eric and I used to get on the Tiger Woods GameCube, but I was wrong. 

I did manage another birdie with a well-placed putt that went in instead of just stopping in the ten foot circle.  He was ahead of me by the turn, and he was bombing his driver, hitting consistent 240-260 yard drives.  My drives would barely get past 200 yards, and I felt rather old. 

A guy in the simulator kitty-corner to us hit drives so far and so loudly that I would jump a bit each time.  It felt like I was getting shot at; that’s how shocking the sound of his driver connecting with his golf ball was.  It made me abnormally jumpy, but Troy and I both acted cool as if it were nothing.  I checked that guy’s distance once, and his ball flew over 300 yards.  Geesh.  I felt rather old and small.

At the end, we ran out of time, but the gentleman who had our bay reserved chose another one and let us finish our round.  That was nice.  Troy finished at 20+ strokes above par, and I finished at +17.  When the round ended, a montage of me swinging my club showed under the title MVP.  I got everything, but Troy should have gotten the longest drive.  He was frustrated, I sensed.  He became less talkative, but he was still polite.  I asked him how much I owed him, and he said it was $25.00 to have a guest.  I ‘Venmo-ed’ him $35.00.  It was fun!  Troy is always so cordial, and we have a great time together.  I feel like I can be myself.

Oh, I had to take many extra driver swings due to a glitch.  Troy said it has happened before, and he would give me a mulligan every time.  I know I had mishit a couple, but they wouldn’t register, so he gave me a reset each time.  I was getting tired after all of these extra swings, and my little hernia thing got agitated.  Somehow, I managed.

My Hypothesis

Written on 10-14-26.

        Let’s see where the writing takes me today.  It starts with James and Casey’s third anniversary.  I consistently mix up the date.  Was it on 10-14-23 or 10-13-24?  Even B gets confused, and we sent them happy anniversary wishes yesterday.  For the last time; it’s on the 14th.  How can I remember this?  How about thinking 10-4, good buddy, like a CB radio exchange.  I know it’s on 10-14, but somehow it works in my brain.  That’ll do it.  No matter.  Happy anniversary, James and Casey.

That brings me to a hypothesis.  I think Casey is pregnant.  Here’s why.  They went to Diana’s wedding in Las Cruces, and I asked about the drinking.  They gave out shots, but Casey’s reaction to me asking about it was a bit overblown, I thought.  She did take the shot, she said.  Hmmmm.  

The last time we did an "exchange" in Cuba with Rowan, she said she felt nauseous.  She had to drive by herself, since James was working.  She said she wasn’t used to driving on her own.  

My other suspicion comes from the timing of it all.  It’s been nearly two years.  Here’s hoping.  Hmmmm.  We shall see.

As I write this, I hear the Go-Go’s singing “The Beat” in the background.  B and I are sitting in the Richmond International Airport waiting for a later flight.  She is seated alone 25 yards away talking with Amanda on her iPhone 17.  We take off to Dallas/Fort Worth in a few hours.  Then we connect to Albuquerque to eventually get in at 11:56 PM.  Yikes.  We dropped off our rental car (a black Nissan Kicks), went through TSA, and are waiting at Gate A11 for our flight, which will depart from the nearby A10.

Here is a summary of our trip.  We flew into Richmond first.  Then we drove to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson and took a tour (The Highlights Tour) of that property.  Friday and Saturday were spent with Guy, Annmarie, and ShyShay.  William and Mary played North Carolina A&T.  The A and T stand for Agricultural and Technical in Greensboro, I just learned.  After that, we drove to Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, and Duck in North Carolina.  We explored the Wright Brothers Museum and the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  We had some Duck Donuts at ShyShay’s suggestion on the day we left.  Then we came back to Richmond today, and we had enough time to tour the American Civil War Museum in the afternoon.  Phew.  That’s a lot, but it was all so worth it.

Getting Ready for the Bishop's Classic

Continued from last post...

Back to golf…

        After a decent start with the bogey, I went downhill.  So, did my bag and my umbrella.  When it was time to start playing again, Michael gave me a ride back up to start hole #2.  When we got closer to my clubs, I noticed they were not upright anymore.  I didn’t pay attention too much, but I also didn’t hear any strong winds.  Mostly, it was occasional lightning and thunder accompanied by some gentle rain.

I am getting a bit weary after a full week of caregiving, so I will continue this tomorrow…

Written on 9-18-26.

Either way, my bag was on its side, and my umbrella was a crumpled, soggy mess.  Many of the metal joints were snapped.  Bummer.  I have already bought a new one on Amazon to replace it, and I used the new one the last time I played.  It’s not as big, and it is more wind-resistant.  I chose...