Travel Broadens

   I'm packing for a winter in the West. Snowbirding, they call it. Yeah, I know the Pacific Northwest isn't perpetual summer, but the Coast is fresh and exciting in winter and I can hardly wait to see it again.

   Hurricanes in the Southeast are affecting us oddly, with hot still days! Vermont used to have summer for a week or two in July, but warm spells pop up even in September now.  I can't help thinking of Arizona and the 9 months I lived in Phoenix one year. Summers there are 110° on any given day but winter days are delightful. I remember one evening I had to wear a sweater to go out.

So I'm packing shorts and sweaters, sun hat and mittens, and rain gear. Woofie, my doggie companion, has a thick coat that insulates him whatever the temps, though the heat this week has been hard for him. We should be ok wherever we go as long as we keep hydrated.

   I looked up the Navajo National Monument in northeastern Arizona to refresh my memory from my last visit out there. It's open year round and camping is free! A good place to hang out for a while. Cool Anasazi ruins. I have my ghost beads to protect me.

Quartzite is open all winter as well. Camping on BLM land is not free, but the rock and mineral show could be interesting.

   Then there is the little house in Susanville CA where my mom grew up and I peeled the wallpaper in the dining room when I was three. If we won the lottery, I'd buy it. Four years ago I took Mom to see it and the same folks who bought it from my grandfather were still in it. They were snowbirding and planning to sell. I wonder...

   Florence OR is my location of choice. If we won the lottery I'd buy that little blue rental on my mom's street. Florence in winter and Susanville in summer...  Ashland OR has good coffee, Eugene OR has my younger sister, Salem OR has my middle sister, and Victoria BC has my best friend. What in the world am I doing on the wrong side of the country??