. . . about my summer trip. Things are starting to come together.
I got hold of the woman who was my aide when I worked on the Navajo reservation, and she’s as excited to see me as I am to see her. We were more friends than teacher and aide while I was there; she and her family sort of adopted me. It’s almost a tradition now that I go back the summer before my decade birthday (which is in Sept.); I was there when I turned 40, and 50, and this Sept. I’ll be 60 (which I personally find hard to believe, though of course it happens to everyone who lives long enough. (That’s called a tautology.)) In fact, that’s one reason I decided I had to get back to the southwest this summer. I really had wanted to not wait the full ten years; every year for the past 5 years I’ve had the goal of getting back there, but each year it just didn’t work.
Then I called the kid who used to be my student when I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa and who’s been working on a PhD in Socorro, New Mexico for the past several years. (He’s not really a kid, he’s middle-aged now, but to me he’ll always be a kid.) He’s one of two boys I was particularly close to–the other lives in California now, so I see him about once a year. But New Mexico is far enough away, and my life has been so occupied with professional demands, that I haven’t seen this one since the first year he came to this country. I wasn’t even sure he’d still be there–the last few times we’ve talked he’d been getting close to finishing, and I thought he might have finished and gone home. Not only is he still there, but he’s almost ready to defend the dissertation, and he’s going to try to set it up so he can defend when I’m there! How cool is that! Though it does mean I have to take at least one professional-level outfit, which I hadn’t planned to do.
A friend is going to join me for the first leg of the trip, then fly home from Albuquerque (I wonder if anyone can type “Albuquerque” quickly–I have to slow down and concentrate) and my brother is going to fly out to Montana and join me for the last leg. That leaves 10 days or so in the middle for just me and the dogs in the mountains, which is just about right.
All this came together in the last two days. It all depended on my getting my cartop carrier and it fitting on top of the new car. It had to be fetched form Portland, Oregon, where it was still on top of the Safari van I could’n’t quite bring myself to give up last year when I bought the car. My brother and his wife brought it down to California, and Wednesday I went to pick it up. I got it on the car (it bends the radio antenna, but so far that’s OK)–and then had to take it off again because the keys to it had been left in Portland. All this in 100+ degree heat, with the sun blasting down–not even any shade. Yeserday I was pretty wiped out, but managed to do some useful puttering anyway, including getting a reservation for a camping spot in Yellowstone in mid-July.
There’s still a TON left to do, including finishing up grades on all those I gave incompletes to and who are now getting their work in, kluging together a drip irrigation system to keep the bushes in the back yard from dying while I’m gone, washing nearly every item of clothing I own, doing tent modification on two of the tents, and getting the car serviced. The last of which I’m off to do now.
Even with all the work to do, I’m hoping to get out next Wednesday. We’ll see if I make it. One of the nice things about a car trip is you aren’t locked in to rigid timetables. But one way or another–I’m outta here next week! Yippee!
Leave a Reply