A trip to Utah

 I finally made it out to Utah and had an adventure of a trip!

I left out on Friday a bit earlier than the last flight I took - I switched to the 6:30pm flight vs. the 7:45pm flight - lesson learned on that last one where I petered out just as I hit St. George and could NOT drive any further and got a hotel!  

Just coming into the someone area after a VERY smooth ride in!



Big storm front!!



Landing in Ontario California. Fun fact Liz was in LA at the time ;)

It would have been a great flight IF we didn't have a record breaking typhoon Hilary coming into California.  What an adventure.  We spent about an hour or more circling to the east of Las Vegas waiting to be released to land IN Las Vegas.  Las Vegas, however, was having it's own issues at the time.. they were having lightning strikes and rain.  They would open and close multiple times in that hour, however we were in a line of planes to land, so never got the chance.  We were then running low on fuel so we landed in Ontario California of all places.  Yep.  We sat in the airport for an hour or better, getting refueled and waited.  I had NO idea what we were going to face, would we get stranded in California overnight?  would we make it to Vegas?  Who knew?  The good news is our pilot was well within his hours to continue to the wee hours of the morning... so we waited.  We eventually got BACK in the air and had a bumpy ride to Las Vegas and landed about midnight.  YAWN.  This is now 3am my time AND I had cancelled my rental car not knowing when I would make it into town.... so off to rental cars I go.  I made a reservation on line while in the LONG line to the rental place - it was about 5 or 7 bus lengths long... seriously LONG line - who rents a car when coming TO Vegas, really?  I would think Uber and Lyft would be much cheaper than renting a car, but what do I know, maybe these folks were all doing what I was doing and going on from there.

Weeee hours of the morning driving north. Yawn. I think I had my coffee in hand by now!

Anyway, I made a reservation with Hertz, get to the front of the line and they tell me that they are NOT honoring last minute reservations... what the what?  Why not just NOT take reservations if you don't have cars silly people.  So to Avis I go and make a reservation while in line going there as well... THEY honor it... but they were telling everyone they only have trucks.. so I am prepared for a truck.  NOPE, I got offered a Charger or a Jeep Hybrid.  I chose the Jeep.  It got horrible gas mileage by the way!  Oh, well, I had a car... but it's NOW 1:30 am Vegas time... 4:30am my time... double yawn.  I was going to rent a hotel room but had issues getting a room for a few hours and paying over $100 - nope.  I drove over to the Orleans and slept in my car.

The GOOD news is that I had a duffle full of blankets to sleep with/on/use as pillows as I was taking 4 blankets to Linda to use as batting for quilts.  Bonus.  They were soft and I got about 4.5 hours of sort of decent sleep tucked in the back seat of the Jeep..  They are narrow so there was no stretching out, but it was good enough for what I needed.  I kept praying that rain would start and I would have had that nice sound to fall asleep to, no such luck.  Oh, well.  I got some much needed shut eye to the point I didn't hear the car pull up and park next to me.  I was under a street light, but honestly don't think anyone looked in the back of the car... either way I woke a few times, switched positions and went back out.  I got up about 5am and headed north.  Well, got a coffee then headed north :)  The coffee was from a truck stop and had a LOT of grounds in it so was apparently pretty strong - ha!  Worked for me.  I went straight to Mom's house, played some rummikub with her and waited for the rest of the crew to get ready for breakfast.

We went to breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings and lunch or dinner as well, so that was nice for mom to get out and about.

We also picked veggies and berries out of Linda’s garden

What I picked that afternoon before the rain came in



Linda was still out there diving deep into the raspberries to get all she could!



We picked beans too but then forgot the in the garden in the rain. They got a good rinse! 

We also admired Sorensen memorabilia and tried to identify it all



I know there is a word for the style this is. They are Czech glass and enamel with beads embedded into the enamel. Very pretty and sparkly in the sunshine. 

This one is possibly Fostoria chrysanthemum pattern lemonade set. Regardless it is old and is lovely and has been in the Sorensen family for a long time. 

These were painted my my grandmother Leona Coles Sorensen  very pretty!  

Back to the travel pet of all this!

I was supposed to travel home on Monday and wouldn't you know it that was the date that the Typhoon Hilary was to hit Las Vegas.  After my last experience on the "practice storms" as they called them, I opted to change my flights (and with mom's convincing).  I rebooked first thing in the morning and about 3 hours later Delta came out with a notice that allowed me to change (yay me, ahead of the game!).  I altered my rental car with a click of a button and a bit of money as well.  Yay me, and extra day to hang out with mom.  

I had left overs from the Sunday's breakfast, so went to Mom's Monday morning and ate breakfast with her and played games most of the morning.  We went to the Nursery and got her a pot to replant her African Violet and then headed to lunch with Linda and Mike.  We also went grocery shopping and running around town all weekend so by the time Monday afternoon rolled around mom was beat.  She went to bed after a final round of rummikub and I went back to Linda's for a later dinner and visiting with them before bed.

The trip to Vegas was uneventful and the flight back was very nice with an extra seat between myself and the gentleman in the isle seat.  All in all a great weekend trip despite the snaffu on times and returns.  It all worked out like it was supposed to!

And the BEST news was when I got home I had a TON of boxes to go out in the mail!  Yay for eBay sales while I’m away!!

Ten sales while I was gone for those 5 days. Yay me!  Now to sell more!!

Presidents’ Day weekend

My trip started at work  all day  I took the 745 flight out and slept most of the trip out  it was NOT enough  by the time I got my rental and got in the road it was 10:30… I hit a nice Jeep Cherokee. I did a self evaluation at Mesquite.  I still felt good  I kept going  wow that next 1/2 hour/45 minutes did me in  I got out and walked around the car  1:30am UTAH time so 4:30am MY time  nope  not happening  I hit a hotel room.  It’s only money, right?  The bed was great I slept like a log and got up at 8am for breakfast and got back in the road  

Snow on the mountains surrounding St. George. COLD weather. I got there right between storms. Lucky me!!

AND look who came down!  Such fun!!  It was great to see Sandi and Suzie and Aunt Tuny! I expected Robert and Janet so it’s always good to see them!

Sisters!

They LOVE ice cream!  I was on a diet and didn’t get any but it was a great variety!!

I have NO idea what she is smelling  but it was probably yummy!

I took very few photos we had such fun playing games late into the night, running around shopping and visiting and just enjoying the time!

Sunset on the way home!

Visit with Mommie Dearest

And captured from a video I had. 


‘’Twas a cloud filled trip for sure. It was either FULL clouds and bland or beautiful storms!  I was even rained on in Vegas!  Not typical!

Mom said folks were going to think I never have flow before ;) I’m ok with that - ha!

It was a good visit and as always I didn’t take many pictures. 

This is mom reading a card from a friend who sent money to me at dads passing. I used the money to take mom out to eat while I was there. We went to Applebees once, the McDonalds (her choice) and to Linda’s one night :) oh and IHOP for breakfast one day. I joined her af her place for dinner or lunch one day and sat with her while she had her breakfast one day as well. We laid around talking and visiting and took drives up the mountains and even went to the nursery to get her a new plant. 

She and Robert we rubbing on each other one afternoon :)

Robert, Linda, Mike and I played games at night and had a very good visit!

In the evening it’s so nice to sit out in their back porch!

Then all too soon it was time to head home again. I came in Thursday night super later - or super early Friday morning.  Spend Friday - Sunday with mom for as long as she would have me each day!  She only tapped out once and said “nope, I need to go take a nap” and we let her be, but that wasn’t until Sunday!  Worked on her stamina and strength while I was there with lots of walking and more calories than she’s used to. We will get her up to fighting weight yet!!

The flights home had lots of pretty clouds coming into Atlanta

No video to catch the lightning under this storm. 

Not the same cell but a good one from the ground!

A good trip. Now I need a few days to recuperate!!

Two flights and a funeral

 I had been out to see dad and mom in the 28th of April. At that time dad was walking slowly between his chair and the bathroom. But he was up and walking and doing OK. What a difference three weeks and a few days can be! 

I had talked to Linda about me going to Utah while she was out of town. I talked to mom. I talked to Linda. It was decided that weekends are the worst time for support and Robert was going to be there over the weekend, so I wasn’t going. I should have gone early!

Sunday came around and the decision was made for me to come out to Utah to help out Monday the 23rd of May. The difference in his mobility was shocking. He was no longer doing a lot for himself. He was no longer sitting up in a chair but reclined in a bed and sleeping a lot. He was not longer truly “there” fully. He was to some degree but he had some trouble recognizing me. I was Linda at one point. Good enough, I was family and a kid. I was a man at one point, I blame the angle he was seeing me from :). He did know me as Donna-Phoo for the most part. He repeats over and over how much he loved each of us. Especially mom. He would always ask where she was. Until the end he was a loving man. Always an “I love you”. 

That week was actually a good time. Dad was still drinking but very little. Just sips of water and juice and wasn’t eating much. Dad was definitely deteriorating but still somewhat lucid and talkative when he was awake.  It was a good break for mom in that she felt comfortable leaving dad with Robert while she and I could go out to lunch or go out to the store. 

So why the move to the bed?  Well his mobility has declined to the point he was getting stuck going to the bathroom. He would get part of the way there then he would ticket out and have to sit. Mind you it’s ten steps max to the bathroom from his chair. He wasn’t able to get up from the breakfast table either.  Then the kicker was his chair had broken pressing the need even more for his move to the bed. As he was losing mobility he was going to need more and more care from nurses to get his briefs changed, so the bed was the best option. Changing him In the chair wasn’t an option (less so when the chair broke!) and getting him to the bathroom was problematic as well, so to the bed was the next step. Poor dad. I’m hoping this has motivated me to get out and moving more!!

Dad was doing well. We kids and mom had frank talks with hospice and knew that he was on the decline. The estimate was weeks. He was really doing OK. So I kept my flight plans the next weekend to go to Florida to help Sally with a few things and re-screen out little house 

Gas prices in Utah were pretty high. 

I flew into Fort Walton directly. So that was nice. I flew in on Saturday.  

Storms rolling in 

Assembly line

Thirteen screens. Four short ones and nine tall ones. All our back together. 

One window with and one without. We got higher visibility screens. 

All done!!

Sunday we all got a message from Linda that dad had forgotten how to sip from a straw. That was quick. Then Monday came the message that if we wanted to see dad sooner rather than later was advised. This just followed a reconfirmation of weeks. So it sure did change back and forth quickly. We all knew we weren’t promised a specific timeline. There were no guarantees on estimations from nurses. I was at peace with my decision to not rush right back. 

I took deep breaths and thought “ok I’ll go back on Thursday” because that was when Butch was going to be headed out.  Literally the next day he was rattling. And within 24 hours he was gone. It was expected, but unexpected, you know?  I couldn’t have made it out before he passed regardless. We heard he was rattling that morning and by 11:30 I got the news that dad was gone. I was working in the yard. Cried. Took a shower, cried in the shower. Went on with life. Got a few more things done before heading out the next day to Utah. 

Beautiful clouds on the way there but horrible flight connections (or lack there of) I ended up in Las Vegas with a rental car again. It all worked out. It was good to have all the kids there at Linda’s to be there for mom and talk through all the plans and make arrangements. We had lots of laughs talking about the past and remembering dad. 

We even took a drive. 

Lions head petroglyphs and a random beautiful flowering cactus on the way out. There were SO many flowers out and about!!

Butch and the girls were able to fly out to Provo for the funeral. It was great but I was still alone because I had Covid. I tested when they got there as I had started feeling stuffy the night prior. I was highly positive for Covid (e.g. the line was immediate and bright!!) so they opted to stay in a different room than me at the hotel. I get it, but it made for a lonely time for me!! 

The funeral was beautifully done. 

Table of memories. This is at Linda’s before we were quite done. It was spread on two tables but I think represented dad well. 

We talked about dad having had blue recliners for as long as we can remember so a blue casket is fitting. It really is pretty. 

Dad served in the Navy so his honor guard was Navy

Kids and mom 

Grandkids

All this AND three cases if Covid.  Yep. Mom, Linda and I have Covid. Mom and I were super positive. Linda was a light line of positive. So we masked up and stayed away from everyone for the most part. We took out masks off for the graveside picture. 

Robert was sweet enough to host me until I passed the quarantine period and caught a flight home. I was a good girl and stayed masked the entire flight. I didn’t exhale when I took a drink. Just dipped my mask, took a drink and replaced immediately. 

It was a rough three weeks to day the least. 

Flowers for the funeral. They we’re very pretty. There was two other arrangements and a plant