Vaulted Into Tomorrow (or Rather Next Month)

 ...Or so it seems.

Because of my sister-in-law's upcoming shoulder surgery (which looks more serious than initially thought), our planned summer camping vacation is tentatively scheduled to begin NEXT THURSDAY!  Yikes!  

(Figure 1.)

(Figure 2.)

As it is already hotter in the southern states, we will do some sort of redux of last year's trip, in something like a reverse order (maybe).  I wanted to visit the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Kansas Flint Hills last year, but it just didn't work out.

So as we hope to be on the road for close to a month, starting off at the southernmost (theoretically hottest) point kind of makes sense.  

From there, maybe northward to Nebraska, then South Dakota, then westward to Devils Tower, then continue on to Yellowstone?

(Figure 3.)

In the meantime, mundane van maintenance and other chores await.

(Pray for us.)

Mixing It Up For a Few Days

As there has been a change of plans for any 2022 Summer Journey in our Camping Van, my thoughts have been a bit jumbled.  This being the case, there will probably be a randomness to upcoming posts.

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As I may have related before, my wife and I are full-time caretakers for her 92-year-old mom.  Usually, the only times we can get away for a meal is either on Sunday morning or Wednesday midday, when there are visiting caretakers for four hours each of those days.  

Our chances for longer excursions are when her sister is between contract jobs in another state.  Thus was the case for our two 2021 episodes of van camping, first the "Shakedown Cruise" and then our "Northern Adventure".  The second 2021 journey allowed me to complete components of a couple of complex sets and a "singular item" of "Bucket List" goals (for which I am thankful.) 

[When time allows, I plan to finish an in-progress personal list of types and hierarchies of Bucket List items .]

The first "Component Item" was that after never having seen any of the Great Lakes, I was able to photograph and stick my hand into Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior.  The second "Component Item" is that I was able to shift four "unvisited states" to the "visited states" column.  In order, they were North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.  Plus we passed through two State Capitals, Bismarck, ND and Lincoln, NE.

The 2021 "Singular Bucket List Item" accomplished was visiting the source of the Mississippi River, Lake Itasca, MN.  A few years ago, during a local tavern trivia contest, I flubbed the "In what state does the Mississippi River begin?".  I got MN and WI mixed up.  I thereby vowed, "if I ever get up north again, I am visiting the source of the Mighty Mississippi River."

This time in 2022, the "fly in the ointment" is that my sister-in-law suffered a significant shoulder injury while doing some recreational snow skiing before returning to her home turf here on the Georgia Piedmont.  This injury requires months of recuperation.  And today we found out that she requires a total shoulder replacement to have the chance to keep working for a few more years.  It will take some planning, discussions, and soul-searching to determine if we can chance getting any further away from here than for more than a couple of days before any surgery.

[This past weekend, we did escape to the Knoxville, TN area so I could attend a "beer can show" on Saturday.  On our Sunday return trip, we did accomplish a "Single Item" Bucket List item.]  

As I like the movie "Forrest Gump", I have been yearning for a visit to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company for several years, at least.  The closest one to Atlanta is in Gatlinburg, TN, so we did it.  Traffic wasn't that bad for Gatlinburg and the temperatures were pleasant, so a good time was had by us.  

[On my 2nd 2015 Arizona Trip, I did visit "the place where Forrest Gump got tired of running", just north of Monument Valley, AZ/UT.  Some people have a Bucket List of visiting recognizable sites from TV, movies, or albums.  For instance, a college acquaintance visited the Manassas, VA train station pictured on the eponymous Stephen Stills/Manassas album.  While others have stood 'on a corner in Winslow, AZ".]

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My wife doesn't mess with "Bucket Lists", though she does like having new experiences, e.g., our 2022 Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. visit and our 2021 sightings of a Bald Eagle atop its nest near Lake Itasca, MN, and watching a fight between two male bison in western North Dakota, near Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

So if anything is to happen this summer, we shall see.

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Memories and Old Stories with a Purpose

(From my comment to a Youtube video about exploring old mines, some words of advice from a graybeard Grandpa.)

Years ago, as a Geology grad student, in our youthful foolishness - with some classmates - we briefly crawled into a number of old mines in West Texas and southern New Mexico. Usually with no safety equipment and we probably notified a minimal number of people where we were going on our impromptu explorations. Not good.

One time, five of us entered an old tin mine in the Franklin Mountains (north of El Paso) with ONE FLASHLIGHT! The mine had last been in use during WWII and it was in good shape (the adit floors were not littered with fallen rocks and there were no surprise intersections with vertical shafts). But if we had dropped our ONE FLASHLIGHT and broken the bulb, we might still be there. (I'm sort of kidding, a helicopter search would have found our vehicles in 2 or maybe 3 days or it might have taken us that long to crawl out.)

Another time in the Jarilla Mountains, a friend and I walked about 20 feet into an old mine, silently looked around, touched nothing, and said "NOPE". Perhaps a year later in the same mine, there was a local news report that two guys went in and started hammering on the ceiling to get some mineral specimens, causing the ceiling to collapse, killing them both. Yikes!

(I think that is where a number of my phobias come from.)

When there was only one person in the group that wanted to enter a sketchy old mine, I found a good way to deter them. Example: "Hey Bob, before you go in that old mine, toss me the keys to your truck. If you don't make it out, can I have your pickup truck?" (That usually worked. The thought of losing their prized pickup truck worried them more than a mine collapse. Go figure.)

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