Our travel has been curtailed somewhat by the Covid pandemic, but now that conditions have improved we’re beginning to move around again. Here is a summary of our past six months. We’ll probably have more frequent posts moving forward.
December began back in Sacramento so Carrie could have long-awaited knee replacement surgery. She had an excellent orthopedic surgeon at UC Davis and he used a minimally-invasive robotic technique. Hence, her recovery was quick and complete, and her surgery seems to have been a success. Within a couple of months she was largely back to normal and was free of the knee pain that has plagued her for the past several years.
We spent the winter and early spring in Sacramento and enjoyed frequent walks in the area. With the abundant rain in Northern California this year the rivers were flowing up to their banks. We also paid a short visit to Palo Alto and we were able to walk around the beautiful Stanford University campus. We had spent a couple of weeks in Palo Alto catsitting in 2021 but the central campus was closed at that time due to the pandemic so we appreciated the opportunity to see it this year.
The winter rains created quite an adventure for us! In early March we spent a couple of weeks catsitting for our friends, Sue and Leo, while they were on vacation. They live out in the mountains west of Paso Robles, CA, near Lake Nacimiento. On the night of March 10 a huge storm came through and washed out the only road between their house and Paso Robles, so we were stranded. Fortunately, we were able to get a boat ride across Lake Nacimiento on March 13 and we rented a car in Paso Robles and returned to Sacramento. But our car was stranded and we were not able to retrieve it until a road detour was completed on April 21.
Once we retrieved our car we began a leisurely three-week drive across the country, with the ultimate goal of arriving in Raleigh, NC, to dogsit for our friends, Chris and Reed, while they are on vacation. We began with short visits with family and friends in Las Vegas and Tucson. We then headed east into Texas and spent a couple of days in Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is one of the most isolated national parks in the lower 48 and the solitude and desert scenery are wonderful. Big Bend sits along the Rio Grande at the border with Mexico, and Mexico has created an adjacent national park to protect a huge piece of the Chihuahuan Desert.
We traveled eastward to Austin, Texas, to spend a week visiting Carrie’s brother and his wife, as well as our niece and nephew and their families, all of whom have relocated to Texas in recent years. One day we had lunch at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, TX, one of the great barbecue restaurants in the Austin area. We then spent the afternoon at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, a beautiful botanical garden operated by the University of Texas.
We traveled eastward again through northern Louisiana and we crossed the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, MS, where we spent most of a day at the Vicksburg National Military Park. Vicksburg was the site of an extended Civil War military campaign in 1862 and 1863 that resulted in a Union victory and complete control of the Mississippi River by Union forces. This victory freed up the river for Union commerce and effectively split the Confederacy in half east to west, ultimately leading to their downfall. General Ulysses S. Grant’s battle plan is considered to be one of the most ingenious in military history and it cemented his place in American lore. It is very interesting to tour the battlefield and realize how close the enemies were to one another. There was a great deal of gruesome hand-to-hand combat in the Civil War.
We’re now in Raleigh, NC, and we’re watching Kip, a delightful and playful Havanese dog. We’re in an older section of Raleigh, only about two miles north of downtown, and we’re enjoying walks through the tree-shaded neighborhood with lots of stately old homes. We’ll post more as we travel around.
