What a fun, fun, fun day!

I woke up in Missoula, Montana this morning. It was 12 degrees at 5:00 am when I got up. I had coffee, went to the fitness center (one person at a time) in the hotel and then walked through downtown Missoula. I was using up daylight hopeing it would warm up enough that I could ski without freezing my face off.

The temperature crept up to 16 degrees, and I decided it was a “go”. I had on 3 coats, a balaclava, a hat, and heated gloves.

Purchasing my ticket, I got my first – ever SENIOR citizen discount. Yup – first time ever. They gave me $3 off for being old.

Riding a chair lift in the 20/21 ski season is my next first! I have been on my downhill/BC skis 12 other times this season and today I caught a ride. I even had to wait in line (for about 3.5 minutes). It was a holiday, after all. The snow was fair, visibility was good, the area was decent and it was great to just do laps.

My final destination for the day was The Hickory House. An adorable B & B in Anaconda, MT. It’s so cozy! I have a huge room – large enough to file my edges and wax my skis 🙂 They provide a big fuzzy bathrobe, a full kitchen for guest use, tea, snacks, common areas (of course, with Covid they are empty) with big couches and lots of books. It’s a great spot to stay when you are sking at Discovery.

David, whom I met kayaking a couple of weeks ago, will be picking me up so we can share a day of skiing. What a treat to learn the mountain from a local.

Anaconda is an interesting, old, mining town. I walked around town this evening, just in time for some blue sky to poke through. The architecture is lovely and the homes are small and quaint. Many homes and buildings have plaques explaining the history, which gives much life to this small, quiet town. My favorite discovery in town, is the skating rink, which is a frozen pond or fountain. One person had the entire rink to herself. I wish I had ice skates!

A (nother) fun, fun day.

My original plan was to work on the plane through Monday, but the weather forecast was not cooperative. There is a storm coming. The weather service said “travel through the Idaho panhandle could be difficult or impossible”. I am a whimp when it comes to driving, so that forecast sent me down the road ahead of schedule.

The trip was easy, whew!

So, now, tomorrow I have all day to ski around Missoula – something I have never done. Sweet!!

I hear that the snow is falling in Seattle.  Snow is rare enough in Seattle that it always feels like a holiday when the snow flies.  Over here on the East side of the state, it’s just frigid!  Today at 3pm, it was 18 degrees without the wind chill.  The wind is supposed to run the temps down to minus 10-15 degrees.  Ouch!  I am not so sure living in a trailer in this temperature is a great idea……thank goodness for the electric blanket!  

I am leaving the tiny house tomorrow to head back east to work on my plane. Back to my adorable trailer which is less than half he size of the tiny house. That’s why if feels so spaceous here!

The tiny house is so cute (as I mentioned in a prior post) and I now have the photos to back up my statement.

Sam and Jerry are artists! Their medium is wood. I love the simplicity of their work, which consistently produces function first. Cindy worked the textiles, which add color, and quaint.

Every inch of space is in use, and they still have room for climbing holds. This place rocks!

I drove to Seattle on a Wednesday. Leaving the trailer early left me tune to skin up Hyak for three great laps! There was even some sunshine!!

Cindy and Jerry let me stay in their adorable tiny house. After living in a trailer its downright spacious! The tiny house is truly a work of art. I love it!! I need to add some photos. Check back for those.

I stopped by my house to pick up some paperwork I need for benefits. It gave me the opportunity to drop off a bunch of stuff I packed in the trailer that is only taking up space. It’s amazing how little I really need. Traveling light feels so good.

Next, I boarded a (completely full) flight to Vegas. The adventure: a 55 mile paddle down the Colorado River. This is an area I raced and also paddled with Scott, Nancy and Toby. This trip sent us further south than I have gone. The group was from a trip planned in 2020 that was Covid cancelled and included me, Halvy, Thomas Kelly and David Brown.

We launched from Willow Beach and headed south.

Spending 24 hours a day in the great outdoors is so good for me. The leisurely pace, the beautiful weather the solitude, made for a joyous week.

I’m returning to Seattle, and the tiny house for a couple of days before I drive East to continue working on the plane.

One thing I know for sure is that I want to be on the move again very soon. This is the life for me.

What a fun week.

The highlight of the week was probably that the status of getting my plane back in the air is more than half way there! It’s going together nicely and many of the structural upgrades are going to make a huge difference. There was a lot bent, twisted, and cracked. I have some new instruments, the new landing gear goes on soon, and I have bargained with Ray to buy his super cool 26-er tires for Charlie Mike.

I skied, ran, mountain biked, and even drove to Spokane this week. I saw a lot of deer, a track that Jerry says is probably a bob cat, and I survived some of the coldest weather yet. Twelve degrees is a bit outside of my comfort zone. Thank goodness for my big down jacket!!

Next week I’m heading to Seattle to get some papers out of my basement. I hope to ski on my way home. It’s a good opportunity to unload some things I brought that I should have left and to pick up some stuff I forgot. Still in the shake down mode for sure. Then, I’m off to Vegas! More on that next week!

Amanda Gorman

When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast, we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.

We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one. And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect, we are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

So we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all.

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division.

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one should make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in in all of the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it. That would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can periodically be delayed, but it can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us, this is the era of just redemption we feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves, so while once we asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us.

We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, our blunders become their burden. But one thing is certain: if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left, with every breath from my bronze, pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one, we will rise from the golden hills of the West, we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution, we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful, when the day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.

What a fun day today! I wandered my way from Chewelah to Colville to Kettle Falls (Salish: Shonitkwu, meaning “roaring or noisy waters”, browsing through thrift stores along my way.

Where are the falls? Well, the history is very interesting and very sad and you can read about that here. The falls are long gone, buried under water created when Grand Coulee Dam was built.

My search was for a hot pad and some hand weights. Anyone who has tried to buy hand weights knows that they are extremely scarce because of Covid. I didn’t want to spend much, and only need them for a short time, so I thought the more “rustic” the thrift store, the better my chances.

I first stopped at Colville Goodwill. I found a lovely chartruse 100% suede leather jacket I REALLY wanted to buy for $12.99 – but resisted! There were no hand weights. I forgot about the hot pad.

Next, instead of going back south, I continued North to Kettle Falls. On the edge of town was a small thrift store called “Thrift Ministry N Mind”. There were lots of books on religion and a pink hotpad–for .29! I only had a $20 dollar bill, so I went ut to the car to find some change and when I walked back in, (without any change), I saw two handweights just inside the door! Perfect. Cost on the hand weights? $1.99! Holy cow! Success on both fronts.

From there, I thought I would try to find a trail to run, so I went on to Kettle Falls State Park. It is right on the Columbia River or Lake Roosevelt for this stretch. Scott and I camped in this campground once in the Westie. I think we were on our way to Red Mountain. There were mostly pickups with boat trailers in the parking lot. Apparently folks were out fishing for Trout.

I found a really nice trail that wound through the park. Along my way, I had birds watching over me. First was an adorable Owl.

Not far from the owl was a larger, more threatening bird. I can’t help but wonder if the Eagle knew about the owl.

The trail emptied out into a huge “meadow” called Colville Flats on the map at the Ranger Station.

Maybe the river fills this is in the summer. This is where I turned around. Soon after, I spotted this huge immature Eagle. Must be lots of good food for them here.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Yes, I officially left the workforce on Jan 1, 2021. I re-joined on Jan 14, 2021. That was a very short retirement! My new job is helping out Ray – the guy overseeing the work on my airplane. His business is booming and he has a million small pieces of paper, with illegible notes scribbled on them, to keep track of what comes next. It’s no longer working….so we are setting up some systems. Poor Ray. This is painstaking for him. So many details! So many small pieces of paper! So much to fill in.

Today, we added up real numbers to determine his profit margin on his most popular products. The relief on his face when I told him the numbers made the past two days of data entry, price searching and list making all worth while.

The most important part of this new “job” is that it’s super flexible. When I was delayed finding a trailhead today, I just texted him and told him I would be about an hour and a half delayed. His reponse was the best “Ok, not much chance of you getting fired!”. Hilarious – and the only way to work, while retired.

I was able to find a trail head, which is not that easy in this area. I trail ran (and walked) up Quartizite Mountain. Straight up for a mile, then a bit easier for another half mile. I parked about a half mile or so from the trailhead to avoid the solid ice on the roadway and that gave me a bit more mileage. Amazing views from the top. I need to figure out how to get up some of the other peaks near by. A peak a day? So far I am 2/2.

This morning when I woke up it was 18 degrees outside. I was warm and cozy in the trailer. A little worried about everything freezing……but I think all is fine.

I was questioning my sanity in brining so much bedding, but this morning it all made perfect sense! I have an electric blanket, then a feather bed, next two sheets and on top of those, two down comforters. It’s rather heavenly, and rather pink!

I was determined to ski up the 49 Degrees North ski area today after being shut out yesterday. When I arrived in the parking lot it was 21 degrees. My Denali down parka was pretty hard to remove when it came time to head up.

The skin up was beautiful, though the “snow” was ice. I had to boot up the last section because it was so icy I kept falling, and of course my ski crampons were in the car……

The top was FAB!

The ride down was slow and on a cat track. That’s how bad the snow is up there. They need lots of new before I will go back, but what a great start to my Thursday!!

Now I am off to my new part-time job…..more about that tomorrow.