A taste of Hiking.

As Scott is closing in on finishing up on our Colorado adventures my mind wandered back to how we got the taste for hiking in first place. In the early years of our marriage we had a lake lot where we spent all of our off work time, camping and having fun with our boat, and friends.

Maybe Scott will do adventure on that some time since it took up a very large portion of our life and we have great memories from it. He also is the adventure writer in the family. Now to get to the part of the story I want to share. We spend most of our money and time on our lake lot. That did not leave much money or time left for any trips.

Scott's, mother and father have always had a motor home of some kind over they years, and we joined them once in a while for a few day on what ever camping trip they were taking. When they were getting ready for their retirement they had their hearts set on Arizona for the winter weather. They were going to become Snowbirds.

I am not sure if it was their first year or their second year out in Arizona they invited us out for a week or two. That was a big adventure for us as we had an inexpensive place to stay, and food. As well it was quality time with Scott's parents, not to mention getting out of Minnesota winters for a great break. All we had to come up with was the money for our plane fares.

At that time they stayed in a place  called Desert's Edge. It was a small camp ground where Scott's parents parked their motor home for Snowbirds. Just outside the gate of the campground was a small mountain. Even thought at the time it looked big to us we set out to challenge it.

We were hooked. The next day we asked Scott's mother to go with us again, and as you can see we celebrated with our wine.

From Desert Edge

While we were there they always took us on a trip someplace to see something new. We could not wait for they next year to come.

After a couple of years Scott's parents moved to a bigger and nicer Campground with lots of pools.

From  Sunflower Resort and Pool Arizona.

A few years after that they bought a park model and put on an Arizona room.

From  Sunflower Resort and Pool Arizona.

This was great for us because we then had our very own room at night to sleep in. I even had room to leave a few things there so I did not have to carry as much back next year. Which I caught a little hell for when Scott's mother found them.

Almost every year for the last ten year we have shared this time with Scott's family and always looked for bigger more interesting mountains to climb. This lead us into our many hikes in Europe and Colorado. You can read about them in "Our Adventures".

I know many children talk about, and thank their parents for putting them through college, but we could never have learned in any collage what we learned on those hikes. I hope we can enjoy many more years of hiking new place's, and time with them.

Thank You Enie and Neil you have "IT"

"Spend Your Life Wisely"

Drowning the Shamrock

With St Patrick day just around the corner memories come to mind. Growing up in Ireland St Patrick's day in our house was a day of going to church with our shamrocks pinned to our shirts. Lead by my mother to the front row in church to pray and thank St Patrick for running all the snakes out of Ireland. At least that's what I was told. Maybe it was just another Santa story? If you have read any of my Irish stories you will know what I mean. Then there was the drowning of the shamrocks afterward. I did not know how the shamrock got drowned then, because that was for grown ups.

After coming to America I was living in a small town. I also was the town only bar, "bartender" and with a nick name of “Irish”  Being the only real "Irish lass" in the town, along with all of my "Wish we were Irish friends"I started out to prove to them I knew how to drown the shamrock.

From St Patrick's day

First I got myself a green dress with a few shamrocks on it. Then my bra and underwear were made out of green material like a shamrock. Along with a green wig, green shoes, and of course that famous Irish button that says "KISS ME I AM IRISH"
I’m all ready to drown the shamrock!

From St Patrick's day

The first St Patrick day drowning the shamrock was a lot of fun. I had the whole day off work and we started bar hopping around noon. Meeting more wannabe Irish people at night that had to work that day our party grew. We were all excited about the next St Patrick's day before this one was even over.
We did this year after year with me adding more shamrocks and doing a better job at drowning the shamrock every year. Even the bars we went to waited for us to come in on St Patrick's day.

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From St Patrick's day

I started dating Scott around that time. One little drawback there was that he was not into this whole green thing at all. Even though he was part Irish he did not have to advertise it. I on the other hand had a lot of friends to live up to, with this drowning the shamrock thing. Scott was a good sport and let me go with my friends. Off we went on our annual St Patrick’s day to drown the Shamrock. From bar to bar we were all welcomed and I could tell I was doing a better job of drowning the shamrock this year because around 3oclock in the afternoon I was asking everyone in the bar if they wanted to see  "My shamrock"
All I remember about that evening is that my Irish wannabe friends carried me home long before dark leaving me to drown my head in the toilet and having to answer to my new husband. At that moment I would have rather meet my mother with the broom. That was the end of my green outfit also the end of an Irish girl and her "I wish we were Irish Friends" trying to drown the shamrock.
Over thirty years has passed since that bunch of friends set out to drown the shamrock. I don’t see those friends anymore and my green outfit is long since gone. Did we drown the shamrock or not? You decide.
"To your Best Life"

Drowning the Shamrock

The custom of imbibing alcohol on St. Patrick's Day comes from an old Irish legend. As the story goes, St. Patrick was served a measure of whiskey that was considerably less than full. St. Patrick took this as an opportunity to teach a lesson of generosity to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper that in his cellar resided a monstrous devil who fed on the dishonesty of the innkeeper. In order to banish the devil, the man must change his ways. When St. Patrick returned to the hostelry some time later, he found the owner generously filling the patrons' glasses to overflowing. He returned to the cellar with the innkeeper and found the devil emaciated from the landlord's generosity, and promptly banished the demon, proclaiming thereafter everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day. This custom is known as Pota Phadraig or Patrick's Pot. The custom is known as "drowning the shamrock" because it is customary to float a leaf of the plant in the whiskey before downing the shot.

A Hikers Wish!

Hiking up the side of a mountain or a cliff gives you lots of time to think. That can bring out some of our wishes and dreams from the back of our minds that we have had for years. It might come from just struggling to breath or at time just hoping you will live and wondering what the %$#%$ &^%& I am doing this for anyway. But you just gotta do it. Something is driving you.

One of the many time that I've done the annual yearly climb of of Squaw Peak while visiting Scott's family in Arizona I started thinking.......

Since I had left Ireland at a very young age I had never did much with my family and that was what I missed the most in life. I did have a sister in American though (more on that story at a later date) but we did not see each other very often. We were both busy living our lives. My sister was busy with her family, business, and friends She also had many sports, but at that time hiking was not one of them. While I was trying to take a breath a thought came to mind, I wish I could climb this with my sister.

A few years later I got a phone call from my sister saying she had bought a winter home in Arizona.

At that moment I could see the beginnings of a dream coming true. Next year she invited me to stay at her beautiful home and we did my dream hike together. We even made a yearly hike together whenever we were in Arizona at the same time.

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

From Angie-Jeff-home-Arizona-2008

Since then my sister is a dedicated Arizona hiker. Thank you Sister Angela for a dream come true and sharing your beautiful home, and time out of your busy life. For these memories I will always treasure.

Pictures of Life

Picture where did they all come from year after year, camera after camera, moments that we cannot part with.

I tried lately in my downsizing adventure to give some cute little albums full of pictures, to family and friends of moments we shared together only to get them back at the next get together saying thank you I just have no place to store them.

Now my first thought was: I am going to through them out but, as I got closer to the recycling bin my heart said no these are part of a life. It sorta felt like murder. Well at least to me.

My next thought was: I will go through them and get rid of they ones that had very little meaning but every time I tried to recycle one a memories came back. I give up!

Scott has just bought us a new wireless printer/scanner and I will have to take on the job of scanning all those baby picture of him his mother gave me.
I got to admit he was a cute baby."What happened to you Scott!" Just kidding.

Then there was all those Granny and Grandpa pictures, aunts, and uncle and even all their dogs, cats, all those boyfriend I had, well they were all a part of who we are in life. From one picture to another they will have to be scanned in all 15 albums.

Now that the job is done many weekend later, I've got a special joy out of renewing the memories. I just did not spend enough time enjoying them then I was doing them. "Enjoy the Moments". Going forward I wish for a lot more pictures of special memories. Since we plan to live and travel in our motor coach we should have lots of them. Its nice to know we will not have to scan them as the only cameras we have are digital now.

A Senior Moment

Sunday was cold and wintery in Minnesota. Scott and I decided to go to the Science Museum and take in a movie at the Omnitheater. While there we also thought we would try and buy a lifetime pass to our National Parks since we plan to live in our motor home and visit as many National and State Parks as we can.

I have reached that age where I could buy one for ten dollars. While the person was taking the information to set up my card I got that felling of excitement that I had reach another millstone in life where I was old enough for something.

 

My mind wandered back in time to the first time that happened. I had just turned sixteen I was getting off the bus from my cleaning job and the neighbor boy was there to meet me. He walked me up the long dark lane to the old straw roofed house where I lived with my family. Before I went through the gate to our front door he kissed me and said "you are my dearest". That was the last time I saw or heard for him in those days.We all left home young to find work so that was the end of sweet sixteen and never been kissed.

Next time came to mind was twenty one. I was of legal age to go to the bar and have a drink and a cigarette with my friends. Since I was of age during the"Wood Stock" days I could have also gone to the country roads and maybe found a joint. It was not about the bar, the drink, the cigarette, or the joint, it just was cool to be old enough to do it.

 

Just as I was enjoying memories of the past the person getting my card ready said sign your card. He brought me back to the moment of being a senior. I do not have any trouble finding a joint now, arthritis finds them for me.

Election Day

Thank you America, for the freedom to vote for the person of my choice without being stoned to death.
Scott and I walked hand in hand to the little church on the corner of our street in Edina, Minnesota and voted. We walked home again feeling good about our freedom and for the first time in my life I watched minute by minute the returns coming in. It was not about who I voted for or my beliefs, it was about this great country that adopted me making history. I also found a great inner strength that I could do anything I wanted to do if I was willing to work hard for it. If I was only a little younger this would be my time. Young people of America go out there and be what you want to be. Since I have already worked 40 year of my life my dream is seeing this great country and giving back to her for the freedom she has given me. "Where is my Motor coach"

The Stuff of life

When I came to America I was carrying a small bag with a few clothes in it. A big adventure,

young and free. I made friends fast. Most Americans seem to love the Irish.

It must have been clean up week because when I went to the sidewalk one day people had put out old stuff for the garbage man. It was still good stuff! I took the stuff for my new apartment and the stuff made the apartment looked great!

I found a job fast as a waitress those jobs were a dime a dozen in those day. Then payday came and because I never had money before I bought some of my own new stuff. With many more paydays and paychecks I accumulated lots more new stuff . I then found I had to put some of my own old stuff out on the sidewalk. I even had to get another job to pay for more new stuff.

When Scott and I became friends and we decided we wanted to spend the rest of our life together we bought a house. I just loved decorating it with all new stuff.

For the next 20 years we bought and sold and fixed up houses. Each time we did we had to buy new stuff for the new house. Now I had lots and lots of stuff. We bought a little lake lot and built a house on it then I had to get more stuff to fill that up too. We had a double garage in town and a single garage at our lake house.

I did not like how clutered they were, so we bought a piece of land and built a big shed on it to store all of our extra stuff in. I liked that, because our garages were not so cluttered. Now we were working very hard to pay for all that land, houses, cars and stuff.

One of my favorite's things to do after work was go to the gym with my friend Kim. Scott would meet me there later to lift weight's together one night while I was at my favorite class, Scott came up to me and asked how would you like to go to work in Holland for two years. I said yes without even another thought. The next day I thought what will I do with all my stuff?

To make a long story short we sold our lake house to a coworker and he wanted all the stuff that was in the house. He then he asked if he could buy the land and the big shed for all his stuff that used to be our stuff. We sold it to him. We also gave some stuff away and we stored some stuff for our return. Off we went with only our clothes in a suitcase. We felt so liberated in Europe we hiked and traveled all over "see our hikes for more on that."

It's been seven years since our return to America I am still downsizing and trying to buy only our needs not our wants. There is still days when I fail. I do not get down on myself I look at it as one step backward two steps forward.

Our dream is to travel and hike and live in a motor home. Can't have much stuff in a motor home! More on that coming up.

Sunday 12th October

Today is my first try at posting in my blog. I know I have a long ways to go to learn how it all goes together. If you get a good laugh that would make me even happier.

Notice how hard I am working on it I am still in my pajamas.

I am really excited about it because my goal is for me to stay a little closer with family and friends on this new journey in my life. More on that when I know what I am doing with this. I also think it would be nice if they could go see what I am doing on their own time, without me writing them every day and not being sure they really want to hear from me. Have a really good Sunday.