I 70

 Oh, the gorgeous, majestic Rocky Mountains! We had a beautiful drive through Utah, but there’s nothing that compares to the glorious Glenwood Canyon and the views both east and west of the Canyon  

Then we were just east of Vail, and were stopped for almost 3 hours because of a fatal accident on I 70. We were blessed because it happened just minutes ahead of us. By the time we reached Denver, we were in rush hour traffic. It’s all good though; almost 11 hours in the car to go 450 miles, and we’ve arrived at the FF safe and sound.  DanaRiley was a dream pup through it all. 

Abbey had a delicious dinner ready and helped bring in the luggage, thank God!  She’s such a doll!

Alene and I had a good time in the car today. She was interactive and very funny…that is until we got off I 70 and we’re on I 76 heading north to Nebraska - she seemed lost and very confused with still 3-4 hours to go.  She didn’t recognize any part of the drive (except the last 30 minutes) and kept saying she thought this was a new way, even though she’s been on this drive so very many times since 1999. She’s tired and so am I. 

No sausage egg McMuffin this morning!  We stopped at Dunkin drive thru in Rifle for coffee and got a sausage egg croissant instead. It was okay.

After the party on I 70 for 3 hours, we stopped in Georgetown for petrol and to walk and feed DanaRiley. As were leaving, I saw a bbq food truck and stopped. We shared a chopped brisket sandwich and it was so good! 

Alene’s dementia is exaggerated tonight probably because she’s so tired. She told Abbey when getting out of the car that she didn’t bring a suitcase on the trip. Of course she did. She’s asked me 4 times in the last 30 minutes if she has a suitcase from the trip. 

Many endless questions and conversations today, but she was calm when she needed to be, like when we waited on I-70. She was actually quite witty, observant and fun to be around!

All in all, we’re just happy to be out of the car.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Funny Farm

Image
 Arrived!  There’s a delay in posts to the blog because there’s no wi-fi here. I’ll do my best with this early in the morning. Also, I decided not to send out the link until I arrived. We got here Sunday late afternoon and Alene, Abbey and her friend Deena were waiting. Abbey and Deena left very early Monday morning for Alabama where Deena lives.  Abbey will fly back to Denver on the 18th. Alene looked very tired and a bit disheveled…she cried. We had dinner, visited and went to bed.  We were all up early Monday; Abbey and Deena left and Alene and I just talked and laughed until we decided to go into town (Ogalalla) for some groceries. The FF is 25 or so miles from town but we cross over the dam and it’s scary how low the water is. Also visible from the road is some of the damage that the tornado caused a couple weeks ago as well as damage from a recent hail storm. Alene said she’s got 22k in damage to the back of this place from hail. Now to Alene: On the plus side-there haven’t been
Read more

Backward Steps

Image
 I abruptly ended the last post as we were leaving to go to a park where I could walk DanaRiley. I thought I’d be able to walk her around her but outside of their lawn area, the roads have stickers and DanaRiley had some in her pads the other day. So we went to the vacant sports complex and walked, ran my car through a car wash to get rid of some of the 5000 dead bugs on the window and front bumper, and we picked up a salad for lunch from Wendy’s.  Yesterday, Alene wondered aloud how it came to be that I was at the FF with her. If you read my first post, maybe you remember that she asked me to spend the summer here with her. I reminded her of that and she was stunned and remembers no part of those early conversations. But she believed me and we both laughed and said “crunch crunch” (her brain crunching). Well today she wanted to pay for the Wendy’s salads but didn’t bring her purse.  So I told her she could pay when we pick up a salad on our trip to California. She looked at me and slo
Read more

History and The Planning Stage

She said, “Why don’t you come and spend the summer with me at the Funny Farm ?” “She” is Alene, my dear friend of 45 years.  The “Funny Farm” is a place near Ogallala, NE that Alene and her husband purchased with her sister and brother-in-law about 25 years ago.  Their kids were young adults, their first grandchild was just born and everyone loved to water ski, jet ski and just play in Lake McConaughy. They had a blast and laughed till they cried. They decided that the perfect name would be The Funny Farm.  Jerry, Alene’s husband, died 15 years ago. Tragically, he had just retired. A couple years later, Alene bought her sister and brother-in-law’s share of the Funny Farm (I’ll shorten this going forward to FF.) Since then, Alene’s daughter, Abbey, and her two girls along with other family and friends have enjoyed time at the FF. Sadly, it’s probably time to sell for a variety of reasons but mostly due to the shortage of water.  I know Alene loves the peace being at the FF. It’s a simpl
Read more