Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Just a smidgen less

It’s amazing how quickly time slides by us.  Day to day details take up our hours and before we know it a week passes, then a year, and much too soon, a lifetime.  One goal of my new lifestyle is to slow down and relish those hours before they become lost to the past tense stories of our lives.  I know that statement just got a big laugh from those of you who know good and well how much mileage I’ve covered in Seeker over the past 6 months, but there were good reasons for those long, hard road trips and they are about to be a thing of the past.  Soon I will be sitting in one spot for a month at a time or even more, but there was just one more thing I wanted to accomplish before I settled down.  I had to see Charlie Ray.

On my father’s side of the family most of the cousins were older than me and most, including my brothers, were boys.  My oldest brother Mike, while being the 4th of my grandfather Riggan’s grandchildren, had the distinction of being the first grand SON.  Soon more boys followed until 54/55 when my cousin Mary Frances and I were born.  Smidget, as I liked to call her, was born one week before her mother turned 40 despite her parents having been told for years that they were barren.  Perhaps because of her mother’s advanced age, I really don’t know, Smidget was born with Rheumatoid Arthritis which among other things, meant that at her grandest height she was able to stretch all the way to 4’9”.  I teased her once in the 60s saying that even Gidget was taller than her and the nickname Smidget was born.

We were thick friends as well as cousins and every summer I looked forward to spending time in Lebanon with Smidget and going swimming (in the water she was free without those heavy leg braces) at the pool, listening to The Beatles, The Monkeys, and all those other animal groups filled with shaggy headed boys.  Smidget might have been short in stature, but she was ten feet tall and wall to wall in spirit.  Lebanon High School never had a more boisterous booster, right up to the day she died her blood ran blue devil blue.  It was her sudden death this winter and the phone call I had to make that drove me to Arkansas this week.

You see, along with being the one with all the spirit, Mary Frances was the one who kept up with everyone in the family.  She knew just about everyone in Lebanon and at any given time could tell you where anyone of my cousins was living and how they were doing.  She wrote the letters, made the phone calls, and kept the contacts alive.  Her death at 56 was sudden and blessedly quick.  She spent her whole life battling pain and never complaining about it.  In return the universe took her quickly without making her suffer.  It was at her funeral that we realized no one had called Charlie Ray, and somehow I got the job.  An awkward task given that it was the first time we had talked in over 35 years.  One last time Smidget was connecting family members. 

We talked for a long time and Charlie’s wife Brenda remarked that she had talked to Mary Frances only a week before.  It was a sharp reminder to us of how quickly life can change.  I promised to come see them soon.  That was February, so I am considering 6 months soon.  Charlie Ray is still the handsome boy cousin I remember albeit a little grayer.  His voice sounds a lot like I remember his dad sounding and I can see hints of his dad in his facial expressions.  We swapped lots of stories about family and the places life has carried us.  We were both in the Navy – him in the 70s and me in the 80s.  Otherwise our lives took very different paths, but we still remembered Sundays and Christmases at Granny and Pee Paw’s farm.  I made a copy of an old Christmas photo and framed it for him as a gift.  We decided it must have been around 1958 because he remembers those new cowboy pistols.  That would make me about 3 and still a blonde.  For those of you who didn’t know I was ever a blonde, well, that probably explains a lot! 

The day ended with him rushing back to work, but I think I got him to thinking about retiring next year at 62.  I highly recommend it.  More time to slow down and enjoy the hours/days/weeks before they’re gone.  Smidget would agree.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Friends and Friendly Places

My brothers often teased me as a child, saying that the gypsies dropped me off in the middle of the night.  Of course, one look at my picture beside my mother’s and there is no doubt that I am an authentic part of the family, but I did inherit a gypsy soul from somewhere.  I have always loved to travel and this new RV lifestyle really appeals to me.  Tonight I am writing from just outside of Sikeston, Missouri.  Tomorrow I will drive down into northern Arkansas to visit a cousin I haven’t seen in way too long.

Despite my love for the traveling life, there are certain places and certain people that make me want to linger in one spot a little longer.  Hohenwald, my adopted hometown is one of those places.  I was able to spend most of Saturday there with friends and family.  Aiden and Addy turned 9 this week and while I was pleased that they liked my gifts, I found myself just sitting back and watching them and Drake in amazement.  It’s just so hard to believe that many years have passed.  Devin and Jenifer’s wedding seems like just last year to me.  Do I sound old now, or what?

Sister Linda let me run a load of laundry through while we sat on the front porch visiting.  Her best friend Jane showed up – another favorite person to chat with.  Of course I didn’t have much more than an hour to visit with the girls because they were going off to Pickwick with some friends from work – and because I spent an hour or so before I got there visiting with the sweetest couple I know: Bill and Martha.  These newlyweds have been making it work for 53 years this December and still seem to be sweet on each other.  I am ashamed to admit that I have missed seeing them the last 3 or 4 times I have been in town so I hope they feel caught up now.  I hated to leave them because their home is so warm and cozy and they truly make a guest feel welcome.  But I had more folks to see and they have quite a busy schedule too.

One of the lists I was advised to keep when I started rv’ing is places I have stayed that I would like to return to or recommend to others.  This weekend I stayed at my all time favorite campsite: JRD Ranch, or as I like to call it: Mi Paradiso.  Sorry folks, it’s not a commercial site so I can’t refer you there, but if you love wide open spaces, big star-filled night skies, morning coffee as black as the skies you camp under, all without the drive to Montana, then this is the spot.  My hosts for the weekend made me feel truly spoiled as they always do.  And while I do hope to park Seeker under those big Montana skies one day, Montana has a lot to live up to if she wants to compare with these folks.  Nope, not mentioning names or even the town here.  This is one spot that’s way too good to share.  But I do want to say thanks to Jay and Pam for all their help this weekend and always. 

Time to shut everything down for the night and get an early start in the morning.  Today I logged 2 or more caches in 4 different states just to see if I could do it.  I admit to almost giving up in Missouri but finally accomplished that goal.  Tomorrow I hope to log the oldest cache in Arkansas and fill in a block on my chart for June 2000.  Pretty cool, huh? 

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Making My Moves

Something was said to me recently alluding to the fact that I had fallen behind on this blog.  Well, yes, I have to admit that I have had other priorities the last couple of weeks:  big yard sale, renting the house, moving into the Seeker full time, setting up camp in Seeker, running back to the house to clean it out one final time, etc., etc., etc.

Hoping to see things slow down soon.  But in amongst all this busy, official sounding stuff, there's always time to kayak and geocache.  Made a great trip up the Stones River from Mona ramp to da island and back past Mona to East Fork.  That's about 5-6 miles in my inflatible yak with a blowout on one side.  Yes, it can be done and you will stay afloat, but you will paddle hard and a lot. 

This past weekend I moved Seeker to Poole's Knob campground to have my home base while moving the last of my things out of the house.  Also I wanted to be here for the September MTGC meeting, but I was conflicted because I wanted to be at Cloudland Canyon in GA so I could visit with big brother and go on the hike to Rock Town nearby.  So I split the difference and a group of us from this area drove down to the Rock Town hike for the day but I hated to miss out on a visit with Mike and Linda. 

So all that coupled with my recent purchase of a new kayak and a strong desire to be on the water has contributed to my lack of blogging.  But I do have pix.  Lots of pix.  Hope you enjoy and I will try to blog more often.