Beating the Heat

One of my recent posts was about the extreme heat we've been having here in the desert southwest. And then you didn't hear from me whining about it for several days. It's because I went north to enjoy a family event, and left behind the furnace weather. The first night we arrived in Wyoming, we actually were in a rain storm that poured down on us as we drove out to my sister's house and the temperature on the truck read 51 degrees. Yes...there just wasn't anything about the weather to complain about for the four days we were gone from here.

But we were visiting where the altitude is 6600 feet above sea level. I noticed on our return trip, that as we were descending in altitude, we were also ascending in temperature. In southern Utah, it was about 6000 feet and the temperature was 83 degrees. We began the descent down the mountain, and every few miles the temperature ticked upward. It was 90 at 4000 feet, then 95, then, we drove into the valley of the red rocks and eroded arches and --there it was---100 again! Not that we were exactly celebrating. CoolGuy had taken his motorcycle up north on the trailer. Then, he parked the trailer at our daughter's house in Utah and rode the 200 miles up to Wyoming and back on the bike. It was terrific riding weather. He was caught in a few thunderstorms, and he put on his jacket after dark, because, it's just a bit chilly at night in the mountains when you're going 70 mph.

We attended a wonderful event honoring his oldest brother in our hometown, and then we watched a parade and ate lunch with lots of relatives. It was a huge family gathering, and my daughter-in-law and our grandson came with us at the last minute, and I'm so glad she did. It was a delightful day with lots of traditional activities and family pride and memories. She and our grandson have usually only visited up there with us for funerals and this was completely opposite. We just enjoyed the beauty and the nice weather and camaraderie of being with a lot of relatives.

We got everyone back home to Utah and we put the motorcycle back on the trailer for the trip to Nevada. We knew we'd miss the pleasant cool mornings and dewy grass in the shadow of the pine-covered mountains. When we arrived back in the Mojave, it wasn't as hot as when we'd left, so that's a relief. But there's a huge wildfire on the back of mountains that line the west side of the valley, so the sky is filled with smoke and the sunset is brilliant orange for an extended period of time.

This traveling back and forth into different climate zones is strange, but this weekend had an added dimension of time travel for me, too. We spent the two days we were in our hometown immersed in the past. My daughter-in-law and I spent a lot of time talking about how CoolGuy and I lived as children. As we drove around, I pointed out the school where he and I first met. We passed our childhood homes, the church where we married, our high school site. We talked about the chores we'd each done. We even went to my parent's farm and looked around the old wooden barn where I'd spent so much of my youth. We drove part way up into the fields where my sisters and I had hauled bales every summer. She was fascinated by all the work we'd done just to earn a living. She'd never really understood before, I think, that I was just a farm girl. She'd only known me as a teacher, an adult, my son's mother. It was interesting for her to see where I'd lived and what I done as a child and a teen, and it gave her a new understanding of me. I assured her that, as children, we didn't have an expectation that our lives were going to be any different from what they'd been. She was raised in a large, sophisticated city in South America. I was just a farm girl. I really am hardly any different than that girl who went into that barn twice a day and milked those cows with her sister. I'm older, more tired and I certainly couldn't do the chores I once did. But, I'm still that girl who loves the mountains and reading and my horse. I'm still that girl who knows that, if I'm willing to do the work, I'll accomplish my goals. I'm still that girl who has a big crush on CoolGuy. So, it was a great weekend for going back in time and showing someone I care about, who I am and where I came from.

 

This is the swing set that was on the playground of my one-room school when I was little. It was being sold and so my sister bought it and installed it in her backyard. I spent a lot of time on this slide when I was a little kid.

That boy waving is our grandson. He's riding in a beautiful wagon being pulled by mules, and the other people in there with him are all relatives. They were honoring CoolGuy's brother.

 



 

Here's the photo of a grandpa and a grandson. They're next to the portrait of the great-uncle who was honored in the parade and the ceremony at our home town.