A Productive Thanksgiving

It's been a day!  Actually, it's been three days.  

The day before Thanksgiving, we went to Walmart.  We went to the one way up north, where the wealthier demographic lives, hoping for better stuff.  The theory was correct, better stuff was available in the area with higher incomes. Fortunately, we were out of there by 1:30, just as the crowds were showing up.  On the way back, we stopped at Home Goods, but there was no interesting art to be had.  I bought a blue bowl and a non-stick baking sheet, which I will probably take back to Spokane in the spring.  We have two up there, but they have both started to stick.

The day of Thanksgiving we went for a bike ride, and did the hills.  Twenty days off the bike really lowered our fitness levels.  Then, and then, we cleaned the floors in the house.  It was exhausting.  The floors were really bad, I don't think they had been cleaned in a long time.  I vacuumed and used the Bona on the laminate floors, Jim ran the steamer on the tile.  We had been meaning to get to it, but hadn't until yesterday.  It was time.

It was a beautiful day outside.

Yesterday we changed out bike saddles.  It took forever.  My mountain bike saddle was really old, and hard.  The clamp on the seat post had dirt and sand in the threads of the screws that secure the rails of the saddle.  One of them never did unscrew due to grit and grime.  We persisted, and eventually got mine done.  Jim took his Trek saddle off and moved it to his mountain bike, and the Trek got a new saddle.  His went much easier than mine.  So, three out of four bikes got new saddles.

So, that was our three days of Thanksgiving.  It was productive, and we did not eat too much.  There was zero participation in Black Friday.

 

The Day of the Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are wishing you and yours a most excellent day.

Better Days and Game Trails

Things have improved.  Jim got the giant pressure bandage off Saturday, which improved his outlook immeasurably.  The black eye is fading, soon he'll look normal, but with a new scar.  The Mohs surgeon is pretty good with scars.  I can't actually find the one on top of Jim's head.  Face procedures hurt worse than top of head procedures.  Please make a note of that.

Yesterday we got a decent ride in with three trips up the hill to the quilt house (so called because she used to hang quilts off the front of the garage), and two trips up the desert trails, which are also uphill.  The tires we currently have on the mountain bikes are heavy.  We have ancient technology, 26 inch tires, and it's difficult to find knobby tires.  One takes what one can get, and we got heavy tires.  It's good for us, makes us work harder.  This house has some very enthusiastic plantings.

When we came back from riding, Jim cut the dead fronds off the palm tree.  We only have the one tree, the previous house had 15 and I am extremely happy that there is only one.  Disposal is a pain, the barbed sections will not, under any circumstances, go in a yard waste bag.  We cut them off with the pruning saw, put them in the garbage can, and the frond pieces go in a yard waste bag.  The ground is so hard here that pulling weeds is not actually doable.  We're cutting them off at the ground and hoping they die. 

While up on the bank, cutting things down, we discovered our yard is a game trail.  In addition to coyotes pooping on the wall, which they did again last night, there are deer trails, and deer poop.  There is nothing to be done for it, other than to watch foot placement.  They make oblong pellets, a lot of them.

We have yet another art up.  This one was not nearly as difficult to get on the wall.  One nail, one nail only.  I like it.  Apparently I like non-representational art, which is something I did not know until shopping at Home Goods.

Here is our favorite burger place, which we rarely go to because we're not worthy of the calories.  However, admire the palm trees.  I love how they cross each other.



So, I have not too much to say about things.  The list of unsuitable cabinet nominations continues to grow, one waits for the republicans to grow a spine and at least block the child molesters, rapists and foreign agents.  Or maybe not.

Wrapping up the Week That Was Reviewed

Hola.  How are things?  Yesterday was a difficult day.  We spent a couple of hours trying to download a photograph of a document from a patient portal, and then upload it to another patient portal.  We had a paper copy of the document, which we photographed, and downloaded, and we could see it on the hard drive, but when we went to attach it in an email on the other portal, it was not visible.  I even dragged it out to Jim's desktop where it was clearly visible, and the portal still refused to see it.  It was the most frustrating, demoralizing thing; we knew it should work, but it wouldn't.  This morning, I took the screen shot, copied it on to a thumb drive, and the wretched second portal would acknowledge its presence on the drive.  It just should not be that difficult. 

The refrigerator guy called early on Friday to tell us that the part to fix the water dispenser in the door of the freezer was no longer available.  He has no data on the ice chute yet.  We are to call him for status.  Why doesn't he just call us when it arrives?  He has an office staff, they could call.  Anyway, off to Target to buy a Brita filter.  We had one in the park model, but left it there thinking we were done with it.  Anyway, got it home, and the water dispenser started working again.  I guess we'll show the dispenser the Brita periodically, and perhaps it will keep working.

The trip to the hand surgeon was a mixed bag.  The good is that they immediately identified Jim's finger issue as "trigger finger."  Go here for the Mayo explanation of the situation.  Sometimes, cortisone injections will fix it.  Jim got one, they'll do it two more times, and then if there is no improvement, they cut the tendon.  It's not a big deal, recovery time is about two weeks.  Then things went off the rails.  I brought a copy of a journal article on Suture Suspension Arthroplasty.  He glanced at the title and proceeded to tell me another term for the procedure is "tightrope surgery."  It isn't, he's wrong.  Tight rope requires two incisions, leaves two metal buttons in your hand, with a cable tied to both of them to support the thumb.  Suture suspension requires one incision, and zero hardware is left in the hand.  He only likes to do the procedure that's been around since 1972, and has a six month recovery.  So, he's off the table for the thumbs.  In addition to telling us stuff that was wrong, he talked over both of us, and I really hate that.  Jim reports that since the injection, the finger has not locked up, so that's good.

We got an art hung yesterday.  It was a giant pain in the butt.  They put the things that the wire attaches to too high on the sides so we had to keep the wire taut while tying it on.  That took three tries.  They also used massive staples to hold the corner protectors on which had to be pried off with screw drivers.  It took two tries to get it positioned on the wall to cover the wretched TV mount which they glued on as well as using lag bolts when it was installed.  Said mount is 29.5 inches wide, so the art had to be large. The frame is deep enough that it is flat against the wall with the mount under it.  Eventually we will get a less tall TV table and it will be better there.

The entry way rug arrived.  I really like it.  I wanted a 5 x 9, but couldn't find one, so we settled for a 5 x 8.  It will give us a landing place to shed the outdoor shoes and put on the indoor shoes.

The top photo is more accurate on the color.  It's not as orange as the bottom photo shows.  It's from Wayfair, polyester.

Does a coyote poop in the desert?  No, he comes in to my back yard, jumps up on the wall and does it there.  It's always interesting trying to figure out what they have been eating.  This sort of looks like corn.

I'd decided not to speak of the orange devil, but really, Seb Gorka for head of counter-terrorism?  He's a life member of the Nazi party in Hungary.  Please.

Sorry for the long boring post, but I'm preserving the ebb and flow of life in a new to us empty house, so that if we ever do this again, we'll remember what it was like and to have reasonable expectations of the experience. Perhaps piling a bunch of medical appointments in November was not the best choice.  When we're in Spokane, we basically do not have medical care, so there's a backlog upon arrival.

That's it, I have nothing else to say.

The Week in Review

This has been the week of the doctor's visit.  Monday Jim went to see his local dermatologist.  He's the best so far in keeping the bad things at bay.  He also confirmed that yes, Jim really does need to get that Mohs procedure done.  

Tuesday the refrigerator guy came and "realigned" the switch for the water dispenser, which failed five minutes after he left.  I guess we'll be getting a new part.  It's not really clear to me what the next steps are.  We're also getting the missing ice shield replaced so that the ice maker stops shooting my bare feet with ice, which is painful. He's coming back Friday, perhaps things will be better.

We did solve the mystery of why the stove grates do not sit level.  They are missing some rubber feet.  No they don't sell the feet.  No they don't sell replacement grates.  The stove is too old.  It's a stupid stove, it has a side oven into which NOTHING will fit,  not even a 10.5 in plate.  It's a wide stove, because of the side oven, which meant two banks of drawers had to be removed.  I fail to see the advantage here.  If we weren't worried about becoming paupers due to the orange menace, I would have the stove replaced with a normal one, restore the two banks of drawers and replace the counter top.  But who knows what will happen, and so we'll just live with it. But I digress.

Wednesday we saw the GP.  I love this woman.  She has seen us through some rough patches.  She, the dentist, and the cardiologist are reason enough to move here.  Health care in Spokane is surprisingly awful.  My lipids continue to be good.  Exercise and genetics to the rescue.  Jim is holding up well, his numbers are also good.  Tuesday, Jim called for an appointment with the Mohs guy; they'd had a cancellation, and so we were scheduled for the next day after the GP appointments.  It was a long day.  In a Mohs, they go to the biopsy site and make it bigger.  Then slides are prepared to see if the margins are clear.  The slide prep takes an hour, so it's not a quick visit.  They got clear margins after the first scoop, to that was good.

This, my friends, is the mother of all pressure bandages.  It has to stay on until Saturday.  Jim will need a bigger hat.

Today we are off to see a hand surgeon.  We want to know if anything can be done about Jim's finger which is curving and  the joint is locking, and also if he performs the Suture Suspension Arthroplasty for Thumb Carpometacarpal Arthritis.  It's better than the old way of doing reconstruction which involved two incisions, tendon harvesting and a longer recovery.  Jim's first hand guy was older, and he did the older procedure and would not discuss the new one.  

There has been some riding this week, in between seeing the medical fleet.

A large cactus in the front yard.

Here we go - to the dark side, with the orange menace.

Dr. Oz has been appointed to run Medicare and Medicaid.  RFK Jr, the anti-vaxer, proponent of raw milk consumption, and eater of road kill, was given the NIH, which oversees all things medical.  The two of them are having bro-spasms of joy talking about how they're going to suspend much of cancer treatment, preventative treatment and boost supplements.  What could go wrong?

Linda McMahon, of the WWE, who has a BA in French, and zero experience in the education field, despite once lying about having a degree in education, will be running the Department of Education, should it still exist.  

The House Republicans still refuse to release the records of Matt Gaetz having sex for money with underage girls.  There are videos of him doing it, they're on his phone.  However this does not seem to be disqualifying for the post of Attorney General.  The republicans are truly spineless shameful worms.

Late breaking news!  Gaetz withdrew!  And he gave up his seat in Congress previously. 

They are going to break the country.  I wonder if the people who voted for him will mind.  I mind greatly.

The House and That Man

At present we are awash in cardboard.  Fortunately recycle is picked up weekly, and the Titan Trash guys will pick up things left on the street.  Last week it was the box for the new TV and a huge box containing other large boxes.  This week the boxes aren't so large, but are more numerous.  The rate of acquisition is decreasing.

My new paradigm for posting that includes anything about the orange menace, is that I'll put it at the bottom of the post, with a warning, so that if you're sick of it, you can not look.

Here is some soothing house stuff.  We ordered batteries for the bike computers.  They came in their very own box, with paper to cushion them.

They also came with their very own warnings for bad things that could happen, and who to call if it did.  I did not know that these batteries posed such a threat.

This is a terrible picture, taken through glass and a screen.  That's a hawk in the tree.  Look at the size of him.  He's eating well, hopefully a diet of rodents.

This was taken two days ago, the light was nice, not too harsh.

Here is my new piece of art.  We got it on sale at Home Goods to cover up that TV mount that we can't get off the wall.  I have yet to get a good photo, because it's on a huge ill lighted wall with no context around it.

Ok - talking about the orange guy now.

Elon and Ramaswamy are still saying that the country "needs" two years of hardship while they dismantle the government.  How is this a popular idea among the people who voted for him?  The end of the Department of Education spells the end of special ed programs.  Those are funded federally.  No more special ed, no more working with kids on the spectrum, all that, gone.  The orange guy appears to be going along with that.

I do not understand on what planet this is a good idea, to destroy the world's strongest economy.  How does this benefit the 0.1% of the population, if we're all homeless and dying from preventable disease?

Brendan Carr, architect of the agenda for Project 2025 has been chosen to run the FCC.  His goal is the end of "censorship" that is going on in the internet.  Basically, he's opening the door to a flood of right wing lying with no fact checking.  Sort of like what we just had before the last election.

From the WAPO we learn the following.

Carr, 45, the senior Republican among the FCC’s five commissioners, has vowed in recent days to take on what he called a “censorship cartel” including Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Earlier this year, he laid out an aggressive agenda for the FCC in Project 2025, a conservative proposal for Trump’s second term developed by the Heritage Foundation. Carr has been a vocal supporter of billionaire Elon Musk and an advocate of tougher restrictions on China.

“Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy,” Trump said in a statement Sunday evening. “He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America.”

Carr said Sunday night on X that he was “humbled and honored” to serve in the position, and that he would seek to “dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.”

I read somewhere that orange will anoint Carr as chairman of the FCC for life.  The paywalled article can be found here.

It will surprise me greatly if we ever see another Covid vaccine in our lives.  RFK Jr is on the job, suspending work on new cancer treatments, vaccines and other preventative things in the name of making America healthy again.  Here is an article about taking a break from health care research.

The Hill has an article up about Steven Miller's desire to denaturalize and deport people who are naturalized citizens.  Based on my reading of the criteria for a person to lose citizenship, Elon Musk would be a prime target. 

Ok - that's it.

First World Issues

 It really is always something.  It's a first world problem for sure, but still a PITA.

This is the fresh water dispenser in the door of the freezer.  That's its last gasp before completely and totally dying.  I'm pretty sure the previous owner knew it was on its last legs, but neglected to mention it.  It's a big deal because water in Tucson is terrible.  Too many minerals, it just tastes awful.  So we're buying water until this is fixed.

This is something else (first world, again) I am really pissed about.  Previous owner graciously left the television.  It was an early flat screen, zero smarts, weighed a ton and was a pain to get off the wall mount.  Today we decided we would take the wall mount down and hang a piece of art to cover up the holes in the wall.

We got the really long lag bolts out of the wall, and the really long screws as well, and then expected to pull this horrible looking thing off the wall.  Nope, Jim hit it several times with a rubber mallet and it will not come loose.  I think they used industrial adhesive on it in addition to the hardware.  Other than cutting out the sheet rock, I have no idea how to get it gone.  So, the piece of art we bought is just slightly not wide enough to go over the ends of the mount, so more art must be acquired.  It's always something.  Fortunately, there is another wall that needs art to cover up the hole left by the sconce she removed to put her china cabinet close to the wall.  It will look nice over there.

We rode the bikes briefly today.  Jim had been feeling poorly, but half an hour on the bikes in the sun fixed him right up.  There is a lot of mental fatigue in the air, I have it, as well.  We haven't been off the bikes all that long, but fitness is noticeably decreased.

This is a local mountain in the morning.

And another in the afternoon.

So, that's all I am going to say about things. 

Trolling the Past

Things are not so good right now.  The orange giblet has appointed Pete Hegseth, formerly a captain in the army, and a Fox News talking head who famously said on camera that he never washes his hands, to be Secretary of Defense.  Marco Rubio, Secretary of State.  Homeland Security will have Kristi Noem, dog and goat murderer at the helm.  Matt Gaetz (formerly under consideration for expulsion from congress for trafficking underage girls) is up for Attorney General.  Tulsi Gabbard, a Russian spy, is up for Director of Intelligence.    Giblet will be releasing an Executive Order saying he can fire generals at will if they won't kiss the ring.  Last time's clown show will be seen as mild compared to this one.

In times of turmoil, it's nice to look at photos from better days.  When Costco got out of the photo business, they gave all of our photos to Shutterfly.  The only way I can seem to get a photo back from them is to do a screen shot.  This pisses me off somewhat.  Anyway, I found a couple that were good.

This is from sometime from the mid-1990s.  Jim and I hiked the Chiraco trail a lot.  It was a brutally difficult hike, all up hill.  Notice that Jim has blue legs.  He's wearing long underwear under his shorts.  That was the winter uniform.

This is me, also wearing long underwear.  I was not a natural blonde, ever.

This is the Hungarian Parliament building in Budapest, back before Orban.  That was a fabulous trip, we really liked it there.  This was taken early in the morning.

Here we are with sun.

The thing about traveling in Europe is the history that surrounds you of long wars, famine, the rise and fall of empires and all that.  People do survive, but often at a terrible cost.  It was not on my bingo card to participate in the fall of the US in my golden years.  I'd really like to give this a pass.  If you search on Budapest, you can see the entire trip.

In the past I really liked Christmas.  Not the religious aspect of it, but the fact that a person could go over the top with shiny things and lights.  I liked to buy three foot tall fake Christmas trees, string lights on them and then wire on Christmas ornaments.  They were beautiful.  That's a Department 56 house on the left, and my Santa guy.  I still have the Santa.  The rest went the way of  "free, come get it."  I believe that's the West Seattle house, where we lived for 10 years.

Notice the gift wrapping bottom right of the collage.  Shutterfly did the collage, I can't undo it. 

Today was exhausting.  Much of it was spent in the car in the north end of Tucson, trying to acquire stuff like a 12 inch skillet with lid (HomeGoods has many skillets, no lids), Target for Clinique moisturizer, and couple of more cereal bowls, Trader Joe's for macaroni and cheese, and just stuff.  We also got blood work done for the appointments with the doctor next week. 

The best thing we bought today was a frozen pizza so we did not have to go to the grocery store.

That's it, I'm done.

Progress on the House

Good grief we're tired.  I knew moving in to an empty house would be difficult, but I underestimated just how hard it would be.  For one thing the floors are tile, I think my feet and calves are not yet enjoying that surface.  We had tile at the Ten Star house without issues, so I'm hoping my extremities will quit complaining.  

Here is some non-specific complaining about things.  We're all familiar with the small plastic baskets that we put in drawers to keep stuff organized.  Do you think the two dollars stores down the street would carry those?  Nope.  That's a dollar store staple, at least it used to be. 

Furniture.   As I previously mentioned, we need two dressers.  We went to Ashley Furniture to see what they had.  They had a line on the internet that was MDF, not great stuff, but it holds the clothes up.  They will not assemble it.  It's made in Viet Nam, shipped in flat packs, and they will not assemble, even if you pay them.  What that tells me is that the holes for the cam locks don't line up and it's more trouble that it's worth.  All this for the princely sum of $800.  Even in the more expensive lines, you have to pay them to assemble it.  When did this happen?

So, I am now contemplating Craig's list and sources like that.  Our biggest problem is that we're old, we're not strong people anymore, so getting massive pieces of wood into the house is a problem.

I took these yesterday.  It actually hit 80F(26C).  

Those are Red Barrel cactus, I love the way they glow in the sun.

I could go on about the 47th president, but I think I'll just give it a rest.  OK, if you want some depressing reading from The New Republic, go here.

OK!  Back on our heads.

Bullhead City, AZ to Tucson, AZ

Hola!  We arrived yesterday.  The drive itself was not bad.  Roads were good, we made good time.  What totally and completely sucked was unloading the car and piling everything on the floor.  We have no dressers.  We have very few drawers in the kitchen.  I'm looking for a unicorn piece of furniture that will go adjacent to the kitchen that has drawers, and maybe a couple of shelves.  It was a long day.  I went to bed and basically passed out sitting up with my Kindle in my lap.

Today was also long.  The Xfinity guy showed up at 8:00 and got us connected.  It's weird, the previous owner had cable, but he was here quite a while pulling on cables and making the internet work.  One of the first times I called Xfinity about how this connecting would work, I was told to bring my modem, and just plug her in.  Nope, modems can not be moved across state lines, and our cabling was non-standard, to say the least.  Anyway, nice guy, speeds are better here than in Spokane.

So, Bullhead City to Tucson.  The first three days were cold.  The last day was slightly less cold but very windy.  Given this, I wore my Keens.  They were purchased for hiking, but the rocks around here are too much for their soles.  So, they've been in the closet for awhile.  They're not waterproof, but they're better than a Hoka with their mesh uppers.  So, here they are, the ugliest shoes I have ever owned.  But they don't hurt.

This was taken climbing out of Bullhead City on the way to Golden Valley.

I don't get motorcycle riding.  Why is it fun?  Yesterday was cold and very windy.  These people were certainly dressed for it, but what makes it fun?  I took this at the first gas station we hit in Wickenburg, and it was very crowded, and the motorcyclists were not helping congregating where they were.  However, gas in Wikiup was $2 a gallon more, so we didn't stop there.

This is a mural in Tucson, indicating that trees are the lungs of the world.  Too bad we're killing all of them so we can clear forests and grow more methane farting cows.

So, we're here.  We still need to get two dressers for the folded clothing, so I can get the space saver bags up off the floor, and we want a better looking table to go under the TV we bought today at Costco.  The jury is still out on whether or not we want to pay someone to put a mount on the wall, and hang the TV.  There is a hole in the wall from the previous convoluted TV/surround sound, but a large piece of art could make that go away.

This is from twitter.

According to twitter, the orange intestine is under the care of a doctor, and has not been seen or heard from for 24 hours.  I do wonder what would happen if he died tomorrow.  Would Vance slide in to the presidency?  How does that work?

I'm still considering how much I want to blog, complaining about the orange menace.  Maybe a couple of days off of recounting his latest outrage would be good.  I will say that on twitter, which is not always true, some of the MAGAts are realizing that their illegal parents will be deported, their naturalization may be undone, men are feeling more empowered than ever to assault women, and the ACA may be a gonner.  FAFO.

The Terrible Outcome

Like all of you, I am distraught.  We marinated in NPR on the road today, the hosts were analyzing what happened.  There were surprising shifts in voting patterns; Latinos, high school educated white guys, and some Black men shifted to the orange intestine.  Later analysis pointed out that orange had been on several bro dominated podcasts, courting young males.  He appeared on a stage with several imams, which encouraged Muslims to vote for him.  I can not fathom this at all, he's going to deport immigrants, he's already banned Muslims in his previous administration.  He's already said he won't accept Palestinian refugees and told Netanyahu to "finish the job."  How do people fall for this?  Women over 65 broke for Harris, we remember the before times.  

What is scaring me to death is if they actually cut Social Security and Medicare.  If they do, we're screwed.  Also what scares me is Elon Musk saying he's going to take three trillion dollars out of the budget, which will crash the economy, drive up prices for everyone (especially housing) and for two years things will be desperately bad.  RFKJr wants to get rid of vaccines, all of them.  Polio still exists in this world, finding an iron lung is virtually impossible, the manufacturers went out of business after the Salk vaccine.  Hey!  Bring back tetanus, whooping cough, all of it!  Good times.  It's still not known who will control the House, I really hope it's not the pubtards.  

If Elon manages to crash the economy in the first two years, I wonder if the mid-terms could do some correction on the House and Senate.  

This is what I wrote after Hilary lost.  It's still true.

 Well.  It feels like all of the air has been sucked out of the room.  I can not believe that man won.  I can't believe America hates women so much that they chose him over her.
Even if he's only a one term president, he's going to do some damage.  Ryan is already working on defunding the ACA.  The war on women is about to heat up again.  It will not surprise me if some forms of birth control are outlawed on his watch.
I am very, very angry at my fellow Americans who chose him.  It seemed like we were a better nation than this, but I was wrong. 

Stout heart, dear ones.

Spanish Fork to Bullhead City, AZ

Today was Spanish Fork, Utah to Bullhead City, Arizona.  It's the first time we've stayed here.  We're at a Holiday Inn Express, which appears to be fairly new.  So far, it's nice.  Lot's of vertical hard space to put stuff on, as opposed to the bed which conceivably might contain bed bugs.  Bathroom is adequate.  We have a view of the mountains in this room.  So far, we don't hate it.

Bullhead City is a long narrow strip of retail along the Colorado River.  Across the river is Laughlin, Nevada.  There are many casino hotels there.  People who live in Arizona don't have to drive as far as Las Vegas to waste their money gambling.  Oddly enough, the hotels there still allow smoking in their rooms.  I'm surprised there is a hotel here at all, given the proximity to Laughlin.

When one drives south, this time of year in the lower latitudes, the sun does not get high in the sky.  Depending on your direction, it starts out in your eyes, irradiates your chest, then migrates to just below the top of the window, where it shines brightly on the passenger's neck and head.  I am feeling rather cooked today.  Today was a lot of truck traffic.  Road surfaces were good.  Nevada has good roads, they spend their gambling money wisely.  The wind in Bullhead City is astonishing.

Here are photos.  This was taken shortly after we left the hotel.  Notice the lenticular clouds.  It was windy up there.

Somewhere in the Virgin River Gorge.

This is just before you get to Laughlin.  The hills in the distance always remind me of teeth.

Those are the Bullhead City suburbs up on the hill.  They are facing due west, so they get the hottest part of the day.  Bullhead City is one of the hottest places in the US.  Death Valley is hotter, but this is hot, too.
I can not imagine living there on that hillside.

So, tomorrow we are up and out to Tucson.

Ontario, Oregon to Spanish Fork, Utah

We're back in Spanish Fork, Utah.  We have been here before.  We're at the same Hampton Inn as last time.  We like this hotel.

Today was the day of the truck.  I have never seen so many 18 wheelers on the highway before.  We saw something that really creeped me out.  I thought traffic on the highway had stopped for construction.  After consideration, we decided that the stoppage was due to a gaper's block.  There was an trailer from a big rig on the other side of the jersey barrier.  Its tires had been peeled off the rims, and there was damage to the undercarriage.  It was very surreal.  Then we saw a Tahoe or other large sport utility vehicle on a landoll trailer, that looked like both doors on the driver's side had been bitten off, and the car body was crushed.  So that was unnerving.

The weather started out good, then got bad.  Just south of Salt Lake City, it was snowing heavily, but it was too warm to stick.  I hate driving in snow, just hate it.

Here are photos. We had some impressive clouds as well as some impressive wind.

I'm trying not to look at election results.  It's too soon to know anything, and it will just make me crazy.  

Tomorrow we are up and out for Bullhead City, Arizona.  Yep, that really is the name of the place.

Spokane to Ontario, Oregon

Today's weather just sucked.  Clouds in the trees, the road in the clouds in places, windy, wet, and cold.  Tomorrow night Spanish Fork is forecast to go into the 20's so all the drugs (prescription), Covid tests, and contact lenses have to come in so they don't freeze.  It makes me irritable to haul all of these things into the hotel, and then have to haul them back out.

I have had a major packing fail, my Clinique moisturizer and both our deoderants are in the cabinet where they always live, and not in the blue bag.  It's aggravating, I did so well on not forgetting stuff until I did.  Good thing it's cold, no one is sweating.

We are at the Holiday Inn Express.  It's not the worst place we've been.  The pros are, big room, lots of horizontal space for spreading out our multitudinous items.  Bathroom is large.  I do hate the shower head.  There is no good setting for the water flow, the shower curtain is not wide enough, so the floor is wet.  They're using a water softener; it's tough to feel really clean, softened water has a slimy feel.  The bathroom floor is not clean, our flip flops stick a little bit when we walk in there.  This hotel also charges the refundable $250 "deposit" in case you smoke in the room.  We don't smoke, but house keeping makes the call.  Once you're gone, good luck disputing that charge.  It's just aggravating.  We're on the freeway side of the hotel, I think if there is a next time I would request the other side of the building.  

We did better getting through Kenniwick, but we still messed up on an exit.  GPS sorted us out as soon as we realized we were not where we wanted to be.  Today's key learning was look at the GPS map prior to getting there, and know all of the places where one can go off track and don't do that.  We did have improvement today, I think we've run out of exits to miss.

Here are a couple of photos from today.  Photography was difficult due to the water on the windshield, and the phone camera's insistence on focusing on that, instead of outside.

Oil change and caffeine, everything you need, nothing you don't.

Snow in the area of Deadman's Pass.  It went away as we lost elevation.

Day one out of four is done, three more to go. 

Update to post:  We would not go back.  Even though I thought we were on the freeway side of the hotel, we weren't.  The truckers' Jake brakes woke us up a lot all through the night.  There was a lot of road noise.  Ontario is a grim little enclave, deep in the red part of Oregon.  We just did not like being there.