The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands. She Visits New Mexico and Utah Places where the Ancestors Hung Out

After 4 days in the big city, time to head home

After Albuquerque I stopped at two places in New Mexico the first day and one in Utah the second. I deliberately decided not to attempt Chaco Culture because I read on the website about how difficult it is to drive there. I knew my car was up to the task, and it had not rained for some time so the road would have been dry. But I thought about whether or not I really wanted to drive over 70 miles round trip on dirt washboard roads, and decided, nah, not this time. I'll see if sometime I can't find a guided tour group that takes you there in a bus or van.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands. She Visits Some Places Where the Ancestors Used to Live in Arizona

Flagstaff claims three national monuments within its radar.

First of all, I had no idea how many places there are where you can spend time checking out ruins of the places that the pre-Columbian people of the Four Corners region built. I know about Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon (where I have not yet been, but I will get there!) But it turns out there are many, many places protected by the federal government, state governments, tribes and sometimes no one at all.

The Blue Lady Decides She Needs to Tend Her Own Garden

So far it's ok, but look what's coming.

I can't fix it. I can only watch what unfolds as time passes. I'm willing to suspend judgment for the time being and wait. So far nothing bad has actually happened. President Obama is still in charge.

I plan to continue to be nice and polite to all individuals who cross my path as I always try to be. I am assuming I will receive politeness back. If I don't well....we'll just see what people actually do and figure it out then.

The Blue Lady Must Live in the Red Land

I am feeling like I have been thrown to the bottom
of a place like this. I don't know
how to climb out.

It's 0200 on November 9, 2016. I cannot sleep tonight, so I am up writing some of my thoughts at this unseemly hour. Obviously this election of yesterday did not turn out the way I had hoped it would. My beloved Cubbies won the world series, but the other team lost.

I will do what I expected of either candidate. I will be gracious in defeat. The results are what they are. I will not fight against that. I will not wish ill upon our new leaders. I will only be angry with my neighbors and fellow citizens for a short time. I refuse not to be optimistic in the long run.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: She makes a Plan for a Road Trip

We had a long and glorious autumn this year.
This scene is driving up Cedar Canyon in southern Utah.
The colors were just shimmering which the photo can't show.

In early October I took my first big retirment trip. I took a road trip through northern Arizona, north western New Mexico and southern Utah that lasted 12 days. If I had just been moving the whole time, I probably would not have taken 12 days, but the kernal that began the trip was an accreditation site visit at the College of Nursing at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Nowhere Special. She Always Wanted to Go There

A road to Nowhere Special

No doubt every part of the country has plenty of Nowhere Special places. I know the intermountain west is riddled with ghost towns, micro-towns, failed towns and all kinds of other places like that. A couple of days before I left the Hills the autumn weather was just perfect. I decided to just get in the car and drive in the Black Hills along some roads I never or seldom take to see a couple of Nowhere Specials.

Quick Notes about Being Retired ..... Comfort is Queen

Smokey Rose helps me knit non-fashionable things

Did you happen to hear the NPR interview with Tim Gunn or maybe read the newspaper article on which it was based? It's all about how the fashion industry has abandoned plus sized women, which Mr. Gunn called disgraceful. Thank you, Mr. Gunn for saying it so eloquently.

I do recognize that whether I want it or not, the fashion industry does effect my clothing life in many ways. Like how the Meryl Streep character explained in the film "The Devil Wears Prada"..... for example, I can only buy certain colors at any given time because the powers that be have decided something or another about colors.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: The Next Buffalo

View of an edge of the Big Horn Mountains

Thursday dawned bright and sunny after a few days of cold & rain. I woke up and decided to do something that is not what people in the east do. I just wanted to take off driving for a couple of hundred miles to see what I could see.  So I did. I lit out for the territory.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Northeast Wyoming Road Trip 1

Wyoming has excellent Welcome Centers

I have to say I love Wyoming. It's right next door to both Utah and South Dakota, and when I drive from one to the other it's pretty much all Wyoming all the time.

I Really AM Retired Now

Photo by my friend Marian K.

One thing I have learned about retirement is that I no longer have much of a schedule that matters. Most things can be done tomorrow, or another tomorrow, or when I get around to it. Like writing a new blog post. It's been on the list of things to do one day soon, But, as you can see, soon did not come around real quickly.

The other thing I have found is that retirement is looking to be good for my health. One thing that tended to keep me from doing things like exercising and eating well while I was working, was time.  Time that I either did not have at all or that I did not want to spend on doing things like exercising or eating well.

The Blue Lady Is Feeling It

I AM FEELING LIKE I AM RETIRED!

Technically I am not yet there. The official day is June 30. There are still a few chores to do. Last week at this time I was not yet there emotionally. I wrote a draft blog that was nothing more than a  list of chores accomplished and chores yet to be done.

I stil have to take all the boxes home from my office.

But today, right now? Yes, ma'm. I am a retired lady now.

The Blue Lady Thinks about the Midwest

This picture has little or nothing to do with this blog post.
But isn't it a great picture?
We had lost of fun in Brownies.

The air is bad here in SLC a lot lately. It does that in the winter. This kind of gray overcast sky always makes me feel weary and dreary. I feel a lot like just throwing some stuff in the car and taking off for points south right now.

Retirement Planning - Part III - Places

 I am pretty sure I will not stay in SLC as my winter home for more than a couple of years after I quit working. But if I were to move away, where would I go? What am I looking for in a new place?

I need some criteria!

The Blue Lady Contemplates What the Next Couple of Years Year Will Hold

Jul is over, and soon New Year's will old hat. I performed taiko again at the Salt Palace on New Years Eve, and on New Years Day I joined some friends for knitting. I'm already tired of the whole Christmas thing....sooooo glad it is over for another year.