Big News

My beautiful kitchen at home in Lead

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting on getting some specific events to happen, and that has kind of put my life on hold. But now things are in motion and I figure I can make a big announcement.

I'll be moving ... again, but I hope for the last time until I have to move into a protected community of some kind, IF I ever have to do that.

I don't want to have to write up the tale of all the woes and intrigues involving my condominium in the Black Hills. the story begins when I first bought the place in 2004. It was all about the original owner / developer who turned out to be a person who lies about things and proved to be incompetent about what he needed to do. All the unit owners were often in despair over his actions, but we did comfort ourselves with the thought that he was old enough and in poor health and we knew we would all outlive him.

Which we did.

My cozy bedroom with the tropical theme

But when the dust settled, we ended up living in a building that was owned by a bank and was falling apart due to neglect. A competent buyer / developer was found, but for some reason the process of purchasing the property has taken more than a year

At first I was in a panic because I had just finally moved into this place for good, having given up my second home in another city. I just kind of went to pieces saying "I just can't move again!!!!!!!!" But I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that indeed I could move again, and in fact, moving would be a good thing. I could use more space. This makes more sense than having two homes in two locations like I had had when I lived in Salt Lake and was thinking about again. I could do something new, have new adventures in a different place, reinvent myself.

Suddenly the whole USA was open to me because I'm retired. I didn't have to consider the location of a job in order to select the location of a home. I could move anywhere I wanted. ( I guess I could have also considered other countries too, but I did not.) Where would I go? How would I choose?

As you do, I made a list of what I was looking for in a place to live. Here's what ended up on the list.

• reasonable real estate prices and cost of living
• four seasons but without a real long, severe winter; also not a lot of dreary rain
• not a huge city or a suburb of a huge city
• property to buy available now
• opportunities for volunteer work that I want to do
• no farther away from my brother and his family than I already am
• interesting things to do, places in visit, in the town & region
• easy access to a major airport
• cultural  and community opportunities
• opportunities for life long learning
• good community recreation
• good restaurants and reasonable shopping
• easy to get around in
• someplace I have been and have a feel for and have friends who live there now

Ahh, the coast of California!
Just for visiting, not for living at.

Right away I eliminated one of my favorite places in the US - California. I love California and intend to keep visiting it again and again, but it just did not meet enough criteria, especially the ones about costs, cities, distance from the family and easy to get around in. I also cut out the entire southern US, the whole east coast, Oregon and Washington, and of course Hawaii and Alaska. But that left me the whole intermountain west and midwest, a pretty large chunk of the country.

Next round had me x'ing off Minnesota, even though I know it well, my niece lives there, I have friends there, and I do like the Twin Cities. Biggest reason is the severe winters, and I really did not want to move to the greater Twin Cities. Places that were never in the running included North Dakota, Iowa and Indiana. I flirted with Ohio where I lived once and also have friends, but I decided no there too.  Low on the list but still in the next to the finals were Montana and Wyoming.

So here's the final list (not in any order):

• Colorado, especially the northern part like Ft. Collins - Boulder
• Salt Lake City
• Prescott Arizona
• Sioux Falls South Dakota
• Grand Rapids Michigan or smaller cities in Michigan
• various places in Wisconsin especially Madison
• Boise Idaho
• Rockford Illinois, my hometown

And then it was perfectly clear. My new old home would be Rockford, my home for better or for worse. No place is perfect. Nothing meets all the criteria, but Rockford has some things that give it bonus points to make up for some of the minus ones.

The Guardians of the Rock River will be looking after me again.

Obviously Rockford is close to my brother ... he still lives there. I know it well, or as well as one can what with being only a visitor for 50 years. But still I have been visiting faithfully for 50 years.

Rockford has very easy access to O'Hare airport. Enough said about that. The weather.....well, not the best of all the places I might could live, but the autumn is to die for, and winters are not as hard or as long as in places like Minnesota. And it does not rain like in Seattle. Summers can be very hot and muggy with humidity, but finally I'll have a/c.

Very importantly Rockford has the kind of property I want at good prices. Salt Lake City area, for example, did not have the kind of places I want AND prices there are rising.

I want one level living, 1-2 bedrooms, but with a basement for storage and a studio. (And a garage of course). I want it to be a duplex or townhouse with a homeowners association that will take care of ALL the outside work. I won't have a large garden, but I also will never have to shovel snow or rake leaves or cut grass. Rockford has property like that, and because the economy there is still in the failed rust belt mode, prices are still reasonable.

New and improved conservatory 

Rockford has good lifelong learning via the community college. It has excellent public recreation. I'm especially looking forward to being able to take walks along the river with some regularity. The YMCA is fabulous, now has several newly built locations, and has a whole lot of water exercise classes. There are festivals and community events all the time.

I'm dying to sign up as a volunteer at Anderson Japanese Gardens as well as the other public garden, Klem Arboretum. I could see myself as a docent at the Laurent House and as an usher at the historic Coronado Theater. And I can volunteer at all kinds of festivals and events.

The region is just a wealth of opportunities to explore. Let's start with Chicago itself. I really don't know Chicago very well, but I sure as heck intend to learn about it and get comfortable there. Next spring I think I'll head right to St. Louis to see its' world class botanic garden. I want to really get to know Madison well along with other places in Wisconsin. I intend to explore Michigan. My best friend from high school who lives in Grand Rapids and I already have our alternative 50th high school anniversary pencilled in for next summer. I can take a special train trip from Chicago to Glacier National Park and stay in one of the historic hotels there. I can get to another really important friend in Cleveland easily.

Having easy access to O'Hare will open up the whole world also. O'Hare has direct flights at reasonable costs for that kind of thing to just about every where.

And chances are I will not have to be alone on holidays or birthdays and family gatherings ever again. I can also regularly visit the cemetery where Mom & Dad rest and put out flowers and things like that.

But I'm excited and happy and looking forward to this new chapter. I'l keep you informed along the way.

Sock Monkey wasn't living with me at this time.
But I'll get his picture with his big cousin soon.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Roadside Attractions

Carhenge, because...why not?

You all probably know that the US is just fun of odd places to visit and mostly just look at. There's more than one within a day's drive of where I live now. I've decided I need to finally just literally go the extra mile and visit a few of them, so here goes.

I Just Have to Say

We have a different kind of beauty out here in flyover country.

I listen to podcasts fairly often these days. There is one that I like, an accomplished woman who interviews other accomplished women. I don't want to tell you her name or the name of her podcast because if you listen to her, I don't want to color your listening pleasure. On the whole, I do enjoy what she and her guests have to say. Otherwise I wouldn't continue to listen.

Smokey Rose Interlude

Two large "bullet" holes and lots of complete cracks

I don't know how well the picture shows my poor car windshield, but the whole thing is just toast right now. We had a large, violent, sudden and short hailstorm on June 29. Lots and lots of hail damage to vehicles and buildings. Insurance adjusters are living in all the extended stay hotels, and of course, fly-by-night people have moved in too, offering to fix you whatever right now for cash and....

I'm Still Here

Tru Hotels feature murals like this showing the location
Notice the cool looking couches and little tables.
Notice that the Salt Lake mural features beer!

End of April! That's to long to stay silent. But as I think about things to write about I keep coming up empty.

I did spend nine days in May back in Salt Lake. I wanted to keep up being a volunteer at Red Butte Garden. 2017 was my tenth year. I'm aiming for 20 now just like for Sundance. So I did an intensive week+ of volunteering, and put in enough hours to qualify for another annual membership for 2019.

The Blue Lady Travels to a Blue Land: Seattle, Washington

On a clear day, you CAN see Mt. Baker

I'm starting with this photo which my friend sent to me a day ago in order to say, 'See, the sun actually DOES shine here....at least sometime." I'm sure that is true. I did see a bit of the sun and the blue sky while I was in the greater Seattle area recently. But mostly it looked like this:

View of downtown Seattle from the Bainbridge Island Ferry

Spring! It's supposed to be spring! or April IS the Cruelest Month

Courtesy of my friend Marian.

This is about all I have to say!

I Just have to Say .... February is a Terrible Month

February looks like this.

This post is going to be short. All I need to say is that now it's March, and that means I have lived through another February. Thank goodness.

Sundance Film Festival 2018 - The Story Lives in You

It's that time of year again. Or rather that time of year is finished for another year. I did go back to Salt Lake and volunteered the whole festival for the 11th year. I found out if you get to 20, you get a personal letter from Robert Redford himself. I hope he stays healthy because that's my new life goal.

Here's a little video to get you all in the mood.

You'll need a film list or guide to make sense of the titles. Here's the official one. But honestly the app  for your smart phone has a lot more information. You can download it for free from where ever you get those things.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Things We Do In South Dakota, Part 2, Festivals of Trees

One of the corridors at the state capital building this year.
A tree for breast cancer people on the left.

I never realized how much of a "thing"  a "Festival of Trees" is until I lived in South Dakota. I imagine lots of places have them, although I do not recall actually attending any except in SoDak. But here, they really are something. Every little place seemed to have one this December, and it's clear these things are traditions in all those towns and cities.

At home in Lead I was an usher more than once for our festival, held at the Historic Homestake Opera House (HHOH) as one of their regular fund raisers for the place. The Opera House was one of many civic buildings originally built by the Homestake Mine Company to improve the daily lives of the miners and their families.

Restored Opera House entrance plaza.
The spaces on the left used to house the pool and recreation areas.
Now they are offices and an art gallery owned by the local Arts Council.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Things We do in South Dakota, part 1

Sock Monkey was so impressed with Dignity

Wow! Two months since I last wrote. I've been thinking about needing to do another post soon, but you know how it goes. One thing after another after another, and next a whole season is gone.

Part of what I did in the fall was to travel, and that's what I plan to write about. I have several posts in my my mind, but let's start with this one which involves two different trips, with stop-offs in places well known in South Dakota.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Historic Hotels in Billings and Buffalo

Cody Wyoming is a gateway to Yellowstone

THE ORIGINAL PLAN

I had this idea to take a four day trip out to Cody Wyoming and back. Cody is a nice town, not far from Yellowstone. I went through there on my trip to Yellowstone, but didn't stop to check it out. I was thinking that 2 nights and a full day might be a good idea. They have both a yarn shop and a couple of breweries there, and the trip goes through the very scenic Big Horn Mountains.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: North Dakota, Because it is There

September turned out to be a month a lot like April-May of this year. I started doing some short trips and just kept going. And I'm not done yet because I'll be heading home to Illinois in a few days while it is still September.

One of my water exercise lady friends found a great cat sitter for me. Ms Jean is a retired school teacher who lives in town, has several pets herself and was up for the gig. She has lived here all her life and drives a Jeep. She told me not to worry at all if the weather should turn bad while I am away (which I'm sure it will some days); she's on it and has a lifetime of experience, plus that Jeep, that will get her out and about no matter what. OK then.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: South Dakota and Beyond

Smokey Rose knew right away how to get comfy in our
Black Hills home.

Smokey Rose and I are now living in our home in the Black Hills. We no longer have a place in Salt lake, just this little condo of ours. We arrived here around July 1 and spent most of July "moving in." Of course this place was fully furnished and all, but I brought with a carload and a pickup truck load of boxes of things that had to be integrated with everything that was already here. A lot of it was clothes, books and craft supplies. There were also some kitchen things, a bit of artwork and some misc things plus stuff like food, cleaning supplies, other consumables such as office supplies. We are mostly done except for the boxes with papers in them. That can wait to be sorted through until a rainy or snowy day comes along.

The Blue Lady Travels "Home" to Chicago

So many interesting buildings in Chicago!
You tell me what we have here. I don't know.

My last two short trips before I left Utah were to big cities, Chicago and Denver. I went to both for kind of business reasons, but did my best to enjoy each. I didn't succeed in doing everything that I had in mind, but both trips had real highlights.

Chicago was first, in order to attend the annual meeting of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, my professional tribe for my lifetime. I became a lifetime member this year even because they put in a special category for us retired folks. Several people have asked why do I want to keep going to work related things now that I'm retired? Well, midwifery is, for me anyway, am identity or a calling, not just work that I did. I'll probably never practice midwifery again, but I am a midwife until the day I die.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: Le Tour d'Idaho

Idaho is a good place to visit!

Idaho is an underrated state, I think. I mean what does anybody know about it besides famous potatoes and white supremacists, if you're old enough? It's shaped funnily what with that real skinny part at the top which seems like all it does is to separate Montana from Washington for no apparent reason. I imagine that if you drive it through the pan handle from Montana to Washington, Idaho must be a big yawn. Or a tiny blink. "Oh, did we just go through another state? I guess we did. Oh well."

But Idaho is right on top of Utah, and people from Utah go there from time to time, not just when they are driving through to Oregon or Washington. Fly fisher people know it as a kind of paradise. It has more natural hot springs than any other state (who knew?).

And they say that Boise is "the new Asheville".... or that Boise is a trendy place to live now that all the other places are "filled up" and maybe even "spoiled." Like Prescott Arizona, Boise shows up regularly now on lists of good places to live for a variety of reasons.

So a visit to Boise and therefore surrounding areas in Idaho has been on my list for some time now. Time was getting short in Utah for me, and I just decided to do it NOW. I told my knitting friends of my plans. Two originally signed on to go with, but one cancelled, so it ended up being my friend J and I taking this trip. J drove her car which was fine with me.

The Blue Lady Travels to a Blue Land

This time we did not see any orange groves.

California! Yes! I love California!

It began years ago when my friend at Red Butte Garden who used to  live in southern California told me about The Huntington Gardens and Museums. L. lyrically described the gardens and insisted that I must go there and see for myself. I was convinced; the only question was when.

The Blue Lady Travels to Meet Some of Her Tribe at The March For Science

The president was in residence on Earth Day.
He tweeted something about loving our wonderful rivers and things like that,
and went to Walter Reed to present a Purple Heart to someone.
BTW, the garden is protected. It's under the care of the
National Park Service.

As soon as I heard it was going to happen, I knew I wanted to go. A March FOR Science on Earth Day in Washington DC. I did not make arrangements to go to the Women's March the day after the inauguration. I would have liked that, so I felt the need to do something similar at some other time. Bingo! Let's go to DC in April. I got a plane ticket and a hotel immediately.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands - A Tiny Vacation to Dinosaur Land

Got myself some fine new luggage mostly from Target,
pretty and just the right sizes,
so Sock Monkey & I can start to hit the road together.

I'm ready to get out of town again. This was the first of several upcoming short trips to a number of places. This time it was a driving trip in my little green car with my friend Jan Mi. We went east up into the Uintah Mountains to the small city of Vernal. We left on Saturday and returned on Sunday. The reason for the trip now was to attend the annual spring concert of the Uintah Basin Orchestra and Chorus. Two members of the Z family, who are friends of ours, were playing and singing.

The Blue Lady Travels in the Red Lands: A Short Trip to Kansas City

Sorry, but I did not actually see any real fountains on this trip

Randy, my former TIAA advisor, told me, that in his experience, new retirees do a fair amount of traveling at first, and then kind of get tired of it and settle in someplace for the long haul. So be it. Right now I'm just barely into the "early travel phase."   I have quite a few trips planned in the next months. And lots of ideas for where to go after these already arranged excursions. I'll write about them as they happen.