Good news for Caryl

A quick update regarding Caryl's breast cancer. This past Monday she went in for additional surgery to determine if the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. Final report from the oncologist was a resounding NO - YEAH !!!!! This means she can opt for the short ( 5 day) localized radiation treatment, and be on her way to a full recovery. Thanks to all who have been keeping up with this, and for your support and prayers for Caryl.

July vacation (con't)

The rest of the week was spent hiking on Tuesday and Thursday. plus a day of learning to fly fish in the middle on Wednesday. Caryl even decided to give it a shot, and what a hoot! As you can see, we did not have to go looking for local fauna, as it gave us a number of shots by wandering on the property.

Finally, we had to start back home, and spent a few hours on Friday at the Royal Gorge, home of the world's highest suspension bridge. I HAD to drive over the bridge to complete the experience! After that, it was on to Durango, CO, to spend the night. The next day, we stopped at 4 Corners (aptly named as you can stand in 4 states at once) for our final tourist stop, and a little shopping from the local native Indian artists. We had to fill up with gas in Flagstaff, and got one last taste of cool weather as it was rainy and cool there, much unlike the hot weather that awaited us as we reluctantly exited the truck a couple of hours later in Phoenix!

July vacation

Well, I am a little late getting started on this, but will catch up tonight. It has been a fun adventure so far, and getting out of the AZ heat is good enough. The only downturn so far is that Coco (the dog) seems to have developed a stomach problem, if you will. Hopefully after a vet trip tomorrow, she will be fine until I can get home and look after her.


As for us, it has been a neat adventure so far. We left AZ on Friday and go to take in the upper Salt River Canyon, with it's cool streams and desert flora. Caryl was oh-so-happy to be able to dip her feet into a cool mountain stream! then we stopped at the VLA (Very Large Array) outside of Socorro, NM, to take in the sites of one of the world's larges radio astronomy sites. There are some very smart people doing this stuff ! After that it was a little dinner and on to Albuquerque for the night. The cool morning weather the next day made it difficult to leave, but we knew we had to press on! All that driving was worth it, as we made our way late on Saturday into the little mountain town of Estes Park, CO.

Sunday brought a relaxing day of walking their little downtown area, and we were not alone. The summer weekends bring herds of people to get out of the heat and play in the mountains.


On Monday, we set out for a ride through the Rocky Mountain National Forest, truly a site not to be missed. Not only did we get to see magnificent mountain ranges, but got to see some local fauna in the form of elk and marmot. No moose yet, but we are still hoping!

Happy 4th of July!

Well another July 4 is here, and I hope this finds everyone out there well, and enjoying a good day of BBQ and fireworks. I was supposed to have to work today, but that got moved back to yesterday, so I get the day off to enjoy as well. It will be spent watching racing and a little BBQ here as well. If the monsoon storms do not rain it out, we will try to catch some evening fireworks here in the valley.


Last weekend was my only 2 days off in a row this month, so I did some catching up on the 'to do list' around the house. Then Saturday Caryl and I went to an ice cream social sponsored by my local Mustang club - yum yum ! This was followed by us taking some chairs and going to an outdoor shopping mall a mile from the house and listening to some live music by the Groove Merchants. It was a nice, albeit hot night, but we settled in with a bottle of wine, and the breeze after dark made it easily bearable. As this band is one of Caryl's favorites, she was quite happy to put up with the heat for a few hours outdoors!

Speaking of Caryl, a note concerning her. She went in for a lumpectomy 2 weeks ago, and this week we found out it was, in fact, cancerous. The good news it was only stage 1-2, so with some radiation therapy she will hopefully be good as new in several months. I will continue to update as we know more.