Mom to Ava and Hazel, partner to Dan. Commercial operations leader. Passionate about gardening. Likes a good policy debate. History nerd. Appreciates good design (my husband would say I tend to prioritize form over function...). Excited about this year, and about our national park system, America's "best idea" according to writer Wallace Stegnar.
This trip might best be summed up by our 26th President's father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr, who said... "Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster."
Here's to not being an oyster!
Judging from the avalanche of supportive calls, texts and comments my last post generated, I must have sounded alarmingly blue! In truth I was feeling pretty glum and am so grateful for the collective pick-me-up you all sent. Physician friends emailed to see if we needed a second opinion, one friend sent uplifting quotes from Shakespeare (followed by a...
You know the rest of the saying…when it rains, it pours. Or perhaps it would be more apt to say when it snows, hunker down for a blizzard. I was planning to write an Ava medical update today, instead I probably need a little space for a rant. Or as my dear friend Mary used to say, I need to have a little “come apart.” Because coming apart is pretty much how the...
It has been a long few days, but we are glad to report that Ava successfully made it through her first surgery yesterday. Her patella was well and truly smashed. It took 6 screws to put it back together which is remarkable because the bone is so small. I can’t imagine how tiny some of those screws are. We are grateful that Ava had a talented...
All publications, even excellent ones, are forced to publish the occasional correction or clarification. According to Ava, my article yesterday requires multiple corrections and clarifications. Here is the story, retold in Ava’s own words: Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. It’s not like I purposely ran into a tree!! And I don’t “let out blood curdling screams for trivial...
This trip has been amazing, maybe too amazing. It was probably time for Murphy’s Law to catch up with us. Unfortunately, Murphy arrived in the form of Ava skiing into a tree in Big Sky, Montana. Short story: nothing irreparable, we are very lucky; a broken patella (kneecap), broken nose and soft tissue damage to both knees. Longer story; our trip to Big Sky had...
The Channel Islands are a chain of 8 islands off the coast of southern California. The biggest ones, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, Santa Barbara and San Miguel are remnants of old California. Arid, scrubby mountains with grassy canyons and the tang of the Pacific in the air. Refreshingly void of both people and progress. No roads, hotels or...
Merry Christmas! Just a brief note to wish all of our “subscribers” a very Merry Christmas. We have been blessed in 2019 to take this trip and to have our friends and family – and folks we don’t even know – cheer us on. Especially blessed to spend Christmas on the Pacific Ocean with dear friends. We met Bekah Underwood (nee Ball) over 12 years ago in Ava’s first...
I am an east coast girl. I have lived most of my life east of the Mississippi and the two years I lived west of the Mississippi barely count as distance goes. Dan and I lived in Davenport, Iowa after business school. If I ever had a notion to scale our roof in Davenport, I would have seen the mighty Mississippi swirling by less than a half mile away. Technically...
It’s officially half-time. We have been on the road for 5 ½ months, halfway through an 11-month journey. I started this journey full of ambition. Ambition to reach a goal, ambition to do something big and something a little bit scary. Choosing not to work, choosing to leave a comfortable home. Choosing to leave friends and routine. I am a...
Thanksgiving is hands-down my favorite holiday. A day for giving thanks. Gratitude for the abundance I have been blessed with. A day for food and friends and family. We celebrate this Thanksgiving with our dear friends the Swygerts in Nashville. I am grateful for them on many levels, one of which is the ability to call them out of the...