Saying Bye-bye to Carson City

This will be our last post from Carson City. We’ve been here about three weeks, and it is time to move on. But while we have been here we’ve a had a wonderful time visiting our family; we’ve eaten too much, bought new tires for the Suzuki, done laundry three times at Kathie’s house, and Suzy made her famous chicken cacciatore for the whole group for tonight's dinner. We brought everything except the pans and the foil; Suzy has her own special group of spices and herbs she uses, as well as a comprehensive lineup of vegetables. The mix is different everytime (for example, this time she was a little short of onions).

There are a lot of vegetables to chop. Luckily, Suzy bought herself some of those "advertised on TV" slicing devices. Usually we are leery of the TV offers, but the two items she selected have been a real blessing for her. Look at the easy slicing of mushrooms -- she did two pounds of them this evening!



This was one of three big dishes of cacciatore tonight!

One evening just before we left Kathie's house, Sam laid out a short domino course on their pool table, and showed us how it worked.

Later that evening, Kathie sent us pictures of a larger course, including the completion, in which the dominoes sank six pool balls in their pockets! Neat!

In between all of this, Suzy got some good time to practice her piano.

She's playing "Bless the Beasts and the Children."

Our two daughters got together and bought Suzy some music from “our era” (John Denver, Carpenters, Neil Diamond) plus Suzy’s old favorites Claire de Lune and Autumn Leaves. Reason? Well, Suzy wants to get back to playing the piano, and the girls insist on having a sing-along when we all get together for Debbie’s 50th birthday celebration this August. Suzy will have a little more practice time when we stop at Debbie’s house over the July 4 holiday.

The piano at Kathie's house is one we bought for Suzy a few years before we retired, as we would not ask Deb to give up the Baldwin. Then when we retired, Kathie hung on to this one. She and son Sam both began to take piano lessons, and we weren't going to stifle that adventure! Now we have a piano available in three states!

Deb has Suzy’s old piano in her apartment. Suzy grew up on that piano, and the instrument has had a bunch of travels in its time. I first met that Baldwin Acrosonic in her home in San Francisco. After her family split up, we bounced that piano down a steep staircase (with a 180 degree turn at a landing) then down the front steps of the building and into a pickup truck to get it to my parent’s home in San Lorenzo, CA. Since that day in 1959, the piano has moved fully 20 times that we can count, maybe more.

We were planning to pull out of Carson City Thursday, but impending storms advised us to hold off a day. Our route to Pollock Pines takes us up Highway 88, then across Highway 89 a short distance through Luther Pass, then down US 50 on the western slope of the Sierra. And that whole area is where Thursday’s storms are predicted. So Thursday will be a preparation day. One major job will be to move Rosie down to the Les Schwab store where we bought her six new tires in 2007. There is a slow leak in one tire, and we want the other tires inspected.

From Les Schwab, we’ll take Rosie and the Suzuki to Costco to fill up on gas (using the cash card we got when we took back the damaged BBQ grill). The car will also go to Costco’s tire center to snug up the lug nuts (a good practice whenever buying new tires).

As part of getting ready for the coming trip, as well as the entire road back to Benson, we got the grandmother clock packed and secured. She should ride there comfortably for the three months!

And so goodnight, after another wonderful day in ... Our Life on Wheels. See you next time from California.