Texas

[Kyle]Next up on the big, ol' list was a visit to my sister Cori and her partner Shawn, who live in the greater Houston area. To be perfectly honest, Houston is not my favorite. I've spent enough time living and working there to be assured of my conviction.

That being said, Cori does not live or work in any of the parts of Houston that I did, so her experience may differ. In fact, I would dare say her region is "nice adjacent" because I am a curmudgeon and I will never admit to liking any part of Houston - ever.

On route we stopped in San Antonio, home of The Alamo, but we just slept in a hotel for our visit, and then carried on driving, no sightseeing. On route to San Antonio we shared the road with several giant wind turbine blades being delivered.

On the second (and shorter) day of driving Cori had suggested we should DEFINITELY stop at a Buc-ee's (a convenience store/gas station stop). Hmm, Isn't one like any other? No - Buc-ee's is crazy - huge, has art in the bathrooms, has grocery-store-like deli counters and makes pulled pork (and other) sandwiches - fresh - in front of the customers - it sells t-shirts, Christmas ornaments, beer and a million other things as well as the obvious coffee and gas/petrol.

Buc-ee's

Working in favor of visiting Houston (aside from Cori), was that it was the week in November when the weather there is pleasant (There is another one in February). Cori's house seems normal enough from the road. Once inside, though, it went on and on so far that I could barely even see the back wall. This is the standard Texas way of dealing with the heat - enclose the entire (or almost entire) property with a house as a way of air conditioning your land. Then put the badminton court on the inside next to the miniature golf course. After an extensive tour, we were showed the UPSTAIRS! Holy moly!

Not only is their giant house big, but it is filled with technology. While suckers like me and Maryanne are bumping our way around looking for light switches or ceiling fan controls, Cori and Shawn just amble through, telling their house to do their bidding for them.

That is the upside. The downside is that since their house is too big to see all at once, it helpfully keeps them informed of any activity in it's nether regions. This means that every time we opened a window or ventured too close to an exit, the house would ring a helpful little bell. This wasn't a problem in the daytime, but it made a stealthy run to the kitchen for a midnight glass of water impossible. After a lovely evening soak in their jacuzzi with them, their dryer dropped a dime on me by sending Shawn an email when I put our towels in to dry.

We had a great time, including a trip to a local park and to see Cori's workplace. We played games with virtual reality goggles (our first time), ate well, and hung out in the hot tub!

Cori, we already knew, but for both of us it was our first time meeting Shawn. I liked him immediately. Despite being a pretty physically imposing guy who could have easily skated through life on his brawn alone, he is inquisitive, intelligent and very self-aware. He is an interesting guy who can carry on an entertaining conversation about almost anything, even if his house sometimes doesn't get the joke and starts lighting up like a disco. At least I didn't wake in the middle of the night to find it holding a pillow over my face and saying, "Shhhh, shhhh… sleep!"

Phoenix, Arizona

[Kyle]Once we got clear of LA traffic, we had a short four-hour drive to Phoenix to see the best two friends my mom ever had: Scott and Robin.

The blur of scnery as we move from California to Arizona

We stayed and spent the bulk of our time with Robin. She lives in the same development as Mom and spent the most time with her over the last few years, helping her to expand her business along the way. She was also the one who was taking care of Mom when she died. When we first saw her, I hugged her so hard that she winced. Oops! Sorry, Robin.

Robin gets a version of our travels from Kyle, and her lovely pup Dougie keeps us all with a smile on our faces

It was so nice to be in her company again. So many of the times we have stayed at Mom's, Robin was also there for a good portion of the time. She's really part of the family for us.

We took a trip to the Capitol building to explore a little of Arizona's history

Since Robin's house is on the other side of the same neighborhood as Mom's, where we visited so often and even spent a couple of whole winters living, everything is very familiar. Walking Robin's dog, Dougie, on my old running route, it felt at times like I was just taking a week off of work for another visit again.

Of course, not everything was the same. My route took us past Mom's old house. It looks pretty much the same, except the trees are a little bit taller. The first time I went by it, the glow of the lights inside made me feel like I was my usual ten seconds from the big hug and warm welcome I always got every time I came up the path.

Things are different now. The house belongs to somebody else, so I just had a long look and kept on walking, but I still can't shake the feeling every time I see it.

Mom's other great friend and mentor, Scott, is a busy man, but he and his partner Fred carved out some time for us.

I can't say enough good things about Scott. He's absolutely brilliant at what he does and is a paragon of fairness and integrity. Plus, he's just really great company. It's easy to see why Mom loved him so much. Fred is pretty good, too. Hey, Fred.

I don't share the same interest in the finer details of precious antiques as Mom did with Scott, although it was hard not to with her infectious enthusiasm, but I'd like to think that if there were a parallel universe where Maryanne and I could live down the street from him and Fred, we would all be great friends. Time spent with them is always such fun. It's hard to leave and let them get back to their busy lives.

We got a few overdue errands done in the ol' neighborhood and managed also to do a few touristy things during our brief stay. Then, it seemed like it was already time to be leaving. We often spent weeks or even months at a time in Phoenix in the past. That made this time feel like we had just breezed in and then breezed right out before we had a chance to settle in. Going all over the world is great and all, but sometimes it can just seem way too big.

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Anchorage location >> On google maps

More California

[Kyle]From Santa Cruz, we drove south to Altadena (in Norther Los Angeles), home to our friends Issy and Warren. Maryanne has seen them since (most recently in 2015), but the last time I saw them was at our own wedding just a little tiny bit ago (2003).

The Skidmores and Maryanne both moved from Scotland to the USA around the same time - and all were at each others weddings on either side of the Atlantic and the timeframe that brackets that move (Photo credit:Unkown)

They since have raised two fully grown daughters, which is incomprehensible. Warren is an astrophysicist, while Isabelle manages all things down-to-earth. Warren tried to explain to me how time works, but I think it may have gone over my head a bit. All I know is that for some reason, there seemed to be six fully-grown humans wandering around in their house.

Anyway, the whole family is lovely. Issy and Warren we already knew about, but their brand-new daughters are smarter, kinder and friendlier than any teenagers I have ever met.

We only had a day and a half with them all, and the time just flew by with plenty of laughs, reminiscing, catching-up, and a whole host of interesting conversation. One evening during our visit Warren set up his (much smaller) telescope so we could catch an amazing view of the cloud bands on Jupiter.

As a bonus while in the area we all went out to lunch with Connor, a small-boat, solo, sailor who was (back in 2019) in the same general group as us when sailing from New Caledonia to Australia (You can check out some of his arcticles in Sail Magazine). We haven't seen him since. He is a really interesting guy, and also with a space and science background/career, so we all had a lot to talk about.

We were so happy our giant road trip gave us the chance to meet up with Issy and Warren and family. A quick lumch with fellow Pacific Ocean sailor, Connor, was an extra bonus (Photo credits to the Skidmores)

Warren is an all-around Action Man figure who met Maryanne when they were both club SCUBA instructors at the University of St. Andrews. Now we assume he does differential equations while fighting crime (actually he has spent much of his career resarching sites across the globe for really big telecsopes, and a lot of time doing local citizen outreach for science generally).

It felt like the whole stay was over in an hour (Warren can explain it) and we left way before we were really ready to go.

On the morning of our depature, we were itching to get into all the LA rush hour traffic we have been hearing about. It was everything we could have hoped for, although we didn't see any gun-waving. All the time we left at the house was waiting for us there. The first hour took two hours. The second took three, and strangely, the third changed units and took six quarts. Technically, we are still out there and expect to be at our next stop yesterday... Warren can explain it.

Some Special Time for the Webb Brothers

ma[Kyle]From Lake Tahoe we hit the road again. This time we were heading to Mendocino, California, where we would share a rented AirBnB with my brother, Darren (last seen over Christmas of 2016). At the last big town on the way, Maryanne popped into a grocery store to pick up some food for the stay. While she did that, I couldn't help myself going to the car wash, where I emptied the contents of the car onto the curb, spent a pocketful of quarters on the vacuum, reloaded everything and then topped it all off by having our Montana dust collection washed off. That's better! If it weren't for the one shredded back seat (from our recent bear encounter), it felt like we had a new car again.

Once we arrived in Mendocino - we had 30 mins to enjoy the local beach before our accomodation was ready. So California.

Our reason for going to Mendocino was that it was Mom's favorite town in California and she had requested her ashes be scattered among the redwoods, of which there are many great groves in this beautiful area.

As soon as we saw our accommodation, I had to reluctantly admit to Maryanne that she had redeemed herself after that dodgy Tahoe place. It was big and airy, with a giant kitchen, a wood stove and even a hot tub. Darren showed up a bit late. He swore it was traffic and not that he forgot Mom (he hadn't).

The next day, Maryanne stayed behind cooking while Darren and I went off to the redwoods. I thought this part would be straightforward, but then I suddenly felt the pressure of trying to find the very best spot in the forest for Mom. Darren and I walked and walked and walked, just in case the next place would be better than what we had seen already. When we finally found a sunny spot that we both really liked, Darren made the brilliant suggestion that we could divide Mom's ashes between multiple sites within the grove. That took a lot of the pressure off of finding the One Perfect Place.

Darren and Kyle scatterd Mom among the the majesty of the redwood trees, where she "will take comfort in knowning her body will become part of something that so easily trancends the troubles of the world", and she "will surely rest in peace and comfort there"

After returning, we picked up Maryanne and then had a walk around Mendocino while talking about Mom and how much she loved it here. We then shared a delicious dinner at the house, Thanks to Maryanne's day-long effort.

Some time to relax in Mendocino itself - where we could all reflect on the amazing Carla's influence in each of our lives

Darren's plans were cut short and he had to run off to work the next day, so Maryanne and I stayed back to have a short hike along the paths behind the house. It's so beautiful and peaceful around here. As it always does, our hike quickly expanded to every trail we could manage, logging just under ten miles by the time we had finally climbed the last hill to the house. The hot tub was the perfect remedy for that.

Our AirBnB had a private gate right onto the Russian Gulch State Park

On route to visit Darren - we swung by various beautiful viewpoints, but a 'Must see' for one of us was Kyle's favourite resaurant: "Juan's Place" in Berkeley (near San Francisco). Eventually we reached Darren at his workplace (where he builds and repairs some very fancy guitars).

Darren has created quite the oasis around his forest home - and is frequented by visiting birds and other wildlife, what he can't find in his own garden, is easily found in nearby state parks

We managed a side trip to Monterey, where we enjoyed a historical tour and learned, that among other key historic moments for California, the State Constitution was written before it could become a USA state back in 1849. We also enjoyed some great Chowder on Fishermans Wharf)

We then joined Darren at his cabin near Santa Cruz for the rest of the weekend. It was nice to be able to spend some proper time with him after being gone so long. We ate out, went for walks in the forest, spent a day in Monterey, hung out in the garden and took a tour of his shop. We finished the visit with a Dark Tower rematch - poor Darren has been smarting since his defeat seven years ago. Dark Tower is an 1981 board game with some electronic randomness to it, here it is described as "An epic fantasy quest to recover an ancient magic scepter from a tyrant king in his Dark Tower, brought to life in electronic form". This time, Darren snuck in a brilliant victory before either Maryanne or I realized he was that far ahead of us. I would normally have been more upset about it, but he really did outfox us, so I can only give him credit where it's due. Enjoy it while you can, brother!

The game 'Dark Tower' has a long history among the family (none of us thought to snap a picture for this particular challenge)