Squishy Tulips: Our trip to CA Part 1 (made extra special with the appearance of DONKEYS)

Robert and I just returned from a trip that is an overflowing bag of all kinds of feelings. Gah so many feelings.

At the beginning of July we drove out to California and Arizona to spend time with family. Many years ago, Robert and I decided we wanted to drive as much of old Route 66 as possible. A couple of trips got us as far as Texas, but we haven't been able to complete the highway. We took advantage of this trip to finish up NM, AZ, and CA.

There was a lot to see and many stories to read aloud from our Route 66 books as we spent roughly three glorious days jumping on and off the highway, driving every stretch of Route 66 we could find. Because we were meeting one of my brothers, Scott and his family in Julian, CA, it made a lot of sense to complete our Route 66 journey. It was a very packed three days and we were exhausted by the end of it but happy. We squished our way into the crowds of Santa Monica pier and made it to the "end" of Route 66. I recognize there's a lot to be said about where Route 66 ends, but that's another fish to fry.

After experiencing San Bernardino, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, etc. both Robert and I crossed everything we wanted to see in those places off our list without looking at them and vowed only to return to drive the PCH. Holy moly, that whole area was very much not our cup of tea. We were more than happy to get out of there and meet up with my brother and his family in Julian, CA.

We spent four amazing days with them before driving to Tucson to finish up our vacation hanging out with my brother Rusty AKA James (but always Rusty to me) and his family. The day before leaving, we spent an hour and a half in the mustiest, moldiest, and most extraordinary antique shop I've ever seen. So I wasn't concerned by my sniffles and slight sore throat.

We woke up the next day, had breakfast with Rusty's family and wandered 4th Ave, one of my favorite places in Tucson. We were going to meet up with Rusty that evening for a crazy night of bowling. And then, just a couple hours before meeting up with everyone, I realized I was about to fall over from exhaustion. So Robert and I hurried back to the hotel for a nap. I woke up and realized I was sicker than all get out and we made the tough decision to cancel the plans for the evening in the hopes we could meet up with everyone the next day.

Robert and I both tested for Covid and mine was positive. Another test the next morning showed I was still positive. Robert made the tough decision to pack up everything and get us home before he got sick. I was so close to seeing my brother, whom I haven't seen in almost three years, and I had to leave.

It is almost a week later, and I'm still testing positive but have been feeling better and am ready to join the living again. But it still feels like an elephant is sitting on my chest. And I don't think it has anything to do with Covid. If I stop to think about it too much I dissolve into mush and tears. I pride myself of keeping it positive, but sometimes it's hard work. It was such a wonderful trip, but man it hurts like hell I didn't get to see Rusty and spend time with both Scott and Rusty and their families all at once.

Today I had enough energy to dive into pictures, and that has helped tremendously. I'll do a couple posts because there are so many pictures and good memories. These are my favorites from the first part of the trip:

I saw six libraries during this trip, which is five more than I thought I'd see. We stumbled upon two libraries during our trip out to California.

Mabel Fry sounded like a hoot. I was delighted by this small display about the history of the OK library. You can also see my library card in the lower right.

I love seeing old friends in new places. I think it's time we start painting our glass wall at my library location.

My favorite thing about the Mabel C. Fry library is that they had the last 70ish years of their local paper on file in these huge books that were easily accessible. Even though it was late at night, Robert and I wasted no time finding all the years our loved ones were born and enjoying the headlines, comics and prices of things during those times.

This was one of four Rainbow fish I met during our trip. Youth librarians don't mess around when it comes to summer reading.

I remember finding more towns, signs, buildings intact during the first part of our Route 66 trip several years ago. The books we read during this trip, which were from the last time we drove 66, confirmed that places are rapidly disappearing or being eaten alive by their surroundings.

The Moriarty Community library in NM was positively tiny, well-lived-in and loved, and it boasted my first encounter with a library snake. He was hiding at the time of this picture, but I couldn't resist documenting my first library snake.

I had a lot of laughs over the signs we saw along the way.

Oatman, AZ surprised the heck out of us. We turned a corner and suddenly we were surrounded by "wild" burros. This went on for miles - donkeys clustered in small groups. One would approach the car, check if we had food and then let his buddies know if they should mosey on over. It was surprisingly well-thought out. I am all about trading a few corn nuts for some donkey affection, and I loved every second of it. Donkeys can gang up on me any time!

I was little nervous about food possibilities on the way out to CA. Our trip to Sedona last year consisted of a lot of authentic Mexican food that didn't really do it for me. We definitely found better options on this trip. The best meal came at the end of our Route 66 journey at the Santa Monica Seafood Market & Cafe where I had an excellent veggie stir fry with scallops and soba noodles.