TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024 - HOME SWEET HOME

 TUESDAY, JUNE 11TH  - COMING HOME

Yesterday, I wrote about adventure. Today, I’ll follow up with “Coming Home.”

I imagine Columbus and his crew returning after their journey to the “New World.”  How about astronauts - coming home after months (or years) in space

Oleg Kononeko broke the record for the most cumulative time spent in space after spending his 878th non-continuous day onboard the International Space Station. But he will return to Earth in September. (2024).  (It said “non-continuous days” - did he come home for a few days?)

Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the record for the most extended single stay in space, spending 437 days and 18 hours on the Mir space station between 1994 and 1995. His total time in space was over 22 months

Many soldiers spent several years serving their country.  (And, some even were prisoners of war and spent more time in confinement/jail)

The Lewis and Clark Expedition lasted from May 14, 1804, to September 23, 1806, and 862 days, two years, four months, and ten days. The expedition traveled more than 8,000 miles by land and water, on foot, horseback, and by boat.

It was hard for me to spend six days in a tent, tear it down, pack it back in Sparky (my car), drive to my next spot, and set it up again!

I did sleep well, but to be honest, my bed is a million times better than my camping cot!!!  AND—it is now warm in Texas, and my apartment has air conditioning, but my tent didn’t!!!

(Aside - you can skip this.  At age 76, if I have kept hydrated, I must get up and use the restroom at night - sometimes twice or thrice.  That’s not easy in a tent (I didn’t plan well).  I did have a cup that I used one night - but it didn’t have a lid - and it spilled on the tent floor. Leaving the tent to empty my bladder is different as a woman than it was a few years back as a man!!!  In the Grand Canyon, the overnight low was about 45 degrees.  Not “cold,” - but cold enough not to want to get out of my toasty sleeping bag and walk to a restroom.)  

I am mostly on a tight budget. I was out for six nights. If I got a cheap hotel or motel for $80 a night, that would be about $500.  

I was (at least to my evaluation) the “normal” Karen White.  I nodded and said “hi” to pretty much everybody.  I got some smiles back and maybe a few “hellos.”  I did get a “Guten Morgan” in Zion National Park.  The lady of the couple had a lanyard that had an address of DE - (not a . COM), which is German, so I greeted them with Guten Morgan and tried to converse for a few minutes in German - but I had to fall back to English reasonably quickly!!!

*****

I don’t know if I will travel similarly anymore.  On my bucket list, I want to visit a cousin in Seattle - but I’ll find a cheap flight and take the light rain close to her location. 

I haven’t given up on getting to Alaska - my fiftieth state - but maybe I’ll find a cheap cruise (or a friend to share the expenses).  

But, at this stage, I’m home and very tired. 

Writers have said, “You can’t come home again.” I think that means returning to your native home. For a home I left 15 days ago, yes, I can return. 

*****

And I found that I had shortness of breath when I hiked a little.  That scares me.  And. I hadn’t lost any weight.  

Now I am home—(sigh of relief)—and I am lying back in my recliner chair.  

Come on, Karen - you have to keep busy.

Don’t fall back into bad habits - keep going!!!

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, ©, June 11, 2024