Tag Archives: Roadtrek Rally

Zooming-Making Our World Smaller & Larger

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Since the first year of the Covid pandemic, new ways of communicating have emerged. It has made our world larger and it has made our world smaller.

A new word entered our vocabulary, “Zoom”. People arranged meetings via Zoom since they could not meet in person. There were book clubs, art groups, businesses that resorted to Zoom to conduct business and keep up with group activities. For a short while I even arranged to Zoom with my sisters and nieces. We would meet once a month just to check in and make sure everyone was OK. We were.

The Royal Scottish Country Dancers of San Diego, met every Friday via Zoom. Ward our teacher was incredibly faithful to meeting every Friday. And the dance community responded, showing up most Fridays to catch up. We may not have danced but we could learn some of the quirks and queries of dance and we stayed bonded as a community.

Jean, our other Scottish Dance teacher Zoomed most Mondays and taught dances. People met in their living rooms, garages or other areas of their homes, dancing alone or with other members of the household.

The Royal Scottish Dance Society of Scotland, our mother-ship, met once a month via Zoom with members all over the world. Different teachers from different countries and areas would teach each month. And…we danced in our homes. We stayed connected and involved even though many of us had never met.

Why might I be sharing this with you? Currently I am in Canada. I was in Nova Scotia for a Roadtrek Rally. It was fun. At the same time as the rally, very good friends of mine, Cynthia and Ward from San Diego, were in Halifax at the Scottish Country Dance, Teachers Association of Canada dance week. Ward is involved with the board and both travel to dance. The music is amazing and the dancing fun.

More of the San Diego Scottish Dance members were at the Summer camp for dancing at St Andrews, Scotland. Yes it is fun to travel to dance. It is fun to make friends from all over the world.

St Andrews Dance Camp on the Wall of the Dance Venue in Halifax.

On Tuesday, TAC (Canada) and St Andrews Summer School had a shared dance to celebrate anniversaries. How did they do it? You guessed it. Zoom once again connected us across continents and water. Each group had their own teachers and musicians. They danced the same dance at the same time. A large Zoom video was on the wall of the space they were dancing in. We all waved at each other and for a small wee second in time two communities were united as one. How cool is that?

I was invited to experience it with the dancers even though I am not dancing at this moment in time. For about an hour I slipped in to watch the dancers, enjoy the fine music and surprise a few friends who had no idea I was close by. I also got to experience this event of combining two communites into one. It was a great afternoon.

Dancing with Scotland
Yes it does get warm dancing.

Before 2020, who would have ever guessed that Zoom would become a noun and a verb in our everyday language. It has definitely made our world smaller and larger in that we can see each other and interact with each other in ways we could not have done before this. Zoom was in the right place and the right time. It took off and will be a part of our society until the next interesting and unique communication invention comes along.

Today I am thankful for Zoom and the joy it brought to me and others as we stayed connected in an unusual time for the whole world. Today I am thankful for my dance community of friends. Today I am thankful I am still able to stay involved in dance even if I cannot physically dance.

Today I am Thankful.

The Flight of the Butterfly

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I am slowly making my way to San Diego.

Roadtreks at a Rally

I had a wonderful couple weeks on the central coast of California. The Roadtrek Rally was a great success. It was a personal success for me. I met wonderful people. When the rally was over I left with two of the women, Mandy and Ann and met up with a third Roadtreker, Don. We camped for four nights near Morro Bay. Every day was beautiful and fun. We hiked and taked and talked and laughed. We got to know each other.  I have new friends to go on adventures with.

I gradually am working my way into San Diego. I am a bit nervous about my upcoming appointment at the Moores Cancer Center. Instead of making my way all the way there, today, I am camped for one more night on the ocean. My view is great and I can fall asleep to the sounds of the Pacific crashing below my campsite. 

Four Roadtreks at Morro Bay

The last few days I have been in Camarillo, CA staying with my good friends, Mary Jane and Jeff. Elsie and I camped in the driveway. Jeff and I are doing fiberglass repair work on my side steps. I sort of met one too many sidewalks. It will take a while to complete, yet I walk away with the knowledge that I will be able to complete the repair on my own. It is looking good at the moment. 

For the past two days I have been sitting in the middle of the Monarch Butterfly migration. It has been amazing. As soon as it warms up they are flying, up the driveway, over the roof and on north. I have heard of this phenomena yet this is the first time I have experienced it. I am not talking of one or two butterflies, I am talking more like hundreds. I finally left them behind when I arrived at the ocean, near Malibu today.

“The annual monarch life cycle and migration begins at the monarchs’ overwintering grounds in Mexico (for the eastern population) and the central to southern California coastal region (for the western population). Around March, the overwintering monarchs begin their journey north. Once migration begins, monarchs become sexually mature and mate. The females begin their search for milkweed plants on which to lay eggs. After mating and egg-laying, the adult butterflies die and the northward migration is continued by their offspring. It takes three to five generations to repopulate the rest of the United States and southern Canada until the final generation of the year hatches and does the return journey to the overwintering grounds.

The monarch migration is one of the greatest phenomena in the natural world. Monarchs know the correct direction to migrate even though the individuals that migrate have never made the journey before. They follow an internal “compass” that points them in the right direction each spring and fall. A single monarch can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles.”

I admire their perseverance. They cross ten lane freeways, mountains, Los Angeles and they still continue to fly. If it is not warm enough they lay on the ground until the sun or weather heats them up enough to fly. 

I feel honored to have witnessed this once in my life. It was amazing. I rode my bicycle to a preserve near my friends home. The butterflies were hanging on the wild mustard. It was a sight I will not soon forget. It was hard to drive because I knew that my rig was hitting them. I kept telling them to fly higher. It is hard when the industry meets nature. Often nature loses.

Tomorrow it is on to San Diego. I will remember to breath. I am hoping for a good outcome from this second opinion. As I weave my way through these next few days I will remember the amazing Monarchs and hope they help me smile.

 

Glacier National Park, Personality, Adventure, Beauty, Exploring Inside and Out, Grief

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I continue to remain in Montana near Glacier National Park. The Roadtrek Rally was a success. I managed all the people by remaining scarce, thanks to my friends Linda and Steve. Each day we hiked in Glacier National Park and returned to the rally site around six or seven in the evening.

In the evenings or mornings, people would stop by and visit. If I got peopled out I would disappear into my rig. It worked out, yet, to be honest I don’t think I gave this rally a fair try. I was overwhelmed by the numbers of people that were there. I was overwhelmed before I even arrived. If I choose to attend another one I might stay around for more of the group activities. I believe that if I pick and choose what I want to attend then I will have a little more control over the people time. I know I can be a bit more social than what I ended up doing on this trip.

Glacier National Park was amazing. It has been many years since I traveled in this part of the USA. My first introduction to this park was a backpacking trip with a good friend of mine, Diane, back in the early 80’s. I loved the remoteness and majesty of it then and I find that has not changed one bit. I saw a lot of animals and amazing sites. It was awe inspiring at the least.

On the way north from Boise I lost a part on the outside of my Roadtrek. I have remained in the area while waiting for the part to arrive. I had it put on this afternoon and now EmmyLou the Roadtrek is once again whole, well almost. I still need to find another missing part. That one is not visible to the eye.

As I came out of the drive across Logan Pass (Going to the Sun Road) I received news from friends back east. Once again I am struggling with the basics of life. Many years back, 2013, I posted regarding my friend Zoe. We met on a breast cancer support web site. She and I quickly became friends. Her support was so instrumental in my struggle with breast cancer and it’s treatment. She has helped many people while going through her own struggle with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Her support around Jim’s death was that of a good friend who was always there, no matter what time of the day or night.

Zoe & Kay

Zoe is now approaching the end of her life. I struggle to write this here as I am not really sure what to say. For the last few days I have sat in a forest and dove deep into grief. Grief for the struggle that her and her partner Kay are going through. Grief knowing I won’t be able to see my friend again. Grief for my own suffering and broken heart, no matter how selfish that sounds. Grief for the sake of grief. I have only done this adventure into this area of my life since Jim’s death. I am beginning to recognize when it comes. I tell myself, OK go feel it, you have forty eight hours and then get out of there. Deep grief is not somewhere I want to stay long.

the view from my campsite on the river.

Forty eight hours is now up. I moved out of the forest and am now nested along the Flathead River. Moving out of the forest may be a symbolic move, yet it helps to look out and see the whole world, not just trees. I ventured out tonight and talked with others in the campground. Moving out of grief means moving out of my small and tight world and stretching myself to get back to ” normal” once again. I am not sure what normal is.

I need to ask myself how is it that I can best support my friends during this end of life process? Zoe is not dead, she is dying and no one, including her knows the length of this process. It could be days, weeks or months. She is lovingly supported in hospice and surrounded by friends, her church and mostly her wife, Kay. I don’t know if there is a term for this observing and supporting the dying process, yet that is what we are all doing, for whatever length of time it requires of all of us.

I love Zoe. We have not always seen eye to eye but that is what sisters do. She is my sister and my friend and I am heart broken at the impending loss of her on this planet.

I share this with you all because that is all I can do. “Thoughts and Prayers” seem to lose their intense meaning today and yet that is all any of us can do, think of those we love and pray. That is what I am doing. I carry Zoe and Kay close to me and when I see amazing natural places I hope they know that I see them there too. Nature is a wonderful healer.

In a few days time I will be moving slowly west. I am looking forward to seeing beautiful mountains and seeing friends along the way. I will choose for this moment in time not to spend too much time alone. I can easily sit in a campground and enjoy those around me, even at a distance. I don’t necessarily need to talk to anyone. It is good to have them near by, just in case I feel a social call coming on.

I am back to the present moment. I am remembering to breath. I know that many of you are there if I need to reach out and talk to someone. I am grateful for this knowledge, love and caring support.

Sunset on the Flathead

Now I will be off to enjoy the rest of the evening by the river before the doors shut and I head for bed.