Over the past month and a half, since Jo passed, my life has felt like I was adrift on the sea with no wind. Suspended between earth and sky w/o a ripple on the sea. I'd taken a few loads of goods to Goodwill, but that was about it. My sister Rita came out for a little over a week and gave me a not so gentle kick in the backside to get me going. I had the Probate process to get through and had to consolidate cut loose a lot of the junk that collects over the decades. This is a big part of cutting the anchor chains of the past and there by pulling your head out of your butt to get thing moving again.
As such, I traded in my S-10 pickup and Jo's Hyundai Tucson yesterday on a new wood hauler. A Topaz Metallic Blue Chevy Silverado 1500. It's a 2014 with only16K miles, small block V8, 4WD, Double Cab with a standard sized bed, 6.5' long.
The Double cab has a very small back seat area with a split bench seat that can fold up in 2 pieces. The front seat feels huge compared to the S-10s I've been driving since '98. I'm taking it down in the morning to pick out a shell for the bed. They'll paint it to match, add internal lights, a fabric head liner and even add gutter mounts for my Tule rack so I can still carry my kayak and canoe, and do the install all for $2K, which is much cheaper than I thought it would be.
The next step in my recovery will be a road trip. I'm planning to go north to check out Devil's Tower, Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, then across SD to WI, then up north to the UP to visit an old AF buddy who lives right near the Mackinaw bridge. After that, it'll be down to the DC area to visit my Nephew and his Fiancée and Jo's Sister, then down to Williamsburg to see my older brother, VA Beach to see Jo's Brother, then down to Durham NC to see my Sister. After that, back up to Radford VA to visit my Mom, little Brother and some good friends. After that, I'm heading to TN to see my Aunt Rachel and a couple of her youngins, then south to TX to see another Nephew and his wife, then, back home to CO. About 6k miles in about a month or so. On the way I plan to camp under the stars, canoe some small lakes, do a LOT of shooting and just let my mind do it's thing, only out of the house. Wish me luck and I'll check in from time to time.
_________________
Frank
WWACOAUX#1
"I love the smell of Sawdust in the morning, it smells like, victory."
WWA'ers I've met: Popeye, Ed Avery, Stephen Wolf, Rockfish, Rodedon