Goals Without Deadlines

I ordered this book from Amazon and really enjoyed it. I related to a lot of what the author wrote. The next to last entry, a poem, reflects how I feel about still wanting to reach my goal of racing in all 50 states. The PNH is making it more unlikely that I will but I refuse to give up! Ode to One Last Race Farther down the trail, My leg strength fading, Lung Capacity diminished, And heart losing muscle.  It will be time, For a time, One last time.  How will I choose, A final finish line,  That ends more than the race? To embrace, To relish,  To seat upon my mind. For a time,  One last time.  With nary a chance to lose, For completion brings a win, I’ll sift through years of memories.  Of trials and trails, Of tears and smiles, Of fondness for my friends, To select a special day.  For a time,  One last time.  My recall will, undoubtedly, Bring to mind my favorite, Places, Races, And faces.  I’ll struggle like all distance runners,...

When I was sitting in the River Dog with Don in Bullhead City I got a call from Dr. Lonergan’s scheduler wanting me to come in for blood work. I told her I couldn’t make it and she said no problem since I was coming in the next week anyway. That was Friday. Then on Tuesday I got a call from his nurse with the same request so I decided to head back in time to get back Monday for labs. I got the labs and when I saw the doctor two days later he explained that he was just trying to collect more lab data so he could go to the insurance company to possibly get my treatments moved closer together. We’ll see what happens.  We stayed at Spell’s in Denver on Wednesday night and had a nice visit. I had hoped to spend another day in Colorado but 🤷‍♂️ IIWII! The nice thing going home the way we did was it was cooler so we were able to stop more. We stopped in Green River, Wyoming and even got to see a bald eagle on her nest watching one of her babies hang out by the river. It was a good stop. ...

The time in Ruidoso, actually Alto at Ken and Kristi’s was a really nice rest. They always make me feel at home and being dog people they took to Charlie right away. We got there on Saturday afternoon and Kristi took Charlie and I on a golf cart ride to show us around Alto. (I had actually played golf there once many years ago with Paul Crown). Charlie fell in love with their deck and would hang out there by himself.  Sometimes he would just chill in the chair I usually sat in or he would hang with us if we were eating (we ate all our meals on the deck) and watch the animals hang out in the yard. One day we had elk then deer and finally horses.  Sunday they played golf early and I just hung out, relaxed and as I often do worked on tentative trip planning.  When they got back from golf we had lunch and then Kristi and eye took a drive down to Ruidoso Downs to a nursery looking for just the right deer resistant shrub. We didn’t find one but took a drive all through the Down...

Day 2 was probably the roughest day I’ve had on the road during all my road trips. It was the day I realized it was not smart for anyone to travel with a dog during the summer through the desert. Because of the heat you obviously can’t leave the dog in the car even long enough to run into the bathroom. Charlie did fine because of the AC and the fact I never left him in the car. The heat was brutal. Not only summer in the desert but record setting temperatures. We ran into construction south of Fallon down to one lane traffic. Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long. Here’s a picture of our scenery while we waited.  We stopped at a “camp ground “ at Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere to stretch our legs and encountered this welcoming sign. 😳 When we drove through Tonopah, Nevada I saw a really interesting used book store I would have stopped and visited if I had been alone. Probably won’t see that one because I don’t see myself taking that same route on future trips. We did s...

For a while I wasn’t even sure this trip was going to happen. My doctor told me I’d probably feel better if I waited until after my treatment August 5th. I considered it but I can’t sit around waiting for appointments I need to do things when and while I can. Then to complicate things even more I wasn’t sure about getting out of the valley because of the forest fires all over. I didn’t want to go all the way down I5 to Mt. Shasta because of the fires in that area.  Originally I was going to take 58 to 97 and go southeast but they closed the highway to recover a semi that had gone over the side. My next choice was 138 but that was completely shut down for a forest fire so I5 to Shasta it was. Then pick up 89 southeast across Northern California.  These are pictures as I was approaching Shasta.  After heading east on my way to stopping in Reno for it was one reminder after another about wildfires.  Then I had to do some serious self talk as I was driving closer and clo...

The Trials were worth waiting for. The competition was amazing over the ten days with world, national, meet and Hayward Field records. Incredible. I took a lot of pictures because I had a great seat. Obviously I won’t even try to put them all in this post but I did put some of them together in collages.  I was fortunate to get a picture with Canadian 400 meter Olympic hurdler, Sage Watson as well as American Steeple Chaser Emma Coburn. They were both so gracious.  This is a picture that showed up online. It’s a perfect view of my seat. I’m the one with the red shirt and gray head with my hat on my knee. 😂 I was really fortunate that Smitty’s friends, Pete and Lori who live close to the stadium let me park in their driveway every day. I don’t think I could have handled standing in the heat for shuttles coming and going every day. Speaking of heat I didn’t see the events on the last day because when I got there they had just postponed everything because of the heat. It got to ...