I feel as if I have been away and I am just trying to re-orient myself into my normal life again.  In truth, I did go away and just returned on Wednesday June 4.  

My brother, Rick, arrived for a visit on May 23 or there about.  We thought we would visit the local sites, Tombstone, Bisbee, etc.  On the day Rick arrived I got a call from our other brother, Tom.  He said that our Mom may have had a heart attack and was in the hospital.  So, instead of visiting local tourist traps, Rick and I loaded up his car and headed to the east coast to visit our mom and siblings there.

We drove over 2000 miles in 5 days.  We arrived at our sister's place on Thursday May 29.  We met with all of our siblings that day.  It was good to see them all and find out about our mom's condition.  It turns out that she only had to spend one night in the hospital.  She may have had a heart attack but the doctors were not certain.  Because she has Alzheimer's and no short term memory, her condition is difficult to assess.  

Our sister, Shirley, invited us to stay for dinner.  She made a delicious pork roast with country fried potatoes. It was really great after eating at restaurants for days!  

The next day, Shirley took us to visit Mom.  We were not supposed to take pictures but I snuck one anyway.  Mom remembered who I was.  She smiled and waved as soon as she saw us.  It was nearly lunch time though so we did not stay very long.  It would have been difficult to stay as we were constantly being approached by other Alzheimer's patients.  Maybe I will write another blog about that.

While we were in Delaware, we also visited our father's grave site at the Veteran's Cemetery there.  Mom will join Dad there eventually.  Then we visited with our sister Patty.  She has 2 beautiful Thoroughbred horses that she wanted to share with us.  One of them is a young horse that Patty rescued when she was 500 pounds underweight.  Patty was riding her first horse, who was also rescued from a race track and constant pregnancies.  They are beautiful horses now and slightly spoiled, although Patty has done an excellent job retraining them to be saddle horses.  

We were not able to stay in the hotel any longer as they were booked for the weekend with Nascar and other activities going on.  So, having done all that we came for, Rick and I packed up the car again and headed back to Arizona.  On the way back we visited the Tall Grass Prairie, a Nature Conservancy site in northern Oklahoma, and the Pioneer Womens' Museum, also in Oklahoma.  Seeing huge buffalo running free on the open prairie was totally awesome.  Later on, traveling through the great empty expanses of Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico, I wondered why, with all that space, our ancestors really saw the need to exterminate all the buffalo and all the Native Americans.  The space goes on and on, almost like the ocean, an ocean of land.  It is awesome and totally intimidating.

Upon returning to Arizona, Rick and I did visit Tombstone and Bisbee.  Then Rick resumed his 2 day journey back to Oklahoma.  I really appreciate the time Rick took to travel back east with me.  I really did not want to fly or go by myself.  Thanks so much, Rick!

There were many interesting places to see and visit on our trek across country.  I'm sure a body could spend a lifetime and a fortune just stopping at well known sites, not to mention all the odd and fascinating "local" spots.  I have posted some pictures of places we just passed through.  Our country is "America the Beautiful"  from sea to shining sea!