Life has it's little ups and downs like ponies on a merrygoround.

Kadizzle returned home to work on his good ship and get it ready to plow the waters of Lake Sakakawea. Now the Gods of the universe have spit on that plan.  The dreaded PSA went up with Kadizzle,s last blood test. PSA stands for prostate specific antigen.  When the little cancer cells are munching away what they poop out is PSA.  When it goes up it means the little termites on humanity are active.  What the little evil cells live on is testosterone.  If you don't want to end up on the bottom side of the grass pushing it up you need to cut off the food supply to these little devils.  The answer to that problem is to have a shot of "Girl Juice".  Girl juice stops the production of testosterone. Actually girl juice is technically called Lupron.  Now comes the major problem. Hormone therapy only works for a short time.  The cancer devil figures out how to beat it, so the next treatment is a nuclear attack. Radiation for eight weeks, every day is the plan.

All of this on a practical basis has painted a picture of summer that does not look like fun.  Driving to Bismarck every day to get cooked will be a real nuisance.  Fortunately the weekends are free.  If all goes well perhaps Kadizzle will be spewing bullshit until 75 or 85.  The Kadizzle's youngest daughter will be married in the fall. By the fall Kadizzle should be up an running and able to enjoy the blessed event.

Under the best of circumstances aging is a chore, but looking around at friends who have dodged various health bullets, and friends who have gone to the great beyond, one can be thankful for the good years, and good times up to this point.

Almost daily Kadizzle meets someone close to retirement. Many of these people have the means to quit their job and do what they please.  Each person needs to realize the cork can be pulled at any time. Evaluate your life. If your job is so much fun you jump for joy in the morning, work until you drop. My advice is if you are not having a blast doing the same thing every day that you have done for eternity give it up and get with the full time program of tasting life's treats. Too many people  finally retire, get sick, drop dead, or become disabled. Admit their is an end to the movie and enjoy the ending. There are no reruns.

The Ship has returned to Port

It is amazing to open your door and see your home clean and neat. Before the great adventure begins every year we have the house cleaned. By some miracle while we are gone the house stays clean. Dust does not even accumulate.  So here we are in a place where the kitchen is bigger than the entire space we spent the winter in.  Electricity is everywhere and we don't have to depend on solar or gas generators.  Water comes out of a pipe at will.  Internet is endless and all cost the same, no more worry about how many gigabytes we use.  Television is like gravity trying to suck our brains out.  Heat just magically comes on and you wake up to a warm house. Coyotes do not howl all night.  You don't worry about stepping out to pee at night and stepping on a rattlesnake. People know you.  A newspaper comes to your door.  Garbage men come to your house.  The miracles are just endless, but there is also a lot of brain dead that comes from being in one place too long.

Overall it feels like leaving one planet and going to another.  The landscape in North Dakota could not be more different than that we just left in Arizona.  Strangely the most striking thing is the color.  Arizona was actually green and full of plant life. Remember that was a desert, but back home it seems more like a desert. There is nothing but brown everywhere.  Eye candy seemed to be in every direction back on the other planet. No matter where you turned your head you saw a dramatically different seen.  Back here on the prairie it all seems the same.  Kadizzle is convinced the landscape shapes your mind.  There is a state of mind when you live in the hills of West Virginia, a state of mind in the desert, a state of mind in the western mountains, a state of mind at the ocean, and a state of mind in North Dakota.

Secret Places

For fifteen years the Kadizzles have been traveling to and from the southwest every winter, but today again on the way home we discovered one more nice spot. Angastura State Park is an excellent little lake recreation area. Little may be a misnomer, it is a nice sized lake, but since we sail on Lake Sakakawea, all lakes are little in comparison. We have a great spot overlooking the lake. The lake has some great facilities. So now we get to stay at two nice lakes on our way north or south.

That is the good news, the bad news is a mini rant. Every time Kadizzle visits a nice spot in another state he always wonders "Why not North Dakota?".   North Dakota has always been behind in public recreation. The excuse is always we have no money, or too few people.  Now with oil money causing a blizzard in the state maybe we could live like the rest of the world and build some facilities for hiking, biking, boating, and just plain enjoying.

If all goes well we will roll into Hazen tomorrow. The great winter adventure will be over. It is like going to another planet.  From mountains and cactus to the prairie.  Now the good ship Sovereign has to be cleaned, polished, and commissioned for the summer. The yard has to be mowed, and all the junk stowed. The whole process feels like a Caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

The Denver Stop on the way home.

 The journey home usually entails a stop in Denver to see the granddaughter.  Visiting includes singing, dancing, tickling, and reading. Next a visit to the usual stores, REI, Bass Pro, and the usual mall crap. Last night we took a quick tour of the urban sprawl. Houses have sprung up like weeds here.  In just one year hundreds of acres have sprouted houses. Soon the mass transit system will be in service and improve the traffic situation. Denver has done some good planning in the area where daughter Erin lives.  The old Stapleton Airport has been converted into thousands of homes. Since it all was done on a blank slate a lot of good planning took place. There are massive greenways, parks, and bike paths abound.  So part of our day today may be a long bike ride. All the schools are new, and now the old control tower is going to be turned into a nice place to eat and have some indoor recreation. Erin lives very close to the old Control tower.

The New Commander

Sitting at the Cherry Creek State Park in Denver rest finally comes.  The granddaughter has worn out old grandpa and grandma with her new ability to ride her bike. With her unlimited energy she will no doubt be another hyperactive Commander.  It would not be surprising if she rode her little bike eight or ten miles today.  Sylvie has the two wheeled riding down pat, but getting going takes an assist.

Kadizzle had to administer several tickle test to Sylvie. If you get the wrong answer you get tickled. Of course granny could not resist buying Sylvie a stuffed mountain lion. Sylvie is the world champion monkey bar lady. Her hands are calloused from doing her special long distance swing.  She skips a bar and grabs the next one.

Wearing down a girl about to turn six is no easy task. Sylvie is staying with the old giplers in the camper for a couple days.

Kadizzle overcomes gravity.

Not much exercise in the last few days, but yesterday was a victory. Kadizzle set out for what he thought was a relatively short bike ride.  The short ride ended up being 12 miles. The ride was pleasant. The Earth Module is parked at Cherry Creek State Park in a suburb of Denver.  The park is very nice in the middle of an urban setting.  A paved bike path leads around the 800 acre lake in this 4,800 acre park. The state has done a very nice job of integrating this park into the area.  Yesterday the park was full of people, yet it did not seem crowed.  Never has Kadizzle seen such a huge dog park.  The dog area alone was probably one hundred acres. It was fenced to protect dogs from the coyotes. The dogs had a better swimming beach than the people, and there were hundreds of dogs walking their owners.  At any rate Kadizzle managed to work off a little chicken meat around the waste and slept well.

Now lets go back to North Dakota.  When Kadizzzle travels and sees the wonderful recreation facilities in other states he always asks " Why not North Dakota?".   Nobody lives in North Dakota is usually the answer. This may be true, but the state is reeking with money.  So little has been done in North Dakota over the years to build up our parks, our bike paths, and all the things that make the outdoors enjoyable. We seem to have a culture of depression.  Work, eat, and go to sleep, that is the North Dakota way.  The people of North Dakota seem to have an aversion for recreation.  Money is for saving, and using to escape the state, not fix it up.  As a sailor Kadizzle is always amazed what other states have done with their lakes.  In North Dakota the Army Corps of Engineers will not spend a dime for recreation, but visit any other Corp lake and you will find the best of everything.  The answer is simple, you have to put political pressure on the corp to do something.

The Journey Home

The Kadizzles set out from Sedona to begin the journey home.  Last night we made it to Chociti Lake, but on the way we made the annual stop at the best breakfast in the world.  La Pasada has to be one of Kadizzles favorite eating places.  It is the original train station in Winslow Arizona.  Someone with some money had done an incredible job of restoring and improving it.  The woman who designed it also did the buildings at the Grand Canyon.  On PBS a lot of the special about The Harvey Girls was filmed there.  To this day the waitresses still dress like Harvey Girls.

When the waitress came to take Kadizzles order he told here some of the history about the room she was standing in.  At one time in the old days a man came into the food service area and sat down. When a Spanish woman came over to serve him the man objected.  He told the manager he would not be served by a Mexican American.  The manager told him he was correct. The manager told the man to leave.  The whole story about the Harvey Girls is very interesting and if you get the chance to watch the documentary be sure to do so.

Tonight we are in Wallsenburg.  With TV and electricity life is good. Tomorrow it will be Cherry Creek in Denver where we get to see our little Sylvie.

Lumpy rolls over rocks

Yesterday Kadizzle set out on a mountain biking adventure with The Commander.  We walked out of the bike rental place $200 poorer, even though The Commander had her own zippity do da bike.  She needed some protective clothing, and Kadizzle had to rent a bike.  Times have changed.  Today a good bike cost what two years of college tuition was when Kadizzle became an educated idiot.  Kadizzle was hopping the trail would not be too intimidating, and initially that seemed to be the case.  The riding was good and the scenery was terrific.  About the halfway point our crew took a wrong turn which led to some very difficult riding.  The need to get off and carry the bike occurred more often and the prospect of broken bones and damage bikes went up exponentially.  The trail was very steep, downhill with switchbacks, and narrow ledges that would be a disaster if you went off.  Imagine riding down a rocky waterfall without the water.  Kadizzle managed a few short segments of it and finally got to the bottom.  It was at the bottom of this mess that we realized our mistake in navigation, so we had to turn around and head back up carrying the bikes.  On the way down Kadizzle got to see some expert riders actually sit on their bikes and go down the mess. It was an amazing mix of skill and daring.  Just imagine riding your bike down the steepest steps you have walked up, perhaps a fire escape.  That would be actually easier than a bunch of uneven rocks, of various sizes at the same angle.  Well we got the bikes and ourselves back unharmed, but servery worn out.  Some alcohol, and an excellent dinner cured us. Today's adventure will be a kayak trip down the Verde River with Kadizzle's little sister.

The Murder

Yesterday at the bullshit session down at the model airplane airport the subject evolved from one thing to another and somehow ended up on the topic of car and deer collisions. One of the bullshitters told how he hit a deer with a truck and decided to save the meat. He put the deer in the back of his refrigerated truck and took it to a butcher.  Turned out the deer was too badly damaged and the meat was worthless.

The next story was more interesting. This guy said he was driving in Pennsylvania when a deer ran into the side of his car.  He was driving home in the dark with his children and decided to salvage the deer.  When he got home he cleaned the deer and threw the waste into the river.  Apparently one of his children was partially awake during some of the proceedings and misunderstood what was going on.  Recently at the age of 45 his daughter said to him " Dad, this has bothered me for a long time, but I know you killed a man".   Shocked the father asked the daughter to explain. The daughter said she remembered the night her dad hit a man with the car and threw his body in the back of the car.  Amazed Dad explained what actually took place, and could not believe his daughter always thought she had this deep dark secret about her father.