Merry Christmas, 2022

What an adventurous year! It was a much more surprising year than originally planned yet it won't change my plans and dreams of continuing to explore this beautiful country.

It started with overpriced building materials for the home renovation causing me to fall behind on my timeline for completing many projects. Not frustrated, just eager to accomplish something, I left "early" for my summer in West Yellowstone. Arriving early, I started at Pete's Pizza early, learning and revisiting my restaurant skills from nearly 50 years ago. Yes, I know how to cut the perfect pizza and bread sticks now. And I can shake those wing dressings with the best of the cook staff! Delivery was a breeze as the town is quite quaint and everyone was very friendly.

But the park flooded less than a month later, washing out roads and closing entrances to the most beautiful and majestic of all the National Parks - Yellowstone. Tourists cancelled and disappeared from the town choosing to change their plans to either Idaho or Tetons. Business was hard for all the local shop owners so splurging was not in the books. I was able to help a little by donating mistakes made in the kitchen, delivering with a smile and encouragement. By the time I left in early September, even the gas station manager was offering me a job for 2023 saying I was just the type of employee anyone would want to hire!

Off to Michigan for the Sugar Beet Harvest, I was excited to do something completely unlike my past experiences - supervise at the pile station! Well, that didn't work out as planned after 10 days. I walked into the forks of a forklift, hitting my shin, sticking my right boot under the fork, rolling onto my left side where I landed on my knee and rib cage. When I went to stand up, I fainted and went down again. Something was really going to hurt. And it did. Thanks to my daughter and SIL, I recuperated at their place in Toledo-area for over a month! Thankful they have a very comfortable couch and two lovely children to make that time very warm and wonderful.

Three months later, the ankle still isn't dance-able, but will be soon. To make up for all that money I was going to make watching sugar beets dump from a truck into a pile, I picked up a part time position at the local drug store, cashiering and stocking shelves. Some of you may know, I did this very thing as my first job 50+ years ago! Some skills are still valuable (and teachable).

So that was 2022 - expensive, not as planned and leaving me wondering about 2023.

While I briefly considered venturing east next summer I recalled how much I love the vast, open spaces and amazing sunsets of the wild west. So, I have decided to return to NE Utah in 2023. Hoping it goes MUCH better than 2022 when I ventured into new directions.

See you there!