Home and Staying Here!

What a great feeling to drive down US 95 from Coeur d’Alene this week and seeing the rolling hills of the Palouse stretching out before me. There is no ‘welcome home’ sight as wonderful. I had to pull over and take pictures. It’s beautiful and green right now with a bit of snow still high on the mountains to the west.

My last night on the road, I stayed at a little campground in St. Regis, Montana called Nugget RV Resort. What a beautiful little campground. I had what was probably the most beautiful campsite I’ve had anywhere but at Sun Meadow. Nice shade, well-kept grounds, friendly but respectfully distant people. Unfortunately, that comes at a price. At nearly $50 a night (after my Good Sam discount) it was the most expensive park I stayed at during my eleven-day trip from South Texas.

There is a bit of humor in being here at Sun Meadow where everyone is naked except for their face mask!

The nights are great, with temps in the fifties which is terrific sleeping weather with the windows open. A couple of sunny hot days over the weekend, but high sixties for the next week. Huge break from the 106 I was in last week!

Writing has been progressing well while I was traveling with work on all three of my stories in progress. This isn’t the frantic-paced writing of 5-10,000 words a day I was writing at this time last year but it’s just fine as far as I’m concerned. I feel like they are good words just now.

I’m feeling very mellow as I look out my window at the scene above. With the chaos in the world outside our enclave, it is comforting to be surrounded by such peace and quiet. But in my head, I see the same turmoil, riots, police brutality, and racial tension I lived through in the sixties. In sixty years, it seems we have truly learned nothing and I despair that we ever will.

Memorial Day was Monday and I took time to remember the fallen soldiers of our many wars. I was reminded, however, that “The Greatest Generation” were teenagers and young twenties during World War II. It’s easy to think of them now as grandparents and great grandparents. But when they made their stand against Nazism, Imperial Japan, concentration death camps, and tyranny of all forms, they were young. It remains to be seen if today’s teens and young twenties will step up and make a difference--to become an even greater generation.

It’s time.