To the cocoon!

8:10 am - Friday - December 27th - TWW - 35° F, humidity 55%, wind 8  mph out of the south.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 55° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE, Art Young (good friend), and I hiked a portion of the Bright Angel Trail at the Grand Canyon.....little did I know at the time that I had had a stroke earlier that morning.....I had felt a little 'off' earlier that morning, but was not associating that with a stroke.....

.....nevertheless, we hiked 5 miles down, and 5 miles back out of the Grand Canyon.  When the unusual symptoms I had experienced earlier that morning returned the very next morning I had TLE drive me to the medical clinic at the Village, where I was put in an ambulance, and rushed down to Flagstaff Medical Center where the stroke was confirmed.  I have zero lasting effects from the stroke as I write this morning.  My doctor told me I had just won the lottery when all the symptoms disappeared within 24 hours (right side weakness, slurring words, right side of my mouth drooping, etc.).  Today marks 7 years since that day.  As you may recall, if you are a frequent reader, he stroke was the result of untreated high blood pressure.

TLE and I were up around 6 am Thursday morning to get ready for our 5.5 hour drive back to TWW.  After posting pictures of our Christmas day, and publishing my latest blog post we were out the door by 7:30 am.  We made a stop at the local ARCO gas station to refill the VW tank, and then Ralph's Supermarket to buy a few things before getting on I-210 east bound around 8 am.  The drive eastward was beautiful, and uneventful.....

....I drove the first 160 miles, then TLE took over the helm until we got to Kingman, where we refilled the VW tank once again for the final 67 miles home.  We lost an hour when we crossed the Colorado River into Arizona, but we were still home by 2:20 pm....not too bad!

Charles and Phyllis had arrived at TWW a couple of hours before us, and will be here through Saturday morning.  It took us about an hour to get unpacked, and put away everything, and by that time Phyllis was ringing the dinner bell.  It is good to be back home to our Newell cocoon, sleeping in our own bed once again, with no outside ambient light, and no city noise....just the sounds, and the dark skies of the high desert. 

Thanks for stopping by!