One Thousand Five Hundred Seventy-three Miles

Yes, that's how many miles I traveled over the Thanksgiving weekend. My sister and I left my home on Thanksgiving morning around 8:45am. We drove straight through to Coeur d'Alene with only minimal stops. We arrived around 5:30pm local time (Utah is an hour later). We found a little diner that was open and got ourselves a nice Turkey dinner. Then we finished our trip with 15 more miles north to Athol.

(I spoke to my brother, Gary, last night and he says he's never made the trip from here all the way to Coeur d'Alene he stops in Missoula. He's such a wimp, Missoula is still 2.5 hours from Coeur d'Alene.)

Athol is the size of a flea speck. The town consists of a light on the highway with a gas station, diner, grocery store, post office and little Seventh Day Adventist church. The sign in front of the church said "Pray for Dr. Park". That's who we made the trip to visit with, Dr. Park aka Uncle Rex. To get to the Park home, there are no street signs you just drive down the highway at 65mph and watch the mile markers. You turn just past marker 162. It's a little dicey if you have traffic on your rear bumper and you're trying not to miss the turn in the dark.

Okay, a little history here. I am the youngest of four kids. I was born in Riverside, California. We lived there until I was seven, then we moved to Utah. The Park family were our next-door neighbors. My sister, Madge, and Sherry Park were inseperable. I must confess that I don't have a lot of memories 'cause hey, I was seven when we moved. Madge is nine years older than me so being as she lived next to the Park family from about age 9 to age 16 her memories are much stronger. Madge is the reason I made the trip. She desperately wanted to see Rex and Sherry and everyone else.

Rex is 87 years old. He's currently in the VA Hospital in Spokane recovering from a broken hip. He was in Seattle about six weeks ago and fell and broke his hip. As soon as they could, he as transferred to Spokane so that he could be closer to home. He really isn't doing very well. His prostate cancer is back and he had hidden that from his family until this hospitalization. Now he seems to have lost his will to live and he's pretty much refusing to eat. It's quite sad.

I'll tell you all about my new boyfriend tomorrow. His name is Roman, but that's all I'm going to say for now.