After ten days on the road, finally back in dry, dry Socal. Was a good trip, and we completed enough COVID/Delta risk mitigations that I feel OK about the travel. The air here is definitely cooler and drier, a bit of a relief. I suppose nowhere is perfect – KY gets to be green and lush and CA gets to have more comfortable air. At least when it’s not burning down.

The news today is all about (a) the “terrible” job that Biden is doing in the Afghanistan withdrawl, and (b) the arcane process the House is using to pass the $3.5T relief bill and a subsequent $1T-ish infrastructure bill. With all due respect to my fiscally-conservative friends, I hope both measures pass. Conflating these two unrelated actions, I very much approve of spending our money on improving the situation here in the US rather than spending it on policing the un-policeable Middle East. The infinite war in Iraq/Afghanistan has cost trillions and I didn’t hear any fiscally conservative folks complain about that. So let’s just shift the money to build some US bridges, patch some roads, install some broadband service and generally improve things at home. Also, the infrastructure spending is unlikely to result in US soldier casualties and maiming. Nuff said.

The picture below shows how badly our mountain roads need repair.

There were lots of good memories from this trip, including:

• The ATV trip up the mountain
• Meals cooked and eaten together with the Alkire clan
• Riding an N-guage train through the southern Rockies
• Wrestling around with the grandsons
• Realizing that Spalding’s glazed doughnuts are even better than I remembered
• Finding good furnishings at good prices for the KY house with K
• The Woodland Art Fair
• Doing a good thing and visiting some folks who needed a visit – Dad, Phyllis and Mattie Moore

And after all, that’s why we travel – to collect experiences and memories.