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A spot.

In front of my left eye.

I remove my sunglasses, clean them, and put them back on.

The spot is still there.

I change to my regular glasses.

The spot is still there.

I remove them, clean them, and put them back on. I’m not sure why since that didn’t work with my sunglasses but I do it anyway.

The spot is still there. It looks like a piece of dust on my eyelashes.

I take off my glasses, brush my hand over my eyelashes, and put my glasses back on.

The spot is still there.

I decide to do nothing more to see if it goes away.

It doesn’t. Instead the inside of my eyelid gets irritated.

Which scares me. What if I’ve torn the lens of my eye and it is sticking to the eyelid?

So, I call my insurance company’s nurse line and she talks me through a list of symptoms. A decision tree. You know “Do you have this symptom?” If yes, go to answer 1a.  If not go to question 2. After a bunch of “no” answers she comes to the final instruction. “See your ophthalmologist today or tomorrow.” Argh!

So off to the insurance company’s website to see who is near us who takes our insurance. Where are we? White Sands National Monument. The closest town is Alamogordo, New Mexico. The website says five approved ophthalmologists there, four of which have the same address and phone number.

I call the number. They can see me four days from now. I reply that I won’t be here four days from now, could they, please, try to see me sooner. She says I can come in at 8 am tomorrow and they’ll try to work me in.

So I get up at 6:30 the next morning. Yup. Me. At 6:30 am. And we get to the clinic 10 minutes before it opens. I am the second person to sign in. And the second person they see even though there are others there who actually have appointments.

The doctor says, “Yes, I see the spot.” I reply, “Oh, good.” He says, “No, you are not crazy.”

It seems us old people all get these spots. It’s a type of floater called a cloud. It’s not really floating, though. It’s a shadow cast by a spot in the back of my eye where the  vitreous gel inside my eye is pulling away from the back wall of my eye causing a posterior vitreous detachment. Now you know.

This one is not something to worry about.

The next one, however, could be so if I get any more or see any flashes of light I need to be seen again. Somewhere. Wherever we happen to be then.

Thanks, Doc. And thanks Blue Cross for paying for my reassurance.

TTYL,

Linda

By the way, the irritation inside my eyelid is from spending too much time in the desert without using eye drops. They give me a sample and a list of drops they recommend. I guess, it makes sense that my eyes should be getting as dry as my skin is. So now I have moisturizer for my eyes. Who knew?

Ice?

Nope.

Snow?

Nope.

Sailboats?

Nope.

Sledding hill?

Yes. A saucer sled recently went down this hill.

On sand. White sand. Gypsum sand. At White Sands National Monument, New Mexico.

Miles and miles of white sand.

Accessible sand where you are invited to go play.

This is a national park, though, so be sure to empty your shoes before you leave.

TTYL,

Linda

Driving along Highway 380 in New Mexico we suddenly came to this odd landscape.

So we turned into the Valley of Fires BLM campground where we got water and electrical hookups for $9 a night with our National Parks discount card.

From our site we could see a board walk so Dave took a hike. Here’s some of what he saw.

If you’d like to see lava without the expense of a trip to Hawaii, I invite you to

TTYL,

Linda

Alexa asked what our motorhome looks like with the slides in. It looks like this.

The chairs are strapped to the table for moving but it’s a quick release buckle so we can use the table easily at rest stops. Dave’s bag and the table leaf are seatbelted to the couch. The other things there are soft enough to not kill us should we ever roll the motorhome. The footstool wedges into the recliner. The white spot on the counter is a paper towel we put there to catch drips from the faucet while moving. It’s amazing how much water sits in that goose neck faucet.

I can negotiate the aisle to the bathroom with all the slides in.

The bathroom itself is not on a slide so only opening the big slide increases the space here.

Here’s the bedroom packed for moving.

It’s far enough away to not worry about these things flying up front in case of an accident and they sink into the memory foam topper enough to stay put in any lesser stop. To sleep with the slides in we’d have to unpack the bed then Dave would have to climb over me since there is no room to walk around the bed. So far, we’ve always been able to open at least one bedroom slide which let’s him walk to his side of the bed but not put the chair there we usually sit on to dress. That’s me in the mirrored closet door showing you how “spacious” the aisle is. I quickly learned not to leave my jacket in the closet when preparing for travel.

If I unpack my footstool and sit in my recliner Dave has to step over my feet. Plus, I have to point my feet into the space one side or the other of the counter. With one slide open I don’t have to point my feet there but Dave still has to step over me.

Here’s what the table looks like in three positions: closed all the way for moving, opened enough for lunch on the road, and opened enough to insert the leaf when all the slides are opened.

Can we live in here with all the slides closed? If we have to do so. We made sure I could get to everything (except clothes) with the slides in before we bought this RV. But, I sure hope we never actually have to do so.

TTYL,

Linda

How it got its name.

The narrows. Those upright rocks line the left side of the drop-off.

The narrows with a car on it and the right side drop-off.

Looking down at the river you can’t get to from here.

I’m so glad we are not here with any children.

See Shafer Road? Coming down the far hill, crossing the middle of the picture and leaving in the lower right?

Dave spent days asking everyone he thought might know about the advisability of him driving this in our Honda CR-V. He was told it is not a technical road, that it gets a bit chunky in places so you have to be careful that sets of tires go the same way at the same time, that it’s expensive to get towed out of there, and that if he got through the bottom 2 1/2 miles he should be OK. He decided not to try it this trip. I think the next time we come here he’ll try to rent a Jeep. That was my suggestion.

TTYL,

Linda