The construction at our house in the aftermath of the great flood of 2012 is at last crossing the finish line.  As I write this, the water is shut off while the plumbers install the leak protector that would have prevented all the damage in the first place.  In other words, you can file this under “Closing the barn door after the horse has departed.”

But now we’re departing, too.  Heading for sunny Tucson, right?  Where yesterday the golf tournament at Dove Mountain was SNOWED OUT!!!  And there was snow on the roof of our house in Tucson, this morning, too, so maybe it’s not REALLY sunny in Tucson at the moment.  Or warm.  But we’re heading there anyway.

Long ago, my mother left Bisbee to go off on a European adventure.  She started the trip by having my father drive her to Bowie, Arizona, where she caught a train.  (For those of you who are NOT from Arizona, the name of that town is pronounced BOOIE as in “scared you” not BOWIE as in bow and arrow.)  Back to my mother’s trip.  I do not know how she caught the train in Bowie. In fact, the train may have made an unscheduled stop in order to pick her up, but catch the train she did.  From there she traveled to South Dakota to meet my grandfather, and they flew off to Europe from there.  So whenever it was time to talk about someone going to Europe, the family joke was always, “I guess you’d better start the trip in Bowie.”

For this very tardy snowbird trip we are heading to Arizona by way of Port Angeles.  A glance at the map will tell you that’s precisely the wrong direction.  It turns out, however, that we left for Arizona from Port Angeles the last time we went, too, only that time we had a plane pick us up there and deposit us in Tucson.  For this particular trip, we’re driving–two people and a little brown dog in a fully loaded car.  That way, when we pack to leave the house tomorrow morning for the Port Angeles appearance in the evening, we’ll be on our way.  We won’t have come back here and unpack and repack again before we hit the road.  That means that Port Angeles is about to come up to Bowie standards as an acceptable point of departure for Arizona just like Bowie was for Europe.

The weather in California looks problematic, so we’re planning on taking our time.  I don’t have to do another appearance until the one in Bisbee on March 2.  By the way, it snowed in Bisbee yesterday, too.

When we go there, I’ll probably have my favorite pair of sandals along in the car, but I doubt I’ll be wearing them.