Back to Baltimore from Tucson May 2024

The best thing about leaving Tucson is the drive through the country via museums, diners, audiobooks, and visiting family and friends we only see once a year during this trip back to our Baltimore home. 

Highlights were Del's Diner in New Mexico, the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City, Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville AK, a day with Jody, my cousin in KC, 5 days in St. Louis to have breakfast with Roger, who was in my wedding party, and Mike, a high school friend who met Lynne and me at the St. Louis Art Museum for the last day of a Matisse show, and dinner with Marcy and my sister, Helene. Lynne spendttime helping her brother and visiting her cousin and old friends.  After leaving St. Louis, we stopped in Indianapolis, stayed overnight with Dave and Audrey, and spent the day before leaving at Newfields, the museum of art..

We listened to Percival Everett's Erasure on which American Fiction is based. Good listen.

We never drove more than 4-5 hours, stopping frequently and had no close calls on the road!!

A highlight of the stay in Tucson in 2024 was my 85th birthday party. Niki and Ryan came in for the event and joined 30 friends, some who were visiting Tucson from Boston at the time. Lynne's brother Gary and his wife, Debbie, drove in from San Diego.  We used a Peruvian restaurant we like to cater the food, and Lynne made a great chocolate bundt cake and I made 3 flan in the pressure cooker for dessert. 

 As the oldest person in the room, I offered advice before dessert was served:

ADVICE from an 85yo on his Birthday

·                     Don't smoke

·                     Don't eat red meat

·                     Have a mother who lived past 99

·                     Ride a bike

·                     Signal when changing lanes but be careful anyway

·                     Don't drive when tired and pull over for a 10 min nap when sleepiness starts

·                     Don't read the news before bedtime

·                     It is claimed that having a dog extends your life but it also shortens your leash. Same goes for owning a boat. I saved a lot of wasted years by staying away from both. 

·                     Being occasionally sullen, having short bouts of anger or withdrawal, being compulsive about the wrong things, being too critical of others or not being supportive are among the things that may or may not shorten the years but is time that could have been better spent.

·                     Don't worry that you did not spend enough time with the kids when they were growing up because they did turn out great anyway

·                     Don't fret if the kids don't call every week because you know they will be there if you need them

·                     Finally: Marry a smart and emotionally stable person, who also happens to be beautiful.