Day 2 - Beaver, UT - Part One

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - -Robert Louis Stevenson

Day Two - Henderson, NV to Beaver, Utah - Daily distance - 238 miles, The Bucket Trip distance - 665 miles

I think the two things that prepared me for this journey with my mom were sweeping at Disneyland and becoming a parent.

As it is now, I'm helping with dressing and carrying. Soon, I'll have to assist with changing and feeding. I'm prepping for that time now. I've already cleaned up after the worst messes that humans can create in a theme park. My mom can't make a mess that I haven't seen AND had to clean up before. And when I had to put on her shoes today, it was easier than dressing my five year old boy.

The three of us are starting to develop a routine. Jack is now lack a tag team partner in wrestling. We each take turns doing what we need to do to help my mom and to take care of ourselves ("You go get your mother breakfast and bring it back here. Once your here, I'll take bags out to the car and have breakfast. Got it? BREAK!).

Whatever the rhythm is, it is working.

I'm also determined to do better with getting my mom in and out of the car. I've put away my flip flops. Can't get enough support with those on to pick her up. The acting of moving her from chair to bed or chair to car or car to chair has become a combination of a trust fall and a Olympic event.

She has to trust that we are going to keep her safe. That's got to be hard when she's already fallen a number of times in this last month.

And then after I move her, I'm feel like I'm waiting for the judges to give me my scores.

It has come to this. The success or failure of my day is no longer how much work I produce. It is "did I keep my mom safe?"

That's it. That is all that matters for now.

The drive goes by very quick for me today. I'm focused on documenting what is going on while my Mom and Jack are discussing the changes in the fauna as we move from region to region. They get very excited about the appearance of "Red Rocks." I mean, REALLY EXCITED.

My Mom wants to make sure that I see them too. "John, do you see the RED ROCKS?!?"

"Uh...Yeah. They're some sweet Red Rocks out there."

She's disappointed that I'm not sharing her excitment but I just get excited about other things. My favorite thing to do right now is to take pictures of signs that I don't normally see in Southern California. Or signs that are unintentionally funny for me. The camera on the iPad has a nice shutter speed so I'm getting good at getting some nice shots.

I missed my favorite sign today though - Free Armeggedon Survival Kits (with a mushroom cloud on it). THIS IS TOTALLY THE AMERICA THAT I'M DYING TO SEE!!! I'll get better at finding those signs.

The other thing that I'm enjoying on this trip is the sharing of stories. Today, my mom decided it was my turn. She asked me to tell her the story of when my daughter, Maddy, was born. It instantly makes me tear up. I miss my children terribly already. I ask her why she wants to hear that one.

"Because it is a very happy memory of mine and I want to think about that right now."

So I tell her the story of when my little Maddy was born. My voice doesn't tremble but tears streak my face like rain drops hitting the red rocks that we are driving by.