#i have to go renovate one of the passports -_- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

travelingtheusa · 2 years

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NEVADA

2023 Jan 5 (Thu) – I have been spending the last few days hip deep in paperwork confirming reservations for campgrounds, meals and activities on our Alaska caravan. One campground had been sold and the former owner never put our reservation in the system. Luckily, I called early in the year and the new owner still had space for us.

At 6:30 p.m. we met Joan & Peter and Adam, Diane & Devin at Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ for dinner. It rained all day and everything was wet. The food was disappointing – Paul’s brisket was dry and my ribs were tough and chewy. The potato salad was out of this world! We said good-bye to everyone as we are leaving tomorrow. It’s been two long months and we are anxious to get back on the road. It’s off to Texas to buy a new truck. Hope the one we scoped out is still there. Fingers crossed.

2023 Jan 4 (Wed) – We stayed in all day. I spent the day confirming reservations and coordinating deposit payments for our Alaska Caravan.

The contract agency working for the VA called me today to go over my medical condition. The doctor asked me lots of prepared questions about my lymphoma and its current status. This was in response to the claim I filed under the PACT Act for disability.

I also got a call from my gastroenterologist. I have been having indigestion since September and nothing seems to work. I also have been suffering from a frequent cough that feels like it’s coming from my stomach. He advised me to see an ENT. I guess I’ll have to schedule an appointment to see one when I go back to New York next month. I spent the afternoon making doctor appointments. Paul is working on our route to a major airport so I can fly back to New York. I will wind up going back about 2 weeks earlier than I had planned to.

2023 Jan 3 (Tue) – I cooked up some egg cups and blueberry muffins this morning. They’re nice to have when we are on the road. We ran a bunch of errands today. We stopped at Lowe’s for wing nut that broke on Paul. Do you know how hard it is to find one little tiny wing nut among ALL the nuts and bolts in Lowe’s??? He finally found something but it turned out to be the wrong size. He’ll have to go back and hunt through the drawers for another one.

We stopped at O’Reilly Auto so Paul could get some sticky spray for the fan belt. He thinks it’s slipping when the gear shifts. Then we drove to Skechers where I got two pairs of shoes. After that, we tried to find a post office. The first one we stopped at did not have a service window. How weird. The next one was a full service office but it was packed. I got on line (I was number 12) with one agent at the window. There was another one but he was only handling passports. About half way through the line, another agent opened a window but it was still slow despite having two windows open.

I mailed a packet to the NYS Tax Department in answer to their claim that we do not live in New York. It had a deadline and I sent it registered mail on December 7. I have been checking it and the website just tells me “it’s in the network.” What the heck is that? I asked the mail clerk and he said it means it’s probably lost somewhere. I’ll have to send the documents again and hope the department doesn’t blame me for the post office’s shortcoming.

2023 Jan 2 (Mon) – We took down the Christmas tree today. The place seems empty now. We went food shopping, got fuel and had lunch at Jack in the Box. We were the only people in the restaurant. There was a fairly regular stream of cars going through the drive-in. I guess people don’t like going inside any more.

2023 Jan 1 (Sun – New Year’s Day) – Peter cooked up biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After visiting for a while, we went over their neighbor’s house, Maggie. They wanted us to see renovations she had made to her condo. It was fantastic.

We went back to Joan & Pete’s where Joan made pea soup (for good luck), ham with cherry sauce, and mac & cheese. Everything was delicious.

We left at 3:00 p.m. Sheba sure was glad to see us! We napped then took some ornaments off our tree. We will do a few each day till it’s done.

2022 Dec 31 (Sat – New Year’s Eve) – We met Joan & Pete at the Red Rock Casino for dinner at Hank’s Steakhouse. Barbara & Preston also met us there. We played the slots (all lost), then had dinner. It was late. Our reservation was for 9:15 p.m. We didn’t get seated until almost 10 p.m. We were finishing our meal at 11:40 p.m. We had to rush out of the restaurant to catch the fireworks show. We were parked in the garage overlooking the Strip in the distance. It was a great place to see the entire show. All the casinos released fireworks. I guess they were in sync because they released the fireworks at the same time and were the same color: red, green and white.

After the show, we went back to Joan & Pete’s and spent the night there. Didn’t want to take a chance with drunk drivers on the road.

2022 Dec 30 (Fri) – We stayed in today.

2022 Dec 29 (Thu) – We joined Joan & Peter for dinner at their friend’s home. Barbara & Preston are a delightful couple with lots of European experiences. Barbara is from Germany and sells medical items. Preston is a real estate agent. She made rouladen, potato dumplings, red cabbage, and an orange dessert. It was all very good. Afterward, we taught Barbara & Preston to play 31.

2022 Dec 28 (Wed) – We went to Lucille’s Smokehouse BBQ. Adam & Diane gave us a gift card for Christmas. It turned out I put the wrong address in the GPS and we took a long ride out of the way. We finally figured it out and got to the restaurant. The food was good and we have about $10 left on the card.

We also stopped to get some propane. The weather is starting to get warmer. A terrible winter storm hit the northeast area. Over 30 people died in Buffalo alone. It’s been cold here but is slowly warming up.

2022 Dec 27 (Tue) – We met our friend, Linda, for an early dinner at Juan’s Flaming Fajitas. We met Linda and her husband, Mark, on the Canadian Maritimes Caravan. They were the Tail Gunners on the caravan. Mark passed away about 9 months after the caravan. They were a wonderful couple and she is a very nice woman. We enjoyed our visit very much.

2022 Dec 26 (Mon) – We were invited back to Adam & Diane’s for leftovers. Afterward we played 31.

2022 Dec 25 (Sun – CHRISTMAS) – We went over Adam & Diane’s house for dinner. They had 19 people over. Of course, there was lots of food and drink. It was a fun day. They played a game where something (a gift card, I think) was wrapped in saran wrap along with other things. They passed the ball around the table and you had to try to unwrap the saran wrap with one hand while the next person rolled the dice. When they got doubles on the dice, they took control of the ball. As it unwrapped, little things dropped out, like candies and such.

We also did a gift exchange. Everyone brought a gift. When they arrived, the gift as given a number. Then we shot a nerf gun at a bunch of dixie cups covered with tissue paper. When the bullet penetrated the paper, you got a number inside the cup. After everyone got a number, we sat around the room and picked the gift with the matching number. One guy got a “STEAL” rather than a number. So he stole my gift! I had a nice portable cooler and he had chosen my gift of assorted cookies. So he took my cooler and gave me back my cookies!

2022 Dec 24 (Sat) – I spent the afternoon calling all my brothers and sister to wish them a Merry Christmas. We went over Joan & Peter’s for open house tonight. We stayed until 10:30 pm, then drove down the street to a United Methodist Church. The service felt a little cold but it had a nice candlelight service. We had communion and stood in a circle with our candles singing Silent Night. We got back to the campground around 12:30 p.m.

2022 Dec 23 (Fri) – We worked around the RV until lunch time. Paul is busy making a beanbag baseball table. I was working on emails and drafting the book for the National Muster next year.

At 11:30 a.m. we drove into town to pick up some groceries at WalMart. We stopped at Lowe’s so Paul could pick up paint and a rotor blade. On the way back, we spotted a liquor store and stopped in to see if we could find Forty Creek. We have been in several liquor stores throughout Nevada and no one has had it. This store did! We bought 4 bottles. 😊

2022 Dec 22 (Thu) – We did laundry this morning. What a pain in the arse! There are only 3 washing machines and 3 dryers in a tiny room. Two washers were being used so we could only do one load. We put the clothes for another load on top of the machine and left. When we returned, one dryer was open. So the wet clothes went into the dryer and the next load went into the washer. Having to do laundry like that makes it twice as long to do. Ugh.

There was a campground potluck today. We brought Godiva chocolates and gummy dice. As usual, the food was plentiful and delicious.

2022 Dec 21 (Wed) – We met Joan & Peter at Tuscany Gardens for dinner. It is an Italian Steakhouse. We arrived first so had drinks at the bar while we waited for them to arrive. Then we sat at the table and enjoyed a delicious meal. After dinner, we went to see the Rat Pack. It is three performers who represent the original Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Jr.). The Dean Martin look alike managed to resemble Dean. The Frank Sinatra impersonator did not look anything like Frank but had a voice that sounded just like the original. The Sammy Davis, Jr. character did not resemble nor sound like Sammy. The show was good any way and the guys were pretty entertaining.

2022 Dec 20 (Tue) – We went to the factory again today. Paul worked around the place, moving inventory and restocking shelves. I sorted chocolate coins all day. By the end of the day, my back was squawking from standing all day long. I was glad to get home and sit on a heating pad.

2022 Dec 19 (Mon) – We went into the chocolate factory today to help. Paul and I packed net bags with chocolate coins. Peter made cotton candy all day. Joan bought us lunch after working on accounts all day. Adam was out making calls on stores up and down the strip. I also finished closing out all the 2021 accounts. It is kind of thrilling to see the big name casinos flash by – Mandalay Bay, MGM, Luxor, etc.

After we finished helping out, we drove home to feed Sheba. Then we drove to the Palace Station Casino to watch the new movie, Avatar. It was over 3 hours long but the graphics were amazing. We saw it in 3D. It was pretty good.

2022 Dec 18 (Sun) – I decided to file a claim in person with the VA. I made an appointment for Wednesday. We’ll see how that goes.

We went to the Candy Cane house tonight. It is a home owned by two men who open their home to the public for the Christmas holidays. They have their home decorated in steroid fashion! There were 50 trees in their house. Decorations were hanging from the ceilings. There were lights, and garland, and the decorations everywhere you looked. It had to take them 2 months to do all those decorations.

2022 Dec 17 (Sat) – We spent all morning in the VA today. The PACT Act was passed in August and has far reaching implications. Over 20 medical conditions have been added to a list of maladies that the VA deems as “preemptive.” That means that if you have the condition, you do not have to prove you got it from your military service. It is presumed that if you served during a certain time period in a particular area, you contracted the disease even if it didn’t show up immediately. Lymphoma is one of the conditions recognized for Post 9-11 veterans. I served in Iraq/Kuwait/Afghanistan in 2005 and was diagnosed with lymphoma 12 years later in 2017. I wanted to see how to file a claim. The VA held a town hall that told everyone about the PACT Act but wasn’t much help that. They had a number of departments present with information and giveaways in the atrium. We collected information and left. I will file a claim online.

We met Joan, Peter and Janice at the Italian American café for dinner at 7 p.m. It was a delightful Las Vegas style meal with entertainment. A singer with a small 3-man band sang and joked with the audience. It was a lot of fun.

2022 Dec 16 (Fri) – We went to the PX today to get Paul some jeans and shoes. I got a notice from the PX that they were giving 15% off on purchases made with the military card. Add to that the fact that we pay no sales tax and the savings are significant. We wound up getting Paul two pairs of jeans and a shirt.

After the PX, we went to the commissary and got some groceries. We stopped for lunch at the food court. I ordered at Sarku Japan. Boy, was that a mistake! It took over half an hour to get our food. They kept goofing up on the orders. They ran out of chicken and had to cook a new batch twice. Along with me, there were about 10 people standing around waiting for their orders. I like Sarku but I don’t think the wait and worry are worth it.

At 4 p.m., we drove toward Joan’s place. Their friend from New York, Janice, flew in today and is staying with them for a few days. We stopped at DSW to get Paul some dress shoes. They didn’t have the make he wanted so he got something else (:-/).

We arrived at Joan & Pete’s, met Janice, talked for a bit, then drove to the Green Valley casino for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. The food was good and plentiful. The margaritas weren’t that good. After dinner, we played the slots.

2022 Dec 15 (Thu) – I continued to work on the caravan today. Paul continued working around the RV. We never left the campground. Miranda’s birthday is tomorrow so I ordered flowers to be delivered.

2022 Dec 14 (Wed) – Paul finished up on the wheels today. I spent the day working on caravan and SMART correspondence. What a job trying to arrange an excursion to the Arctic Circle. We can either fly (5-6 hours) or drive (14-16 hours) but we can’t fly and rive, which would be perfect. We may wind up renting a car and driving to the Arctic Circle. It will be the cheapest way to go, short of taking our own truck, but it will be a looooong day. We had planned to have the excursion on the last day in Fairbanks but if we wind up having a problem and being held over, it would be a problem as we are scheduled to leave the next day. So I called the company that we scheduled a bus tour of Fairbanks two days earlier to see if we could switch the days. It was like juggling 4 balls in the air.

2022 Dec 13 (Tue) - It was a laid back, lazy day. Paul worked around the trailer, greasing the bearings and getting the tires changed. I did email and correspondence with folks on the Alaska caravan. I called Sloan Kettering to have a refill of my medication sent. My cousin, Kathy, called yesterday and we had a pleasant talk. She’s going to Florida for a few months. It’s coming up on one year since her father – my cousin, Claude – passed away. The change will do her good.

We ran a lot of errands today. Poor Paul. He was working on getting the wheels of the trailer greased and ready for travel. Unfortunately, he could only get two wheels done. He drove around trying to find parts but everywhere he went, they didn’t have them. Finally, he drove to the warehouse but it turned out to not to be the warehouse. The guy called over to the warehouse for Paul and arranged to have them ship the parts to the NAPA store near the campground. Later in the afternoon, after we had gone food shopping, we stopped at NAPA and the parts were there.

2022 Dec 12 (Mon) – The search for a new truck and RV is on! We searched on line and the kind of truck we want (diesel, 2 wheel drive, camper package prep, long bed, etc.) seem to be mostly located in Texas. The RVs, however, seem to be in Arizona. We are changing our travel plans. We had planned to go to Arizona for the next 3 months. Now, we are headed to Texas first. The truck is the most important item to replace first, then the RV.

2022 Dec 11 (Sun) – We drove to Boulder City and met Joan & Peter and Lynn & David (their friends) at The Patio, a restaurant next to Chilly Jilly’s. We enjoyed brunch then drove to Henaway Park and saw 3 bighorn rams grazing in the park. There were no signs of the rest of the herd but they didn’t seem fazed by all the attention. They simply went on eating.

We returned to the camper for the afternoon, then at 4:00 pm, we drove to Joan & Peter’s for dinner. Joan made chicken crust pizza. She shredded chicken, put in in the oven for 10 minutes, mixed the chicken with eggs and spices, put it back in the oven for 10 minutes, then put toppings on it and put it back in the oven to brown. It was tasty.

Their friends, Barbara & Preston, came over to visit and we had a delightful evening. Barbara is German and the way she talks makes everything sound funny. She is a delightful, spirited personality.

2022 Dec 10 (Sat) – We mailed off the last of the Christmas packages today. Ouch! It cost $142 to mail a box to Miranda. We could have bought a nice gift with that money! The price of postage seems to be getting out of hand real fast.

We stayed around the camper today. I have been coughing and hacking since my return from New York. I probably should go to the doctor but I don’t want to. We picked up some decongestant and cough syrup at Walgreens.

2022 Dec 9 (Fri) – We stayed around the campground all day. At 4:00 pm, we drove to Joan & Pete’s to join them at their condo Christmas party. It was a small group crowded into a small room. At 6:30 pm, a group of students from the local college came in to sing. There were 8 of them – 3 men and 5 women. They sang a Capello and were phenomenal! We enjoyed their singing very much.

After dinner, we drove to one of Joan & Pete’s friends home in the condo community and played 31. I won the first game and she won the second.

2022 Dec 8 (Thu) – Paul dropped the truck off at Diesel Specialists this morning then walked the four miles back to base because we couldn’t get the Uber app to work. Late in the afternoon, when Paul called to see if the truck was ready, they told him they had to keep it overnight. He had brought it in for a small oil leak and asked to have the gasket replaced. It turned out that Ford uses a seal rather than a gasket on the oil pan. The seal needed ten hours to cure.

Christy flew back home on the red eye. It was nice to see the siblings visit with each other. The only other one left is Fred who lives somewhere down south. He is estranged from the rest of the family.

2022 Dec 7 (Wed) – We drove to the Valley of Fire State Park to meet up with Joan, Peter and Christy. We then drove through the park, stopping at a couple of sites before pulling out the coolers and enjoying lunch in the middle of the red rocks. It was cool and you needed a jacket. It was overcast and there were occasional sprinkles. We briefly a trail to Mouse’s Tank; Christy quit half way up.

After the park, we drove to Juan’s Flaming Fajitas for dinner. It was a great Mexican restaurant with good food. We all (except Christy) had margaritas. Paul & I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home because Sheba was out of can food.

2022 Dec 6 (Tue) – We met Joan, Pete and Chris at the Rio. WOW Las Vegas, a variety talent show, was playing. The show was very good. Afterward, we drove to Fremont Street. I really like that place! It is bright and noisy and filled with people. There are circles on the floor where beggars can sit and beg or performers can do their street act or vendors can sell their wares.

2022 Dec 5 (Mon) – Today was a day we took Christy around the strip to introduce her to the Las Vegas life style. We went to Circus Circus for dinner then walked through the Palazzo, the Venetian, and the Bellagio. The Bellagio had their Christmas display on with giant trees and characters as well as a large ginger bread house you could walk through. Christy was very impressed. And who wouldn’t be?!?!?

2022 Dec 4 (Sun) – We went over Adam & Diane’s house today. The plan was to decorate their Christmas tree. Joan, Pete, and Christy also came over. I lay down and fell asleep on the couch. I must have been very tired. They made a delicious corn chowder and a kind of chicken pie. Everything was very tasty. Diane was not feeling well so she stayed in bed.

After Adam’s, we went to the PX. I ran out of Christmas cards so we had to buy more. We also picked up gifts for the gift exchange at a Christmas party we will be going to.

2022 Dec 3 (Sat) – Joan & Paul’s sister, Christy, flew in last night and is spending the week with Joan & Peter. We drove over at 2 pm and spent the afternoon decorating their Christmas tree. Adam, Diane and Devin also came over to help with the decorating.

At 6 pm, we all drove over to the Sunset Station Casino for dinner. The reservations apparently didn’t go through so we had to walk around the casino for while looking for a place that could accommodate 8 for dinner. When it didn’t work out, Adam and his family decided to leave. Then the 5 of us went back to the pasta place for dinner that we were originally going to eat at. We all enjoyed a fine meal. And the charges weren’t too bad – at least, compared to what we’ve been spending lately.

Paul, Joan, Peter, and I all played the slot machines. I lost $20. Paul won $47. Joan won $35. Peter won $70. A successful night for most of us.

2022 Dec 2 (Fri) – We drove to the shop again where Paul and Peter continued painting and repairing the floor. Joan and I went to the nearby beauty school and got facials. It was the first time I have done that. I’m sure I really cared for it. But we did walk away with smooth and moisturized skin.

The guys went bowling while we got our beauty treatments. We met them at the Station Casino and went to Fatburger for lunch. After lunch, Joan and Peter went to Costco to pick up groceries. We went to WalMart to pick up a few things then met them at their condo. We all changed into nice clothes then went to the Gambit, a jazz dinner club. We had steaks and drinks and watched the jazz band with singer perform. It was a very expensive night!

2022 Dec 1 (Thu) – Wow! It’s December. The year is almost over and another one is set to begin. Time is flying by.

We drove to Joan’s business, Vegas Image, this morning. Paul and Peter worked on repairing the floor while I got on the computer and closed out accounts for 2021. Adam was out delivering product on the strip. When we were done, we drove to Joan & Pete’s to change, then went to dinner at Don Juan’s Mexican Restaurant. It was good.

2022 Nov 30 (Wed) – We went out for breakfast to IHOP. The food was good. The menu listed our meal at $11.99 each for 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon or 2 sausages, hash browns and toast. The waitress gave us a senior discount and we only wound up paying $7.99 each. That was a VERY nice discount.

We then rode over to the VA Medical Center on Pecos Rd but we couldn’t find a parking space. The place was packed. So we gave up and went in search of a supermarket. We came upon a WalMart and shopped there.

When we got back, I threw on some vegetables to bring to a potluck the campground was sponsoring today. We were a few minutes late but there was plenty to eat. Lots of pumpkin pies and sweet potatoes show people had leftovers from Thanksgiving. We spoke with a widow who lives full time on the road but spends six months in one place then six months in another. Can that really be considered full timing?

At 7 p.m. we went out to see if we could catch the ISS flying overhead. There was way too much light in the area. Most of the stars were indistinguishable. We could not spot the ISS. Maybe tomorrow.

2022 Nov 29 (Tue) – I spent the morning paying bills. We ran out of propane overnight and Paul ran out to get the tank refilled. We spent time searching the internet for trucks and RVs. This is going to prove challenging.

2022 Nov 28 (Mon) – We rode over to the UPS store in the PX and mailed off another package. Then we went to the post office, bought stamps, and mailed off the first batch of Christmas cards. We stopped for lunch at Farmers Boy. It was a fast food restaurant that offered burgers and several salads. Paul got the southwest salad and I got the cobb salad. They were very large and I couldn’t eat all of mine. There was a guy sitting outside the restaurant with a little dog holding a sign stating he was homeless. We bought him a breakfast sandwich and a plain burger for the dog.

2022 Nov 27 (Sun) – We spent the day decorating our tree. Boy, do we have a lot of ornaments!! There were twelve shoe boxes packed full of ornaments that we put up. And there are STILL boxes that were not unpacked. Whew!

We went out to dinner with Joan & Pete tonight for Italian food. The place was named Prosecco. Paul had clams and I had a sole. The food was good and, yes, expensive. After dinner, we went over to their house where they invited a friend to join us for cards. We played three rounds of 31. Paul won two and Joan won one. It was fun.

2022 Nov 26 (Sat) – Paul spent the day putting together our Christmas tree and I worked on our Christmas letter and sending out cards. I cooked a turkey breast for us and we used some of the leftovers Joan gave us from Thanksgiving dinner.

We ran out to ship off a box to Travis. While in the PX, we picked up a few items then drove to the commissary and got a few groceries.

2022 Nov 25 (Fri) – Paul found a number to call at Amazon for help with the packages that can’t be delivered on base. After some frustrating discussion, I had the four packages rerouted to Joan & Pete’s house for delivery.

I spent the day working on gathering a list of our activities for the year. This is for the annual Christmas letter I send out with our Christmas cards.

2022 Nov 24 (Thu – Thanksgiving Day) – We went over Joan & Pete’s for dinner tonight. Adam, Diane & Devin were there as well as their friends, Ty, Robin & Sophie. Of course, there was way too much food and we were all stuffed to the hilt when all was said and done. After dinner, we played 31 then had pie and coffee.

2022 Nov 23 (Wed) – Wow! It’s been a bit of a challenge to get back on track. We have been hanging around the campground, doing laundry and taking long walks. Paul’s sister and husband, Joan & Peter, and their son and family, Adam, Diane & Devin, have visited and we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at Joan & Pete’s tomorrow. We’ve done some Christmas shopping for the kids and sent off a couple of packages. The price of shipping has really jumped! It cost us almost $100 to mail off two packages yesterday. It’s as bad as buying gift wrap, cards, and ribbon. You spend more on the wrappings then the gift! We’ve been having a problem getting some items we ordered. Apparently, the postal service USPS is not allowed on base. All deliveries have to come via UPS or FedEx. Unfortunately, the companies I ordered from have all been sending them USPS and the shipments have been rejected. Trying to get hold of companies you ordered from when the order was placed through Amazon is a real challenge.

2022 Nov 18 (Fri) – Whew! What a wild three weeks. I arrived in New York on October 27 and the very next day, began coughing and hacking. Three days later, I was positive for COVID. In addition, my son-in-law had just come out of the hospital and my daughter went into the hospital. Both of them suffered chest pains and disorientation but nothing was found. Now, they have a series of follow-ups and tests to try and figure what happened. Also, my grandson got sick and we all came down with COVID. I wound up staying until November 16. During my stay, I saw the oncologist who said my bloodwork was perfect. I also had a checkup with the ophthalmologist who also said my checkup was perfect. At least the doctor visits went well. I got to visit with my sister, Susan, and had dinner with my daughter, Gina. I got to go to church twice. There was a Veterans’ Day ceremony at town hall that was nice.

Paul moved from Pahrump to Las Vegas while I was gone. We are camped at Nellis AFB Desert Eagle RV Park in the new part. Ugh. We don't like it at all. We did the laundry today. The weather here is cold. It’s high 30s/low 40s in the morning and doesn’t get much over 65 during the day. I think it’s colder here than in New York!

2022 Oct 26 (Wed) – We left Pahrump at 9:50 am. It was almost two hours to the Lake Mead RV Village in Boulder City. We were here with the Utah Caravan in 2019. This is a beautiful area, right on the lakeshore. We face the water and overlook the water surrounded by mountains.

Right after we set up, we did the laundry. What an exercise in frustration that was! You had to buy a card; the machines didn’t take quarters. Paul tried to buy a card for $25 but when we tried to get the washers working, things didn’t work out. So, in exasperation, I pulled out my phone and downloaded the app. I was able to put $15 on my credit card and we got 3 washers working, then 3 dryers for a total of $2 a machine ($12). It cost us $5 for the card that never worked. Grrrrrrrrr.

Joan & Peter came over at 5 pm with chicken from Chilly Jilly’s. The place makes broasted chicken. It was excellent! There were also French fries, cole slaw, and biscuits. Everything was very good. After dinner, we sat around the campfire talking. It was very pleasant.

I fly out to New York tomorrow and will be gone for five days. See you when I get back.

2022 Oct 25 (Tue) - An agent from NY Life called to review our annuity with the company. After some discussion, we decided to leave everything the way it is for now. We are approaching the age where we will have to withdraw funds from our annuity so the government can get their taxes.

We went out after lunch to a shop that sells military paraphernalia. I was looking for a sticker that said something about the Cold War and anything that said I was a lady Army veteran. Didn’t find either. Didn’t find anything for Paul that said his spouse was in the army. Oh, well. I did find a ninja mask to give our grandson for Christmas. So, it wasn’t a total loss.

2022 Oct 24 (Mon) – We drove to a model home neighborhood and toured two newly built homes. The quality of construction was good and Paul was impressed with their workmanship.

After the tour, we stopped at Burger King for lunch. Then we picked up a few items at the supermarket. We saw that the rum distillery was open (we tried it yesterday but thought it was closed). We stopped in and tasted 8 different varieties. The tasting was fun and the conversation with the bartender was very pleasant. We bought the coffee flavored rum.

2022 Oct 23 (Sun) – We drove over to the Moose Lodge for breakfast. Paul had sausage gravy on biscuits. I had eggs, bacon, hash browns and a biscuit. We both had a bloody mary but it was bitter.

We met Joan & Pete and Adam, Diane & Devin at Sanders Winery at noon. We enjoyed a free tasting then drove to El Jefe’s for lunch. It was a great visit and we look forward to more interactions over the holidays.

2022 Oct 22 (Sat) – We drove 20 miles down the road to the town of Crystal. It turned out to be a pretty desolate place with no open facilities. The two or three bars in town were all closed. We didn’t see any grocery store or gas station. There were many trailers that were old and abandoned. Many houses were dilapidated and falling apart. Yet, there was a small section of homes where folks living there and their homes and cars were in decent shape.

At 4:00 pm, the Elks Lodge had a dedication ceremony for their new Elk statue out front. The wind was blowing fiercely and everyone had to hold on to their papers very tightly. That did not discourage the lodge from holding their ceremony outside or giving it its full measure. After the ceremony, we all went inside for dinner. It was a special event because the State President of the Elks Association and several other officers were present. The meal was excellent: beef stew in a bread bowl with a pumpkin crumble for dessert.

2022 Oct 21 (Fri) – We packed up and left Beatty at 9:50 am. It was only 75 miles to Pahrump so we took it easy. The drive was pleasant, always with mountains surrounding us. We arrived at the Elks Lodge at around 11:15 am. We were here in 2014. It turns out we were parked in the exact same spot 8 years ago. And neither one of us remembers this place. Weird.

There are 8 spaces in the parking lot for RV hookups. They only have electric and water stations. The lodge opened at noon. We went in and signed in but they wanted cash in payment. So we went into town to get some cash, fuel and groceries. After we returned, we made lunch then napped. At 4:45 pm, we went into the lodge for drinks and dinner. The meal was pork loin, potatoes, green beans, and ice cream with a chocolate chip cookie. We took the cookies back to the trailer to have with our coffee. While the coffee brewed, we took a walk down the road and back. It was twilight and the edge of the mountains in the west were backlit in golden light. It was beautiful. The lodge is on a higher grade than the town so we can look down on Pahrump and see all the twinkling lights at night.

2022 Oct 20 (Thu) – We drove 8 miles out of town to Death Valley, intending to just get our picture taken at the sign into the park. When we got there, we found the entrance to Death Valley National Park closed. The road was washed out by flash floods. The security guard let us walk the short distance into the park to get our picture taken with the sign.

We drove back down the road to the historic mining town of Rhyolite. We had been here back in 2014. There are few crumbling buildings and a bottle house, built entirely out of empty bottles. There had been three in town but Tom Kelly’s is the only one remaining. There was a train depot, turned casino that was fenced off. There is an attempt to save and restore it. It was used as a casino to attract tourists to the area after the town was abandoned but that, too, collapsed. There was a small museum with outdoor sculptures. The artist had friends pose for the last supper. He covered them with paper mache and after the cover hardened and they stepped out, he covered the forms in fiberglass. There were other forms he made, too. These life size sculptures stand out there in the middle of the desert like some kind of weird beacons calling visitors to come explore the area.

We drove back into town intending to have lunch at the VFW. It was an old church converted to a post. Unfortunately, they did not start serving food until 3 p.m. It was only 1:30 p.m. So, after looking around the converted old church, we drove into town and had lunch at Smokin’ J’s. The food was very good. We had leftovers to take home for tomorrow’s dinner.

2022 Oct 19 (Wed) – Paul woke me and we went to breakfast at Mel’s Diner across the street. Later, we walked across the street to a small shop selling jerky and honey. Otherwise, we spent the day hanging around the campground, working on our various projects. It was cold in the morning but got very hot in the afternoon.

2022 Oct 18 (Tue) – We left Hawthorne at 9:30 a.m. It was a long drive to Beatty. The landscape was endless miles of mountains and deserts. What few towns we passed were very small, most showing disregard for the buildings and yards. We arrived at 1:20 p.m. It turns out, we were here in 2014. And the two burros that were here then are here now. At least, I think they are the same two. They were grazing when we stepped out of the camper after set up. Of course, we had to offer them carrots which they liked very much.

This is a nice campground for a desert location. There are three rows of pull thru sites on dirt. Many trees are in the area, to include some palm trees. The owner is a former marine and very talkative. It was hard to get out of the office – he just didn’t want to stop talking.

We did the laundry. The campground has 9 washers and 4 dryers. The two dryers we first chose wouldn’t take more than 2 or 3 quarters. So we waited while they ran out their time (6 minutes for each quarter), then moved the wash to the other 2 dryers. They were working fine.

2022 Oct 17 (Mon) – We pulled up stakes and left Minden at 10:50 a.m. It was a pleasant drive through the mountains. We drove through a mountain pass with mountains rising on each side of the road. It was so impressive. We arrived at Whiskey Flats RV Park in Hawthorn around 1:15 pm. The campground is very nice. There are 4 rows of RVs; all pull-throughs. We have full hookup with 50 amp electric. There are some trees around the campground. Three rows have concrete pads; we have a dirt and gravel surface. We will only be here for tonight.

After set up, we drove into town to get fuel and lunch. There were a couple of gas stations. The cheapest was $5.69 a gallon. We stopped at the Hawthorne Ordnance Museum. It was a small place with free admission. They had many different kinds of bombs and missiles on display. The collection was a kind of mish mash of military items from WWII, Korea and Vietnam with a few things thrown in from Desert Storm.

We had lunch at El Capitan. There were about 4 eateries in town; all were casinos with cafes. I got meatloaf and Paul got butterfly shrimp. The food was decent and the price was reasonable.

2022 Oct 16 (Sun) – We went into town today to fuel up for tomorrow’s move. We also stopped at Tractor Supply to get propane and pick up cat food.

At 4 pm, we arrived at Carl & Gwen’s for dinner. Scott and his girlfriend, Patti, were there, too. We had a delightful visit. Carl was trying to cook a pork loin on the smoker but apparently he wasn’t happy and wound up cooking it on the barbecue. The dinner was excellent and Gwen made a delicious dessert. Patti got ill in the middle of dinner and Scott took her home. It turned out that she had been to a party before coming to Carl & Gwen’s and she was properly imbibed. Scott came back and we had a great visit.

I called a campground between Minden and Death Valley to make a reservation. We were supposed to drive to Death Valley but it would have been at least a six hour drive. Too long, in our book. So I found something about 120 miles down the road. That will make the next drive’s more amenable.

2022 Oct 15 (Sat) – We drove to Reno this morning. It was about a 40 minute drive. Reno bills itself as the Biggest Little City in the World. It certainly is spread out! There were 12 exits off the highway for Reno. We first went to the National Automobile Museum. There were fantastic displays on exhibit and we enjoyed the museum thoroughly. There were many one-of-a-kind vehicles and the stories about most of the cars were amusing.

Afterward, we drove to the riverwalk. Lunch was at Smith River, a restaurant right on the river. We split a cheese plate and a tri tip sandwich. As we sat looking out the window, we noticed several people walking by with wine glasses and maps. Paul remembered reading about a wine walk that takes place in Reno every third Saturday of the month. Today was the third Saturday. I asked a lady where they got the maps and we went there after our lunch. There were 20 restaurants participating in the wine walk. You just had to pay $30 per person and you got a map, bracelet and hand painted wine glass. Unfortunately, we needed to get back to Carson City to keep my appointment with the Geek Squad at Best Buy. So, we did a little walking along the river then left.

At Best Buy, the tech seemed to be confused at first but he seemed to work the problem out. I will see the next time I have to send out an email.

After Best Buy, we went to WalMart and got a few groceries. We are going to Carl & Gwen’s house tomorrow for a barbecue and want to bring wine and dessert.

2022 Oct 14 (Fri – My Birthday) – We drove to Genoa today. Genoa is the oldest settlement in Nevada. Folks still live there. We toured the Courthouse Museum then walked across the street to look over the Mormon Station. That used to be a stop on the Pony Express. What a fascinating history that is! The Pony Express only ran for 18 months until the trains came across country and made the Pony Express non-essential. It was very dangerous and demanding work. The riders were usually teenagers and they wanted them to be orphans. The route was 1,900 miles long with 184 stops of between 12 to 25 miles. The operation had 120 riders, 400 horses, and several hundred support personnel.

After the visit to Genoa, we drove back to Gardnerville where we ate at the Basque Restaurant again. The meal included stew rather than soup, bread, salad, French fries, wine, and the main dish. We brought home lots of left overs.

We tried to bring my laptop to Best Buy to see if they could fix my email. My sender name keeps coming up as TEST TEST. It happened when I first got the computer and set up my account. They did not have room for any walk-ins and I had to make an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.

2022 Oct 13 (Thu) – We were back in Carson City today. We went to the Nevada State Railroad Museum. They had some nice pieces but it was a small museum. After touring the Railroad Museum in Strasburg, PA, this one was very disappointing.

After touring the RR museum, we went to a very eclectic place for lunch – Sassafras. There were very unusual items on the menu. We ordered and enjoyed our meal very much.

We drove around Lake Tahoe today. The California side of the lake is very built up with multi-million dollar homes dotting the lakeside. Prices were pretty high. Gas was more than a $1 more than in Nevada. We did not stop to buy anything on that side of the lake. We wanted to hike a trail or two but there was no parking. Just like the other day, crowds filled the lakeside and there was no room to stop. We did stop at a visitor center but there were 2 busloads of school children running around the place. Now I understand why old people don’t like to be around youngsters. It was a pleasure to get back on the Nevada side of the lake. There was mostly pine forest with very little build up. It was a beautiful drive that we enjoyed very much.

2022 Oct 12 (Wed) – We drove into Carson City today. It is the capitol of Nevada and we toured the capitol complex. Actually, they have a capitol complex and we only went into the domed capitol. It was small; only 3 floors high. All the guards were super friendly and were very interested in our living arrangement.

After the self-guided tour of the capitol, we had lunch at Great Basin Brewery. The food was ok. After lunch, we went to the Nevada State Museum. It consisted of some log cabins that served as out buildings – a storage shed, blacksmith shop, stable, etc. The Museum contained many exhibits describing Nevada’s history. It was quite interesting.

2022 Oct 11 (Tue) – Since we only had 70 miles to go today to Minden (suburb of Carson City), we doodled around until 11 am before leaving. The ride was an easy hour to the Carson Valley Inn & RV Park. It is a campground next to a casino. This is one of the nicer campgrounds owned by a casino. It has asphalt roadways and campsites, like a parking lot, but there is grass and many trees to soften the effect. Our site has full hookups with 50-amp electric. There is not enough room for our truck so we have to park it in the nearby parking lot.

After set up, we walked over to the casino hotel lobby to sign in. We were given key cards that allow us access to the swimming pool and hot tub in the hotel, and the laundry and bathrooms in a building in the campground. We called our friends, Carl & Gwen, to let them know we had arrived. They picked us up at 5 pm and took us to dinner at JT Bar & Dining Room. It was a Basque restaurant, like the one we dined at in Elko. And it was just as delightful! There was wine, vegetable soup, beans, French fries, bread, salad, and our main course. Three of us had steak and Carl had lamb chops. Everything was excellent.

2022 Oct 10 (Mon) – We went out to get fuel for tomorrow’s move. Lunch was at the Black Bear Diner. We also stopped at WalMart to get a few things. We spent some time looking out at the field at the cows and the coyote. The owls were no where in sight.

2022 Oct 9 (Sun) – We enjoyed our vigil of the field next door, looking for the coyotes in the grass and owls in the trees, but it is time to mosey on. We packed up and left at 9:10 a.m. It was a long drive – over 200 miles and we expected everything to go smoothly. Sadly, it did not.

I had called the Rye Patch State Park Recreation Area to make a reservation a while ago. I was told they do not take reservations; it is first-come, first-serve. But, the agent said, it is not busy and we will not have any problem finding a site. When we arrived, there was no office. There was a sign posted, giving the price for non-hookup and hookup sites. As we drove around the campground, we noted that nobody seemed to have any hookups. When we got to the end of the loop, we found 3 sites with electric but they were occupied. It looked like the group had just arrived and were setting up. One of the men told us they were the only sites in the campground with electric.

We got back in the truck and drove down the road 50 miles to the Candy Beach Campground in Lovelock. The office was closed. I called and left a message on the phone that we were at the office and looking for a campsite for two nights. Then I walked around the campground. It seemed like all the campsites were taken by full timers, probably workers in the area. I found an empty site and knocked on the door of the RV next to it. The occupant came out and told me she thought the site was open. The man who was there left this morning. She gave me another phone number to contact the owner. I called the number but there was no answer there either. I, again, left a message. We kabitzed about it, then decided to take the site. Paul parked it, we opened the RV up, made lunch, then settled in front of the TV. I picked up my phone and found a message there (my phone never sounded). The owner said the site was taken and we could not stay.

So we packed up again. This time, I called a campground in the next town of Fernley, 58 miles an hour south. The Desert Rose RV Park said they did have a site for two nights. We drove down and found a very nice campground with four rows of campers filling in 117 sites. The campsite we are on is concrete pad and has full hookups. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got set up and settled in. We didn’t arrive here until 4:10 p.m. Those were long hours.

2022 Oct 8 (Sat) – Today, we drove 10 miles out of town to the Ghost Town of Metropolis. It was established in 1910 and by 1924, the town was virtually deserted. They tried farming but the founders had neglected to file for water rights. The townspeople killed all the coyotes which caused a large rabbit population to eat their crops. Add a cricket plague and a drought and you can imagine why they left. There were two foundations with crumbling cement structures. One had been a school and the other a fancy hotel. We walked around the area looking for clues but there really was no sign that 700 people once lived and farmed there. A monument had been erected to the lost town and was fenced in.

We returned to town and got fuel for tomorrow’s move. Then we went into the Iron Skillet for lunch. The service was decent and the food was OK. The cost was as much as yesterday’s meal at the Star Hotel for only half the cost.

When we got back to the campground, we took a walk around the area. Then using the binoculars, tried to spot the coyotes and owls. The female coyote was working the field yesterday. A rancher had put his cows in the field and they didn’t seemed fazed by the coyote at all. We spotted the male great horned owl but couldn’t find the female. It looked like a hornets nest on the side of the branch until we looked closely at it. They blend in really well.

2022 Oct 7 (Fri) – We drove into Elko today and toured two museums. The first one was the Northeast Nevada Museum. There were lots of displays about the history of the area. It included the fossil bones on a wooly mammoth that had been found in the area as well a large exhibit about the original inhabitants in the area before the settlers came.

After the museum, we drove to the Star Hotel for lunch. It was a Basque run restaurant. The meal was one of the best we had. They served cabbage soup (Paul paid $3 more for clam chowder), salad and bread with the meal. The large bowls of soup, whole loaf of bread, and big helping of salad filled us up. We wound up taking our sandwiches home and had them for dinner. The price was very reasonable to boot. We really enjoyed the ambiance, service, and history of the place.

Next, we drove to the Cowboy Arts & Gear Museum. The building used to house the Garcia Saddlery. It was famous shop and some of the Garcia saddles sold for thousands of dollars. The museum was quite small with saddles, chaps, spurs, and other paraphernalia on display. The little old man who ran the museum was not very communicative and I don’t think we spent more than 30 minutes in the place.

2022 Oct 6 (Thu) – We drove to Angel Lake today, about 12 miles outside of town. The drive up the mountainside was a white knuckle thrill as the road wound around turns and twists with a steep drop off. We arrived at the lake. It is nestled in a glacier made indentation and rather small. I thought it would be a glacier lake with its beautiful emerald green-blue color but it was just a regular lake. The lake is stocked regularly with trout and bass. There were two men in boats with fishing poles plying the water. Two other couples were there, too. We hiked around the lake. The first direction turned out to be very difficult with bushes and brambles in the way. We wound up trying to hike around the other side of the lake. It was smoother going for a while, then got steep and rocky. We sat on a boulder to admire the view, then hiked back to the truck and took that exciting drive back down the mountain.

2022 Oct 5 (Wed) – We had the most delightful drive today. We drove to Elko, north of us to take a scenic drive up into the mountains. First, it was lunch at Wingers, a kind of sports bar eatery. The next stop was at the visitor center where we wanted to find out how to get to the scenic drive. The center was located in a log cabin that had been moved from another location, along with several log outbuildings. The house was quite large for a log cabin, compared to what we have seen over the years. It also had a second floor. The clerk told us the house had been owned by a family with 12 children. No wonder they needed the space!

After talking to the clerk at the visitor center, we took off to find the Lamoille Canyon Scenic Byway. It was a 12-mile road that wound through a pass in the Ruby Mountains. The scenery was awesome. We were at the foot of great mountains. One side was covered with changing foliage, the colors of green and gold were stunning. The mountains on the other side of the road were stark, bare, and very rugged looking. We came to the point where the glaciers formed the Lamoille Canyon. We got out to admire the geography of the area. There were a couple of campgrounds along the drive. Those are for those rustic individualistic wilderness lovers.

We got to the end of the road and turned around to come back. When we got back to the intersection, we turned right and drove along the back farm roads. It was mostly packed gravel and dirt. The ride was very rough and we saw miles and miles of open, undeveloped land with cattle happily grazing. The entire area is so breathtaking with the view of mountains wherever you look.

This morning we saw two coyotes in the field next to the campground. We were watching them move back and forth in the meadow looking for food when three dogs came backing out from the house next to the field. The coyotes ran off. That was disappointing but they have to protect themselves. The owner drove up on his golf cart and we spent some time talking about the wildlife in the area. Two people in the campground have lost their cats. He thinks one went to the coyotes but he doesn’t think the second one did. It might have been the owls. We stay close to Sheba when we let her out.

2022 Oct 4 (Tue) – We packed up and left American Falls, Idaho, at 9:20 a.m. The sky was a beautiful blue and the drive was pleasant. A good deal of the driving was on back farm roads. Paul was a little nervous but all the roads were capable of supporting our RV.

We arrived in Wells, NV at 12:50 p.m. PST (we gained an hour), at the Welcome Station RV Park. There isn’t much around the campground. It’s kind of like an oasis in the desert. The campground is very pleasant. There is grass and shade trees. It is small with only 21 campsites. It sits next to an open field. This afternoon, we got to see a coyote, a moose, and two great horned owls. What a delight! We will have to keep a very close watch on Sheba.

The couple who own this campground were full-timers for 16 years. They found this campground and decided to buy it. They run it as a seasonal place; only open from May through mid-October. The husband said they take off for 7 months, going down to Arizona and Mexico during the colder months. Sounds like a great lifestyle.

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wwwmanifestmoneytips · 2 years

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qqueenofhades · 3 years

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pel!ivan and fedyor went through a lot of ups and some downs from the end of pel and 2021 but they also celebrated 10 years together 🥳 i hope fedyor shoved cake into ivan’s face and also you know, im sure they were mushy like the saps they are

Ivan was supposed to be out of here ten minutes ago – actually, at this point, more like twenty – but the clients are still fucking talking, and if they keep it up much longer, he’s going to add it to the bill for “initial consultation.” Drew has a man-bun and unbearably hip black glasses, and works as a developer for some start-up app that he’s tried to convince Ivan to download at least twelve times. (What does the app actually do? Don’t know don’t care.) Mia is thin, blonde, waifish, smells like essential oils, and has been flitting around with her smartphone the entire time, getting in Ivan’s way as she snaps perfectly filtered pictures of the “developmental process” and posts them nonstop on Instagram. They both have a lot of opinions on how they want the energy of the space to feel, and a preapproved list of ethically sourced suppliers. They have paid some ludicrous price for this converted loft in Prospect Heights and chose the location for its proximity to the best farmer’s markets and hippie coffeehouses. Did Ivan die? Is this hell?

Somewhat ostentatiously, he looks at his watch. “Okay,” he announces. “I think that wraps up. You have work number, so – ”

“Oh, just one more thing!” Drew has recently read one (1) book on home design and thinks he’s an expert, so Ivan is forced to suffer his idiotic opinions about the kind of tile they want to use on the kitchen backsplash. Somehow, he manages not to roll his eyes directly out of his head, for which he should be commended. Ivan has discovered that the secret of successfully dealing with people, especially clients, is to smile and nod at everything they say, while mercilessly mocking them in your head. Amazing, the things you learn as a small-business owner in Brooklyn in the year of our lord 2021. Especially when it comes to renovating overpriced tiny gentrified apartments for insufferable techno-douchebags and their vapid influencer girlfriends. And people think Ivan might want to live like this more often? No fucking thank you.

Finally (it’s another ten minutes after that, this is definitely going on the bill), they more or less wrap up, except for the fact that Mia then wants a picture with the three of them. “It’s just so important to us that we’re supporting the immigrant community,” she explains earnestly. “After all, being open, tolerant, learning from our neighbors, people who are different from us, that’s what life is all about. We just love that you’re foreign. The energy feels so right, you know?”

Ivan wonders whether to inform her that he has lived in this country for eight years and been a full citizen (passport and voting rights and everything) for three, then decides that this would venture into sharing-personal-information territory and he is having none of it. His English has improved to the point where he can handle almost all business transactions by himself, but feigning incomprehension can sometimes get him out of them when they turn really stupid. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option here, and so he diligently leans into the frame, smiling half an inch, while Mia snaps a picture of “us and our adorable Russian contractor!!” Ivan informs her of the correct flag emoji to add to the filter, decides that he’s going to add an extra fifty bucks just for that, and finally, finally, makes his escape.

It’s rush hour, and the Q is crammed as Ivan heads into midtown. So much for social distancing and not getting too close to anyone, which is the only thing from the pandemic that he wouldn’t mind keeping. Only about half the crowd is wearing masks, including him, and so he gets off at Times Square, dodges the latest lunatic standing on a soapbox and shouting about how it is all a hoax, and walks several blocks uptown, just to get some space. He finally reaches the restaurant, where he has to flash his vaccination card to get inside (Ivan, who remains Russian to the marrow of his bones, is a little irked that he couldn’t get Sputnik here and had to settle for Pfizer) and climbs up to the open-air rooftop terrace. It is only when he spots his husband, waiting at a table that overlooks the glittering evening lights of the city, when Ivan pulls off his mask and allows himself to properly smile. “Sorry I’m late,” he says. “They are the worst.”

“I figured it was something like that.” Fedyor musters a smile in return, though his eyes look permanently tired these days and Ivan would bet that he’s been scrolling through more depressing emails on his phone. Technically Fedyor is on a two-month sabbatical from work, but he can’t stop himself, and Ivan has had to pry it from his fingers on a number of occasions. “But you’re here now. That’s what matters.”

Ivan nods stoutly, they are furnished with the drinks and appetizers list, and when the waiter asks if there’s any special occasion tonight, tell him that they are celebrating their ten-year anniversary, albeit somewhat late. This was supposed to happen last spring, but obviously, nobody in New York was going out to a restaurant in the early months of 2020, and Ivan himself had barely gotten home from the hospital and still could be knocked over in a strong breeze. They’re celebrating a lot of things tonight, in other words, even if it’s now been eleven years, not ten, since the day Ivan marched into a Red Square coffee shop and engaged in – well, Fedyor has made sure to inform him that the first date didn’t go nearly as well as Ivan always thought it did. But it worked, didn’t it? Here they are, wedding bands on their fingers, a couple of successful American urban professionals who have built a nice life for themselves and are, if anything, even more madly in love than they were when this whole nutty adventure together first began. So really, if you ask Ivan Sakharov Kaminsky, it went just fine after all.

The waiter congratulates them, gives them two drinks for the price of one, and they both relax and start to talk, fully at ease in the way they only are in each other’s company. Ivan does his Mia impression in an extremely convincing falsetto (after all, [NAME REDACTED] has practice at this) and Fedyor almost dies laughing. They hold hands on the table – no need to hold them under the table – and gaze into each other’s eyes all they want, order dinner and dessert, and take a long time about it. They raise several toasts to this, to them, to ten years, may there be many more. Ivan pays the bill, his treat, and they walk slowly back to Times Square, hand-in-hand, Fedyor’s head nestled on Ivan’s shoulder. It’s New York. Nobody cares.

They ride the Q home, in all its smelly, secondhand glory, taking an hour to bang out to Brighton Beach and descending the elevated stairs into the familiar down-at-heel comfort of their Russian-American neighborhood, neon Cyrillic signs glowing in windows and somebody shouting about how if Sergei ever shows his face here again, she is going to cut his dick off. Ivan and Fedyor look at each other and snort, resisting the urge to shout up and ask what exactly Sergei did, and walk a few more minutes to their building. They climb up three flights of stairs to their apartment, unlock the door and the deadbolt, and step inside.

The instant they are home, Rasputin shoots out of nowhere, yowling as if he has been neglected for months, and curls himself around Ivan’s ankles (he is still liable to give Fedyor evil looks when he feels that this interloper has been stealing his human too often). Ivan sighs, trudges to the kitchen, points out to Rasputin that his food bowl is still half full, gets a wounded look in return, and adds an extra scoopful. Once the cat is happily snarfing down, Fedyor pulls Ivan by the hand, into the dim living room with its blowing curtains. “Come here, my love,” he says. “Hold me.”

Ivan does as ordered, because it’s his favorite thing in the world: cuddling Fedyor close, nothing but the two of them in all of time and space, swaying slowly in the blue hour with fingers and arms and hearts entwined. Ivan kisses Fedyor’s temple, and Fedyor nestles even closer, melted into his embrace. “I love you, Vanya,” he mumbles against Ivan’s collarbone. “I love you so much. I love you more than anything in the world. I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“I love you too, Fedya.” Ivan leans down and kisses him properly, sweet and slow and lingering, as they continue to waltz in stately time to a music that nobody except the two of them can hear. “I’m still not always sure why you married me, but I am very glad you did.”

#heartrender husbands #fivan #fivan ff #ivan x fedyor #a phantom in enchanting light #pel asks #anonymous #ask #(in repayment for the pain i have inflicted on you with the lighthouse au)#(ahem)

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staticspaces · 2 years

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Waterfront Rental House

Link to the video is below!!

https://youtu.be/yuM67s7Rr20

Here is what I found on the upper floor as well as the basement, there were Tarot cards, hookas and even a fari bit of furniture left over!!

This very large but somewhat modest house is located on prime waterfront property, it has a very showy look from the outside but unfortunately the interior has seen some more recent renovations. It sits on a very large piece of property and has both a swimming pool and a tennis court which gives you an idea of how big it really is. It has three bedrooms and four bathrooms, so it is definitely not small and has a value of about $3,000,000! Looking through the older real estate photos reveals that this home once had some interesting retro decor, with a kitchen strait out of the 80s, a sunroom with pink wallpaper and matching carpet but the master bedroom was the most interesting of all with metallic flowery wallpaper and well worn blue carpet!

This was a strange one with a fair amount of furniture leftover and a lot of personal belongings, there was no shortage of things to look at. One of the more interesting finds was a photo album full of black and white photographs, probably leftover from the original owners. The other interesting find was an expired passport, with what I would assume was the name of the former renter. I looked him up and found that he was actually on an episode of Dragon's Den or Shark Tank for my American Viewers! He was there to promote his new company that appears to have failed shortly after it started. You never know what you are going to find at these places!!

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implexedactions · 3 years

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Love Letter #6

You got another letter...say, wasn’t he nice before?

A/N: Hope you like Hawks, cause you have 2 more letters from him.

Letter: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, ???

CW: Yandere Content, anger, degradation, abuse, abusive comments.

Love Letter #6 - Breaking you

...I found that police report...sweetheart...

HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THAT! Am I that person you’re so scared of?!

You…

You want me gone…

You will pay for this, I can assure you of that. You have hurt me so intensely, you are lucky I am not breaking your doors down right now. You just need to learn how good we can be together, and there’s no better way to do that than with some quality time together. I’ve renovated your room, I do hope you like the new decorations. There are a few soft sheets, some fluffy pillows, a pair of harsh shackles, some strong prison bars, a little sleep medication, and some blindfolds and gags. A quirk cancelling collar too! (Even if you don’t have a quirk, I think the humiliation of being shown everything you’re not will be useful.)

I have everything to make your eternal stay with me perfect. I’m sure after a few couple months of rehabilitation, you’ll have lost those nasty little habits of yours!

It appears that our relationship still has a few tiny...quirks to work out. You’ve hurt me so much… but I’m willing to...work out this bump in our relationship. There’s no reason why we should give up our relationship. See, I’m a good person! I’m willing to help you work through your trust issues. I’m sure after it’s all said and done, you’ll thank me! Or it’s another week or two in the cell.

I could pick you up today, but I want you to think you have a chance, to think that you can in ANY WAY escape ME. So, get on that train, just TRY to get to the airport. You know I LOVE a good hunt.

Oh! You thought I wouldn’t know about those tickets? Please, sweetheart. I know everything about you. I know where you plan to go, who you plan to talk to, everything. You’re trying to leave the country tomorrow, right? Well then, maybe you should double-check if you’ve got your passport. It’d be a shame if it was stolen from you...

You hurt me to my very core, so it is time you suffer the same, you vile, wretched, manipulator.

...I love you, sweetheart...

---

[A version without a strike through if you are having trouble reading the above!]

...I found that police report...sweetheart...

HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THAT! Am I that person you’re so scared of?!

You…

You want me gone…

I have everything to make your eternal stay with me perfect. I’m sure after a few couple months of rehabilitation, you’ll have lost those nasty little habits of yours!

I could pick you up today, but I want you to think you have a chance, to think that you can in ANY WAY escape ME. So, get on that train, just TRY to get to the airport. You know I LOVE a good hunt.

You hurt me to my very core, so it is time you suffer the same, you vile, wretched, manipulator.

...I love you, sweetheart...

#yandere #keigo takami #hawks #boku no hero academia #yandere keigo takami #keigo takami x reader #yandere keigo x reader #yandere keigo #yandere hawks #bnha #yandere bnha #reader insert #gender-neutral reader #boku no hero x reader

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airis-paris14 · 3 years

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Starlight Chapter 13

Summary: Amani is an orphaned heiress who's spent most of her life raising her younger sister. T'Challa is a widowed King and Father. Neither of them is expecting much from their night at the Lotus. But the coming months have many milestones in store for these young adults. Will becoming a family be one of them?

Warnings: N/A

Masterlist

2 months later

“Amani, I’m about to head out,” Amare called, grabbing her house keys off of the hook. “Okay, hold on, I'll be right back Baby.” T’Challa nodded into the phone and muted himself to speak to someone off screen. Amani hurried down the stairs and smiled at her little sister. “Okay, passport, keys, tickets, wallet, and medicine in carryon?”

“Yes mother,” Amare smirked.

“I’m just trying to keep you safe kid,” the older Okeke smiled and pulled her in for a hug. “You’re 18, not 21, so please, no sneaking off without telling Shuri’s guards where you all are going. Limit your alcohol intake, I know it’s legal over there but the last thing I need is a call from a German hospital saying you have alcohol poisoning.”

“I promise I will limit the drinking, and the sneaking out.”

“Good. Have fun, be safe. I love you.” Amani smiled and pulled her sister in for another hug. “Love you too sis. I’ll only be gone for a week.”

“I know, but you know I hate saying goodbye. You’re all I have left kid. But I want to let you live, so go before you miss your flight. Hug Shuri for me.

“I’ll call you when I land.” Amare bounded down the front steps and into her already packed car. Amani sighed watching her wave one last time before pulling off down the street. She waved at the patrol car as it drove by on its hourly surveillance drive by, before locking her door and heading up the stairs into her office. “And I’m back,” she plopped into her seat, reopening her MacBook.

“Personally I don’t think it’s fair that our sisters see each other more than we do,” the king teased. Amani rolled her eyes, “This is their first time seeing each other since we came home, it’s only been two months,” Amani laughed. “Yes, and after having you here for three months, I’ve decided that 61 days is too long to be out of your presence.”

“Well you know I’m working to get the venue started up, I just can’t travel as much as usual. You know I would be there if I could,” Her voice began to tremble.

“I know my love,” T’Challa reassured, “I am just teasing,” he frowned, noticing her eyes tearing up. “I know but lately I’ve just been feeling like such a bad girlfriend,” she began to sob and the king panicked. “Hey no, you’re perfect. Nothing's wrong. It’s on both of us and I was gonna tell you that I was planning to surprise you with a visit.”

“Really?” Amani sniffled.

“Yes so please stop crying entle.” The heiress grabbed a tissue from the box she had begun to keep on her desk after noticing that even the little things made her tear up. “I’m sorry. I ruined the surprise again,” she chuckled, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “It is fine, now you have something to look forward to. You hate them anyway,” the king teased.

“Are you sure you’re alright though my love? You have been extra-sensitive lately.”

“In more ways than one,” the heiress murmured. “Have you been to the new doctor, did she run the tests the doctor here ordered?” The king grabbed a stack of papers and began signing them. “Yep,” Amani read over and responded to an email her contractor sent before turning her attention back to T’Challa. “I have an appointment with her tomorrow. She and Dr. Zabulie both sounded very excited so I’m hoping it's a positive result.”

The king smiled at the news, “Well then I’ll be expecting a full report as soon as you know.”

“Of course. I’ll call your mother as well, I wouldn’t even be in this position if you all hadn’t encouraged me to go see another doctor.”

“We both just want what is best for you,” the king smiled, “but unfortunately I have a meeting to attend to my love. I will call you later tonight, okay?”

“Of course, I’ll see you later.” She blew a kiss through the phone before the king had to hang up. After responding to more emails, she scheduled some property manager interviews for later in the week and a building walk through. Her phone caught her attention as it began to ring, “Hello?” She answered. “Hey, Kura and I finished those designs for different set ups and interiors, are you free to go over them?”

“Yeah,” Amani smiled. While in Wakanda she and her friends decided to go into the event business together. They’d bought an old hotel downtown in Atlanta and decided to turn it into a sleepover venue. With suites and rooms designed for different party sizes and moveable features to make the room age appropriate. A spa, boutique, and restaurant, would be located on the grounds as well. There was also a separate grand ballroom and garden that allowed them to market the place as an all in one wedding venue. They’d started work while in Wakanda and now two months later they were weeks away from opening the ballroom, gardens, and other non overnight amenities for event bookings. They would use the money from the rentals to help recover the costs of renovating the hotel rooms.

“Bet. We’ll be over in 30. Sakura has to pick up the pizza first.”

“Cool, don’t forget extra garlic butter sauce. Imma hop in the shower. Y’all can just use your keys to let yourselves in.”

After hanging up the phone Amani hopped in the shower and let the water soothe her muscles. She’d been working so hard to make sure everything came together and it finally was. She was more in love with T’Challa each day, she was starting a business with her friends, and Darius had been spotted in New York living with some family he had there. She still had nightly surveillance, but knowing that he’d move out of the state definitely calmed her nerves.

“Madiyson?” The heiress called as the sound of the front door caught her attention. When she didn’t receive a response she shrugged and figured she had her beats on. She quickly motioned with her coconut oil,slipped into some sweatpants, and pulled a sports bra over her head before a voice sent a chill down her spine. “You’ve been holding out on me Amani.”

Darius got up from his seat behind her on the bed and revealed the kitchen knife he was holding. “If I had known you could look like that, I would’ve made you work out more.”

“How the hell did you get in my house?”

“No Thank you? Darius frowned.

“What do I have to thank you for?”

“Giving you a second chance,” Darius smirked before lunging at the Okeke heiress. Amani, dodged his lunge as he ran into the dresser she was standing in front of. “ A second chance for what you bastard!” The heiress resisted the urge to search for her phone, she knew Darius, he watched her eyes always to anticipate her next move. “You ruined my life. You were supposed to be my wife, look pretty, give me kids. Instead your ass got me locked up for damn near life. Now my dad is all on my ass because he had to call in a favor with the DA and the governor in one sitting-”

“Well maybe your ass should’ve just stayed in jail then!” Amani ducked, expecting the lamp on the nightstand to fly towards her head. She took the moment she dodged the light fixture to locate her phone. It was too far and she knew that she’d never be able to reach it before Darius finished his spiel. She’d have to leave her friends a clue that something had gone wrong.

“Now,” Darius eyed Amani as she backed up against the wall, “as I was saying. Everyone is counting on me to not fuck up! Which means I need to get my old life back, starting with you Ms. Okeke, now heiress of the Okeke Industries Tech Conglomerate.”

“No one will ever believe that we are a happy couple once again Darius, they found me, clinging to life, hypothermic, and bleeding because you literally beat our child out of me. It was on the five o'clock news for weeks straight.” Amani risked eyeing her keys once more, hoping that the plan she was hatching would work.

“What better way to show them that I am a changed man, than by having you forgive me. A redeemed love, a true love,” Darius stepped up to Amani and caressed her cheeks and lips. The woman felt like crawling out of her skin but she held it together. “Why don’t you just find another woman?” Not that Amani wished Darius on any other woman, she’d prefer he’d be locked up in a cell, but she needed to get him to back up. “Does it really matter? I want you, and I’ve already invested a lot in you Amani. You got a little break to have fun and spend time with other men, but you are mine. You always were and you always will be, it’s time I got a return on my investment. “ Darius took a seat on Amani’s bed and she silently rejoiced.

“Okay, then what’s your plan?”

“You don’t need to know all of that. Just know that I’m not leaving you behind Amani.” Darius pointed the knife and Amani nodded, “I’m just gonna grab my keys,” she gestured. “If I go missing, the police will look at all of your father’s and friend’s properties, no one will think I was stupid enought to take you to one of our vacation homes.” At least the waitress hoped this wasn’t the stupidest idea she’d ever had.

“Nah, cause I’m sure your friends and man know all about those places. Not to mention your little sister.”

“Amare is out of the country at a science conference, won’t be home for two weeks, you’ll have time to move me before she can get back. As for the others, they don’t even know we own vacation properties.” Amani scoured through her keys and grabbed the one she knew her sister would recognize as missing first. “Here, we can go to the chateau in the mountains in North Carolina. It’s secluded. No one for miles around.”

Darius stood up, “Nah, there’s a reason you’re helping me. What is it?”

“You’re never gonna leave me alone otherwise. I don’t wanna die, and this is most likely the last time I’ll ever get a decision about something that happens to me. Think of it as my final words.” As soon as the excuse left her mouth Amani felt her mouth go dry and heavy, for some reason, it did feel like she’d sealed her own fate.

“Amani!” Madiyson called as she entered the apartment. Sakura followed in hot on her heels to place the heavy pizzas in the kitchen. “I still don’t know why you ordered four pizzas for 3 people,” Madiyson laughed, dropping all of her interior design sketches and renderings on the table. “As much of a perfectionist each of us is… We're gonna be here all night and y’all are gonna be glad I bought enough pizza.”

“Well if AMANI would BRING. HER. ASS. DOWN. THE. STAIRS we could get started and be done at a godly hour.” Madison yelled up the stairs into the continued silence. “You told her we were coming, right?”Sakura joined her friend at the base of Amani’s stairs and frowned. “Yeah, she said just let ourselves in.”

“Maybe she’s taking a nap, she’s been doing that more often than usual.”

“Oh god, if she’s taking a nap then she’ll be dead to the world right now. You wanna wake her up while I set up?” Madiyson shook her head and walked back over to the couch in the living room. “Sure, just throw me into the lion’s den. You know she hates being woken up by anyone but Amare and Ada.” Sakura whined. “You’ll be fine, she would never hate you. Just make it seem like she woke herself up. Throw a pillow or something.” Madiyson shrugged and opened her laptop.

“Always the sacrifice, never the beneficiary,” Sakura mumbled as she jogged up the stairs into Amani’s room. “Mani,” the afro-asian woman sang as she burst into the room, only to be greeted by a perfectly made bed. “Amani?'' She tried to calm her heartbeat as she checked her friend’s closet and bathroom. “Okay focus, details details,” Sakura chanted to herself. “7:47, no phone in the room, nothing messed up, somebody sat on the bed,” the waitress took note of the room as she backed her way out, down the stairs, and towards the garage. “Hey, did you- what’s wrong,” Madiyson frowned as her best friend opened the garage door and looked out. “Did she say she was gonna leave?” Sakura ignored Madiyson’s original question, feeling her stomach drop at the presence of Amani’s car, and the empty house. “No, she said she was gonna take a shower-”

“Madiyson, She’s not here.”

“Look, I already told you what happened. Madiyson called Amani at 6:30, she picked me up, we picked up the pizzas, let ourselves in, but she wasn’t here when i went to check on her. I went into the room at 7:47. The shower had been turned on and the room was steamy, and someone had sat on her bed but Amani hates that unless she’s about to go to sleep. Except she isn’t in her room sleeping!”

“Why are you all not taking this seriously! Her abusive ex is a known kidnapping threat. For God’s sake she’s had a 24/7 patrol for months because there was fear he would try to retaliate! Now that she’s missing, y’all aren’t doing a damn thing.” Madiyson butted in frustrated at the officers staring at them like they were aliens from outer space.

“Ma’am, we are just trying to get all the facts first-”

I’ve given them to you three times, if you can’t comprehend then we’ve got a bigger problem!” Sakura fumed and the officers stood. “We’ll call headquarters and see what we can do. Technically it has to be 48 hours before we can report and adult as missing-”

“Just get out please,” Madiyson sighed. She held open the door for the officers who hesitated, their feathers obviously ruffled.

“I’ll try calling Amare again.” Sakura stood and walked out after the officers left. Madiyson locked the door and stared up at the clock, realizing she should probably call T’Challa.

“Hello?” Madiyson breathed deeply as the call finally connected to the king, “T, she’s gone,” the woman’s voice warbled but her words shook the king all the same. “What do you mean she is gone?” He stood, immediately stumbling to slip on some shoes and race through the halls to his mother’s room. “Sakura and I came for a meeting, and she wasn’t here. Her car is here but she isn't and she assured us she’d be here taking a shower. Someone else was here because someone was sitting on her bed, at the bottom. You know she hates people ruffling her sheets.”

“Have you talked to Amare? Are you sure she didn’t take her to the airport?”

“We’ve been trying to reach her but she's still on the plane. She would have been back by now if she just went to the airport. She knew we were coming.” Madiyson broke, sobbing into the phone.

T’Challa’s heart dropped, his mind racing back to how he’d begged his lover not to go back until the rumors that her abuser had officially moved were confirmed. Now she was gone and the king felt he had failed to protect her. “Madiyson, Madiyson, I need you to breathe and keep breathing. Did you call the police?”

“Yes, but-“ Madiyson stumbled trying to regain her composure, “they said since it hasn’t been 48 hours it’s not technically a missing persons case.”

The king felt anger rush through his veins, “So they aren’t doing anything?”

“Not really,” Madiyson moved to grab tissue from Amani’s bathroom. “Have her call the detectives over these two imbeciles. She was on 24 hour surveillance due to risk of revenge from her abuser. Them sitting around doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know, I know, I’m heading downstairs right now-” Madison paused as she noticed Amani’s keys on her vanity. “Wait, one of her keys-” Madison trailed off flipping through the keys. “One of her keys is what?” T’Challa knocked on his mother’s door. “It’s missing. When her parents died, she kept keys to all of their properties. With them all labeled with numbers but I don’t know which one is which. Just number three is missing,” Madison ran a hand over her braids and huffed. T’Challa banged on his mother’s door again before taking a step back and pacing the hall. “Okay, You and Sakura just stay there, keep trying to reach Amare. I’m on my way and I’ll try to reach Shuri. See if you can figure out what key is missing.”

“Okay, call us when you land.”

T’Challa hung up the phone, “Umama!” He banged on the door before Ramonda yanked it open. “T’Challa, what in Bast’s name-”

“It’s Amani, she’s missing. We have to go now, can you try to reach Shuri? Her friends think they have a lead but we need to reach Amare.”

“How long has she been missing?” The queen mother rushed back in her room and started to get dressed and pack a bag. “We don’t know, I just got off the phone with Madiyson. They went to the house and she was missing.”

“Did they call the police?”

“They say they can’t report her absence until 48 hours has passed,” T’Challa opened his beads and messaged Okoye. I need you, Ayo, a plane, and five of your best warriors. Meet me on the tarmac in 30.”

“When do we leave?”

“In 30 minutes, I have to pack a bag. Ayo and Okoye will meet us at the tarmac with some back up, can you please try to reach Shuri while I get ready?”

“Yes, I will try calling her.”

The king nodded and turned to rush back to his room. “T’Challa,” Ramonda called out,”We will find her. She will be alright.” He offered his mother a sad smile before continuing down the hall.

“It’s the North Carolina key?”

“Yes. Number 3 it's her favorite number for her favorite house.” Amare insisted as Sakura flipped through the keys again.

“Do you know the address?” Madison interrupted.upiui

“Uh, number 3 Lodge Street Asheville, North Carolina.”

“And you’re sure that is the key that is missing?” T’Challa interrupted Madiyson and Amare. The teen looked at the king through the camera, the lights of the quinjet humming behind her as Shuri watched on. “Yes, I’m positive. Amani is heading to the North Carolina house.”

The king hit the table and turned to his guard, “We are heading to North Carolina. Now.”

“We’ll meet you there-”

“No,” T’Challa and his mother answered at the same time.``You two stay exactly where you are,'' Ramonda demanded. “All due respect, I am not staying over here in Germany when my sister has been kidnapped by her abuser!” Amare rebutted. “Yes, but for all we know he has men looking for you too. As well as Madiyson and Sakura. So until then, at least we know where you are. We are sending Dora Milaje to your hotel.” T’Challa finalized.

“No, I am not standing back when my sister is in danger. I wasn’t there the first time she was saved and opened her eyes, I want to be there this time.” Amare demanded while she teared up and T’Challa sighed. He walked around the desk to look at Okoye and his mother. “You all can head back to Wakanda, once the extra Dora arrive. Once we have her, we’ll bring her back to Shuri’s lab, there you guys can see her.” The king looked at everyone in the room, “Besides, I don’t think it is safe for any of you to be in the US alone right now.”

“So what are you saying?” Sakura sat up from her place on the couch. T’Challa nodded at the general of the Dora Milaje. Okoye tapped her staff and escorted the rest of the warriors out of the home. Once the door had shut the room turned to face T’Challa again. “I have been thinking, especially in light of what has happened to Amani, that you all should move to Wakanda. Stay in the palace of course. I know you two would have to travel for business and Amare we’d have to figure out your schooling, but it is obvious that this government has no vestment in keeping you all safe. I can do something about it and I will, if you all will let me.”

“I don’t know T-” Madiyson started.

“I had been thinking about transferring to study with Shuri, but I don’t know how Amani would take it.” Amare added. “She’s not just gonna give up her independence. She just got it back from Darius,” Sakura added. “I know but it is not safe here, at least for now. As well connected as that fugitive is, who knows what will happen to you all if he goes back to jail. I let Amani convince me she would be safe, and now two months later we are searching for her praying to Bast that she isn’t dead.”

“T’Challa this is not your fault,” Sakura interjected. “I know, but if I can keep you all safe, I have a responsibility to do so. You will have free will and autonomy, but at least inside Wakanda’s borders, I can guarantee your safety.

“I think this is a lovely conversation, but might I remind you all that this is a time sensitive case. Let’s table this discussion until we all make it back to Wakanda” Shuri interrupted the discussion that seemed to be heading towards an endless round table. “Shuri is right, time is of the essence.” Ramonda spoke standing, “everyone comes back to wakanda for the time being. Once we rescue Amani, we send our war dogs to clear any suspicions and make sure it is safe for you all to return. Then we make a decision. Until then-“

“We focus on the task at hand.” Madiyson finished and Ramonda agreed. “Shuri and Amare head back home once the Dora arrive. When we have Amani we’ll let you know.”

“Keep my sister safe T’Challa,” Amare asserted before hanging up. “She’s just nervous,” Sakura reassured. “We are all glad we have someone here to help us this time. But we should get on the road. Darius works fast.” The Afro-Asian waitress added solemnly. The king nodded, “Phambile,” he called and the guards opened the doors escorting everyone to the cars waiting to race to the airport.”

Fourteen Hours Ago

“Amani.” The heiress fumbled to wrap the stick back it s package and hide it on the sink before running out of her bathroom. “Hey,” she offered her younger sister a smile but only received a confused face in return. “Hey, you’re up early, I thought you’d be sleep,” Amare took a seat in one of the overstuffed arm chairs in her sisters bedroom. “I wasn’t feeling well. I got up to take some medicine no biggie,”Amani shrugged. “You go to the doctor again soon right? You should have her check it out.”

“She’s an OBGYN, but I’ll see what she might be able to recommend.”

“Cool, well I’d been thinking-“

“Oh that’s never good,” the heiress laughed as her sister shot daggers her way. “As I was saying. I’ve been thinking about transferring to study in Wakanda with Shuri. It’d make it easier for you to come see Tchalla and I could get accustomed to the culture before we move there-“

“Hey hey, who said we we’re moving to Wakanda?”

“Amani. I’m not dumb or a little girl anymore. I know how marriages and relationships work. I know you live tchalla. I know he loves you. And I know how monarchies work. I also know that T’Challa has asked you to move in or visit more often and that I’m probably the reason you’re hesitant about doing either.”

“You’re right, but I didn’t say anything cause I don’t want you thinking you have to move because of me and T’Challa. I want you to follow your dreams, and dtudying at MIT was one of those dreams.”

“And dreams change, Amare reminded. I used to any to be a ballerina, astronaut, actress, and hear I am studying at MIT. And now, I know that the university of Wakanda can offer me so much more. Plus I’ll get to spend more time with my best friend and take advantage of her lab. It’s a win win!” The young genius insisted. Amani sighed and settled on the chair next to her.

“How about we finish out this fall semester and pick up the conversation over Christmas break. I just don’t want you to regret anything.” The older sister explained.

“That’s fair.” Amare nodded and stood. “Back to you though, are you sure you’re feeling well enough for me to leave?”

“Now you sound like the older sister. I’ll be fine kid, you go have fun at your conference thing in Germany. Have you finished packing?”

“Nope, I wanted to get and early start at the stores so I can pack before my flight.”

“Okay, I’m headed back to sleep. But don’t crash the car and fill up the tank before you come back please.”

“I always do,” Amare smiled before kissing her sister's cheek and slipping out of the room. Once Amani heard the front door shut. She locked herself in the bathroom and unwrapped the third and final test. She sat them all in a row before flopping down on the toilet.

“Shit.”

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gordonwilliamsweb · 3 years

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If You Are Vaccinated, You Can Dance the Night Away

Marissa Castrigno was walking through downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, when she spotted the sign in the window of one of her favorite dance clubs. After months of being shuttered by the pandemic, Ibiza Nightclub was reopening April 30, it announced.

This story also ran on Raleigh News & Observer. It can be republished for free.

Thrilled, Castrigno immediately made plans with friends to be there.

About 50 miles north in Jacksonville, Kennedy Swift learned of Ibiza’s reopening on social media. He, too, decided to attend with friends.

But on the night of April 30, the two groups were in for a surprise — one they would react to in starkly different ways.

In addition to IDs, they learned, they’d need to show covid-19 vaccination cards for entry. The club was letting in only people who had had at least one shot.

“I was shocked,” said Swift, 21. He learned of the policy a few hours before the reopening, when the club posted it on its Facebook page.

He and his friends had to cancel their plans, since none of them was vaccinated.

“I’m not against [Ibiza] exercising their rights as a business,” Swift said. “I just think it’s foolish. … This will discourage a lot of former patrons from returning to the club.”

On the other hand, Castrigno and her friends, most of whom had been fully vaccinated since early April, felt the policy made their return to nightlife even better.

“There was raw excitement about going out to a place and feeling safe,” said Castrigno, 28.

Similar conversations are playing out across the country as vaccination rates increase and bars, clubs and other businesses navigate how to reopen. The concept of vaccine passports — which allow people who have been inoculated against covid and are at lower risk of contracting or spreading the disease to participate in certain activities — has been floated for clubs, cruise ships and other spaces where large groups gather in close quarters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent announcement that vaccinated people can safely gather indoors and outdoors without masks has reignited the idea. Yet these passports remain highly controversial and their implementation is largely piecemeal. Many private businesses are making their own decisions, and governments in different parts of the country are adopting varying stances.

In New York, for instance, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in early May that places where proof of vaccination or a negative covid test are required can operate at a greater capacity. Some nightclubs there have implemented policies similar to Ibiza’s. In Florida, however, Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a law prohibiting businesses, schools and government offices from requiring proof of vaccination, with fines of up to $5,000 per incident.

For Ibiza Nightclub in southeastern North Carolina — a political battleground state — the vaccine card requirement is proving to be a lightning rod. The club’s Facebook post announcing the policy had sparked 70 comments as of mid-May, and posts across other platforms echoed different sides of the issue.

“I am thrilled to see a personal business putting the health and safety forward in order to keep their business running,” one comment read.

Others took a markedly different tone: “This is pretty dumb!”

“Discrimination, expect lawsuits,” read another.

The Honor Code

Last week, after the CDC said vaccinated adults could largely live their lives mask-free, Raleigh restaurant owner Hisine McNeill felt a troubling pang of déjà vu. He owns Alpha Dawgs, a sandwich shop in southeast Raleigh, and said small businesses like his carried the burden of mask enforcement for much of the pandemic. Now, he said, they’re tasked with trusting adults who say they’ve been vaccinated. He isn’t ready to do that.

“I don’t have the luxury of taking chances on an honor code,” McNeill said. “If I have an outbreak because someone didn’t wear a mask and have to close down, who’s going to help keep me open?”

McNeill opened Alpha Dawgs in 2018 and, like most restaurateurs, he said, struggled through the pandemic, professionally and personally. He said he has lost friends and family members and doesn’t believe the pandemic is over.

“I know people personally in the ICU still recovering from [covid],” McNeill said. “I don’t need any more examples about how serious this is.”

So McNeill posted a new requirement on the restaurant’s Facebook page. He asked everyone to continue wearing masks unless they were prepared to show him a vaccine card.

“To whom it may concern,” McNeill wrote. “If you decide to come into my establishment claiming that you are fully vaccinated, I WILL ASK TO SEE YOUR CARD. If you don’t want to provide it then you will have to wear a mask in my store. And if you still don’t want to comply with either then I have the right to deny service. Thank you for your cooperation.”

The day after he posted that statement, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper eased most covid-related restrictions in the state, including its mask mandate. The Alpha Dawgs post stirred some online debate over masks and vaccinations and led to a few responses, including one from the Raleigh Republican Club.

“Should you be in the area…,” it read. “Eat somewhere else….”

McNeill felt the Raleigh Republican Club was calling for a boycott. Afterward, he noticed multiple one-star reviews pop up on Google, not from people who had been to the restaurant, but people accusing McNeill of discrimination.

“This is not political for me, this is a personal belief,” McNeill said. “I have an 85-year-old grandmother I see every other week. I’m going to make sure she’s protected.”

Raleigh Republican Club board member Guy Smith said the group’s post was written collectively, but he didn’t see it as a call for a boycott.

“Our philosophical position is it’s his business, the owner can choose to do what they choose to do within the confines of the individual business,” Smith said. “Our philosophical position is, to demand someone to demonstrate they’re vaccinated with a card, we think that’s out of bounds.”

Smith said the group also condemns writing bogus reviews of a business.

McNeill said Alpha Dawgs’ business has not suffered from the online dust-up.

“I haven’t had any problems,” McNeill said. “Only the online harassment.”

The Nightclub Expected Opposition

Charles Smith, general manager of the club, said he knew the policy would garner backlash, but “we’ve always put the health and safety of both staff and our patrons, and their families, first.”

Since opening as a gay bar in 2001, Ibiza has been a pillar of the LGBTQ community in Wilmington. Although its clientele has expanded over time, it’s still known for drag shows on Friday nights.

Last year, the club shut down March 12, about a week before Gov. Cooper ordered all North Carolina bars and restaurants to stop dine-in service. Ibiza remained shuttered for 14 months, using the time to renovate, Smith said, and leaning on federal and state assistance for small businesses.

When it came to reopening, he said, “the question was: How do we provide the absolute safest experience alongside the nightlife experience we’ve been known for?”

It wouldn’t be easy. Nightclubs are a perfect cocktail of covid risks: lots of people socializing and dancing in close quarters. Alcohol lowering inhibitions. Music forcing people to speak louder, releasing more droplets into the air.

“The concept of social distancing in a nightclub is an oxymoron,” Smith said. And the club’s staff didn’t want to be “the police of nightlife,” trying to separate people on the dance floor, he added.

The safest option, it seemed, was to require people to be vaccinated.

The club waited till all adults in the state were eligible for vaccines before reopening.

Now Ibiza requires patrons to present their vaccine cards or photos of the cards for entry. On reopening night, the club asked customers to wear masks and limited its capacity to 50%, per an executive order from the governor. But as of May 14, the state lifted its capacity restrictions and masking requirements.

Castrigno, who’d been looking forward to that night for weeks since she saw the sign in the club’s window, said it was “the most jubilant I’d ever seen Ibiza.” Several performers put on a drag show. Customers took turns dancing on poles. Some people wore masks with rhinestones to match their outfits, she said.

She wasn’t surprised that many people took the vaccine requirement in stride. “Queer people are well versed in the risks of public health crisis and protecting the community,” she said, referring to the AIDS crisis, which devastated the community in the ’80s and ’90s.

For James Colucci, who has been a customer since 2016, supporting Ibiza’s vaccine policy is about protecting the club’s employees. Some of them have “spearheaded the [LGBTQ] movement, so we can get together and have events like this,” he said.

But others say the policy is discriminatory and injects the nightclub into people’s personal health care decisions.

Joey Askew, a 37-year-old from Greenville, wrote on Ibiza’s Facebook page, “I’ll never go back to this club until they lift this mandate!!”

In an interview with KHN, Askew said he’s not ready to get the vaccine because there haven’t been lifetime studies of recipients to determine long-term side effects. He’s willing to wear a mask and maintain physical distance, but a vaccine requirement goes too far.

“A mask is something I can buy from anywhere and take off whenever I choose,” he said. “But I can’t take a vaccine out. It’s a permanent choice that [the club] is involving themselves in, and it’s not their place.”

In between the people condemning the club’s policy and those applauding it are many who are conflicted.

Mark Russell, 29, is a nurse in Washington, D.C., who cares for covid patients and contracted covid last year. He plans on visiting Ibiza Nightclub in late May while attending a small wedding in North Carolina where everyone will be vaccinated.

The club’s policy makes him feel safer, Russell said. But he also worries about its effect on people of color, who in many places have faced barriers to vaccination.

“It’s a battle in my own brain, thinking those two things,” Russell said.

For Heidi Martek, 55, the policy raised a personal question. “What about those who can’t get the vaccine?” she wrote on Ibiza’s Facebook page.

She has an autoimmune disease, making her body hypersensitive to any vaccine, Martek said, even the flu shot.

But when commenters on Facebook suggested she sue the club, Martek pushed back. The club is facing difficult choices, she told KHN, and there’s no right answer.

“Whether I can go in or not, I support them,” said Martek, who’s been a patron at Ibiza for six years.

She wants the club to survive the pandemic, unlike other establishments that have closed in the past year.

“It’s not like Wilmington is overwhelmed with LGBTQ clubs,” Martek said. “Ibiza is really important.”

News & Observer reporter Drew Jackson contributed to this story.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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