My time here is winding down; I'll be heading toward home on Thursday sometime in the early afternoon.  My plan is to make it as far as Cortez (after that it's another 2 hours of nothing, until Kayenta) so with the holiday weekend looming I figured it made sense to make a motel reservation.  This morning I decided to take care of that on my laptop while Terry and Neil were still asleep.  After deciding on the EconoLodge, entering my information (and changing the default date from tonight to Thursday) I clicked and made the reservation.  However, would it surprise anyone that there were issues? 

I knew I couldn't get a confirmation via cellphone, but did pull up the e-mail for Terry to print so I'd have that with me on Thursday.  Good thing, because (maybe I went back to an earlier screen to check something?) the reservation had actually been made for TONIGHT.  Not only would I have been charged as a no-show, but could have shown up on Thursday to find no rooms available!

I did go to the screen to "check" on reservations, but (would you believe) there was NO option to change... or <gasp> cancel. 

Once Terry got up I used her cellphone, spoke to a real person, got the reservation changed, and received a new e-mail confirmation (yes it's printed and safely tucked in my purse) for Thursday.

After we got Neil squared away for the day (and I took my own shower) I detoured by the shop to pick up the wire brush.  Usually I like to scrub the steps/stone at the party pool on Tuesdays; since the algae runs down the creek, some could make its way into the swimming pool, and that's drained and cleaned on Wednesdays.  But tomorrow I expect to be 'busy' relaxing up there with Terry.

She has not made it up to soak since I've been here (not even when Karen was visiting) but she has promised to do that with me tomorrow. Wednesday is not a good day because with the swimming pool closed for cleaning the party pool is often rather crowded, and then on Thursday I'll be leaving.
Mark (the Facilities Manager, who has long dreadlocks) was in the shop, and when he saw me with the wire brush he jokingly asked if I was going to brush my hair.

Cute little guy, Bodie, up at the pool.  His parents, Dan and Jessie, were not having much luck getting him into the water.  Apparently the last time he'd been in it the garter snake had gone for a swim and  headed right for him.  He was obviously scared that would happen again. Bodie did enjoy sharing my trail mix (especially the craisins), watching me scrub the steps, and hearing the Prune Song, but no amount of coaxing seemed to convince him to get in that water. I was happy to see him eventually (an hour or two later!) change his mind.

When Suzanne (and Carol and Vickie) made it up to the pool, it turned out that Suzanne and Jessie are friends.  (And when I got back to the house, turned out that Terry knows the family also; Jessie has been coming here since she was a child, so Bodie is another 3rd-generation Valley View-ers!)

Carol used her phone to take a shot of Suzanne and me.  Once she gets back to civilization and has service, she'll send it on to Suzanne, who will pass it on to me.  She says it came out great, so I'm looking forward to seeing it.

I saw another cute A-line trailer on my walk back.

Also made a new "friend"; Mary was happy to let me take a picture of her t-shirt (until 6 years ago, she was on the paddling team) and hat ("stand strong in the wind".)

I swung by the Welcome Center to return the wire brush to the shop underneath,
and saw lumber being delivered.

I'm guessing they're going to use it for more picnic tables.

In the office I had a long chat with Rosie, and said goodbye until next summer; she's getting ready to head to Boulder for her son's wedding Friday.  We talked about my suggestion for a post by the apple pools; when stepping down off the flagstones onto the path it would be nice to have a little support.  That 'shortcut' is actually closed in the winter, and we talked about planting some native things to discourage people from using it at all.  Will be interesting to see what the Board decides to do.

Doug (it's wonderful that he's the Executive Director) came into the office with a yellow cottonwood leaf that had landed at his feet on his walk over.  If the leaves are already changing, can Fall (and Winter!) be far behind?

But the flowers on the Welcome Center porch know it's still summer!

We've just finished yet another delicious dinner (fish, potatoes, asparagus) with freshly baked cookies for dessert. Naturally I had to test them shortly after they emerged from the oven (to see if they were cool enough for Neil? lol) and now we are getting ready to watch a movie.