For Easter we drove the Mazda to meet our San Diego friends at Anza Borrego, where I sprained my ankle near the end of our Moonlight Canyon hike. I recall the vivid sound of seven “pops”. ( I can read an audible 7 because of my training as a drummer) The terrain was so different from the previous time we hiked it due to the recent rains and shifting sand and deep tamarisk growth. Steve helps me walk it off, which helps some–but it is bad. Someone always gets wounded, and this time I got the full treatment, painkillers, ice, lawn chair in the shade with my ankle elevated on pillows, cocktails, soaks in the hot pool.
April 15–I was sleeping at 60th Street on Friday nights after band practice, and one night my sister called, very late, maybe 1 AM, to say Mom was in the hospital on life support, and . . . I said, “she’s gone”. Kathy said, yes– I knew, maybe from the sound of her voice. But she was waiting for my brother to arrive before letting her go. The next day I went driving up north with my neighbor Joe to look at a piece of property, but my heart wasn’t in it. I did fall in love with this burnt house and 2 acres on Drive Thru Tree Road at the Eel River Bridge that was listed for $40 k–
At the end of the week I flew to Portland and my siblings and cousins were all there, and Aunt Annette, Aunt Jean. The five of us kids and offspring snuck off with the ashes and scattered them at Road’s End, Mom’s favorite beach.
That May Steve and I took a trip up around the Sacramento River Delta, to Isleton and Terminous. We made a habit of driving the levee roads some Sundays, for brunch at Wimpy’s or in Rio Vista. Since I had been location scouting, and then on a movie shoot near Isleton in 1986, the area had a special flavor for me.
Travels With Stevie 