Our Winter Migration

Our plan was to leave SD for AZ on Sunday about noon, the day following Miss W's concert. several texts and two phone calls changed those plans very quickly. On Saturday afternoon OFD shared she had emergency eye surgery for a torn and detached retina. We quickly finished our packing and last minute must dos Saturday evening with plans to be in Minneapolis by 11 AM Sunday to meet with the surgeon and take OFD home from the surgical center.

heading east into the Sunday morning sunrise

We spent Sunday afternoon at the surgery center as she needed another surgical procedure before the surgeon would release her. We took her to her apartment, made certain she had some easy to fix food when she was ready, plenty of water, and knew the time table for her eye drops. We came back on Monday morning and took her to her follow-up appointment. The surgeon was pleased with how everything looked. He suggested she take 3 days from work, but said 5 might be better. She got everything arranged and once we knew that time and rest would be best, we left for AZ. 

Now that may sound rather cruel or tough love, but remember, she couldn't see and wasn't to tire the eye that was working. So leaving her alone and allowing her to sleep as much as she needed was the best medicine. That and the eye drops. We checked in with her several times a day. We had a Thursday 8:00 AM appointment in AZ that would have been VERY hard to reschedule, so we boogied south.

Tuesday's sunset west of Amarillo TX

headed to Albuquerque for the night

Wednesday morning in New Mexico

at least it wasn't the ice of last year's trip through NM

about to leave NM for...

AZ 

this section of NM/AZ border never gets old

Snowflake to Show Low to Globe

some deciduous trees

a little more colored leaves

getting closer to the Salt River Canyon

like a mini-Grand Canyon

so awesome for the passenger

not so much for the driver

We don't usually take that route, but I am glad we did as there was a major accident south of Payson that closed that highway for a number of hours. Once you are on that road, there is no option but to wait for it to open. We encountered very little traffic.

arrival time and temp on Wednesday

and our first AZ sunset on Thursday evening

Ahhh. It is good to be here.

P.S. OFD's eye is healing well. She went back to work after the week off, but was very happy when the weekend arrived and she did not have to drive home from work in the dark. Surgery on the other eye in a couple of weeks for the same issue, just not as severe, so laser surgery should do the trick.