Travels with Charlize

This is a photo of one of many small restaurants inside the Mercado del Puerto. All of the separated restaurants have an open, wood-fueled, grill like this one where most of the cooking takes place. This is the chunk of loin I was served. Alexis had a rack of lamb with at least 10 chops….

We discovered veterinary medicine in Uruguay is alive and well. The college of veterinary medicine was started in the second decade of the 20th century and is part of the Universidad de la Republica, the National University. It is the only veterinary school in the country. We found it while on one of our extended…

The music and dancing is called Candombe. Originating with African slaves, it has become part of the culture and heritage of Uruguay. The style of music features three different drums: chico, repique and piano. Candombe refers to dancing societies founded by persons of African descent in the third decade of the 19th century. The term…

My oversized ego makes me believe this first separation from Charlize has made her very sad. When I left her with the young couple who agreed to care for her while we are gone she was so busy investigating their home and their two cats she didn’t seem to notice when I left. A text…

“I want to go to Marfa,” Alexis said, “ it’s on my bucket list.” “What and where is Marfa?” I responded. “Marfa, Texas — it’s an artists’ colony and has a hotel from the ’50s completely retro but renovated. That’s where I want to stay. There is also an art installation outside of town, a…

The Phoenix I knew, before leaving in 1970, is no more. The northern suburbs now stretch all the way to Cave Creek. My brother and sister-in-law moved to Cave Creek 11 years ago. When I practiced veterinary medicine, never certain I practiced well enough or long enough to really be good at it, there was…

We’re on the road again, Charlize and I, this time with company. Alexis and her two Yorkshire terriers, Mimi and Zsa Zsa, are making travel even more fun. We left early Wednesday morning, the 4th of February. We crossed over Snoqualmie Pass in spitting snow but the road was clear. On the eastern slope the…

My Edmonds News is pleased to welcome back “Travels with Charlize” by Dr. David Gross. We are back in the Sandhills of Nebraska visiting old friends on their ranch, something in the neighborhood of 17,000 acres, Don tells us, “…just a medium sized place for this part of the country.” I’ve known and been close…

Part 51: Heading Home While visiting with my brother and his family in the desert near Cave Creek, Arizona For a couple of weeks Charlize and I reveled in sun, warm temperatures and one “gully washer” consisting of heavy rain and hail. Then we made the now easy drive to Carlsbad, California for a visit…

Part 50: Old stomping grounds-continued After eating overpriced Mexican food — fancy presentation, ordinary taste — in Sedona, Charlize and I braved the traffic to Cottonwood. The old road is now a divided highway. The last time I was in this part of the world, there were no divided highways and Cottonwood was a small…

Part 49: Old stomping grounds It is after dark and we finally arrive in Las Vegas. We enter town on a freeway I know nothing about, five or six lanes of rush hour traffic at 65 miles per hour. I have the mistaken idea that I can spot a hotel or there will be a…

Part 48:  Oregon and beyond Charlize and I are driving through southeastern Oregon and into California. The winter landscape is much like Eastern Washington — rolling hills, windmill farms generating electricity, creeks and washes home to cottonwood trees, bare and stark silhouettes in the winter sky. We drive past cultivated fallow fields but the rows…

Part 47: On the Road Again On Sunday, Feb. 9 the family and I ended the official mourning period, according to our traditional upbringing, with the service for the unveiling of Rosalie’s headstone. During the process I learned something new. The Rabbi told us that Abraham started this tradition when he put up a monument…

Part 46: Lobbying In my last column, I described some of the major issues involved in the Homelessness Advocacy Day Jan. 28 of this year. Perhaps the most disturbing fact I learned of is that children from homeless families suffer from increased rates of illness and poor school performance. Problems that are directly linked to…

Part 45: Homeless Charlize decided I need to get mad and motivated about something, then work to change it. FACT: A recent study published in the medical journal Pediatrics reported that 27.9% of homeless children suffered from asthma. That is three times the national average! The rate of general illness in homeless families is also…

Part 44: What does the future hold? Charlize is on the floor at my feet. I am relating all of this to her, but she seems disinterested, at best. Both sets of my grandparents arrived in America at the turn of the twentieth century. They came from Eastern European countries where their lives were no…

Part 43: Searching for a meaningful life So—phase I is completed and I’m ready for phase II. I know I can manage life on my own; the next question is what do I want to do with the rest of it? There are many societal issues that demand attention; families who are homeless for whatever…

Part 42: The End, The Beginning My travels with Charlize will continue. She is, after all, a great travel companion and provider of comfort and attention. My search to discover how to live on my own after so many years of being married is being resolved. During this past year I made a lot of…

Part 41: Seaman Confinement while my surgically fused ankle heals provides time for reading, perhaps too much. No — that’s not possible. Along with my infatuation with all of Steinbeck and Hemingway I am addicted to any publication that deals with the Corps of Discovery, the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I own at least a…

Part 40: Stuck in the house One aspect of growing old, for animals and us humans, is that joints wear out. Osteoarthritis is characterized by loss and/or degeneration of the cartilage in joints. The process is accompanied by osteophytes — new bone growth where it is not wanted or needed, the body’s unfortunately ineffective effort…

Part 37: A much different kind of journey Four weeks ago Charlize and I embarked on a new, a different kind of trip. This trip requires new and different skills. Both of us need to learn to be patient and to find ways to control the way we handle day-to-day emotions and frustrations. Over three…

Part 38: Eureka The Whale Watch Inn doesn’t have a breakfast room. At 8 a.m., according to my Timex, a discrete knock on the door announced my breakfast’s arrival — the time I selected the previous evening. I opened the door to find a wicker tray waiting for me. There was a tasty omelet, homemade…

Part 37: Elephant seals and amazing scenery Charlize and I stopped at yet another vista, this one full of cars, trucks, campers, RVs and a lot of folks. The signs for the place identified it as Elephant Seal Beach and the attraction was a lot of Elephant seals sunning themselves on the sand and a…

Part 36: The road home Charlize and I are on the road again. We spent two weeks visiting my son and his family in their beautiful new home in Carlsbad, Calif. Rosalie would have loved the house and the neighborhood, both idyllic. The trip south from Edmonds was made in two and a half days…

Part 35: A Headstone Wednesday was not a good day. It was time to do something about arrangements for a headstone for Rosalie. It seems nothing about losing a loved one is easy or simple. It has been eight months and I finally felt capable of dealing with this last, I hope, detail. I made…