Kelly Brown 1958-2009

It has been a few days since my last blog post. Many of our regular readers have certainly wondered what happen to us.

Thursday the 22^nd early in the morning I got a call from my brother, Brent, to let me know that he was on the way to the hospital in Calgary, but that our little brother had passed away.

Shocking doesn't describe it, at first my mind thought "Kelly, who, I only know one Kelly and he is the most unlikely person to have a heart attack I know." Kelly was a fit healthy guy, 50 years old but not any extra weight and always a pretty active guy with a regular workout schedule that is supposed to waylay these kinds of issues. Brent and I both have histories of heart issues, but not Kelly, he seemed to have escaped that part of our genetic make-up. But sadly it was true; he had passed away in same house he came home from the hospital to as a new baby. Dad always said it didn't look like Kelly was going to move away so he finally sold him the house.

Like I said he was our baby brother so almost every step of his way through life I was watching to see what he would do next (and that was never boring). I remember the day he came home from the hospital and the way Brent and I roared into the house with all our grubby little friends in tow to show off our brand new baby brother. Didn't take Mom long to give us the bums rush as she didn't want her shiny new baby mauled by a lot of grubby kids. I think pretty soon she got used to us as I don't remember not being allowed to paw him for very long.

When Brent and I used to go to school down the road Kelly could always be counted on to accompany us on his tricycle and mom talks about him always asking every kid coming down that street if they had seen "JohnnyBrent".

When we were kids my Mom was quite a seamstress so there are a lot of pictures of the three of us all wearing matching shirts. I was always taller and skinnier (not anymore, the skinny part anyway) and Brent and Kelly were much more alike so they actually look like big and small versions of the same guy. I don't think any of those pictures show Kelly without a big grin on his face.

Kelly Brown was a fearless skier who spent a large part of his time on any mountain going straight down the fall line, long traverses being for lesser mortals. In the tribute at the funeral Brent painted a word picture that will forever stick in my mind of Kelly floating effortlessly down the mountain through chest deep untracked powder and although I was never a good enough skier to accomplish that myself I well remember riding up the chair lift at Sunshine one day 25 or so years ago and seeing him doing exactly that directly under the lift. Nobody else had dared to take that run and the guy I was riding with couldn't believe what he was seeing nor when we came close enough that the fearless fellow below us was actually my baby brother.

My father is a pretty good gardener so when Kelly took over the house it already had a great deal of landscaping finished and mature, but I think over the years he owned it the garden got even better. You could always find him working there in his yard any time he had a few spare moments. For the great majority of his life he was a bachelor and I'm not sure whether they are connected or not but he spent a lot of time doing the things that gave him pleasure. He skied most of the great mountains in Western North America in the winter and drove his little Triumph TR-6 all through the west in the summer.

All that said he was always around when you needed someone to help with odd jobs. I don't like heights so when we needed to re-roof the old barn Kelly was pressed into service to do the high work. The same thing when the windmill needed some maintenance, Kelly was the man for the job. I don't know what I am going to do without my high angle go-to guy.

A few years ago though, he was struck by a young lady who caught his fancy, and whom he eventually convinced, that he was the guy for her. He and Christine had a great relationship and were good friends first and lovers second. That certainly made his last two years amongst the happiest of his life. Thanks for that Christine.

His memorial service was a great testament to the number of lives he had impacted in his short time here, there must have been at least 400 hundred, maybe 500 folks in attendance and I am betting almost everyone could have told a story about Kelly Brown and how he had added to their collection of lifetime stories. I know I could go on for days or weeks telling absolutely true tales that most people wouldn't believe had actually happened but that was the kind of guy he was.

All these words describe the Kelly Brown that I knew, Irreverent, Politically Un-correct, Outspoken, Opinionated, Kind, Caring, Loving, Funny, Hard-working, Fun Loving, Courageous, Adventurer, Loyal, and most of all a friend you could depend on.

One of Kelly Brown's lifelong friends, who now lives in Melbourne, Australia, sent us a Tribute to Kelly Brown that characterized him as what the Australians call a Larrikin. I stole the definitions here from Wikipedia and if they don't describe the man I called my baby brother I must have missed the point

Larrikin - "a mischievous or frolicsome youth"

"A person may be classified as a larrikin if he or she meets some of these criteria. A larrikin is not concerned with the opinion of other people and so is not socially intimidated into modifying behaviour and structuring it around social norms. Larrikins are also not at all fazed by authorities of all kinds, including whatever power or authority they may possess themselves, and must not take themselves too seriously." I am assuming that when you meet all the criteria you are a Super Larrikin, well Kelly you make the grade.

That pretty much sums up Kelly Brown and although he is gone, he will never be forgotten, he lives on in the hearts of hundreds of people, those who joined at his wake, his memorial, and those who were unable to. Although I confess at times he infuriated me I can honestly say I was always proud to call him my little brother.

As always in the middle of things with his infectious grin

"Catch you later Bro"

Roaming the Country

Today was a lazy day, this morning I had my breakfast and then fired up the TV for a morning of watching the inauguration ceremonies in Washington. Dennis and Denice http://dennisdenices2009wintervacation.blogspot.com/ came over to help me moderate the show. Not that anyone else was interested in my comments but it was quite a spectacle. Some 42,500 security folks keeping an estimated crowd of 1,000,000 folks in line. Sure hope this fellow can live up to his billings or their will be a lot of disappointed folks. As a Canadian it is not really my concern but we are the United States biggest trading partners and share about 4,000 miles of border with them so I sure hope he can do all he is expected too.

After recovering from the morning of watching the tube I spent most of the afternoon reading a book and enjoying the peace and quiet. Also managed to talk to Matt about things that are happening back home.

Then I thought I better get moving before the sloth-like lifestyle gets to feeling normal. I went into town and braved the crowd to have a look around the Flea Market again. Nothing caught my eye except the flagpoles but I can't decide which one I want or need so left empty handed. Then I thought I'd have a look down in the Roadrunner 14 day area for the Bayfield Bunch. Al had given a pretty good description of their spot on his blog "http://thebayfieldbunch.com/" this morning and I managed to drive right to their doorstep. I introduced myself and we sat for a while and chewed the fat exchanging stories about great places we had found to camp in the SW and talking about our various interests. Time flew by and pretty soon it was dark and I thought I better head back to my own camp and check out what the Obama's were up to this evening.

Swansea

Pretty nice sunrise this morning. I did a little cleaning around the bus this morning then took a drive over east of Bouse to the old mine site at Swansea. The roads were good getting there although mostly gravel. You go through a couple of different types of eco-systems from a dune type desert, called the Crescent Dunes where the vegetation is very sparse, until just before you reach Swansea you are dropping through more mountainous terrain that borders the Bill Williams River. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to save money on mine reclamation down here is call it a historic site and give it to the government.

Some of the mountains just to the west of Bouse

A Saguaro in the desert east of Bouse

The landscape in the Crescent Dunes area

A look at the country around Swansea as you drop down towards the Bill Williams River

Dr. Moriarty

This afternoon when I phoned home to talk to my Dad he gave me some sad news. Apparently my family doctor had been stricken with a heart attack and passed away suddenly earlier in the week. Fred had been my physician for many years since taking over the family practice from his father when he retired. Dr. Fred's father, Dr. Joe Moriarty, had been the Brown family doctor since he came back from his stint in the Navy during the Second World War. Dr. Joe was the attending physician at my birth as well as the births of both of my sons and Fred helped bring my eldest grandaughter into the world. Needless to say we have had a long and for the most part healthy relationship under the stewardship of the Moriarty family. I can remember as a kid having Joe Moriarty doing house calls and certainly remember when I was in the hospital as a teenager hearing his voice echoing down the halls of the Holy Cross hospital making sure that his patients were the recipients of the very best care the staff there could manage. They were not pretentious men but were not afraid to call a spade a spade. I also recall half a dozen years ago when I had my heart attack, Dr. Fred's daily visits to interpret for me what the cardiologist were saying and what it would mean to me. I know that I still have some of the drawings that he would make to be certain that I understood everything. My heart goes out to Fred's family in these sad times and I just wanted to say thanks for all their family has done for mine over the years.

Today I wandered into Quartzsite to look around another section of the Flea Market. There are hordes of vendors around town for this event but it appears that they all get their stock from the same supplier. Boxes and boxes of tools, gloves, wire ends, hats, t-shirts and trinkets of all kinds but after a while you have to look up and reorientate yourself because it seems like you may have been walking in a very small circle. It wouldn't surprise me if the many booths are all owned by a very few folks as they all appear to have the same stuff for sale at exactly the same prices. I also ran out and had a visit with Bill and Marg, and Ron and Edy. They are parked out on Dome Rock Road in almost the same spot we were in in November. I have included a couple of photos taken out there to show the number of rigs surrounding them.

The shot below is from up at the Stone Cabin looking off to the NW across the Dome Rock Road 14 day area.

Big Tent

Well today I braved the road into Quartzsite to visit the RV Show and the Big Tent. In the desert surrounding town there is an abundance of RV's parked, and most of their owners were swarming into town to look for that elusive deal. The traffic was not to bad and I actually got a parking spot within a few hundred yards of the centre of activity. There were a lot of folks moving around the tent but at least from my perspective I couldn't see that there were any great deals to be had. Kinda reminded me of a small town RV show, say Red Deer, back home. Certainly nothing compared to the Tampa Super Show that we attended about this time last year. That said it was interesting watching the people.

In the small world category I met Eddie Dillon from Tuktoyaktuks cousin working in the Northwest Territories and then standing right next to me in the tent were Dennis and Denice. I worked with Dennis for the last 20 odd years back home in Canada and although I knew there was a chance they would be in the area I was not sure. Fortuitous meeting, later in the day I went over to visit them at their site at Hi Jolly and got myself an invitation to dinner.

Other than those exciting bits the rest of the day I spent working on my tan and keeping Brenda's bus clean while enjoying the temperatures in the mid 70's. I mention the temperatures, not to gloat, but so that those back home in the Great White North know that there is hope. Spring and summer will come back to the land up there but it will be awhile I guess.

Bouse Road Exploration

I went over to Bouse today. The road runs right by the door of the motor home and I figured I should see what was over the hill. It ran over a range of mountains and down into another large flat desert valley. The small town of Bouse is at the intersection of the road I am on and Highway 72. From there I traveled on the County Roads down to Brenda, Arizona. Must of have been missing the real thing I guess. Then it was I-10 back to Quartzsite and back home.

It is BLM land all the way from Highway 95 over to the junction with Hwy 72 so there are boondockers scattered randomly all along the way. By far the highest concentration though is in this Plomosa 14 day area along the first 2 miles of Bouse Road. Once I got over to Bouse I took a drive through the Community Park there. Although they don't have full hookups they do have water and electric and a dump station. It is pretty reasonable to stay there and maybe the most intriguing thing to me is they have an equestrian section. I have been looking for a spot where I could bring some saddle horses down and while there met some folks from Washington, Carroll and her husband David who have done just that. They tell me that there are a lot of great places to ride in the surrounding area and even though the spot they are camped has no water or electrical the horses have all the water they need as well as good pipe pens to spend their evenings in. Through the daylight hours they have them turned out into an electric fenced area just off the edge of the campsite. Now if I can just find a place that I can turn them out for a week or two if we want to run off to Mexico or something maybe I can rescue my ponies from the cold next winter too.

Along the road to Bouse I saw these CJ type jeeps heading off road and although I thought of following them I figured Brenda wouldn't want her baby to head into the outback, no matter what its heritage is.

Once again I came across a couple of these Road Runner guys while the first just showed me how they got their name this fellow seemed inclined to stick around and see what I was up to as long as I didn't try to get to close.

Gone but Not Forgotten

Today is the day that Brenda went away. She has flown home to have a visit with her brother who has had some surgery and also see the kids. Matt, our son, is picking her up at the airport, and I see from the flight tracker that her plane is almost an hour late getting there. He will take her out to the farm and make sure she can get the truck out of the garage. Tomorrow she will be off to Rocky Mountain House to visit Brent and our daughter Lacey. This will be the first time she has seen Lace since she annouced her pregnancy so that will be a lot of excitement. I am sure that there will be a visit with Bec and Ved in the plans also.

Over the last few days she has given me detailed instructions on how to keep HER bus neat and tidy and I am trying my best to follow the rules. We got the laundry all done up in Quartzsite the other day. I have figured out that if you go at Happy Hour in the evening the thundering horde has left the laundromat and it goes much quicker. Not that I am much of a laundry person, but in the past I have been known to do a load or two. ...only my stuff as most folks don't like everything a light shade of blue....lol.

She had to be at the airport by 1:00PM and as usual we were ready to roll in lots of time. Good thing because last night just as I shut the place down for the night our air card gave up the ghost so I took it with us and the folks at the Sprint store replaced it for us. The charge was minimal as we didn't have the insurance on it but the actual cost was less than we would have paid to date for that insurance. After that we managed a stop at Costco for the required hundred and some dollars worth of purchases, I'm sure if you don't spend a hundred bucks there they tell you to go back until you have or they won't let you out. Even had time to run into Cabela's to pick up some Cinnamon Apple jelly, imagine our disappointment when they told us they had none as they were reducing stock so the upcoming inventory would be better, strange. It will be really easy if you sell everything and don't restock, go figure.