Charlene's Birthday Party–May 16, 2014 (b. 1944)

My flight is booked, I AM going to Hawaii. I won't eat for the next two weeks, until my next payday 2/19, but I AM going to Hawaii and will be staying at Kahana Beach Resort, 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Maui part of the time.

My 70th Birthday is May 16, 2014. Please join me for this epic event. The only reason this event is epic is that I was shopping for a wheelchair in 2006 because I could not walk and weighed 300 pound. Since then I got new knees thanks to David Swankie and a boat… than a new life and have kayaked 49 states, only leaving Hawaii to kayak, our 50th state, my 50th state to kayak and on my 70th Birthday.  No I don’t feel 70.  I feel better than when I was 40 and that truly amazes even me.

The maiden voyage of my new Kayak was on Lake Tahoe in the company of Ellie Beals who paddled with me that day in 2009.

There is time if you care to join us... to make your own arrangements.
Hope you can join me to celebrate this great day and great achievement.

My Schedule:

5/13 - 8am depart San Jose, CA, arrive in Kahului, HI at 10:20am
5/13-15 staying with Matt and Cherrish
5/16- at Kahana Beach Resort, 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Maui
5/16 - KAYAK HAWAII - my last of 50 States to Kayak
5/17 - at Kahana Beach Resort, 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Maui
5/18 - at Kahana Beach Resort, 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Maui
5/19 - check out from Kahana Beach Resort, 4221 Lower Honoapiilani Highway, Maui
5/19 - staying with Matt and Cherrish
5/20 - depart HI at 12:30pm and arrive back to San Jose, CA at 8:30pm

Paddling with me will be son Richard Bailey, Matt and Cherrish Beals, and hopefully others.

CREAM of the Crop… L-R: Richard Bailey, Elle Beals, Matt Beals, Chris Bailey, and Andy Beals.  (Their initials spell CREAM).  Beals children are children of my best friend of 40plus years, Betsy Beals Stafford.

It's gonna be a grand party. A once in a life-time happening.  I sure wish all five could be with me, but 2/5 of the gang will be swell.

Can’t go, but want to help????

Anyone who helps will receive a post card from Hawaii after the paddle and I hope it will be a photo of me in the kayak, if I can arrange that there.  If you donate, order art work or buy from my store and want a post card, be sure to send me your mailing address to charlene.swankie@gmail.com. 

Wishing everyone I love could be there with me
for my 70th birthday party.

By helping a friend, Possum Hunter, out after he lost all he had Christmas night in an apartment fire, and having a front tooth break off and needing to have it extracted and an implant in last week, I am very very low on funds.  I could sure use some help making this dream come true and in accomplishing the goal I set out on in 2009, of kayaking all 50 states. See Index of States Kayaked.  Click on the donate button in the upper right corner of this site, if you can help a little bit, even if only a dollar or two.  Or click on the Art Work tab above if you would like to commission me to do some Art Work for you. All art work will be completed before I go to Hawaii.

You could also help by buying through my Amazon Store http://astore.amazon.com/kayakin-20
- a portion of your Amazon purchase will go to supporting my kayaking
adventure or for my next adventure, hiking the Arizona Trail in 2015 (820 miles from Mexico to Utah).

Thank you for your support and Aloha
Charlene Beaty Bailey Swankie

--
"It's not the destination that is important, it is the journey. It doesn't
get any better than that, until tomorrow." Swankie

Becoming the Best I can Be!

Photo by Doug Begley

I'm in Quartzsite now and in the process of setting up camp. You know you are back home again in Quartzsite, AZ when you drive by the only bookstore in town and see a naked man.  Yep, I’m home.
Here’s my journal:
Oct 27, 2013 - Quartzsite update. I arrived about an hour ago and took the nickel tour of town. It's a freaking ghost town. Two RV campgrounds have closed down and property is for sale. No signs posted at the rock club and I am wondering if anyone is even here yet. I'll find out tomorrow. I got the two local papers and will read them tonight. I arrived here two weeks later than this last year and there were RVs all over the desert. Very few here now. There is no BLM host at the land 2 miles west of Loves. There was one at Hi Jolly BLM land.  There was no host at Scandan Wash BLM land.
On the way from the California Coast I stopped off in LaQuinta CA for a nice visit with my sister Cathy and her son Robert. 
10/30/13 -  Oh boy, the nesting instinct is coming out. I don't yet have a permanent camp, my meetings today have been postponed a week, so came home to catch up on email and Facebook, only to get so sleepy I had to take a nap. Woke up with the urge to make pecan/banana bread, and some rice (to use up my sisters homemade chili on). I feel so domesticated.

The last five years being a vandweller has really changed me. I used to be afraid that life in a wheelchair would be impossible for me, that's why I fought so hard to regain my health and walk right again. But in the past hour, I have taken a bath, washed my hair, checked my email, got dressed, made breakfast and ate it without getting away from this chair... oh, and flirted, and washed dishes, not necessarily in that order. Anything is possible. So, in case I ever get to that stage again (thinking of buying a wheelchair), I ain't gonna worry about it. But yep... adjustments would be required, but as good Facebook friend said, “You are not going there"!” I’m working very hard to be sure I don’t go there.

Gathering MY Stuff

But I did go to Paulden, AZ where I left my trailer last Spring – over 300 miles of driving in one day (and I don’t do that anymore). Got my STUFF (cargo trailer with rocks, lapidary supplies and equipment, bike, tents, canopy).... yahoo almost time to set up my winter home in the Quartzsite desert. Can't wait.  Man, it took me four hours to drive up there, two hours to get the trailer ready to go, then Victoria Walker (my trailer-sitter) treated me to a great lunch (thank you), and then five hours back. I made a wrong turn and had to backtrack 10 miles, and of course I had to stop and take photos. It was very nice to arrive safely back at my friend's camp in Quartzsite, too tired to unhitch.

Vickie was the second person I kayaked with and Arizona the second state I kayaked, at Watkins Lake in Prescott, AZ.

10.31.13 – Took Doug to Petroglyphs
Had a drive out to walk around some Indian petroglyphs with neighbor Doug Begley... and felt incredible compared to two years ago when I went there with The Good Luck Duck. What an amazing life I’m living.



There are petroglyphs on those rocks across the Wash... http://strollingamok.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/tysons-wash-petroglyphs/
http://strollingamok.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/imgp6066wtmk.jpg

I come to Quartzsite each winter to learn about making jewelry, it is only a coincidence that Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) began happening here too. But, right now I need to be close enough to walk to town in a reasonable amount of time and I get tired of hiding from Clyde (BLM employee/ranger) and trying to be legal. I need to be able to unpack, set up camp and relax and have a home to come back to after a hard day of sawing rocks and cutting stones, and polishing stuff and making jewelry, etc. and so forth. RTR is only two weeks out of the whole winter. And as much fun as the RTR is, I do have a life outside RTR. Rocks come first and I get to do that ALL winter long.

New Goal for after my 50th State Paddle (Hawaii)
 

Training for the Arizona Trail (820 miles) means I have to toughen my feet and tone up my legs (which don't get much workout sitting in the kayak), and also train my back to carry a 40lb pack. I want to work up to being able to hike 10 miles easily, and carry the 40lb pack easily. If I can do that, I can do the AZ Trail. Means I have to give up candy bars, snacks, and cokes and eat right. Oh Boy, tall order, but that's exactly what I need, TALL ORDERS,  to make my life worth living.



11.1.13 - This morning I began a journal for my Arizona Trail Training... to track my efforts. I took a little food, two bottles of water, a jacket, hat, sunglasses, chap stick and headed out to walk. Steven SoulRaven CA-Dotd's dog Zeke set out with me. Zeke is used to doing this from this location... and goes as far as he wants and then returns home.

He lasted about 30-40 minutes and then I was alone. I don't know how far it was. I took a lunch break... and should have sent a spot message out from there, but didn't think of it... all I know is I left camp about 9:15 and returned at 12:30pm. Feet a little tender, breathing great, legs great, back and shoulders ache... and need more work. But it's a start.

The 3 hr. hike this morning made me so sleepy I had to take a nap, and then I got so hungry it woke me up, so I had to eat, and now I'm so rested, I can't go to sleep at bedtime. I don't know about this new fitness level I am trying to reach???  Is this really going to work?

11.2.13 – Took a hike with Bryce today.  Zeke went along for a ways, but then went back to Steve while we were having a break.  Got bored I guess.  Zeke hates flies and they were beginning to annoy him.  Bryce and I had a good hike and good conversation.  I think we hiked about four miles.  I’m feeling good.

11.3.13 – Today, Bryce biked in from the RTR location to Doug’s camp (about 6.5 miles) and then together we biked and walked to the Indian Petroglyphs and back to camp.  Doug loaned me his bike (transportation central) With hiking we did around the ruins, I estimate it was about 5-6 miles.  Now I am tired… three days of working out… and tomorrow I will rest, get a shower, meet up with my friend and register for the Long Term Visitor Area, go find my campsite and set up my winter home.  It’s all good.

This day, Doug also blogged about my Solar Oven - http://strollingamok.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/solar-oven/
It doesn’t get any better than this, until tomorrow. I can become my own best person. Coming home is a good thing.

Recap of My Transition in Becoming Healthy
 

I seem to remember there were lots of baby steps along the road, but for me, what motivated me out of a sedentary life to a free full-time life on the road was establishing a BIG DREAM, a picture bigger than life itself. Such a goal may feel meaningless in the beginning but soon takes on a life of its own. For me, after not being able to walk in 2005, it was setting off in 2008, after bilateral knee replacements and recovery… to Kayak America. It didn’t mean much in the beginning, but I never considered it impossible. Soon I was living to fulfill the goal. In May 2014, I will kayak my last state, #50 – Hawaii for my 70th birthday. My son and some of my friends are going with me to celebrate the completion of the Adventure, and my birthday as well. I did not plan it that way, it’s just the way it came together.

As I finished my 49th state, Alaska in August 2013… I wondered what I would do next. A friend had been talking about hiking the Arizona Trail. The idea would not leave my mind because I had never thought such a thing was possible for me… but suddenly it was decided… I could and would hike that trail… and I must begin training for it now in order to hike it in Spring/early summer 2015. A new dream/goal was born. I’ve never felt more fit or alive than I do now, being free on the road, and free to dream and free to live. By the time I complete the trail, age 71, I will be the MOST fit I’ve been in my life. Who knows what new idea will come into play then… I’m wide open to any possibility. Not too shabby for an old 300 pound lady who could not walk 1/2 block eight years ago.

Left: California 2008, Right: Arizona 2012
 

OK, I’m bragging a bit ’cause I’m swankie… and that really is my last name. I’m proud of where the name came from, I’m proud to have it as a handle, and I am thrilled where it is taking me.  (Thank you David Swankie.)

John Denver Lyrics

My memory of love will be of you.  Is that the title?  My husband is on my mind this morning and the lyrics of John Denver’s songs.  So many of his songs really speak to me… especially this summer when I am working in the Rocky Mountains high.

“When I think of LOVE, I’ll think of you” David Swankie.
Perhaps love is like a resting place
A shelter from the storm
It exists to give you comfort
It is there to keep you warm

And in those times of trouble
When you are most alone
The memory of love will bring you home

Perhaps love is like a window
Perhaps an open door
It invites you to come closer
It wants to show you more

And even if you lose yourself
And don't know what to do
The memory of love will see you through

Oh, love to some is like a cloud
To some as strong as steel
For some a way of living
For some a way to feel

And some say love is holding on
And some say letting go
And some say love is everything
And some say they don't know

Perhaps love is like the ocean
Full of conflict, full of pain

Like a fire when it's cold outside
Or thunder when it rains

If I should live forever
And all my dreams come true
My memories of love will be of you (David Swankie)

Maybe it is impossible to find love again, but I am not even looking.  It is simply beyond my comprehension.  All I know is that David Swankie, in eight days of marriage (all spend in the hospital) fulfilled me more than anyone in my entire life. 

Hospital marriage ceremony May 27, 2001, Everett, WA.

During those days preceding open heart surgery, we talked about how sure we were he would survive as we believed there was a purpose for our meeting, union and marriage. We felt there was “something” we needed to accomplish.

Now, eleven years later I know what that purpose is… for me to be a shining example to others to LIVE, not just exist. Forest Rangers have listened to my story this summer and commented, “You are my new hero!”  Wow, I’ve never been a hero to anyone that I know of.  Would be to hear that from my family members, not strangers.  But if I never hear it from anyone, that is o.k. too, I hear it in my head and my heart and daily say “Thank you David Swankie, for my new life.
-4 years after he died, his insurance gave me new knees
-new knees allowed me to be active again
-being active again allowed me to loose weight
-loosing weight allowed me to have higher adventures (i.e. kayaking 50 states, hiking hours on end, working for the Forest Service – a lifelong dream)
- working for the Forest Service has allowed me to really trim the rest of the fat
- trimming the rest of the fat and reaching my goal weight and fitness level will allow me to… ?????
What?  Who knows!

So, my wish for others, or if I could leave a legacy it would be to leave this message: Never give up. Reach for your dreams. I could not have imaged my life today (in 2012), back there in that hospital in Everett, WA in 2001.  In spite of any nay-sayers (i.e. trolls) who might try to put a shadow on your happiness, keep fighting… you can have anything you can dream.

Why, why am I kayaking the country!?

I just ran across this set of photos clustering in a folder by themselves.  I realized they told a story all by themselves.  I don’t know why they were in the folder together, or if that was my intent so I am putting them here… because I think it is an important story.

In the Spring 2001, I met my second husband-to-be.  We planned to be married in June 2001… but we married in the hospital in May 27, 2001 and he died in surgery June 4, 2001 (now I don’t write that to make anyone sad).  I cried for almost a year. I was suicidal.

To get my mind off my grief and try to reclaim my life, I took my little granddaughter, Tori, on a cruise to Alaska.  Somehow that didn’t quite do it for me… but this photo kinda kicked me into gear… realizing I am only happy when I’m outside.  The above photo and the one in the raft below were only taken about ONE month apart.  Yes, hard to believe.

So after the Alaska trip, I began working on my plan to downsize and become mobile.  The process can be painfully slow, especially if it involves two knee replacements, a car accident, two shoulder surgeries, and misc. other uncontrolled events (like trees falling through the roof of your storage unit in Washington state when you are in Califonia, or a month later after you moved your stuff into a new storage unit and returned to California, the new unit floods and you have to return to Washington again… this time buying a trailer and hauling what’s left away from there)  but I just kept the goal in mind and kept plugging away.

Eight years later, there I am camped in Quartzsite, AZ awaiting the arrival of other vandwellers… with everything I own is in tow.

Bob Wells took the below photo a month or so later… and it sums up the transition for me… I hope it does for you.  The moral of this story, is if it is your dream to live a mobile life – just keep plugging away at it.  Keep the dream in sight.  I think it saved my life.

Swankie 

(story of the name Swankie… my mom was a Bevis, she married a Beaty, and I married a Bailey first time – oh someone has got to change this pattern Bevis, Beaty, Bailey… so it was nice to finally get a swankie name – and that was really his name David Swankie – the love of my life)

Tributes to my husband:

This Charlene when to high school with David’s twins, Richard and Steve.  She and her husband were the abulance drivers who transferred Dave to the heart hospital.  How strange is that?

 

Today… A Decade Without Him!! I’m shocked. (2014-now 13 years)

 

 

 

 

 

 

David A Swankie, Sr. (1937-2001)

How could it be 10 years already?  Last night I realized that today it would be 10 years since my husband died in open heart surgery.  I want to tell our story as a tribute to this wonderful man.  He would want me to tell our short story.  Please don’t think this is going to be sad or morbid… we laughed and loved more than most people do in an entire lifetime together.

Wonderful… what can I say, he loved horses and dogs and nature… and most of all, he loved me (I felt more than anyone else ever had-including my parents).  We met online in March 2001.  He said, his wife was in a nursing home and no longer knew him and he wanted someone to go have a meal with him and talk.  I was hesitant to go out with a married man… but thought he really needed a friend… but by the time I emailed him back, his wife has passed.  Oh, sure you say, rebound… and so we met… at McDonald’s.  We talked, we parted laughing at how our vehicles looked like they went together… mine a forest green and his bright red… they looked like Christmas parked together. 

We began dating but by the following month (April 2001), we got an apartment together, became engaged… and began planning our wedding.  He didn’t want one, he wanted to get married that very minute.  But I never really had a wedding… so he agreed and the date was set for end of June 2001.  We began settling in and merging our stuff… too many t.v.s and radios, etc.  He claimed the kitchen as HIS and would not even let me wash one dish… and even fussed at me for walking the dirty dishes to the sink. He wanted to make everything perfect for me.  No mis-matched dishes or silverware.  One of his kids laughed at that, as they always had mis-matched stuff.

We arranged the wedding venue, invited all our friends and family (my best friend flying back from Africa), ordered the cake, etc. and so forth.  He insisted on a double-ring ceremony and we went out and bought our rings.  I was much more excited and more in love than the first time around.  My 9-year old granddaughter wrote us a love poem.

I just noticed that the R.S.V.P. date was June 4th and that was the day he died in surgery.  How ironic.

He had many health issues… was on oxygen all the time, was a diabetic, and I knew all that.  I think now looking back on it.. he did too much in getting our new “home” organized while I was working fulltime.  I worked across the street from our new place.  About the end of May we finally got our marriage license.  The very next day I went to work… and he called shortly after I got there, saying he didn’t feel right and thought I should come get him and take him to the Emergency Room.  I did.  They transferred him to a heart hospital in Everett, WA.  I was frantic when they told me we could not even go outside to sit in the fresh air and talk.  That scared us both.

Well, this didn’t sound good.  I told him he was in deep doo-doo for spoiling all the wedding plans and he was going to need a really big shovel to dig his way out of that one. 

David with his deep doo-doo shovel
and my granddaughter, Tori.

I ran out for lunch and came back with a big snow shovel which I had spray painted gold and silver and tied a big bow on.  He laughed so hard I thought he was going to expire on the spot.  From that moment on he had to tell everyone that story.  Someone would come in the room and see the shovel and looked puzzled… and there was the storyteller waiting for them.

I went back home to call around, search on the internet, etc., make phone calls and try to find someone to marry us.  I had no success and felt I needed to get back to him so I rushed back to the hospital.  A couple blocks from the hospital I saw a church steeple off to the left and swerved and just marched in asking if someone could marry us.  I found this guy dressed in a Hawaiian shirt… and he said, “Yes, he married people.  When?”  I said, “Now!”  He became skeptical but followed me back to the hospital.  We got to the room, David’s daughter was there, and I popped my head in the door… and asked “You still want to get married?”  He reply was a loud and hearty “Hell, YESS!”  The minister had no further doubts.  And so we were married right then and there on May 27, 2001.

The minister in his fancy shirt, David’s nurse,
and the bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. David A. Swankie.

A sign went up on the door… “Honeymooners – Do Not Disturb!”  Well, on the heart wing… an odd sign indeed.  But it made David laugh.  Also we had to edit the nurse’s white board.

I don’t know if you can read that but bottom line says: WIFE: Charlene.  We were told he was going to need surgery and his changes were 50/50.  He thought those were good odds… I just felt scared.  Four days after we were married and four days before his surgery, he had one of his twin sons take me to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and had me added onto his Military Health Insurance.  I knew he had wanted to do that after we were married but once he was in the hospital, I just decided that wasn’t happening and I never even mentioned it to him.  But he didn’t forget.  I told him I didn’t want to leave him long enough to go.  He said I had to.  Twin Richard drove me over in David’s truck… we took care of the insurance, and then we had to pick up Twin Steve… and run some other errands or something… and I kept wanting to get back to the hospital… but it was fun in one way… the boys were singing country songs to me… wow… what a deal… twin step sons who love country music as much as I do. 

David and his four kids.

June 4, 2001 came… we were all awake early, a bunch of his kids were there (I can’t remember who now)… we prayed together.  About 3am I woke up hearing David (not out loud)… introducing me to someone saying exactly “…and this is Charlene, my bride of a week and a day”.  I heard it in my head.  When they took him down to surgery, we were outside the operating room doors… and his surgical nurse came out, introduced herself to him, said she was going to give him a shot now… and he turned to her and said and “…this is Charlene, my bride of a week and a day.”   I just stood there in shock.  Mind you, he had not used those words before, to me or anyone else.  My brain could not believe I heard that or even that through those doors was the OPERATING ROOM… and that he was going into surgery… this was real.  The laughing stopped… but he was telling the nurse a joke as she wheeled him into surgery.  Always telling jokes and trying to make others happy.

My son, Richard, granddaughter Tori,
and daughter-in-law Rhonda.

Hours later, after being put on the by-pass machine three times (they had told me that more than once would be a very bad sign)… and finally it was over, he was gone.  My son Richard was there… and I just screamed and held on to him, and was glad he is a big guy.  My Richard took me back to his house where my granddaughter was… and when we told her she just collapsed on the floor and cried.  All three of us just sat in a heap holding each other.  I gave her David’s ring to wear until she felt better and she could give it back to me.  She adored him.  They bonded like nothing I’ve ever seen.  When she learned we had gotten engaged… she hollered “my Grandma is getting married”…. then she ran to the bathroom and locked the door so no one could see her cry… she was so happy.  The news of Grandpa David’s death just crushed her.

He wanted his ashes spread at his favorite fishing spot… where he had planned to take me one day.  We hiked to that spot.

Here are his twin sons, Richard and Steve,
spread their father’s ashes.

On our scheduled wedding date… we met as planned… everyone already had reservations, plane tickets, etc.  My best friend was in transit from Africa and I couldn’t even reach her to tell her David had passed.  I was with my family… and that helped.

My son, Richard and his wife, me with Tori, and my brother Jim with his wife Marla.  The rest of David’s family was gathering for an annual family reunion in Leavenworth, WA and we spent a little time with them as well, but it was ackward.. 

Here are some of the tributes we received for David.

The following year, in a effort not to dwell too much on my loss… I took my Granddaughter on a cruise to Alaska.  We had fun…  but still I dwelled and kept getting more and more depressed and fatter.

We rafted down a river in an Eagle Preserve, took 4-wheel drive jeeps into the back country… saw the Mendenhall Glacier up close and personal.  Still I felt sad and fat and like life was over.  I missed him so much.

But, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my wonderful husband (of a week and a day)… I had health insurance… and have since had my knees replaced, gained my mobility, regained my life… and can now bike, hike, and kayak all I want. (Edited: In fact, by 2014, I had kayaked all 50 states, spread the remainder of his ashes on my Alaska paddle… he was born there, and am planning to hike the 820-mile Arizona National Scenic Trail in 2015.) That would not have been possible if this wonderful man not come into my life. 

He wanted me to meet someone and go on living.  The “someone's” I have met are not of any interest to me… but I am living… David made that possible.

It was my honor to be his wife, if only for a week and a day.  He was a blessing and I hope he is sharing my adventures with me. I feel he is.

David, I will always love you.  How could it be a decade already. (Edited in 2014: 13 years now.)  It still feels like yesterday.  When I think of you, I think of happiness and joy and love.  You are still making me happy.

Your loving wife – forever, Charlene