I’ve been experiencing issues with lower back pain for the last 10 years or so. The pain has gotten worse and more debilitating as I’ve gotten older, to the point to where it hinders my daily life. I’m only 30 years old, so this is a big problem. In fact, it’s been a problem going back to my childhood. The journey has taken endless doctors to figure out what’s going on and why I experience so much pain. I’m happy to report that I finally got a solid answer from a rheumatologist: I have osteoarthritis.
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In the 20 years I’ve lived in Arizona, I’ve been to very few of our lakes. One of the downsides to living in the desert is the lack of bodies of water. I grew up around expansive lakes and reservoirs in Indiana, so that aspect of nature calls to me. Luckily I live just 45 minutes from the nearest major lake, which is Canyon Lake. It’s surprising that I had never been to that area, but as “adventure” is our word for 2019, I figured a visit was in order! I’ve been wanting to spend extra time outdoors with Wynston as of late, so I made an impulse decision to pack up the car for an afternoon at the lake.
Recently I received a generic Google email, which I tend to ignore and trash. But one caught my eye with the subject line Amanda, here’s your 2018 Timeline. Hm. “Okay,” I thought, “My interest is piqued.” So I opened it up and the first thing I saw was a little map of all the places I traveled in 2018. My initial thinking was, “Oh, that’s kind of cool!” I scrolled down a bit and the next photo I saw said that I traveled 14,515 total miles in 2018. Wynston traveled everywhere with me in 2018, which means that he also traveled over 14,000 miles. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Nine days into the new year, I felt a sudden urge. That “I just wanna get out of here” urge. Within 30 minutes of that initial feeling, Wynston and I were well on our way. I filled up my gas tank, grabbed a cheeseburger to share with my boy, and headed west on the I-10. All I knew is that we were going to head toward California. Because why not?! In life, right now, I’m just going where the wind takes me. And on January 9, 2019, it took us to Indio, CA and The Salton Sea!
Having an 