Seventy Fourth Visit to Taft

As I was driving home from Taft today to get to my neighbor Ashelee's graduation party, I was thinking how old all this driving has become. To keep myself occupied on the almost 4 hour ride home, I started doing the math in my head. (hard, because I'm not very good at math). How many miles have I driven, how many hours have I spent in the car, how much time have I spent away from home? So far I have driven 33,300 miles, and I have 7 more trips to make. That's another 3,150 miles for a grand total of 36,480 miles. Wow, that's 9 times across the continent! The average round trip driving time is about 7 1/2 hours, depending on traffic. That's a total of about 555 hours of driving. I've got another 52 1/2 hours to drive, for a grand total of 607 hours. Actually, I usually break up the driving by going to LA on Thursday to visit my mom, kids and grandkids, which I love. My actual time away from home has been 2,220 hours so far, and about 210 more to go, for a total of 2430 hours. Does it sound like I'm complaining? I'm really not. I'm just getting tired of the driving and figured this would be a good mathematical exercise to keep me occupied on the way home Friday. Truly, I wouldn't have missed any of it. A chance to really get to know my mother has meant the world to me. A chance to see Ron every week brightens my day and has me excited for more of him the following week. It sounds corny, but when I leave on Friday, I'm happy about the visit that has just taken place, but I'm already looking forward to the next one. Ron says that most of the men feel down when their visit is over and come back to their bed and go to sleep. He feels calm and content when I leave because we always have such a good visit together.

Today was our twin grandsons first birthday, and I remember so clearly their birth last year. Ron was not there for the birth and has seen them just once, but he was he was happy that their first birthday meant only 46 more days for him at Taft.

He is so anxious to get home. He is telling me more and more how difficult the last few months are. He can almost taste it. Of course he can't complain to the other inmates about how slowly the time is going, for most of them are going to be there for years! He doesn't want to complain to me either, so as he says, he puts on his happy face and comes to visitation. I know I've said this before, but it's sad that there are not more activities for the inmates to get involved in. The reason there aren't is that this camp is a "for profit" facility and they don't want to spend any money. The camps that are run by the BOP have far more classes available.

I arrived at 8am this morning. I was the first one to check in, and my entrance was delayed because the warden had just changed the dress code for female visitors the night before, and the guard had to read the new rules. No open toed shoes of any kind, no leggings, and no hooded sweatshirts are new rules that have just been added. But no one visiting knew the new rules, and several women had to go to K Mart, the closest store, to buy new shoes. I couldn't believe it. Luckily I wore tennins shoes! I've found it best to wear basically one outfit that I know is acceptable everyweek. That way there can be no mistakes.

All the driving, all the hours in the car, all the overnights in LA and a few in Bakersfield with Linda and Rod, have definitely been worth it. I wouldn't change a thing. I see the difference in the attitude of people like Ron who have weekly visits, and those inmates that never see a visitor for months on end. There are men there that haven't had a visitor in 7 years. Imagine how they must feel. Forgotten and abandoned.

I came home to a party for my neighbor's daughter Ashlee who just graduated from Carlsbad High School. There were a few friends from our block at the party and I told them that the next big party on our street would be for Ron, and I can't wait.