Almost!!

We leave tomorrow morning. Today I am with Liela while Jim wraps up some last minutes things at home. He's doing some laundry, etc. There will still be plenty for me to do when I get home today. Hopefully I will be able to blog from the state park. If there is no Wifi, I will do it from my phone like I am doing now. I have read that the AT&T service is good. Let's hope so. So until there's more interested things to say, I'll sign off. Thanks for reading.

Three more days and a wake up!

We are so excited about the pending departure for our first trip.  There are some storms forecast for the Amarillo area but we have decided to go anyway.  Rain happens!

I received a really special gift for our trailer last week.  Liela Hermanson, my mom's best friend, gifted me with a wonderful apron, embroidered with scenes of things we will likely see during our trips.  She also embroidered two flour sack tea towels for the trailer.  If you have not used a flour sack tea towel in your kitchen, you have missed out!  Leila has terminal cancer and I have the great privilege of visiting with her each Wednesday.  My visit gives her husband time to get out and do his own thing.  They think I am doing them a favor but I have a confession - the favor is for me.  I adore my time with Liela and will miss her so much when her time is over.  She and Mike have the sweetest relationship that all of us would all be so fortunate to have.  They have been together for 62 years and still end each phone call with "I love you" and "I love you too".  I can't express enough how much they both mean to me.  My mom died on March 27, 2009.  Spending time with Liela has been like giving me a bit of my mom back.  Very healing and I feel like it honors my mom too.

Thanks for reading!

Getting ready to hit the road!

Wow!  Who would guess it would take so much time and money to outfit the trailer to suit our needs?  Because we cook much more than eating out, we wanted to be sure that it is equipped with our needs in that department.  So...new dishes, cookware, flatware, glassware (plastic), coffeemaker, toaster, etc.  We have donated enough to goodwill over the past fews years to outfit three or four trailers!  One of those "we won't need this ever again" thoughts!  We didn't want to have any of our trips ruined with sleeping on a poor mattress, so we had a new one made for the bed in the trailer - pillow top!  Feels wonderful!  Old folks aren't so good with uncomfortable bedding. LOL!!

We have been working steadily to get ready for our first trip.  I have to admit that I'm a bit nervous on the particulars of hooking up, etc.  Hopefully Jim remembers more than I do!  Otherwise we will be on the phone with the folks at the dealership so that someone can walk us through and refresh our memories.   We leave on June 7 for a 5 day trip to the Palo Duro canyon near Amarillo, Texas.  It is the second largest canyon in the country and we are excited to see it.  Sometime in the future we plan to visit the Grand Canyon, but this is a good start.  Even purchased  some hiking boots!  Cannot believe we both now own a pair of Keen hiking boots.  Hopefully we will make good use of them in order to stay active and get in our daily exercise.

After that trip we will probably plan a trip to a lake for a few days so that Jim can do some fishing.  He plans to purchase a fishing kayak to strap to the top of the car so that he can get out and fish.  He's worried that I will get bored being at the campsite with the dogs while he is our on the lake.  Not!!!  In addition to books and having the dogs to keep me company, I will be taking some projects with me - knitting, crochet and art supplies.  I will also enjoy getting to know other folks we meet along the way. I'm RARELY ever bored!!!!

I hope to post several times during each of our trips along with adding photos.  Hope you can follow along!  Thanks for reading!

The Beginning!!!!

Well, Jim's retirement date is April 30 and we plan to do lots of traveling.  To make that possible,  more relaxing and more fun, we have purchased a beautiful 27 foot travel trailer that will be our home away from home for several weeks per year.  We take delivery of the trailer on Tuesday, April 17.  After that I can post pictures of it. 

By deciding to follow this blog, you can follow our routes, see our photos and read our comments about our encounters on the road. 

So we invite you to come along!  Thanks for reading!