Test post

This post is a test.  I want to be able to post on our trip and send the link via email to the group of folks who might like to keep up with where we are and what we are doing.  If you are able to click the link and see the post labeled "test post", please reply to my email in the affirmative.  You also can sign up to follow the blog.

Cooking!

We prefer to cook in our RV rather than eat out when we travel.  Better food, healthier and doesn't require dressing up and driving somewhere.  So Jim is making some of our favorite dishes and we are freezing them in serving sizes in zip lock bags.  Makes for easy dinners!

Counting down the days!

We will be leaving our home on August 3 for our longest RV trip yet.  Jim and are are both so excited to see new parts of the country.  We will stop off near Fort Collins to see friends for a couple days then on to Mt Rushmore. In that area we will also visit Deadwood and the Crazy Horse monument as well as maybe a tiny side trip to Sturgis, where the huge motorcycle rally will be happening.  My only interest in going there is to snap some photos of interesting looking characters for painting reference.  That all depends on how much extra time we have.  I also want to visit the wild horse preserve in South Dakota.

Next up will be several days at Yellowstone after which we work our way toward the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  We plan a one night stop at Utah Lake state park and then a couple nights in Zion national park.  After the Grand Canyon we will be working our way back to Fort Worth.  Plan to get back home on August 28.  I'm so excited also to miss the Texas August heat!  WooHoo!

So lots of news and photos to come.  Stay tuned!

A little trip

We are in Grand Prairie Texas at Loyd park on Joe Pool lake. Just wanted a short trip in order to just get out of the house. We brought our kayaks and my art gear as well as the three dogs. Need a bit more breeze but its not really too bad for Texas in August.  We have a great spot with nice shade and very close to the water. There are almost no people here, a nice part of being retired and camping during the week and not weekends. This is a very well maintained park and a special bonus is that it is so close to home. We took a great kayak run this morning on a wonderful little paddle trail they have   Beautiful scenery, lots of egrets, and calm water. Nice!  Then I took advantage of a little painting time before lunch. Started a painting of our first  little yorkie. Zoe, who died about 2 1/2 years ago. 

Jim enjoying an adult beverage!

The pups in their little "yard". Emma loves to fuss at the ducks around. 

And this is a view from the beach by our campsite. Like being alone in the wilderness. 

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!