Mar 28

Provo to Nampa
Another too long day of driving but finally home sweet home.

Mar 27

8 hours from Vegas to Provo. Lots of wind and hills.
Home tomorrow!

Mar 26

In -n - Out
Dinner at PJ
Paul & Armida
Met kids
Rubber bands

March 25

Lunch with Kendall and Dave.

Visit with Paul and Armida

Mar 24

Another 8 hour day.

Oh stuff it. The drive has been from hell and now we're at the RV park from Deliverance. Guy next to us ask where we are from -- Idaho -- isn't that next to Indiana? Another woman asked if we had come through the Nor'easter. Gotta love Vegas!!!

Mar 23

Left way too late -1:00 pm. Arrival at 9 pm.
Almost ran out of gas between Burly and Snowmelt?
But had In-n-Out!

Test

This is a test

Camping is good

Oddie does enjoy the camping life. Poison Creek Campground, Cascade Lake, Idaho.

Our "lap" dog

Yes, Oddie thinks he's Jim's "lap" dog. That's 50 pounds of fun!

One more picture

Just couldn't resist one more picture of our new boy. Oddie is such a good boy! And keeping Jim very busy.

Meet Oddie

As many of you may know, we lost both our dogs and our last cat last year. Since we lost Gwen, our life has felt empty, the house way too quiet. Both of us keep looking around the dogs and cats. So for my birthday, I asked Jim for a pupper dog – one that could go camping and travel with us as we see the country.

So meet our newest addition. Oddie came from the local animal shelter and is a an almost 4 year old lab/beagle mix (now that brings quite a picture to mind!). He is about 45 pounds and is a golden color with white markings – and freckles on his snot. He’s also one of the sweetest dogs I've met. We hope that he is as happy with us as we are with him.

These aren’t the best pics but for now, you can meet Oddie. Better pics coming soon!

    

       

Ain't she grand!

This is my wonderful Aunt Kate. She will be 98 in March -- and still going strong. I believe she is holding one of her great-great grandchildren. I definitely miss being able to visit with her regularly. 

Love ya, Aunt Kate

Hells Canyon -- Oct 11-13, 2014

Our second camping trip of the year -- off to a late start. Hells Canyon is a beautiful area along the Snake River with 4 campground areas. We were in the furthest one up the canyon, Hells Canyon Campground. The campground was not the best of the four, but we stayed in the overflow area as we were last of the Tumbleweeds to get to the site. 

But we got the best of the area. All the others were nose to butt parking -- like they were parked in a Walmart parking lot. Luckily the overflow had only 3 spaces with lots of space between each site, and right next to the grass leading to the river. The weather was great for fall and we had a really nice time.

Meet Our New Digs

Our old Tioga Class C RV is no more. She need a lot of work and was already 16 years old. So we decided instead to invest in a new travel trailer.

Meet our Rockwell Mini Lite. We'll add more pics soon, but she's a bit longer than the Tioga, has a very nice slide out for more living space and .... a VERY LARGE bathroom. Just the right size for us to travel around to see the country.

By the way -- her name is ONA -- Our Next Adventure. Hopefully we'll be stopping by soon to show her off to you.

See you on the road!

Friday 465 miles

Took about 9 hours with stops, "road work," and staying around 60 mph for best gas mileage. At 10 mpg and about $100 to fill the tank, we try to save as much as we can.

I can't believe we used to do the whole trip to Coarsegold in one 14-hour day. We were younger, more determined, and used the car instead of the RV!

Stopped in Minden, Nevada-- just outside Carson City-- at the Caron Valley RV Inn and RV park for the night. Very nice facility and very helpful staff. Rates not too bad with Good Sams card.

Off to Coarsegold today with a stop for dinner in Fresno with friends Patti and Mike. Then on to our former neighbor Evelyn's for a couple of days. Will nice not to be moving tomorrow.

And we're off!

Finally on the road. Seems like no matter how much you plan and get done the days before a trip, there's always SOMETHING that needs to done.

And of course we are hitting the usual. "road work" on the way to Winnemucca-- oh joy!

California, here we come.



Sent from my iPhone

Wow -- almost vacation

I just now realized that I can shut off my morning alarm clock until August. NO more getting up early! I'm ALMOST on vacation! Only have my ASB school audit on Monday afternoon with the new CPA firm and then I'm finished with this school year until the beginning of August.

AND in a week we'll be on our vacation trip. Going to LA/Arcadia to visit with my 96 year old aunt. Haven't seen her in 5 years. Oh and we'll be seeing my sister and her family along with some friends. Will be a nice visit. Also going to go camping on the way home in Great Basin National Park. http://www.nps.gov/grba/index.htm

It's supposed to have "the solitude of the desert, the smell of sagebrush after a thunderstorm, the darkest of night skies, and the beauty of Lehman Caves." But we'll be just after  the "Most “super” supermoon of 2013 on June 22-23." We'll probably see more moon than stars. http://earthsky.org/tonight/is-biggest-and-closest-full-moon-on-june-23-2013-a-supermoon

We'll keep you posted on our trip.

 Happy Friday! :)

Is it spring yet?

The "bug" has already hit me. It's only the 30th of December, and already I'm thinking ahead to camping weekends and a 10+ day trip this summer. I'm just not good with winter, that's for sure.

 

And we've come up with a game plan. We're retiring and leaving for full-time RVing by July 1st, 2014. Jim will be 66 in March of that year and can collect full time social security benefits ... unless of course he decides to quit sooner. We also figure it will take us (me) that long to get rid of all our STUFF around here and put just what we want to keep away in storage. We'll get the house ready to rent and then off we go. At least that's the plan for now.

 

We still haven't decided what kind of RV we want to use, so we'll continue looking. The plan will be to take our current Class C Tioga along with Jim's truck and travel around for a year or so, looking for the perfect RV -- maybe a Travel Trailer. We hope to mooch off our family and friends during that time, camping out in the National Parks and National Forests as much as we can. Once we find that "perfect" RV, we'll start staying in one place for several months. We're both looking at the Workamper.com site, to find part time work wherever we go. We're spending lots of time planning this out.

 

At least that's the plan for the moment. Who knows what the new year will bring?

 

So how many days till we leave town? You'll find the counter over in the right column. Launch date! Hey, it's a plan!!

 

 

What kind of flower are you?

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh."

The great Memorial Day 10,000 letter campaign

The great Memorial Day 10,000 letter campaign

Here’s the question:

Can we get 10,000 people to commit to sending at least one letter to a soldier for Memorial Day?

We will soon find out!

There are three things you can do if you are going to participate.

1. First and foremost, write a letter. Or a card. Or a postcard. Or whatever. And mail it to:
    Two For the Troops
    Attn: Memorial Day Letter Campaign
    PO Box 15447
    CHICAGO, IL 60615-5145

2. Go to our facebook invite for the event, at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127808250569047, and sign up that you are sending a letter.

3. Invite whomever you can and spread the word however possible — especially through facebook, twitter, etc. If the current numbers hold up about 80,000 people will have to know about it before we have 10,000 people commit to sending a letter, so we’ll really need to spread the word over the next couple of days.

So …. Thank you! I am sure we can have this be a great success!

Additionally, please post your stories to the comments of this post — what are you going to be writing to the troops, who are you sending to, etc. We’ll be using them here and on Two For the Troops’ facebook page as well. http://www.twoforthetroops.org/

http://www.facebook.com/twoforthetroops

Let’s make this a Memorial Day our troops will not soon forget!