2460 minutes and counting...

We hit the road on Saturday (today is Thursday)....  We have been busy preparing. That means repacking the RV, cleaning and closing up the house, garage, and 2 sheds (filled with John's stuff). Vegtables left over from our garden and any foodstuffs we couldn't take in the RV we gave to our local foodbank. We had considered renting our house this year while we traveled but things didn't work out. We didn't want to advertise in the paper, and no one we know, knew someone in need of a place. 
 For me, part of getting ready is to get a haircut from Gretchen (my beautician). That is one of the surprises I had when I returned this spring. Gretchen left the establishment she was working at for years and went out on her own. That took a lot of courage in this economy, but she is one spunky lady. Here I am getting a trim today.

The last few weeks have been filled with preparation, but also fun. We joined friends for a trip to the Apple & Cheese Festival in a community north of us.

I can't wait to get going. Our first stop is Poughkeepsie NY for my niece's wedding. Then we will stop in Jackson Springs NC for a week at Sycamore Lodge. It is one of our favorite places to stay. We have established some way points and times but we will meander in between. Here is a listing of the targets.

Crabbing and Fishing in Georgia the end of October

Celebrate Thanksgiving with Millie & Ray in Orlando Fl

Celebrate Christmas in Texas

Boondock in the desert in Quartzsite Az forJanuary

Tour Yellowstone the beginning of June

What happens in between, we will decide as we go and as the mood strikes us. That's the fun of it

Sharon's Summer.... so far

Okay, now about me. My interests are a little different. I am much more boring than John. I have spent time reading, gardening and critter watching, in between my excursions with John. As I mentioned several times the local critters appeared to decide that we weren't returning and decided to take back the neighborhood. I had 4 families of birds build their nests and raise youngins on the outside of the house. One robin decided the Wisteria arbor over my front porch was the ideal place for her babies. Another preferred the light on the back deck. A pair of flycatchers raised 3 babies right outside the window at my desk. The fourth, a pair of starlings found a niche on the side of the house. They were the noisiest and the messiest of the families by far. I locked the front door and made John, the dogs and any visitors enter and exit via the back door until the babies were fledged. You can imagine how well this went over... but God Bless him, he tried. All my fussing did allow me to check an item off my bucket list. I had always wanted to see a baby bird take his very first flight. I watched for 2 and a half hours as the last baby robin made the decision to use his wings. It was really neat. Here is a picture of the flycatchers through the window and the robin trying to decide if he could fly.

I brought home a cactus garden from Arizona. I was concerned how the weather of North Central Pa would affect the cactus, but I was rewarded with several of them blooming. What a pleasure that was. here is a picture of one of the blooms.

We have had an unusual summer as far as weather is concerned. The spring was wet, the summer very hot and dry. This created lots of flora around the place. My perennials did very well. Here is a picture I just happened to capture. I had picked some blooms for the coffee table and the sun decided to come through the skylight onto the flowers just as I placed them. I just had to have a picture of it. In the background is the view into the kitchen and out of the sliding door to the deck. I thought it was a neat picture

In July I went to Middletown NY to attend my niece Brianne's bridal shower. The theme was "Breakfast at Tiffanie's". It was nice to see my sister and nieces. Attached is a picture of the cake... a gift box, and also one of the bride to be. I went with my x sister in law Helen. We had a nice 3 hour ride over and 3 hours back. ..... plenty of time to get caught up on girl talk.

Well the rain has stopped, so I need to get moving. I am going to try to be a little more faithful in adding to the postings... I have to get in practice for traveling. My friend Wendy gave me "what for" for waiting so long to write and post.

OMG......I almost forgot.......  we now have our 4th.... fourth..... as in one more than 3... antennae on top of the motorhome. Any bets on how long it stays up there?

John's Summer .. so far

I have been very bad about keeping the blog updated on a regular basis. Here it is almost the middle of August and I haven't written anything for months. We are having a rainy day, the first in weeks, so I am determined to get caught up. I am dividing this into 2 postings... this one with John's doings and one with my endeavors. Of course the majority of these events we did together but it will become obvious as you read why I am documenting it this way.

As I mentioned in a previous posting, since we returned we have been explaining to the local critters that we still own the house and they must share the neighborhood with us. However the chipmunks seem to believe what's ours is theirs. John decided to sight in his riffle by using these pesky critters as targets. Here is a picture of the mighty hunter.

John's goal for the summer was to acquire a Jeep to take on our future journeys. While we were in Arizona, he found one for sale on EBay that he was very interested in. It turned out that the owner lived in Williamsport, Pa, less than 12 miles from our home. When we returned, the vehicle was still available, so it's now ours. Here is a picture of John and his "new to us" Jeep. The dogs love going for rides... top down...fur flying in the breeze...lots of smells. I have to admit, it's like having a motorcycle ride without worrying if John can keep it upright.  

We have been attending many of the fairs & festivals around the area. This is one of John's favorite things to do. For the first time we attended the "Billtown Blues Festival", an all day event of bluegrass bands. We went with several friends, taking along a day's supply of wine and food. Here is John doing what he does best... talking.

 

We have also visited John's brother and family at their "river lot". For those of you unfamiliar with our area in Pa, the creek we live on (Lycoming Creek) flows into the west branch of the Susquehanna River (about 14 miles from our home). Many residents in the area, rent "lots" (Larger than campsites) along the river for the summer season. This section is excellent for boating and fishing as well as swimming. John's brother Paul has a lot with a boat dock, pavilion and camper on it. He has a 25 foot pontoon boat that holds a dozen or more people very comfortably. We have had several lazy afternoons on the boat on the river and picniking. Here are 2 pictures of John experiencing the fun of a jet ski, for the first time, on the river.

Our time right now has been occupied by making some small renovations to the motorhome preparing for our journeys when October arrives. We cannot leave prior to that because John is going to work for his son Chris in late September, so he can visit Los Vegas for a well deserved vacation. In addition, my sister Erin's daughter Brianne is getting married on 10/10/2010 in Poughkeepsie, NY. So we will be heading north prior to our journey south.

Ladies Spa Day

As some of you may know, I am one of eight children. Getting a family of this size togeather on a regular basis is very difficult. The "girls" have been trying for some time to have a Spa Day where we can have "girltime".

Well they say the third time is a charm... Saturday the 24th was our third attempt. Although only 5 of us were able to go, it was fun.

This is Patty ....THE OLDEST, BY THE WAY.... soaking her feet prior to a pedicure.

Then we have Kerry (wearing the print shirt)....  THE BABY OF THE FAMILY..... and Lora.... married to my brother, Kevin.. sipping on Mimossa's. Helen.... previously married to my brother Denny... successfully avoided my camera.

We had, maicure's, pedicure's, and facials. It was so nice to be pampered especially after all the house cleaning I have been doing.

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Here she is.... back on her throne in the driveway. We arrived back in town about 3:30 PM on Monday April 12. The house was cold, musty and dusty but in decent shape for being abandoned for almost 7 months. It took me about 5 days to clean and scrub everything. We had no broken water pipes but it took several days before the water ran clear and I could do laundry. My flower beds are a mess and willl need lots of tender loving care. In February there was some high water that took 6 to 7 feet of our creek bank downstream. There are 3 large trees that now have significant amounts of their root structure exposed, so we may loose them. We'll just have to wait and see. The trees are just starting to show their leaves... and the Lilac is budding it's flowers.

The dogs started getting excited when we were within 3 to 4 miles of the house. They knew where we were. They ran around smelling everything.... looking for what's different. I was amazed..... Sydney wasn't in the house for 10 minutes when he went to the front door and rang the bell to tell me he wanted to go out. I have a wind chime hanging next to the front door with an extended string down to Sydney's nose level. When he was a puppy, I taught him to nose the string to ring the chimes when he needed to go out. Although Sydney barks, he only does it when he's in guard mode. He would stand for long periods of time by the door before I noticed him, so I devised the chime thing to save him from discomfort.

Saturday the 17th was the opening day of Trout Fishing here in our county. The local fishing club (Camp Susque Lip Rippers) camped out down by the creek. We visited their campsite and listened to stories of the one that got away as well as the "water's too cold" excuses. They are a nice bunch of fella's and fun to spend time with.

Gettin our kicks on Route 66

Our trip back to Pa was planned to take us down the infamous Route 66..... portions of it anyway. What a hoot! It was like going back in time to the 50's & 60's. We saw a motel whose rooms were all separate teepees, made of cement and painted to look like canvas. Parked outside each one was a vintage car from this era. We passed by the Cadillac Ranch in Texas where a row of cadillac cars are partially buried, nose down, and painted grafetti style. We saw numerous 50 & 60 style dinners, gas stations, and billboards.

Attached are two pictures I took at a state rest area. Who says Arkansas doesn't have a sense of humor?
We averaged a little over 200 miles of traveling per day. John was on a mission to get home. We stopped in Kentucky near Mammouth Caves for a few days to refill the water tank and dump our waste water. Because we monitor the weather closely when we travel, we were aware of a bad storm with high winds coming towards us so we hunkered down once again for 2 days.
Our path home changed slightly when we received an e-mail from John's nephew, Dave Pietch (John's sister's son), inviting us to stop by Indianapolis on our way home.  Since we were in Kentucky we took the slight detour and spent a very enjoyable weekend with Dave, Debbie, Zack and Kaitlyn. What a lovely family. We toured the Food Bank that they run for their church and had a chauffered tour of the Indy area. Then it was back on the road.... I swear John can smell the house...

On the Road Again ....Petrified Forest / Painted Desert

March 30th, we hit the road again. John thinks it is time to start heading back east. I think it's too early.... spring rain and storms....  but since he's the driver, off we go. The day did not start off very well. We went to a gas station to fill the tank and had to wait for 45 minutes until the computer came back on line to take our debit card. After an hour driving the wind started to pick up and we were subjected to 20 - 35 mile an hour wind gusts. In addition some parts of the road were extremely rutted and we jiggled quite a bit. As a matter of fact the latch that holds the outside awning jiggled loose and one of those gusts of wind decided to open up our awning as we were driving down the road. Luckily, we were able to pull over, get the awning back in, latch it and then "Magiver" fix it (masking tape around the poles) so that it wouldn't jiggle loose again. We saw another fifth wheel RV who had a flat tire, and didn't realize it until the tire caught on fire. 

Our destination was north and east of Cottonwood along route 40. It is the Painted Desert National Park and Petrified Forest. We arrived mid-day and spent the night in the parking lot of the gift center at the entrance to the park. There is no camping in the park but the shops allow RVs to stay free of charge over night. Early the next morning we entered the park. The drive through the park is about 28 miles long but it takes about 2-3 hours with the many pull-offs and vistas. These pictures just don't do it justice.

I was able to collect some petrified wood samples at the gift shop. Picking up anything in the park is forbidden and strickly enforced.

After leaving the park we continued along route 40 to New Mexico... Tijeras to be exact... just east of Albuquerque. We couldn't fight the wind any longer and decided to stay at a campground here. We were going to leave today, but decided to stay put another day or two because we are now watching snow flurries out the front window.