You CAN go home....

In  a famous novel written by Thomas Wolfe and published in 1940 after his death entitled "You Can't Go Home Again" he writes about a mythical character named George Webber who, due to circumstances, could not go home again.  This phrase is used often in modern America to mean that once you grow up and move on in your life you cannot go back "home" to whom you were then.  Mostly that is true, but I don't have that sense this weekend.  It feels like we have all "come home again".....sure we all look a little different than we did 42 years ago, but as I moved from conversation to conversation today with old friends, some of whom I have not seen in that length of time, it felt like I had gone back in time and was "home" again.  The rough and tumble of life has had its effect on all of us, but if nothing else we are a resilient bunch, and if only for a long weekend, we are all 19 again, and home.

TLE and I went down to the reunion hospitality room around 7:30 this morning, and found a few hardy souls already up and about.  We talked for a couple of hours over coffee and pastry, and then I went back upstairs for a nap....I was still getting over the long travel day on Thursday and not enough sleep for two nights in a row.  I got up a little before Noon, and headed back down again.  There were a lot more people who had arrived that morning, and the conversations began again.....the first time I looked at my watch it was almost 6 pm....wait, what?  Six hours had just melted away.....it felt like 30, or 40 minutes.  I knew we had planned to go to dinner in the Marriott restaurant at 6, and went to find TLE.  As it turned out she had gone shopping with her sister, but returned by 6:30, and then we headed down around 7 for dinner.

We spent another couple of hours talking over dinner with friends over an amazing dinner....I had one of the best Filet Mignons ever.....at $43 it was a little pricey, but as I say often.....if the food stands up to the price I'm good....and this meal definitely deserved 5 stars.

Around 9 we headed back to the hospitality room and talked for 2 more hours......around 11 pm I hit the wall after 12 hours of conversation and headed back to the room about 11 to let my brain clear, and my increasingly raspy voice recover a little.

The day exceeded my expectations, which were pretty high.  More people will be arriving Saturday, which is the main event so can't wait to see who comes tomorrow.  Already people have shown up who had not pre-registered, and I know of a few more who are coming as a result of all the reports from those who are here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Auld Lang Syne

Of course, this (the title of this blog entry, not the picture....:D) is the title of a well known, and popular Robert Burns (the Scotsman) poem from 1788 which, according to Wikipedia has a literal meaning of "old long since", but has more popular translations in modern English of "long, long ago", "days gone by", or "old times"......personally, I like the first one.   On Thursday we began our trip south to Dallas, TX into the "long, long ago" to spend time with friends we made, and cherished in our youth during our college days.  The school we both attended was a small college operated by the non-denominational church we grew up in, both of which no longer exist.  By small I mean each campus (there were three) had fewer than 400 students.  My freshman class had just 100 entrants, and by the time I graduated four years later in the Class of '71 there were fewer than 90 remaining in my class....that is small by most standards.  This church school is where I met, and later married, The Lovely Elaine.

I've often wondered why those friendships formed during our college years were, and remain to this day, so strong.  Even though separated by thousands of miles, and in some cases years without contact, we get together and it is as if no time has passed at all.   We pick up right where we left off.  When we are together we speculate as to the reasons for this enduring bond, and there are many good theories (the 4 years comprised one fifth of our total years on earth at that time; shared experience; common history, etc.), but in the end, for me at least, the "why" is not that important....I just know I so look forward to, and enjoy my time with my "long, long ago" friends, who are still close friends in the most literal sense of the word.

TLE and I were up before 5 am Coeur d'Alene time, and in the 'Bird on our way to the Spokane Int'l Airport by 6 am to catch a 9 am flight to Dallas.  Of course, as we left the RV park it was raining, which intensified as we neared the airport.  We had decided to leave the car in a long term parking lot about 5 minutes from the terminal where they have shuttles running continuously over to the airport.  We had barely parked, and turned off the car when I saw one of the shuttles pull up right behind us.....cool, we didn't have to walk, or stand the rain waiting.  We transferred our luggage, and were whisked quickly over to the US Airways terminal arriving just a shade before 7.  Within minutes we had secured our "stand by" boarding passes (we were flying standby courtesy of my sister-in-law, Phyllis, who is a flight attendant for US Airways) which we got at a deep discount.....less than $400 round trip total for both of us.  We had priced this flight previously, and were coming close to $1,000 retail for round trip tickets, so were grateful for the guest passes.....thank you Phyllis!

Sometimes, as I am sure most of you know, going standby can get you stranded for hours at an intermediary airport, and Phoenix, where we were catching a connecting flight, is particularly difficult to get in and out of if you are on standby, but this day everything came together.  In both Spokane and Phoenix our official boarding passes were issued more than 30 minutes prior to take off.....often you wait until everyone has boarded, but Thursday there were a lot of open seats.  In all it took us 5.5 hours gate to gate to reach DFW.

We were met at the airport by long time family friends Scott and Debbie whom we have known for decades and shuttled over to the DFW Marriott where the college reunion is being held.  After we checked in, and dropped our stuff off in our room we joined Scott and Debbie for a drink down the bar, then we headed over to Riscky's BBQ in old town Ft. Worth for dinner, and to meet up with some more "long, long ago" friends.  Yelp gives Riscky's 3.5 stars, but I would have to make that at least a 4.0, or higher.  They have, by far, the best beef ribs I have ever had, and they have outdoor dinning, which is where we had our meal.  The guys all ordered "all you can eat" ribs, and we kept the servers busy bringing additional plates of ribs as we talked about the "long, long ago" days.  Joining us for dinner were Nathan, his wife Cherine, and their three boys.  Nathan is a friend from high school, and his dad was the one who taught me to snow ski way back in the early 70's.  At any rate, we had a wonderful evening reminiscing and catching up.

Scott and Debbie

Nathan and Cherine

We said our "until next times" and then Scott and Debbie drove us back to the Marriott, where we headed down to the hospitality suite being provided for our college reunion.  It was close to 10 pm at this time, but there were quite a few of my college friends still there, and we talked until close to midnight.  If this goes like the last reunion in 2011 by Monday morning I will have no voice left.

It was a great start to our trip into the "long, long ago", and as more people arrive Friday and Saturday it will only get better......life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

100,000

When I first started writing this blog the thought that anyone would read it beyond my immediate family, and actually like it was not even in my thoughts.  I thought it would be a good way to keep my kids and relatives updated on our travels, and a great diary to look back upon.  That I would reach the day when there had been 100,000 page views was not even on my radar, but here we are on September 4, 2013 and the page views for my blog have just passed that 6 figure milestone....it wasn't that long ago that we passed 50,000...February 16th I believe.

I am humbled, and grateful to all of you who take time out of your day to follow our travels.  I like writing, and I am glad someone likes to read what I write about what we do.

We spent the better part of the morning preparing for our trip to Dallas, TX Thursday.  We had to check in online to get our boarding passes, and there was the last minute mending and washing.  In case I have forgotten to mention it, we are headed to Dallas, TX for a college reunion.  We have been looking forward to this trip for almost a year now.  

Around 1 pm we decided to drive over to this little Latin American cafe called Cafe Carambola just about a mile down the street from where we are staying.  We had walked and driven by it several times so TLE looked it up on Yelp and found they have a solid 5 star rating with over 27 reviews.  Well, any place that gets 5 stars must be visited and evaluated....it is our duty is it not?  The owner classifies her food as Nuevo Latino Fusion.....I classify it as phenomenal, exquisite, a standing ovation kind of food.  I had the Club Style Quesadilla....it was like no other quesadilla I have ever had.  I can't even pronounce the soupTLE had, but the soup of the day she ordered was spectacular, and the Farfalle Pasta salad she had was just amazing, too.

Club Style Quesadilla....OMG

The rest of the day was spent packing, and resting up for our trip south tomorrow morning....we will be up at the crack of dawn, and on our way by 6 am for the drive over to Spokane International Airport to catch our 9 am flight to Dallas.

We finished out the evening watching Master Chef, and then hit the sack for our 6 hours of slumber before our long day of travel.

Thanks for stopping by!

"It must make the country a smaller place..."

I had been reading the blogs of full time RV'ers for years before we went full time to learn as much as I could about this lifestyle and all its myriad variations, complications, challenges, etc.  Quite aside from that desire for knowledge I discovered that these people kept crossing paths with each other as they meandered east and west, north and south.  I was amazed at how this happened so often when it seemed many of these people did NOT plan their travels very far in advance.  Well, now I know it has nothing to do with planning....it just has to do with serendipity.  

Monday evening I was cruising my "News Feed" on Facebook and saw a comment by fellow nomads and Nu-RV'ers Dan and Marlene of Mali Mish stating they were in Coeur d'Alene......wait, what?  I immediately added a comment to that thread "SO ARE WE!  WHERE ARE YOU?"  Within minutes they replied that they had actually pulled into our RV Park Sunday night (TLE says she saw an Airstream pulling out of the park that evening, but had no idea it was our friends), but decided since it was so late they would just go over to the Walmart in Post Falls for the night and then look for a place Monday.  They ended up at Blackwell Island RV Park, which, ironically is just across the Spokane River from us....a 3 minute drive.  Of course, Tuesday morning we drove over.....we would normally have ridden our bikes, but the weather looked uncertain at the time, and I wasn't going to "guess".....looked for a while like it might rain again......and visited for about an hour with Dan, Marlene and their three children.  We last spent time with Dan, Marlene and family in Cedar Key for a few days....click here for a link to the blog post about that visit back in January.

The Mali Mish folks!

Last night I got a message on my blog from Laura, one of our blog followers, asking if I knew Dan and Marlene were so close.  When I replied back that we did know, and had, in fact, visited with them that morning, Laura wrote back the response which I made the title of the blog entry.  Her complete reply was: 

"It must make the country a smaller place.  I'm amazed how many meetups there are on all the different blogs I read.  I don't think 20 years ago it would have happened, pre-internet.  Everyone knows where everyone is now."

And that is precisely the point....through blogs, through social media, e-mail, etc. we are able to keep track of where people are we care about, and if our paths happen to intersect, which they do more and more, it just adds that much more to our nomadic experience.  There is a real sense of community out here, and each time we cross paths it gets stronger.  I was telling TLE as we drove back to our coach that even though we have only met Dan and Marlene once before, we have been following their blog for years now, and we feel like we have known them for a long time.  They are very special people, and we are glad to count them among our friends.

Regrettably, we had plans Tuesday to meet other friends for a late lunch/early dinner (Dean and Carole) whom we have literally known since the late 60's....we went to college with them.....and were not able to get back together with our Mali Mish friends.....they are heading out toward Yellowstone Wednesday morning.  The great thing is though, they are from Southern California, just as we are, and will be "home" for the holidays, just as we will, so we have made tentative Jello plans to meetup in Ventura at our mutually favorite place, Rincon Parkway, where we will park right next to the Pacific Ocean for a few days.  In case you may not be aware, the masthead picture at the top of my blog is of our coach at Rincon Parkway back in October of 2009.

Rincon Parkway, Ventura, California

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we said our "until next times" to Dan and Marlene and lovely children to head out to take care of a few errands.  By the time we got back home I got a call from Dean (Dean and Carole) about the timing for our late lunch.....as it turned out the late lunch became more of an early dinner.......we headed over to Toro Viejo, a Mexican restaurant in downtown Coeur d'Alene, around 4:15.  Yelp gives this restaurant 3.5 stars......the food is okay, but not memorable, and the decor is really outdated....I would give it 3 stars for passable Mexican food, and decent service.  We last shared a meal with Dean and Carole last June when we were here visiting my sister.  TLE and Dean were both track stars at our college....Dean was a sprinter....TLE, being the accomplished and versatile person she is, ran the 100 yard, 220 yard (1/8th mile), 440 yard (1/4 mile), and 880 yard (half mile) races (before we converted over to meters), as well as high jumped and long jumped (I think we called it the "broad" jump back then).  At one combined track meet held in England for the three campuses TLE won every single one of these events.....yeah, I know, what a studly woman I married, huh?  She hated wearing track shoes, and would train barefoot, and only wore track shoes on the day of the various track meets.  Anyway, we had a ball talking about our college days, as well as our "current days".    Dean and Carole are off in the next few days on a trip down to Bend, OR, so we will probably not seen them again this time around, but it was so nice to sit and talk for 2 hours!

That was about it for Tuesday, except for the watching of the "finale" show for "So You Think You Can Dance".....next Tuesday we will find out who America voted for based on last night's performances.  On a side note, my Dodgers won again to go 28 games over .500 for a .601 winning percentage, and are now 13.5 games up on the Arizona Diamondbacks with just a few weeks to go in the season.....life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

Getting paid to guess.....

Even though I, in mostly good humor, make fun of weather forecasters by calling them "weather guessers" I do rely upon their guesses a lot in deciding what to do each day.  Each morning I pull up www.weather.com  on my phone to see what their prediction for weather is, and then make my best guess based on my locally observed conditions, and go from there.  The difference between their guess and my guess?  Well, they get paid, and I don't.  Who is more accurate?  If you want the most bang for your buck, then ask me to guess for you....after all it won't cost you anymore than watching the weatherman on TV, or reading weather.com, and I think I'm right slightly more often.

Now back to Monday, which was Labor Day.......the paid guessers predicted partly cloudy skies trending toward to mostly sunny.  What, in fact, did we get.......starting at 4 am, rain pretty much all day from here to Spokane.  What was my guess based on locally observed conditions yesterday morning around 6 am?  Rain all day.

I really like being in a resort town just before and just after Labor Day......you go from way too many people hustling and bustling hither and yon to a decidedly lower energy level after Labor Day.  This morning (Tuesday) kids are returning to elementary, middle and high school, and even university.    Suddenly the local roads are not quite as congested, and the local campgrounds begin to disgorge their summer inhabitants back to wherever they came from.  For me, this is my favorite time of year.....the "shoulder season" between summer activities and winter activities.  I love the crispness of the air as Fall begins to take hold.   Already on Monday we were seeing people who have been here most of the summer packing up their rigs to begin their trek south.  It's hard to believe that in 60 days the climate here will become quite inhospitable, and the population will contract back to "normal".

Around 10 am I got a call from Ron Brown, the gentleman who left a note on my coach door a few days ago, asking if he and his wife, Marlene, could get together with us for a cup of coffee and pick our brains about full time life on the road.  I suggested we meet at Calypsos Coffee in town around 1 pm where TLE and I have been a couple of times.  They have a very nice interior (we have sat outside both times) with couches, and easy chairs.....feels like you are in someones living room, and with the rain and all would be perfect.

Internet picture off Yelp site....very comfy

I have to say again that I am always impressed with anyone who will go to the effort of contacting someone they only know through the internet, asking to meet them.  First of all, there is always the concern about being rejected, or rebuffed.....no one likes that, and then the other concern is the people you want to meet will end up being some weirdos you can't wait to get shut of.  So thank you Ron and Marlene for taking the chance!  We had a lovely time visiting over coffee and talking about the nomadic lifestyle.  There was an immediate connection, and the time just flew by.....I casually looked at my watch as I took the last sip of coffee and saw that it was 3:15 already!  We agreed to adjourn back to our coach for a quick tour of the Newell, and more discussion.  All in all we spent about 3 hours with Ron and Marlene.  They are in the process of selling their home, and hope to be on the road full time by the Spring.  In the mean time they will take a few long trips in their 1988 Vogue 40' Class A diesel pusher....by the way they have the same Detroit Diesel 6V92 we have, and it was a Google search of 6V92's that led them to our blog.  You just never know what the connection will be that will lead to serendipity.

After saying our "until next times" to Ron and Marlene (I'm still kicking myself for not taking a picture of them for the blog) TLE suggested we head over to a new place for dinner called Capones Pub and Grill....Yelp gives them 4.5 stars, and we would both have to agree 100% with that rating....they have 41 beers on tap, which for me would make them deserving of 4.5 stars all by itself, but then there is the food.  Well, after a while, and we have been doing this for a while now, you start to run out of superlatives to describe good food, so I'll just say the food was very, very good.  They make a pretty "mean pie", and they offer anchovies as one of their toppings, so you know what I ordered.  TLE had the world famous Tommy's Pastrami sandwich.  We both had a pint of the XXX Stout made by Pike Brewing.

The interior has a baseball theme (see below)

I put this one in just to prove TLE really does drink the beer....here she is displaying her considerable multi tasking skills

We arrived back home around 5 pm where I sat down in my easy chair and took a nap.....there is something about good beer that is almost like a sedative to me.  TLE read the rest of the evening while I watched a few episodes of American Pickers I had not seen.....Frank and Mike just make me smile.

It is still heavily overcast as I write Tuesday morning.......I "guess" it might be mostly cloudy all day.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday........I know, right? Sometimes it is just easier to state the obvious!

We knew Sunday would be the hottest day of the Labor Day weekend with projected highs of 95+ degrees, so, uncharacteristically, we managed to get an early start on a bike ride we had talked about Saturday night.  We were on our bikes and riding by 8:55 am while it was still cool.  We had not yet been over to the east side of the lake where the Diamond Cup Hydroplane Boat Races were being held.  

As we rode along the Spokane River towards the Lake Resort we were surprised at how cold it still was, not that we were complaining.....it was just surprising considering how hot it would get later in the day.   And that is one of the surprising things about living these past few months in the northern latitudes......the heat of the day comes very late in the day......usually around 4-5 pm, and then once the sun begins to go down it cools off very quickly.

There is construction in progress in the Lake Resort area where the bike path normally would take us, but this summer you are detoured on to surface streets for about a mile around the construction.  The traffic was pretty light at 9:15, and many local businesses were still not open.  Once you are past the construction you drop back down toward the lake to a street called E. Mullan Ave. where there is a demarcated bike lane that takes you east along the northern part of the Coeur d'Alene Golf Course (the one with the floating green) to E. Coeur d'Alene Lake Drive.....wow, that is a mouth full!  From there the bike path turns south running  a little up hill.  Just past the entrance to the golf course you come to a kind of scenic overlook area which is were the hydroplane boat race participants are staged.  This is where it got very congested.

The map below gives you a general idea of our route Sunday......the "B" marker is where the races were held, and the "C" marker was how far we rode before turning around.

View Larger Map

It was very congested in the race area which seemed to stretch for at least 1/2 a mile along the lake shore.  There were pedestrians and golf carts going every which direction making it difficult to navigate, but at last we got past the race venue.  At about the 7.3 mile mark of our ride we decided to turn around.....we had just climbed a 6% grade hill for 8/10's of a mile, and the path was heading back DOWNHILL to the lake again.....we did not, on this particular day, want to have to climb back up that hill.

By the time we returned to the race venue area they had put three vintage hydroplane boats in the water to run a few laps around the course....kind of like they do at the INDY 500 prior to race day.   We stopped to take some pictures, and TLE got this great shot of the three boat's rooster tails as they plowed along the water course near the marina.

We stood there watching and snapping pictures for 5, or 10 minutes until an event staffer stopped to ask us where our wrist bands were....hmmmm......we don't have "no stinkin' wrist bands" I was thinking.....so glad I didn't say that out loud......we told him, politely, we were just riding by and stopped to take a couple of pictures, and were just about to get back on our bikes.....apparently, even though there was no fencing in this area, you must have paid admission to even stand there and take a picture.

We stopped off back in town at Calypsos Coffee to have a "cup a joe" and a bagel before heading back home.....on our way home we rode up Government Way to the Supercuts to get my card validated.....after every 8 haircuts you get a free one.......I know at the rate I get haircuts it will take a year to get that free haircut, but I WANT that free haircut, right?

Shortly after getting home I got a text message from my sister, Hilary, asking if we wanted to drive into Spokane for a BBQ that evening, and, of course, we said "YES!".  We headed into Spokane around 4:50 arriving just exactly on time at Hilary's home at 5:30.  Their view off the back deck of the home is spectacular, and enjoying that view while eating dinner takes it to a whole 'nother level.

A glass of Pinot and grilled salmon to go along with the view

We had a lovely evening, and sat outside on the deck talking with my sister, brother-in-law and mother until 10 pm before heading home.  A very nice evening, and another day lived well!

Thanks for stopping by!

How long?

A friend who reads my blog on a daily basis sent me the following message on Facebook yesterday:  "I'm curious.  What happens when your two year travel time is up?  Go back home?  Keep traveling?"   I think there may have been a time when we were still planning to take this adventure that told those who asked "we'll travel for a couple of years, and then see how we feel", because we really didn't know.  Now that we have been living in our coach for over two and a half years, and are beginning our 20th month on the road it is not even a question we try to answer anymore.  We now tell people we cannot imagine ever living in a sticks and bricks home again.......of course that's an idealistic answer.  At some point in the future we may have no choice but to move back into a sticks and bricks home.  After all we will not remain locked in at 63 years old the rest of our lives....father time is marching on, and at some point our physical condition may not permit us the luxury of living full time in our coach.

Anyway, when I answered that friend that we planned to stay on the road "indefinitely" my youngest daughter, Sharon, saw that and added her 2 cents:  "Indefinitely??  I'm going to buy a house with a guest house in the back for you and Mom.  That way you will HAVE to come home more often."  And that is the rub......all five of our children live within 20 miles of each other in Southern California, and, of course, so do our grand children.  I totally understand my daughter's reaction to "indefinitely", because we have not been "HOME" in 19 months, and will not be "HOME" until the middle of November making it close to 22 months since we last saw her in person.  We did see our oldest daughter, Meredith, last summer in Spokane when she flew up for the 4th of July, but it has been 14 months since we've seen her.  We just saw our youngest son, Tim, who flew up to surprise us when we were attending my niece's wedding a few weeks ago, but the other three children (Chris, Kate and Sharon) we have not seen, and the same goes for our grand children.  Sure, we have Skyped with them, but you and I both know that is not the same in the long run.

Let's face it, our life on the road is evolving slowly but surely.  Our travel style has changed a lot since last October.  We spent a lot of time east of the Mississippi the first 19 months.....almost 12 months when all added up, but we plan to spend the better part of the next two years west of the Mississippi, which will make it more logistically possible to see our kids and grand kids at more regular intervals.  I hope they understand how much we miss them, too.....I think they do.

This is the scene I see every morning when I turn on my laptop....my 5 kids and my daughter-in-law smiling back at me.

Saturday was the first day of NCAA College Football, and there were some good games on tap, but before they came on the TV I spent an hour, or so cleaning the accumulation of bug and road residue off the front of the coach, and then wiped the heavy dew off the T-Bird.  Then I settled in to watch a few games.  

Around Noon we decided to head over to Cabela's in Post Falls to browse around.....they have sales going on this time of year, and normally, I probably would have bought a few on sale items, but it's funny when you have spent a lot of time in thrift stores paying .99 cents to $5 for clothing items......it is hard to pull the trigger and pay $50, or a $100 for anything.....no matter that the price has been cut 25, 30, or 50%.......50% off $229 is still a lot of money.  I'm not even sure I could pull the trigger if it was 80% off.  It is funny how your perspective change.

I did, however, find that they had a nice supply of the ammo for our firearm, so I bought another box to add to our supply.  I'm not expecting a war, but this ammo is hard to find, so I buy a box here and there when it is available.  I think we are set now in that department.

After that we stopped off at the Walmart in the same complex to buy a new sun shade for the car....the old one has become as limp as a wet noodle.......I wonder why....it's only 11 years old....:-)  We arrived back "home" around 3.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the cool of the coach watching football, napping, and reading.  At 6 I turned on the Dodger game and watched them win a close one (2-1) over the Padres......a very well pitched game on both sides.  The Dodgers ended the month of August 23 and 6.....the best one month record for the Dodgers, according to Vin Sculley, since they moved to Los Angeles back in 1958.  Apparently they had a couple of 25 win months way back when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Considering how many great L.A. teams there have been since 1958, that is quite an accomplishment.  Obviously, it will not be remembered too much if we don't get to the World Series.  September will be fun!

That was our lazy Saturday.....thanks for stopping by!