Start Over

Accommodations at  Yuma Territorial Pen

As a few of you may recall, in May of last year we sold our happy home, moved into an RV and set out for the horizon.  At the same time, I started (or actually re-started) this blog to provide a record of our travels.  Six months and some 60 blog articles later I kind of ran out of blog steam.  We had made a great circle across the country along the northern border, down through Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi and were on our

New inmate

way back across Texas toward our triumphant return to California when the blogs petered out in November.  Now we are back on the road again and I'm giving the blog another new lease on life.  So I propose to do a quick and dirty update to let readers know what's transpired since you last joined us and then re-enter the fray with regular blogging.


We essentially stopped touring last November in San Antonio and high-tailed it back across Texas and Arizona to meet our son in Yuma for Thanksgiving.  We wanted him to see the Yuma Territorial Prison to learn what happens to young men who don't live up to societies expectations.  It is never too late for a practical object lesson.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with one of Vicki's former  Hospice collegues who is now a retiree and a Yuma resident, then snuck back into California with the intention of resting and having Christmas with family.

Two weeks before the holiday we pulled into another Escapees campground, this one in the fair city of Aguanga, an insignificant wide spot in the road about 15 miles east of Temecula.  This park was set up as a co-op and was built in the 1990s entirely by volunteer labor. It is still run as a co-operative concern by the members with mostly volunteers doing the maintenance work (there is a paid park manager and a small paid staff).  The facilities are lovely, there are numerous activities to keep one busy and the members are friendly to a fault.  We were so impressed that we ponied up the cash to acquire a site there and will probably be wintering over there for the foreseeable future.  I will do a more extensive note on this at some future date (probably in the Fall).

Sea Elephant

We spent Christmas Day at my mother's house along with my sister's brood, then we all drove up to Pismo Beach to meet my brother and his wife who had come down from  Washington state for the holidays.  We've been going to Pismo for years and really love that area.  There are lots of good restaurants and the coastline is lovely.  We went and watched the elephant seals north of Morro Bay and did some wine tasting.  On the whole it was better than spenidng the week at Mom's place getting on each others' nerves.

We spent a month back at our site in Aguanga getting ready for cold weather (see previous post), then went of and spent three months in the middle of the Navajo reservation in Arizona, working at the Indian Health Service clinic at Chinle.  Will try to do a more extensive posting on this in a few days.

We finished that a few weeks ago, got our motor home refitted and are ready to spend another 6 months on the road.  Ultimate destination - Maine, where we intend to eat lobster until we explode.  We've never been to New England and are  hoping for a fun and interesting summer.  This week we are going to stop by the house in South Dakota and try to get rid of enough stuff from the garage so guests can actually park a car in there.

Along the way we somehow picked up a hitcher.  My son is traveling with us and he is bringing his horse... er, I mean dog.  Our cozy little chateau for two has suddenly gotten crowded.  We'll see how far we get before one of us gets homicidal.  It should be interesting.  On the bright side, I have acquired another co-blogger, so we can hopefully keep those blog articles coming fast and furious.     Or not.