We got up and got going. It was cloudy again. We pulled out at 9:55. We took US190 from Livingston west across Lake Livingston to Huntsville. There we picked up S30 which ran into S90 and through Navasota where we picked up S105 to Brenham where we headed west on US290 to 237 to La Grange, Texas. We traveled 166 miles and got in 
here at 1:35. Warm all day, into the high 70’s but never saw the sun.
These pictures are of the lovely Texas countryside, a couple of stately homes coming into Navasota and the old 1860’s 
part of Navasota.
The last pictures are of our site here and of the Colorado River that the RV park is next 
to. The picture of the six turtles is blurry, 
but I had to do mega-telephoto and I didn’t have a tripod. We saw a large snapping turtle sitting on a log too, but I decided to save you from another turtle picture.
Talked to Andrea today. She was on her way home from the hospital. Ian had his first playground emergency. He did really well while the medical team “dermabonded” the split in his forehead back together, he was making them laugh with his reactions to everything. The nurse put gauze over his eye so the saline solution wouldn’t get in his eyes and he says, “I’m a pirate!” He was being silly and stayed still and wasn’t scared at all.
On the road again tomorrow.
Yesterday and today were lovely, warm Texas days. It got to 82 yesterday and the high 70’s today. The Redbuds are starting to bloom and some trees are starting to leaf out.
Yesterday we took our walk, got our chores done and then headed over to Conroe to see Darcy. We are amazed, this was our first trip since we planted ourselves here on the first. Three years on the road and this is the first time we have not explored at all, but it felt good to stay home.
Darcy is getting along pretty well. She walks all over the hospital and uses the stairs so she can start getting herself back in shape. They are having a hard time getting her blood to thin out and they are taking it slowly. She is having physical therapy and she does a lot of that on her own. We were there about three hours, the time just flew by.
After we left there we found a little Mexican Restaurant stuck back in a corner. The food was really good and so was the service. We were both really glad that we hadn’t seen the bathroom before we ate. I was just hoping that they clean their kitchen better than the bathrooms. They were really bad. We got home just as the sun was setting.
Today we took our walk. Had our toast and then Larry washed the trailer and the truck. I did the laundry and worked on putting all my candles and stuff away. We took another walk before dinner, it was so nice, the sun feels really good.
We hit the road tomorrow and we are heading for Hondo which is west and a teeny south of San Antonio. We might stay around Austin which is about midway from here. It’ll just depend on how it goes.
Talked to Andrea today and it was snowing this morning and this evening in Ukiah, not a common occurrence. Ian thought it was very cool. Michelle is sick with whatever crud has been going around which is wreaking havoc with her college classes and Seth is starting to catch it. We’ll wait until spring to visit…smile.
Sorry, after all that info for a few days, now nothing! But we are doing a lot of nothing. The weather finally warmed up. It was 82 yesterday and sunny. Today started out foggy but got up to 79. We have just been in total hibernation mode. We stay home, take walks, go to Walmart once a week for supplies and read and work on the computer. Yesterday and today Larry helped a couple different people to get their new satellite systems up and running from scratch. He came home today saying he would never do that again and says it is definitely out as a future career! Lots of bird activity, they are gathering grasses for their nests and squirrels scampering all over the place. Spring here with the daffodils popping out and the magnolias just finished blooming. I missed getting pictures of the magnolias. They don't flower very long, they peak one day and the next day they are brown and done.We head out of here on Wednesday. Heading to Hondo, Texas and we'll probably stop one night on the way.
I think about this last year and I am amazed by all we have seen and the territory we 
covered. I am thankful that Larry and I have been able to fulfill a dream we have had since we were teenagers. We always talked about taking off across our country and seeing what it had to offer. Our own country is so diversified and beautiful and I feel sad for the people who don’t or won’t get to see it. It is so different than seeing it in pictures or on T.V. The problem is going through it as fast as we did; we 
really didn’t get as much time as we would have liked to absorb all that we saw. The thousands of pictures I have will help!
We left Yuma mid March and headed east across Arizona into New Mexico. We spent until the end of May in New Mexico. We zigged and zagged back and forth checking out all the different things to see. We spent a month 
in Lakewood, New Mexico and while there we had snow, rain and big dust storms. We had bunnies for entertainment and did a lot of exploring. We were amazed by the Carlsbad Caverns; after seeing them we feel like we never need to bother with another cave, these were so awesome! We checked out Roswell…all hype, the museum was like a high school science fair gone wrong. We explored cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, deserts, mountains, 
rivers, lakes and “rock cities”. We had close encounters with horned lizards and rattlesnakes. We enjoyed the art and architecture, but not the crush of humanity in some of the urban areas. We were surprised at the congestion in Taos.
From New Mexico at the end of May we headed north into Colorado. We parked our trailer in the parking lot of the Denver airport and hopped a plane to Portland. Andrea and Ian were at Michelle’s for Seth’s second birthday. We had a great time, but as we
started heading farther east the more we realized that there was no way we were going to be able to spend 2 years exploring the east coast like we had thought we would. We would miss too much of the best, cutest years of our Grandson’s lives. So we decided to press on with our plans to head towards my sister’s in Ohio and then we would see.
From Denver we headed north across the panhandle of Nebraska into South Dakota. We spent from end of June into mid July outside of Sturgis, South Dakota. It was a beautiful time to be there. The hills were green and colored with beautiful wildflowers. We saw Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse and explored all the little mining towns. We took a trip into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower and scoped out Rapid City. Larry was born in Rapid City and we went to the air base that his Dad was stationed at.
From the Black Hills we headed east across South Dakota and went through the Badlands and across the prairie. We went to Terry Redlands wonderful museum and found Laura Ingall’s Little House on the Prairie.
We went on north into North Dakota to check out Valley City where my father was born 
and my Grandfather practiced medicine. We made a few exciting discoveries there. Upon leaving South Dakota we kept on easterly. We went through and spent a few days in different places across Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and were amazed by the Great Lakes, then across the bridge south into the mitten of Michigan and down into Ohio.
We got to Lori’s on August third. We stayed until September 5th. We had a great, relaxing stay. She’s a great cook and baker so we put on a few pounds even WITH the use of her treadmill. We enjoyed getting to know her husband Mike better and seeing Lindsay and Jaclyn all grown up and beautiful young women. Oscar the Labrador was a furry bonus.
We decided that we would cover the areas we most wanted to see on the east coast and 
then start heading back west. So when we left Lori’s we went through Kentucky into Tennessee and saw the Great Smoky Mountains. Then into North Carolina where we toured the Biltmore Estate (Hearst Castle was better) and drove the Blue Ridge Parkway into Virginia. We wandered across the bottom of Virginia a teeny bit back into North Carolina where we hit the Atlantic Ocean. We had our worst experience there with mosquitoes. We stayed on the Outer Banks and traveled down the coast into South Carolina where we stayed a week or so and toured a few Plantations. Then it was into Georgia where we experienced armadillos, lovebugs and enjoyed fried catfish and hushpuppies.
During the month of October we went through Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Arizona, Utah and into Nevada. We saw historical sites, beautiful countryside, stunning lakes, the great Cosmosphere Museum in Kansas, a Petrified Forest, we revisited the Grand Canyon, enjoyed Zion National Park and ended up in Mesquite, Nevada where we spent a week with Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Gene. Then we headed north through Fallon, spent a few days seeing friends in Plumas County California and then on into Oregon. 
Most of November and into December we spent near Michelle’s. We did our Christmas shopping and Larry started the arduous task of scanning our old photos into the computer. Michelle had a bunch of our albums and Andrea the rest. We had a great Thanksgiving at Michelle’s; Andrea and Ian were there too. We were back in California at Andrea’s for Christmas and Ian’s 4th birthday. Michelle, Darel and Seth were there for that so we had a great holiday season! We loaded up with the rest of our photos that had been stored at Andrea’s.
Then on January 4th we left Ukiah and instead of heading to Chimacum, Washington for the winter as we had planned we decided to head to Texas to give my Aunt Gretchen
whatever moral support we could while Darcy was recovering from a catastrophic automobile accident.
And here we are in Livingston, Texas freezing our hiney’s off (supposed to start warming up tomorrow). Whew! I started this blog in June, so those of you who haven’t been following since then can go back through the archives and see the details and photos of all these places and the routes we took.
Who knows what’s in store for us this next year? We have very few plans so far, which is a first for us since we have been on the road. I have to be in Ukiah the end of May for jury duty…Ick. Seth’s birthday is in June, so we’ll probably be in Oregon for that and for the annual family reunion in Roseburg, Oregon in July. Both of our Nieces are graduating from college this June, but I don’t think we are going to be trekking back east so soon, but we never say never. We never had plans to explore Texas and here we are! Next stop….?????
Part three of our 3 year anniversary will be tomorrow. We were without power for quite awhile today so I didn't have enough time to get it all put together. It was sunny today and got up to 62, but we had some pretty strong winds. Just a quick note too about my cousin Darcy. On Monday she was hospitalized with a blood clot in her lung. A very bad thing, so she'll be in the hospital until that is under control. Other than that she is doing really well.
Sorry this wasn’t posted sooner. We are experiencing technical difficulties with our computer. I got a third of this typed and of course not having saved it yet, the program had an error and blam; gone.
Texas is still in the deep freeze. At least we aren’t dealing with snow and the winds! The low this morning was 26 and the high was 47. The SUN stayed out all day for the first time in a week and a half! Things are looking up…
Now yesterday I was wrong about when we left Yuma. Geez, I lived this, have the photos and my editor didn’t catch that big error! OOPS, me again. So we were in Yuma until March. We had a big scary thunderstorm in February while we were in Yuma, which made for some pretty cloud pictures. In March we were in California visiting family and friends and in April we were in Oregon doing the same.
The month of May we were maintenance hosts again at Goose Lake State Park. We 
spent most of time pruning back trees and shrubs to open up the campsites. We had a lot of rain that month and even snow. We enjoyed being there a lot, our site was away from the main part of the campground and the campground was a mile from the highway so it was a very peaceful place. We had deer and pheasants as our neighbors.
June was our most anticipated hosting position and once we got there we weren’t sure if we would be able to stick it out a week much less a whole 
month. It was well staffed, but the management was awful. We were the “Yurt Hosts”, which meant we were to clean the yurts that were vacated each day. We only had to do that for 4 days a week and it took less than a couple hours a day, but the staff constantly took advantage. We had to hunt down someone to show us their cleaning procedures, because we didn’t know what was supposed to be done and no one gave us any training and it was down hill from there. We loved the area and we were not too far from Michelle’s home so we decided to “buck-up” and deal with it. The positives far out weighed the negatives. One of the positives was we were able to be at Seth’s first birthday party. Being able to walk on the beach ev
ery single day and see it go through its many fascinating changes was a thrill. Some days there would be no beach to walk on and other days you needed to pack food and water to make the trek to get to the waters edge! There was a Tsunami warning issued while we were there and we were a major part of the campgrounds evacuation, which is a story unto itself. One of these days I’ll have to start the book!
In July we were the Store Hosts at La Pine State Park which is south of Bend, Oregon. We ran and managed the little camp store for a month and with our business experience 
we were able make changes to the store to make it more successful. Signage was its biggest issue; no one knew the store was there and if they did know they couldn’t find it. We had family visit on their way through for a few days which was really fun. The weather there was warm and pleasant which made our daily walks along the Deschutes River very enjoyable. I think this area is one of the countries most beautiful. If I wanted to live in cold and snow again this would be where I would settle.
August took us to new territory…Washington State. For the month of September we 
were hosts at Fort Simcoe State Park west of Toppenish. It was a day use park miles from anywhere in the middle of an Indian Reservation. The grounds and historical buildings were wonderful. One of the west’s hidden historical treasures there are several original Officer’s Quarters still standing after over 150 years, even sporting most of their original wavy-glass windows. The fresh produce grown in the area was wonderful.
We headed farther north in September to host at Alta Lakes State park. We were needed 
over the Labor Day weekend and then the rest of the month they didn’t really have much for us to do. Now mind you, they had an extensive list of “suggestions” for us, but when the paid staff was doing little or nothing and they wanted their volunteers to paint bathrooms and clear brush to make the trails 6 feet wider, we reminded them that we were retired. Having a host during a period when there aren’t very many campers isn’t very smart. So again we were happy to explore new territory, but the hosting experience wasn’t a thrill.
October was a great surprise. We were museum hosts at Fort Worden State Park in Port 
Townsend. The compound was large and beautiful and jutted out into the Sound. The fall leaves were stunning and it was getting cold, but it was still a pleasant place to hang out. We ran the museum and got to meet a lot of interesting 
people. The Park and its historical buildings are all still in use so there was always a lot going on. We made a trip to Vancouver Island and saw the Butchart Gardens, which for me was a thrill. We learned more than we ever wanted to know about artillery during our stint here at the fort.
So from the top of Washington we headed south and visited Michelle, Larry’s Mom, Andrea and friends. From there we headed south to Mesquite, Nevada and spent a week 
at Larry’s Aunt & Uncles and then on down to Yuma. We arrived back in Yuma on Dec. 18th and wintered down there again. Our park was way more full this time, but we got our same spot. That is where we finished out our second year on the road.
Three years ago today we pulled out of our driveway in Chester, California for the last 
time. The ground was covered in snow and there was more on the way so we were in a hurry to get out of the mountains. Things seemed to go so fast that we had a lot of stuff in the truck that still had to go to storage in Ukiah and there was lots of stuff in the trailer that
we still hadn’t found homes for. Our first week out was a disaster; bad weather, Larry had a sore tooth and had a cold, our trailer had a couple leaks and we had to keep the main slide-out in…I could write a short story on just our first week out. Like the birds we were heading south.
We spent a month in San Diego and loved that a lot. It was a surprise really, because we aren’t fond of cities, but in spite of all the freeways and traffic, we enjoyed our stay there a lot. When we left there we 
took Highway 1 all the way up into Oregon. We stopped a few days and saw Hearst Castle, so worth the visit! We stopped in Ukiah and visited with Andrea’s family and then it was on to Oregon. We hung out in Oregon until after Michelle gave birth to Seth on June 14th. Mid-July we left there and headed to Southern Oregon and hung out there for my family’s reunion. Then we headed over to Lakewood, Oregon to Goose Lake State 
Park and did our first volunteer hosting job. I learned everything I needed to learn about the differences between Yellow Jackets, Hornets and Wasps. We were there about 6 weeks into mid-September.
Then we were heading south again. We stayed a few days in
Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada. Then we went to Utah where there were awesome fall colors, to Bryce Canyon, the Grand Staircase past Lake Powell and then to the Grand Canyon. It was all stunning! We spent October in Camp Verde, Arizona. It was a beautiful area to explore. This Bald
Eagle was in a tree in a park 
scoping out his world in Payson, Arizona. We saw Sedona and I found it a 
disappointment and then we headed further south to Benson, Arizona where we spent 3 weeks and our first Thanksgiving alone.
From there we ended up in Yuma, Arizona where we spent the next 3 months. The park had changed hands and was pretty empty (which isn’t the case now). We had our first Christmas alone (which we didn’t really like) and enjoyed the desert Christmas 
decorations. We made friends with a fun bunch of Canadians and enjoyed the sunshine. Interestingly enough, while we were there we got quite a few big rain storms, at least for that area and the desert was the greenest it had been in about 100 years. The vegetation and flowers were amazing.
By the end of our first year on the road we were back up in Oregon! Our first year was a year of adjusting to a new way of life and a new way of thinking. The new way of thinking about life was more difficult than we expected. We had a lot of wonderful experiences, met a lot of interesting people, got to spend quality time with family and friends and learned to value the art of doing nothing.
Year two tomorrow. This will be a three part epic, I think. Today we took a long walk while the sun was out and then it was cloudy again for the rest of the day. Low 30's at night and the highs in the low 40's again. Twenty degrees cooler than normal...DUH!? We wish it would quit that.
Happy Valentine’s Day. I am decorating today’s entry with my pictures of my favorite 
flower.
We are having horrible weather here. Last Wednesday was the last day we saw the sun and it was over 70. We’ve had lows higher than the high’s and highs lower than the lows. Today it was 41 all day, it creeped up to 43 for about an hour and then back down. With the breeze, I did not stick my head outside all day. I made a lovely broccoli/cauliflower soup in the crock pot and tried to stay warm.
Larry found a couple old diaries in the box of photos and they were pretty entertaining and very sad at the same time. It was from 1987, which was a really hard year for us. 
Larry was in a lot of pain from his second back surgery the previous year, we were ham-strung financially waiting for Larry’s disability case to be settled, Larry’s Dad died in Feb. from a massive heart attack, Michelle was going through some weird, throwing fits at bed time thing (she was 3), I sprained my ankle badly coming out of our trailer on our second day of a camping trip, we had various vehicle troubles, my horse was being a pain in the butt, the weather was weird and my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. Those were only the biggest things, there were other more minor things, like Larry having to shoot a neighbors dog, Larry was going to doctors appointments and physical therapy, my sister moved to Michigan, we were eating and breathing smoke during the worst fire season in history, births, I quit my job cleaning houses and the entire year was colored by the grief of Larry’s Dad being gone.
Diaries are fabulous things. Quite a few things I had forgotten and we were amazed at what transpired in one year. There was one day where I had written about how fast the girls were growing up, Andrea was seven and that before I knew it I would be writing about their marriages, well here I am 20 years later writing about THEIR children. Wow! These 20 years feel like a blink.
Also the last few days we have been trying to figure out the dates of a lot of our photos. I was horrible about writing dates on the photos! Plus there were a few years when I had three different cameras and by the time the film was printed one roll could cover an entire year; confusing at times. Larry was dating a lot of the pictures by the kid’s teeth, whether they had any or not, it was pretty funny. Hair lengths helped some too.
So that was our Valentine’s Day, a trip down memory lane, great soup and now a great dessert!
here at 1:35. Warm all day, into the high 70’s but never saw the sun.
part of Navasota.
to. The picture of the six turtles is blurry, 
but I had to do mega-telephoto and I didn’t have a tripod. We saw a large snapping turtle sitting on a log too, but I decided to save you from another turtle picture.
