Three Year Anniversary!!!! 2-15-07

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.