On The Road Again, Again!

Well we left CT again on Tuesday morning and with much less fanfare then last December.

We head southwest to stay a night with our good friends, Susan and George and the kids in Pittsburgh, PA. They are such wonderful people. Here they are 10 days form the scheduled birth of their fourth child, George putting the finishing touches on his second book to leave his office this year with a deadline of Wednesday, all the kids home for the summer and they were an immediate YES to our staying the night Tuesday. Just an awesome family and we want to say how grateful we are to your welcoming us again into your home. Thanks for the soft landing (much later than we had originally anticipated).


We left there pretty early Wednesday morning and hit the road for Dayton, Ohio where we still are visiting my brother and sister in law for a day and half before heading out to St. Louis for a day or so to visit Megs brother and our sister in law.


It has been a bit of an adjustment again, physically, we are sleeping in different beds each night and traveling longer distances than usual to get there. We have not been sleeping normally and it has caught up with us to some degree today. One great thing about being here is that my brother has a pool at his house and the kids were hardly able to wait to be able to get in it yesterday. Today they were in before 10 AM and have been in right up to now at 4:20 with just a few minute breaks during that whole time. The weather is hot and humid and perfect for the pool. I will be in the 82 degree water just as soon as I am done blogging for today.


We had to clear a blocked sewer line from the house to the street this morning here at my brothers house but all went well and easy and it gives us time to spend together and I really enjoy that aspect of our trips here. Today we got the pleasure of being with my nephew Matt who was upstate in PA helping my niece make ready to move to FL. He drove back today and we had the chance for a short visit before he headed off to work. We will spend a little time together this night and some in the AM tomorrow and then we will shove off for Missouri.


Speaking of Missouri, I wanted to share with you and special Missouri customization of a vehicle that I saw on the road yesterday as we were between Pittsburgh and Dayton. I am looking to send this in to the Red Neck show but I wanted to have the chance to share it with you first.


This could be an example of the way that RV's came into existence.


This is a real life example of , When you need something and you have all the elements to make it work for you, why bother calling someone else who may be an expert in the field,
Just do it yourself and save BIG.


In other words, You know your from the hills when:



(double click on the picture for a larger, more clear image)

Notice the way the generator is mounted to the vehicle, the power wire running from the generator to the cooling unit, the special cooling unit mounted in the rear window and the insualtive material used to make sure none of that cool gets out. This guy(s) thought of it all. This is priceless and practical!

Well, until next time... I'm going in the pool to cool down!

One month since my last post!

I am not entirely sure why I have not been writing in the blog except that since being here in CT we have just taken on many things that just do not occur while out on the road. These things have obviously managed to consume time and thus have somehow prevented me from expressing them on the blog. I have kept notes to some degree and hope to recollect them on the blog over the next few weeks but certainly the highlights of this trip home will be discussed in the book.
We were supposed to leave today to begin the trek back to Colorado to pick up the coach and begin our exploration of the Northwest corner states but we could not get it all ready to rock so we will be leaving Tuesday morning bright and early. We will have an additional passenger for the next 5 weeks in the person of our grand daughter, Michaela. Both she and Jasper our very excited to embark on this section of the trip. Megan and I are as well as Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Northern California are places that neither of us have been to.
We will stop in Pittsburgh Tuesday night and stay with our gracious friends George and Susan. Weds we will head out to Dayton Ohio and visit briefly with brother Scott and Diane. Thursday we intend to make it to Saint Charles, Missouri to visit another brother David and Sherrie before we head over to Mount Vernon, Iowa for a night stop over to see Jeff and Kara again before we make the leg west to Colorado probably stopping one more night in Nebraska or eastern Colorado.
The RV, left in Boulder with friends, has been used by them a couple of times while we were out East but not to the extent that we thought they were going to travel. No issues for us but perhaps a little disappointing for them as they were intending a major road trip while we were gone.
After driving back to Colorado the approx. 1800 miles by car, when we get the RV we intend to drive up the road an hour to Rocky Mountain National Park and camp there for a few days so that the kids and we can recoup from the car travel which is much different than RV travel and allot more tiring. We will then head up thru Wyoming and into Montana before heading west again across the top of our country towards Washington state.
There have been many highlights since being home but two that stand out were getting together with my long time friend Jim Shea and playing golf at Lyman Meadows with him in a benefit tournament sponsored by the New Haven Kiwanis Club. We spent a truly enjoyable day together talking about the present mostly but recapping some of our history together as well. Some that would be better left unrepeated and some that was fun recalling. The present moment conversation was the most rewarding as we have both been delivered into places that we are really grateful for.
The second highlight was the wedding of Tammy and Matt at which they asked me to be the Master of Ceremony and to preside over that ritual that would deliver them into marriage and get to do the entire ceremony right next to them as they made the bold commitment to spend their lives together. It is a day and ceremony I will never forget. One of the highlights and honors of my life.
Many miracles and further awakenings have again occurred since being home and I will write them in future blogs. I am sorry for not getting to see everyone while home this time and am very, very grateful for those of our friends who went to extremes to have us over to their houses for visits and meals and conversations and fun. We miss you all very much when we are out there but it is great to be loved and to see you all when we come home. Thanks for your friendship and love.
Talk to you soon.