Getting Ready to Leave + Old Photos of a Memorable Trip

Roger here... No pictures this time - really nothing interesting to photograph. We just wanted to let everyone know what we are doing, and more importantly, WHAT WE WILL BE DOING.

Dianne here: Since we don't have any recent photos to add, I added some photos from

the trip that Roger describes in the blog.

You'll note we look younger

in these photos, because it was about ten years ago. Of all the trips over the past 37 years of our marriage, I have to say this trip to several parks in Utah and the Grand Canyon was my absolute favorite! We were just getting back into camping after having sold our pop-up in the late 80s. We cooked over a fire with a dutch oven. Roger's secretary at the time quipped that we'd probably be snapping at each other before we hit the state line, but we spent three glorious weeks and had the time of our lives! I still think Bryce Canyon is the most beautiful place on earth,

and I can't wait to go back. And, yes, the sky was really that blue!!

On that same trip, we were also able to free-camp RIGHT ON THE NORTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON.

We set up our chairs and watched the sunrise and sunset each night. It had taken us an hour to get to this spot down a gravel road. There was no one around for MILES. The last shot shows me cooking at our campsite with our dutch oven.

Roger again: Our only other visit to Texas, other than an educational conference that I attended, was a glorious one-day trip to the Alamo Bowl. At that time we belonged to a travel club that specialized in one-day trips, flying out extremely early in the morning and returning late at night. We spent the day wandering along the River Walk in San Antonio and had a great time as Purdue upset 4th-ranked Kansas State at the Alamo Bowl. It was the beginning of the Joe Tiller era at Purdue. Kansas State was unhappy to not be in a more prestigious bowl. It was a sweet win that even Dianne enjoyed. (She has been known to read books at football games, much to my chagrin).

This time we will be spending most of the winter in Texas. We will start in the Hill Country, near Austin, where we will spend Christmas and New Year's Eve. The next stop will be a two-month stop at Bentsen Palms Village RV Resort in Mission, in the Rio Grande Valley, with visits to South Padre Island and the gulf. In early March we will travel along the gulf (TX, LA, MS, Al, FL) on our way to see our daughter and granddaughter in Ft. Myers, FL.

So, after a long time in Kansas, we are hoping to have a long stretch of interesting things to see and do IN A WARMER CLIMATE.

Things are winding down at Amazon. Dianne's last work day is one week from today - none too soon. Our jobs at Amazon have been interesting, and I must say, educational. The compensation, free camping sites as well as a decent wage (including lots of overtime hours), have been good. BUT, we have been here since early October. It is cold (9 degrees one night - we stayed warm inside). It is time to spend the money that we, mostly Dianne, earned. And... the boys do not like peeing and pooping in the freezing weather. The walks have been short and purposeful.

Next stop - Texas, pretty much a new state for us.

Our first visit was about 10 years ago. We were in Amarillo on the way back from a memorable trip to southern Utah. We were camping in a mini-van with a tent extension - no air conditioning. It must have been 90 degrees that night and the campground was noisily located between a railroad track and an airport. To make matters worse, there was a serial killer in Texas at the time, whose victims were all located near railroad tracks. I got up in the middle of the night to take a cool shower to rinse off all the sweat and had just fallen asleep when Dianne elbowed me in the ribs and said, "I can't stand this, WE ARE LEAVING, NOW!" I complained that I had just fallen asleep and that it was 2:00 a.m., to no avail. No reason to argue when Dianne's mind is made up. Her mind WAS made up, so we broke camp in the middle of the night and headed for Missouri.