So Why Are We Leaving?

Roger here.....  Wow!  Look at the riot of color in our back yard.  The plant life here in deep south Texas is amazing most of the year (even in January), but right now it seems to be at its peak.

The jasmine vines that we planted at the corners of our pergola are growing so fast that you can almost see them creeping up the trellis.  They are in full bloom and so fragrant.  

I just finished conducting our last community meeting of the season.  Good to have that behind me.  It almost feels like the start of Spring Break (educators understand the analogy).  It is so relaxing to sit in a comfortable chair on the back patio ---- looking at the flowers, watching the butterflies and birds, enjoying the ever-present Texas breeze, reading a good book.  SO, why are we leaving?

Well let's see....  

--  We have been working for a couple of months getting the motor home ready for a long trip:  new tires (expensive -- ouch!), new tire pressure monitoring system, annual service, oil change, battery fluid checks, repair to a couple of the bay latches, a thorough wash and wax.  It would be a shame to waste all that effort.

There's no place to sit in front of the coach house  -- our red Adirondack chairs have disappeared.   Oh, wait!  There they are.

-  The back patio looks so empty --- nothing except the camping chairs that we are taking with us.

-  Even our Texas bar has found its way inside.  Why linger here if there is no bar?

-  Necessities have been moved into the motor home and location lists have been made so that we can find them.  Dianne did most of the list making this year.  My obsessive compulsive, concrete- sequential traits are finally rubbing off on my dear wife.  It only took forty-some years...

-  Our good friend, Jim, helped me drain the water heater that lives in the attic.  We have to leave, or his help was for naught.  Have a look at those legs!

-  Anal retentive me has been planning the trip for weeks:  routes, reservations, timing to meet with family/friends, things to see, things to avoid, new adventures.  It would be a waste to not follow through after having done all that work.

-  Most of our dogs' friends have already left.  Look at those sad faces.

-  Oh, and there is a scary spider in the back yard.

This fella is about three inches long.  Everything in Texas is bigger.  I have no idea what the spirals are that seem to be caught in its web, nor do I know what kind of spider it is.  Maybe some of you readers can help.  Pretty interesting, though, isn't it?

-  There are lots of questionable reasons to leave, despite the beauty of our place right now.  However, the main reason for leaving is to begin a new set of adventures.  We are planning to travel through southern New Mexico and Arizona.  We plan to spend some time near Palm Springs to see our Los Angeles daughter and her boyfriend.  When it warms up in the northern climes, we are headed to the beaches of Oregon and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington where we will get to see both our daughters and our granddaughter --- as well as our life-long friends, Jay and Nancy.  Lady Dianne will get to spend some time in Salt Lake City doing genealogy research (seems she is descended from royalty), while I fly to Indiana for a couple of weeks.  We will then spend a month in the Colorado mountains before heading back to Texas.  I am starting to get excited!

We will be blogging more frequently as we travel, so start looking for our posts.

The pet picture of the day shows Bandido being a selfish boy while Tequila looks on.

The story behind the picture.... Dianne gave each dog a leather chew.  Bandido stole Tequila's chew, and then proceeded to chew up his own, while protecting Tequila's chew by trapping it under his paw.  In the vernacular of our friend, Bob:  Bad Bandido.  Poor Tequila.  Good Dianne (for eventually rescuing Tequila's treat).