I am really looking forward to this year after a very rough
start. Rain, colds, and other health
bugs! It has been a while since I had some good stuff to share. The last couple of
years have been taken up with health challenges, death in the family and then
the joy of a wedding and a year later, my first grandchild.
Yup, all those sappy things we have heard from all those
grandparents are true. This little guy
has brought such joy to my life I struggle to fully explain it. He is pure, unconditional, love in the best
little bundle. Watching him grow and
being a part of his life has been such a huge blessing. Little E, I hope you read this sometime in
the next 10 – 20 years and just know what joy you gave to this grandma.
More good stuff!
After a couple of years of health issues that kept me pretty much
grounded for a while, I am finally getting back to normal life. I have some limitations, but I was not really
planning on bagging any mountain peaks anyway.
I have missed being on the water and traveling.
So, I have taken a couple of plunges. I am now semi-retired, working only 20 hours
a week. Whoo HOO!
AND even more big news.
Over the last several years I have been re-introduced to the joys of
camping. Spending time in so many beautiful
parks and campgrounds, hanging out in the redwoods or by a river has been warm soup
for the soul. However, tent camping got
tough. So much set up, take down, dirt,
and too hot, too cold and where the heck is that dang bathroom again? So I
bought a brand new Camper Van, class B.
This is my Winnebago Travato 59G.
This van is like my own little tiny house on wheels. Fully contained with all the comforts of home
and I can park in regular spaces. (well, most regular spaces). I can camp with all my other tent friends in the same campsites. While they are setting up tents and stuffing food into bear lockers, I am setting up my chair, and done! My kayak fits inside, right down the center
aisle. So much easier than the car
topping I have done for years.
I have named him Charley.
Charley is in honor of a favorite author of mine, John Steinbeck. As I was perusing the books I wanted to
revisit this year I came across, Travels with Charley. In this case Charley is
a big Poodle that traveled with Steinbeck on a 3 month cross country trip
across America. Steinbeck felt he had
lost touch with America so he ordered a custom camper truck, loaded his dog and
took off.
Here is Steinbeck’s observation from Part one of this
book. He is setting up his camper truck -
...and neighbors came to visit, some neighbors we didn’t even
know we had. I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every
part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way,
anyplace, away from any Here. Nearly
every American hungers to move.
I get that! I am anxious to hop in Charley and go! So this blog will now cover kayaking and road
tripping as I explore Traveling with Charley.
I do plan to take my own hairy beast of a dog, Sydney, who has not done well with travel so far…but I am willing to try it again. It seems it has been raining all January. So once things dry up a bit we will be hitting the road.
