A Little About Us Now
We are older now in our late 60s but we still in very good health and, hopefully, still have our wits about us. Although within our family there seems to be some doubt about that. When we told our boys about our plans of making the trip again -a couple of them suggested we have our heads examined.
We have both been retired for several years and have been enjoying the summers traveling. As I mentioned we have an Alfa motorhome. It is 40 feet long, almost 13 feet tall and has two big slide outs. It has all the comforts of home: basement air conditioning, washer/dryer, convection/microwave, three burner range and oven, double door refrigerator/freezer, etc. Bill says it drives like a dream and is very easy to handle. I wouldn’t know - never having driven it.
We tow Willie behind it.
A couple of summers ago we drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska. Another time we drove down into Baja California, Mexico and the rest of the summers we just toured different parts of the United States. Bill has fallen in love with the eastern side of the U.S. He likes all the trees. He would like to move to Indiana to a house with a basement big enough to hold all of our hobby equipment. He'd also like a couple of acres where he could have a horse.
In between traveling we both indulge ourselves with our hobbies. Bill likes to work in wood and build model sail boats. He has built mantels for both of our fireplaces. I take photos and mat them and he makes the frames. We both enjoy working in stained glass and have made some magnificent pieces. And I have fun beading, quilting and doing machine embroidery. In fact I have a web site for my beading - http://www.beadedcustomdesigns.com
As in all travels we have had good and bad experiences. But like “they” say -“if you get lemons make lemonade.
To update this - we lived in Las Vegas, NV for four years - so that's why we traveled in the summer, to get away from the triple digit heat there. Imagine our surprise when we were in Fairbanks, Alaska and it was 98 degrees at 10:30 at night. Also in Glacier Park in Montana - it was hotter one day there then it was in Vegas! And the humidity, at least Vegas has the famous "dry heat." We were in a tornado warning in Nebraska, and in the path of Katrina last summer. That time we made a hasty retreat north to Indiana. We have attended Gospel and Bluegrass concerts, hometown karaoke nights, visited the Harley and Corvette factories. Taken pictures of many, many lighthouses and chased down lots of covered bridges in Oregon, Ohio, and Indiana. We’ve seen, prairie dogs, coyotes, stupid sheep (oops that is stone sheep- they just don’t know how to get out of the road) deer, moose and bear.
I haven’t taken us down any bicycle paths or dead-end one way streets lately, but I have screwed up a few times. Like the time we turned off the main road in search of a covered bridge and I told The Driver to turn left and we drove and drove about 45 miles until we met a telephone line man. We asked him about the bridge, where in the world was it.
“Well,” he drawled, a broad smile on his face, “when you got off the main road, you should a turned right and gone under the highway. Its right there, Can’t miss it.”
We turned around and found the bridge with ease. I paid for that tank of gas.
We have met many kind and wonderful people. Some we are still in touch with. And a couple that weren’t so great - they were in the minority and quickly forgotten.
To do a trip like the one we are planning takes a lot of preparation. We hope to leave on our 2nd drive to South America, this fall (2006) about September/October after the hurricane season in Mexico. Well as you can tell we didn't make it then. As of now we are planning on leaving the end of March 2007.
What follows is some of the preparation we have finished or are in the process of doing.
I have added a page to this site with some updates of our lives in 2008. Many things have changed since I wrote this page originally. To visit our 2008 update click here. To continue reading about the preparation for and our travels in Mexico click on the "next page" button.
We have both been retired for several years and have been enjoying the summers traveling. As I mentioned we have an Alfa motorhome. It is 40 feet long, almost 13 feet tall and has two big slide outs. It has all the comforts of home: basement air conditioning, washer/dryer, convection/microwave, three burner range and oven, double door refrigerator/freezer, etc. Bill says it drives like a dream and is very easy to handle. I wouldn’t know - never having driven it.
We tow Willie behind it.
A couple of summers ago we drove the Alcan Highway to Fairbanks, Alaska. Another time we drove down into Baja California, Mexico and the rest of the summers we just toured different parts of the United States. Bill has fallen in love with the eastern side of the U.S. He likes all the trees. He would like to move to Indiana to a house with a basement big enough to hold all of our hobby equipment. He'd also like a couple of acres where he could have a horse.
In between traveling we both indulge ourselves with our hobbies. Bill likes to work in wood and build model sail boats. He has built mantels for both of our fireplaces. I take photos and mat them and he makes the frames. We both enjoy working in stained glass and have made some magnificent pieces. And I have fun beading, quilting and doing machine embroidery. In fact I have a web site for my beading - http://www.beadedcustomdesigns.com
As in all travels we have had good and bad experiences. But like “they” say -“if you get lemons make lemonade.
To update this - we lived in Las Vegas, NV for four years - so that's why we traveled in the summer, to get away from the triple digit heat there. Imagine our surprise when we were in Fairbanks, Alaska and it was 98 degrees at 10:30 at night. Also in Glacier Park in Montana - it was hotter one day there then it was in Vegas! And the humidity, at least Vegas has the famous "dry heat." We were in a tornado warning in Nebraska, and in the path of Katrina last summer. That time we made a hasty retreat north to Indiana. We have attended Gospel and Bluegrass concerts, hometown karaoke nights, visited the Harley and Corvette factories. Taken pictures of many, many lighthouses and chased down lots of covered bridges in Oregon, Ohio, and Indiana. We’ve seen, prairie dogs, coyotes, stupid sheep (oops that is stone sheep- they just don’t know how to get out of the road) deer, moose and bear.
I haven’t taken us down any bicycle paths or dead-end one way streets lately, but I have screwed up a few times. Like the time we turned off the main road in search of a covered bridge and I told The Driver to turn left and we drove and drove about 45 miles until we met a telephone line man. We asked him about the bridge, where in the world was it.
“Well,” he drawled, a broad smile on his face, “when you got off the main road, you should a turned right and gone under the highway. Its right there, Can’t miss it.”
We turned around and found the bridge with ease. I paid for that tank of gas.
We have met many kind and wonderful people. Some we are still in touch with. And a couple that weren’t so great - they were in the minority and quickly forgotten.
To do a trip like the one we are planning takes a lot of preparation. We hope to leave on our 2nd drive to South America, this fall (2006) about September/October after the hurricane season in Mexico. Well as you can tell we didn't make it then. As of now we are planning on leaving the end of March 2007.
What follows is some of the preparation we have finished or are in the process of doing.
I have added a page to this site with some updates of our lives in 2008. Many things have changed since I wrote this page originally. To visit our 2008 update click here. To continue reading about the preparation for and our travels in Mexico click on the "next page" button.
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