Summer Travel Map

Friday, March 26, 2010

Time to turn our attention...

March 26, 2010
Peoria, AZ

...to summer! As usual, time has flown by and, with all the things we tackled around the "stick house" this winter, the list of things to do around the coach has only grown. I've started to organize and tackle those, as well as start some general planning for travel routes and stops.

Of course, I still have one key item to complete at the house: fix the counter under the sink. I ordered and picked up the Formica (closest match we could find), and have the underlayment ready. Over the next few days, I'll laminate a new piece of countertop and cut the opening to size for the new sink. Then, we'll schedule a day to remove the sink, fit the new piece of countertop, and replace the sink. That's the part I'm not looking forward to, given the weight of the sink, but it'll be good to finally have this one "done".

Wednesday, I spent most of the day at the coach, knocking off a variety of "small stuff" on the to-do list. I've got one more afternoon of that kind of stuff (cleaning air conditioning filters, straightening up small wood trim pieces that have worked loose, fixing a window valence that's loose) and a couple of sessions of more complicated stuff (generator oil and filter service, chassis lubrication, cleaning and lubricating the entry steps and slide locks), so we should have plenty of time before we leave for the summer.

Preliminary trip routing has us hitting the road around April 15th, heading west to California to visit Geri's sister and pick up some wine. We'll start back east about a week later, making an overnight stop here at the "stick house" to put some of the wine in the "wine box" before continuing east toward Alabama at some time in May. We may make a few stops along the way (haven't really visited San Antonio, might stop in New Orleans, wouldn't mind checking out the Gulf Coast in Alabama before heading north). We'll see - my new "don't need a detailed plan" travel style will get a bit of a test.

After Alabama, we're not sure which direction we'll head. One school of thought has us making a "short loop" back to AZ with a stop in South Dakota for Geri's driver's license renewal. Another "traditional" option would take us back to the Northeast for visits with friends and family. We just head that one of Geri's nieces will be moving to the Boston area, and Geri's still waiting for that birthday/anniversary lobster dinner, so that route may be our choice. Or, we might come up with a completely different idea!

In other news, we got the results of Geri's last kidney MRI yesterday and everything is clear. This was especially good news as we now move to a 6-month follow-up schedule for the next couple of years. It seems that many of our friends are facing cancer or the threat thereof these days - very scary. We wish everyone affected all the best...

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