April 9-30: Getting Ready To Roll

April 30, 2013

Cederholm Compound, Peoria, AZ

Yes, the “Cederholm Compound” exists, if only on Foursquare so we can check in. And yes, we’re about to “blow this clambake”, as we used to say back in the day.

Our travel route for the next few weeks is set, the coach is loaded and fueled up, Geri has her dental work completed, and the house is about as stabilized as it’s going to get. We’ve put all the yard stuff away, the bikes are stored upside down (prevents damage to the tires over the summer), and everything’s locked up or down, depending. I’ve drained the hot water heater (we have hot water in the coach if needed) and applied sunscreens to key windows and plastic wrap to the loo bowls (amazingly, there is always still water in there when we get back in the fall).

We used to say “and not a moment too soon” in years past, but we have been here just long enough to feel a lick of the fire they call “summer” in these parts. It’s actually been a pretty temperate month, or at least it was up until last Friday.

Temperatures zoomed up into and through the 90s and the past three days have been at or over 100°F. Yep, just in time for our final loading and preparation. Fortunately, we were ready and did our outside activities early in the day or after dark.

I washed the Rover the other night around 8:30 PM, walking that fine line between having it cool off and starting complaints from the neighbors who retire at dusk.

In other news, we’re still worried about Maya Lynn, as her tumor hasn’t responded well to the oral chemotherapy. We visited the oncologist mid-month and they changed the medication, but we’re not sure what’s going on. We have an appointment with a clinic in Connecticut in mid-May, so we’ll be able to have her blood tested and see if there has been any “shrinkage”. Fortunately, she continues to tolerate the medication well with no discernable side effects.

And, spending extra time to get ready for travel hasn’t kept us from eating well and managing the wine box contents. Our neighbors, Robert and Christine, invited us over for a traditional “Family Style” meal, Boulli Québécois, which was awesome. We will definitely try our own take on this one when we’re visiting friends and family.

The next 9-10 travel days are the part of this whole year’s adventure that we’re approaching with a little trepidation. As we’ve gotten more comfortable with our travels, we’ve grown less interested in having to be somewhere at a specific time, especially if there’s some distance involved. This summer was shaping up to be a leisurely cross-country trip until our departure was delayed. But, we’ll persevere!

It looks like the best route for us to take is one we’ve used before: north out of Phoenix to Flagstaff, then east on I-40 all the way to Memphis. We’ll make a detour to visit friends and family in Alabama for a few days (we wanted to stay longer), so we’ll take US-78 (which could now be I-22 according to some maps) to Birmingham.

Departing Alabama, we’ll head northeast on I-59, take I-24 around Chattanooga, and pick up I-75 back to I-40, then I-81 all the way to the Northeast. We’ll shift to I-84 from Scranton to Hartford, then I-91 north. We should be in Alabama May 4-7 and get to Connecticut on May 9^th.

After that? We’ll be back to “normal”, figuring it out as we go…

And finally, we’re remembering Mom, who would have been 87 this week…