7/2812 -- Another Step

 Each day we come a little closer to our big trip!

Today we loaded a lot of stuff into our camping trailer -- clothes, maps, tour books, hiking boots, and other odd bits.  We took a shopping cart full out, hung shirts and jackets in our two 8" wide closets, filled our little clothing bins, got the book box and battery/flashlight box in place.  The Scrabble game is in the game box.  We won't go shopping for food until we are on the road.  It felt more real, taking the piles that have dotted the living room and putting them in place in the trailer.  It's amazing how much a 17' travel trailer will hold.

We got our trailer in 1991, just one year after we got together.  It has practically become an antique.  We've talked about replacing it.  When we have looked, we haven't seen anything out there that we like as well.  It has two double bunk beds and we use the top one for storage.  That's our attic.  The top 18" pop up and are canvas with plastic windows all around.  This makes the trailer very light and airy.  I rebuilt the seating area a few years ago and made cafe-type seating with extra storage.  The 3-burner propane stove serves our cooking needs.  We have water whenever we run and fetch it.  It doesn't get any better than this!

In our apartment, more boxes got packed.  Two boxes have taken up permanent residence in the kitchen labeled: "To Washington" and "To the trailer for the trip." 

Our traveling companion and co-conspiritor, Drichab Anna, came over to help pack.  Then we all trucked out to REI for some last minute supplies.  Drichab Anna drove our car out there so she could get used to it before she tries it with trailer attached.  You need that time so your hands know where all the bells and whistles sit, where all the gears and gadgets are.   

I got a webbed strap to contain some pieces of scrap wood I carry camping.  Adina got shoelaces for her hiking boots and a plastic container for six eggs.  I got some heavy not-wool socks for my boots.  I don't know what the fabric content was -- thermo-something.  They are supposed to "let air circulate and wick sweat away."  Sounds good to me.  Drichab Anna got a self-inflating air mattress that will fit in the attic of our camper.  Most of the trip, she'll use a 3-person tent, but in Yellowstone, no tents are allowed and she'll sleep in the trailer with us.  Thut thar's bear country.

A 3-person tent fits two people and a little gear nicely if you are very friendly.  A 2-person tent fits two people if they areyounger than ten years old.  Drichab Anna's tent should be comfortable for her.  She'll have room for her stuff and still be able to roll over.  For all this luxury in camping, however, the tent's low ceiling won't let her stand up.  Only the open sky will allow that.

We picked up a gorgeous National Geographic Yellowstone Map, then drooled over it at dinner at Noodle's, checking out where all the best campsites are.  We like campsites that don't look like Somebody's RV Park full of 40' rigs.  Primitive camping makes us purr.  An electric hook-up is nice but not necessary.  Rustic is good. 

We have some pretty exciting stops to make before Yellowstone, though.  Every day will be a new adventure! 

It was much more satisfying than packing.  I don't think we were sluffing off, not really.  The REI run was important.  We had to be sure Noodle's was still there.  It all has to be done. 

We are in that limbo between hitting the road with our ducks lining the macadam and packing that first box, some weeks ago.  Sometimes we don't know what to do next because our "to do" list is still so long.  When you hit that in-between Never-Never Land, it's hard to know how to priortize. 

Several severe thunderstorms rolled through the past couple of days bringing the farmers and gardens much-needed rain.  Thunderstorms also tend to bring me migraines.  One of those deadly headaches stops me cold.  They make me feel as if I can't do my share.  I get a kind of buzzing pressure behind my temple and on the right side of my head -- a sure sign that barometric pressures are swinging wildly.  A friend of mine who also had a head injury says she experiences the same thing.

Adina says she'll never again need a barometer.  All she has to do is watch my reactions.  Gosh, thanks.

So it goes.  Next week is doctor week.  I think we have appointments with one doc or another nearly every day.  I'll spare you the gory details of that.  Friday, the car goes to Dr. Bret for a check-up.  It will be our last complete week here.  Some friends want to get together and we have another party.  Then it will be our last Sunday at the church we attended here and a brat fry after worship.   

We're excited about the trip and sad about leaving friends.  We pull out the morning of August 9th and head west.  Can it really be coming that quickly?

7/24/12 -- A Party and Preparation for Moving

The hardest part of leaving a place you have lived for a number of years is saying good-bye to the friends who have become part of your life.  It seems like we keep doing it over and over again.  You don't realize how many friends you have until it's time to say good-bye to all of them.  It won't do to miss anyone.

Pilgrim Christian Church

A Great Farewell Party

Last Saturday, some of the folks from Pilgrim Christian Church gathered to wish us well in our travels and in our new life.  PCC is the church where I was pastor for five or six years.  What a delight to see those dear people once more. 


An unexpected treat was to meet a couple of very special young women.  They are beautiful, grown up from the gangly children I knew.  They live well, free to question and seek out new possibilites for themselves. 

Nora and Sophie
with their parents and us

They announced to the group that their parents were not to blame for how they turned out -- I was, in my teaching and in the baptism class they attended for a year before I baptized them. 

I was pleased to take the blame, although I do think that their parents and the church community also contributed.  I am very proud of them both.

After I got hurt in 2004, I eventually had to resign pastoring that church.  I missed it terribly.  About the same time, I found the courage to go on FaceBook.  My motivation for opening my life to FB was to keep in better touch with my son and granddaughter. 

What surprised me was that within 24 hours, every one of the kids in those baptism classes found me and friended me.  I don't know how they found out I was on FB.  I was so pleased.  All the children that I baptized were special. I wish I could have seen each one and heard the story of their adventures.

The gathering was supposed to last from 3-8pm.  We left at nearly midnight.  People didn't want to quit talking, and neither did I.  Some folks wanted to come to the event and were not able to attend.  Please know that you -- all of you -- were missed. 

Some of the families posed with us for pictures.  Those are treasures to take with us.  It was great!  Special thanks to Gladys who hosted the event

When you have lived intimately with a congregation like that for several years, some part of them never leaves you.  My years with them, the time with them Saturday night felt like a very precious gift. 

Thank you, PCC, for those wonderful years.

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As for the present, we are packing.  And packing.  I am amazed at how much we have that has to go into boxes.  Big boxes and little boxes, odd-shaped boxes and square boxes.  We are creating a mountain of them in our extra bedroom.  

Maybe my nightmare is wrong.  I have a vision of the moving van guys hauling stuff out the door while we cram stuff into just one more box.  I don't think that's really going to happen.  It's looking good. I think we are going to make it.

So we are packing boxes to go on the van, but we're also organizing stuff to go in the trailer.  I know how to pack for a two or three week trip.  How do you pack for this kind of trip, "we'll get there when we get there?" 

We figure on washing clothes every 5-6 days, so that cuts down some on what we're taking.  Still, we have to take meds for 2-3 months.  Seems like it goes on and on.

If we were just going to full-time it for a few months it would be easy.  As it is, not knowing how long we're going to live on the road, planning is more problematic.  Of course, we have to take the toys we can't live without (laptop, tablet, small game system for me and, of course, a Scrabble board).  

We also have to take things along that we don't want to send on the van -- important files, stuff like that.  We have to be able to pay bills along the way.  Right now we're just making piles. None of that stuff gets packed until the last minute.

Our travel trailer, waiting to be packed

There sure are a lot of things to think about.

The trailer is ready to go, after  a couple of days at the trailer-hospital at "Camping World" in Madison WI, 75 miles west of home.  Next week, the car will get a once over and health maintainence check.  If we have problems with our rig on the road, it won't be for lack of preparation.

I wonder what we are going to forget... 

It's getting close now.  I can't believe we're really going to get to take this trip.  The three of us get along well, and I know we're going to have a great time!

I'm so glad you're along for the ride!

July 21, 2012 -- The Adventure Begins

A week of camping is easy to plan.  Even a couple of weeks are not too much of a challenge.  This trip the biggest trek we have ever considered.  It is both daunting and exciting.

Our journey begins in a suburb of Milwaukee WI called Wauwatosa.  That name means "flash, flash firefly" in the Native language.  It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan, or nearly so.  The city of Milwaukee is on the lakeshore.  Wauwatosa sits on the skirts of Milwaukee.  At a population of 46,629, Wauwatosa is a city in itself more than a suburb.  We have lived here for eleven years.

Now Adina and Carole (me) are moving out west, all the way to Washington State (on the west coast, not the Washington of politics, government and international relations).  We lived in the west for most of our adult lives.  In a way, we are going home.  Yet, Wisconsin has become home, too.  We are surrounded with friends here.  We have Wisconsin roots.  If we are going home to Washington state, we are also leaving home here.  It is a strange feeling to stretch ourselves 2000+ miles between one set of roots and another.

We're sending our furniture, boxes and bits on a moving van.  It will arrive in our new home long before we do.  The van will make the trip in a week or so.  We already have a place out there.  Beginning our new life in Vancouver WA will be an adventure. 

We went out there for a couple of weeks in May and found a place to live.  Our family lives in the Portland area, just across the Columbia River, that mighty stream that separates Washington and Oregon.  "Roll On, Columbia, Roll On."  We used to sing that song as we wandered the state, hiked in its mountains and watched the salmon run up fish ladders or whales frolic in coastal waters.  We have family in Seattle and Spokane too.  Our friends dot the state like polkadots.  Even though we have been gone for these eleven years, our roots are still deep out there.

So we are moving to Vancouver Wa.  We found a church and met some great folks.  Otherwise, our only knowledge of Vancouver has been to drive through it at breakneck speed on the freeway on our way to Portland or points south.  It will be a new life for us -- an adventure.  Who knows what doors will open for us? 

Seven days on the road and our furniture will move into our new digs.  Our granddaughter will meet the van and tell the movers where to put the furniture.  Bless her for that!   

Our own journey will be different.

In two and a half weeks, we'll hitch our 17' travel trailer to our Ford Explorer, load up a supply of food, clothes and electronic toys and head out.  That's going to be our home on wheels for our trip west -- mobile roots.   

Because of my limitations, I can't drive more than 3-4 hours each day.  Our friend,
Anna Drichab, is coming with us for the first few weeks to help with the driving so that will extend our range a bit.  This isn't a trip where you get in the car in the morning and drive until you drop at the end of the day.  We intend to wander and explore as we live on the road for the next couple of months.  We'll get there when we get there.  We're retired.  Why not?  This is more than a road-trip.  It's an adventure on the way to an adventure.

Right now, we're living in a maze of boxes.  Yesterday I got a mess of boxes from Pik-'n-Save, our local grocery.  I expect we'll fill them all.  We've gotten rid of a couple of desks.  We've sold our table and chairs and our lazy-boy recliner, though the buyers aren't going to pick them up until closer to when we leave.  We leave on August 9th.  The days are rolling by quickly.  I expect we'll get everything done, but right now I'm not sure how.  One day at a time, that's the ticket.

We've got our maps and tourbooks from AAA and the Mapstore.  We look at them, 

Vancouver‎, ‎WA‎‎

medical school‎ ‎Vancouver‎, ‎WA‎‎

hospitals‎ ‎Vancouver‎, ‎WA‎‎

Washington State University Vancouver‎, ‎Vancouver‎, ‎WA‎‎

Vancouver Door Company Inc.‎, ‎5th Street Northwest‎, ‎Puyallup‎, ‎WA‎‎

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plan and dream.  Our big adventure has already started. 

Come and journey with us.  Who knows what we'll find along the way?
Welcome aboard!