Red Dirt, Pine Trees, and long flat A's

Howdy Folks,

Yep, you might have guessed our first stop is the piney woods of deep East Texas. We are about 15 miles north of a little town named Jasper, or Jaaaasper if you are from around these parts. Yes your memory is serving you correctly that this was the town that created a national stir when three white men did what I cannot even imagine or write down on this blog to a black man. That was not one of the town's best moments.

However, in the midst of all that there are some fine, friendly folks, that live here and just happen to be my relatives. I thought Ms Charlotte ought to meet my mother's side of the family, also known as the Mustian Clan. They ended up in these parts after getting off the boat from France in New Orleans over 150 years ago. They were indeed French gypsies that lived off the land and also rounded up wild horses and trained them to be ridden. So west Texas was a perfect place for them to settle down, near the town of Winters which is about three beers south of Abilene and four north of San Angelo. They eventually spread out from New Mexico to Jasper over the years.

I knew we had arrived in this part of Texas when we were running along a dirt road this morning and a fellow stepped off the porch of his double wide to inform us his beagle dog was prone to Yapping, which is East Texas speak for barking and when we offered to take the dog off his hands he replied "you'd be brangin' im real shortl.  He's a pistol. Nor sure exactly what that means down here, but I didn't ask.

When you leave the friendly confines of Interstate 30 just outside of Texarkana, Ark/Tex you begin to notice quickly the changing topography. The hills get a little flatter, the dirt is the color of Tang, and they sell Frio Beer at the Beer Bait and BarBQ store. And the speed limit is 75 MPH on state roads!

It will take us a few weeks of setting up and taking down the camper when we stop at parks to regain the rhythm we had developed last summer on the road. But it will come back to us as we meander our way across the lower part of Texas over the next few weeks.

It is my intention to describe our travels in a way that creates more inspiration than envy as you read.
Just keep asking yourself, "what is keeping me back from doing exactly what you really want to do?"
C'mon, get off the couch and get out there in the world and see what is waiting for you to discover about yourself.

Life is either a grand adventure or nothing at all. You get to choose.

Fair Winds,

Capt Coy, Ms Charlotte, and JoJo the pretty good dog.

It's about Time

Dateline January 29, 2014

It’s about time.

Today while sitting at a funeral it dawned on me that over the past six months I have not blogged. Several people attending the event mentioned enjoying my blogs and I started thinking about why I stopped blogging last fall.

It all boils down to one thing: an ipad. Yes, and ipad. I realized that since acquiring this addictive little piece of equipment, my writing has dropped off the map, or chart if you’re on a boat, but I am not at this moment, so let’s just stick with map.

ipads are wonderful little tools of distraction. They keep me occupied hours of the day checking my “status on Facebook” and discovering what hour of the day will be the warmest so I can ponder going for a walk or hike or run. Notice the word ponder, which means to contemplate an action, or to weigh in the mind with thoroughness and care. To deliberate on a idea or action.

So I have been pondering whether to start blogging again and after a bit of cogitation I have decided to resume my ramblings as to my life and my thoughts about such things.

Life has certainly been interesting and fun for us over the past few months. We returned to Arkansas and put our beloved camper, Andiamo, in storage for the time being. After being back in the house a few weeks we both realized we liked living in our camper more than the house, so we are selling the house and heading out on the open road on a full time basis until we find “the place”. Should be fun. And just a little scary.

Our current plan is to leave Arkansas in Mid February and start heading west to see what is out there. Some of the places we plan on visiting include Jasper, Austin, and Marfa, Texas as well as spending a week in the Big Bend National Park.

Then we will mosey on West to the Southeastern parts of Arizona before landing in the Tucson area for six weeks or so. Then maybe back up into Colorado before heading back down to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks in May with friends.

We have discussed driving up to Alaska this summer and may still do that as well.  We are both itching to start fly fishing again, so I know a big part of our summer will be on rivers in the western US chasing trout with a stick and a string with feathers tied to the end of it.

We have decided to slow down from now on in terms of staying places longer. We logged just at 10,000 miles in less than 5 months last summer and are ready to spend more time in less places this summer. Hopefully that will allow us to get involved with service projects in some of these towns along the way or find ways to help some folks less fortunate than we are. We shall see what pops up on the radar of life.

We did spend two weeks in Colorado in December with friends and kids and grand kids, which was great fun. Then after Christmas we ventured down to the Virgin Islands and sailed for two weeks with friends. Charlotte has shared some of our pics and we hope you enjoyed them.

We are both missing our kids, so I am sure we will be spending time in both Colorado and Ohio this spring.

It feels good to be typing once again and sharing our adventures with you. We do hope you are entertained but more so inspired by all the stuff we are up to these days.

Remember that this is the only trip you have, so make it a good one. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re too old or too fragile or too poor or too whatever to get out there and live your one wonderful life. You never see a hearse pulling a U-haul trailer.

Until next time, always remember one thing ……

Chapstick