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