Riding the Ferries of Washington State

We love riding the ferry system of Washington State.  On the expensive side for our budget, but you do what you have to do.  This ride took us over to Kingston, WA and we headed south to the Naval Undersea Museum.  All about naval operations with submarines and diving expeditions.  A great free thing to do. 

Westward Ho!

We spent 2 nights in Polson, MT and had much cooler temps.  Drove around the entire Flathead Lake.  It was beautiful.  Today we drove to Couer d'Alene, ID and will move on west tomorrow morning.  Our reservations are for July 6 in Everett, WA for 3 weeks.  Today's journey was beautiful.  I love Montana.

Flexibility

We are nothing, if not flexible.  Just roll with the punches.

Last week the air conditioner on our new Airstream went out.  We spent two nights in hotels until the new unit could be delivered and installed.  Thanks to Dillion RV in Mesa, AZ.  Great bunch of people to deal with.  It is hot here.  We've seen our first sand storm roll through.  Fortunately it wasn't too bad.  Collin called to give us a headsup so we could be inside and check the windows on the truck were closed tight.  We've been on the water several times.  Its cooler.  Walk 50 feet from the water and your back in the heat. 

Another speed bump this week, but we're recovering and anxiously awaiting Collin and Yana's house closing next week. 

God willing and the creek don't rise, we'll be out of here next Saturday or Sunday, on our way to Washington and cooler temps.

Lake Pleasant, AZ

Maybe I should call this blog Zodiac and Stream.  On second thought - no.  This is not a great picture, but you can almost make out the marina at Lake Pleasant where we are camped.  We put our Zodiac in the water this morning and rode around, had lunch at the marina, and came back to the Airstream for the rest of the day.  Hot is hot, but not too bad when you're on the water. 

Planning on dinner with Collin and Yana tomorrow.  A little cook out after the sun goes down.

Fast and Furious

Since last we spoke, here is what's happened:  We moved out of our hangar/house and into the Airstream.  We moved most our worldly possessions into a storage facility.  We moved the Airstream to the Vineyards Campground at Lake Grapevine.  Saturday we had family over to the Vineyards for a little cookout.  Burgers, Dogs and Brauts.  John and Kerry and Grandson Hunter, Geremy and Tiffany with daughters Lola and Delia, and Jana and Tom.  It was soooo good to have everyone together.  Today we attended the 114th Aero Squadron's annual Float Fly for RC airplanes.  Geremy and Gerry had two planes ready to fly, but only one made it off the water.  It was a glorious event!  Lots of rc airplanes flying and a few casualties.  Monday morning we leave for Scottsdale to see Collin and Yana.  We expect to be there by Wednesday evening and spend a few days before heading north to cooler locales.

Is this Retirement?

We supposedly "retired" two weeks ago, but this is not what I thought it would be like.  We have worked everyday getting ready to full-time in the Airstream.  We've given away a great number of items.  We've thrown away a lot - and I mean bags and bags of trash.  We are storing the things that we want to keep (at least for now) and will revisit them in the fall to see if there is more that can go live somewhere else.

As Wednesday approaches, we are making progress.  Tomorrow we will visit Gerry's mom's gravesite and replace the flowers, make one more pass through the grocery store, as well as pick up two more boxes and packing tape.  The furniture goes to storage on Tuesday and we hand over the keys to our home for the past eighteen years to someone else on Wednesday morning. 

Just One More Day

We are less than 24 hours away from being homeless and unemployed.  We've worked for years.  We had dreams and we made plans.  Now its time to live our dreams and make new plans. 

Even though our last work day is tomorrow, there are more days ahead of us to finish clearing out our house, packing up our memories and moving into the Airstream.  The one thing that surprises me is all the address changes that must be made.  Just when we think we have contacted everyone, another pops up and we scurry to get that changed.  Surely we must be getting close to the end. 

We will miss our family and friends.  They will be in our thoughts everyday.