We wanted to get out of the bitter cold of Wisconsin for awhile. Why not? We have the means to do so. We also tried to make our escape work between two of the grandchildren’s birthdays. That meant to leave late in January and arrive back home in late March or early April. That also meant that we were traveling in cold weather and dodging snow both ways. We did plan and watch the weather carefully and luckily avoided driving in bad weather.
It just took two days of driving south to get into warm and wonderful weather. We had a great time in Hot Springs, Arkansas and all of Texas. We met with lots of friends and family in Texas and had a great time.
We moved on to New Mexico where we learned a big lesson on choosing campsites. If it’s too much trouble to get into the site, just leave. Even if the campground appears to be full with just that one site left, leave the campground! Never try to get into a site unless it’s easy. No second guessing.
Then we moved on to beautiful Tucson, where everyday was beautiful and we stayed in my cousin’s beautiful landscaped yard. It was fun sharing time and meals with them and exploring wonderful Tucson. Even after Opa got sick, it was nice to recover in a beautiful warm and sunny environment.
And then it was time to head towards home. Every day that we moved further north, it got colder. It even snowed a little. And now I’m sitting at home and it’s grey and cold outside. We have to come up with another plan to leave earlier, come home later and fly home for birthday parties. But what about the animals?
I am also at home (just returned from the dentist) on a chilly rainy afternoon, sitting in front of our electric heater. We have also decided to leave earlier next fall and return when the weather beckons us north. As you know from my posts, we have been accompanied by snow coming and going on this trip. My houseplants did not fare well with me being gone so long, so I am going to give all them to my daughters for safekeeping before we leave next fall. In the meantime I will populate the empty plant spaces in the house with the herbs that made the trip north with us; in the fall, the herbs will either be given away or travel with us. Harder to do that with animals. At least we don’t have to worry about that. We are already planning a few short local trips, i.e. northwest U.S. during the summer months.
Carol, we are planning to be northwest later in summer also. Maybe we can meet up someplace. The plants, yes, I gave most of them to my daughter and had a babysitter for the rest of them last last spring/summer. So the ones that were babysat came home, and only got one watering during our last two month trip. They survived that but I don’t know what I’ll do with them for the next long excursion. They’ll need a babysitter again if I can find one. The animals are a complication, one of the reasons we have this larger 5th wheel. We’ll see how things turn out.