2018 Year in Review

2018 began in Florida visiting Barbara’s family and volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

Then back home Bill volunteered with our local Habitat for Humanity, Barbara letterboxed and volunteered with Community Bible Study, and we both delved into projects and tried to get involved with a new church.

We planned a June trip to Newfoundland, but on the morning of April 5th…

The picture says it all. So with the exception of a trip to Ohio to see Bill's family, we spent the summer in Massachusetts exploring our new area and making plans to replace our trailer. We picked up a new trailer in the fall in British Columbia combining it with Barbara’s Community Bible Study training in Colorado and touring the Pacific Coast.

North Cascades, Crater Lake, Oregon Coast, Redwoods, Colorado Springs

Kate, Carrie and Tina (their dog) share an apartment in Boston. Kate transitioned to a tech job, working for Toast – a restaurant software company. She traveled out west several times, bikes to work, and learned to surf. Carrie continues at the economics consulting firm – Cornerstone Research. She traveled domestically and abroad including Cuba, Italy and Spain and returns to Uganda in January. Here they are with Bill and boyfriends.

One time when Bill was hiking ahead of Barbara he left a stick message for Barbara along the trail. So then we left messages for each other when we had the opportunity.

 In that spirit we leave a stick message for you.

 

Pacific Trip Summary

We started with two dates on the calendar: picking up our new trailer in British Columbia and Barbara’s Community Bible Study training in Colorado Springs. Then we built our trip around these, coming up with this route.

The cool thing about this plan is that it covered the rest of the Pacific coast. (We already did the Pacific Northwest in 2014.)  And we got to see some things on our wish-to-see list – like Crater Lake National Park,

the southern Oregon coast,

the redwoods,

the California coast,

and Joshua Tree National Park.

In addition, we tried to squeeze in fun things on the way there and back.

Yep! We drove quite a few miles – 9281 miles, to be exact. Some miles looked like this.

image from the web

We saw the sign above at 5am in the dark in Twentynine Palms CA.

Other miles looked like this.

We primarily hiked, but did so many other activities including visiting with special people in our lives.

It was great to pick up a new trailer – our home away from home – our vacation home 

     by the ocean, 

     in the forest, 

     in the mountains, 

     at National Parks, 

     near family & friends…

Thanks for following us along on our journey. 😊

NM, CO, KS, OH – Friends & Family

We visited friends and family along the way home. Wish we could have even squeezed in longer visits and a few other people, but we hope to return.

Bill’s cousins (on his Mom’s side), Darcy and Melissa, warmly welcomed us to Albuquerque, New Mexico. They invited us to park our trailer right in their driveway and to share in a delicious meal. It was great to spend some time with them.

Then in Denver we visited Bill’s cousin (on his Dad’s side), Shari. It was great to meet her daughter Becky’s family and connect. They took us out to a cool restaurant in a former church. We had the choir loft to ourselves.

The waitress took our order on a tablet. It was the first time we saw a restaurant that uses Toast - a management platform for restaurants and the company where our daughter, Kate, now works.

We only had several days to get from Barbara’s training in Colorado to a different training in Massachusetts, but managed to fit in a few more visits.

In Kansas City we saw Malcolm and Mary Ann. It’s always great to see these friends that go back to Bill’s Vanderbilt days.

We had an ultra quick visit with Bill’s parents and sister in Dayton, but Bill managed to set up their computer for remote access.

We were glad to be neighbors (although for less than 24 hours) with our friends Tom & Karen. They are fulltime RVers who volunteer in the National Parks often doing living history. Here they are at their home in 2018 period dress.

And we saw Bill’s brother and wife conveniently in the same town near Columbus where Tom & Karen were camping. It was a whirlwind trip, but good to catch up with friends & family.

Colorado – Colorado Springs

After Joshua Tree National Park we headed west to Albuquerque and then north to Colorado Springs. Our campsite on the side of Cheyenne Mountain looked down on Colorado Springs…

and looked up at the old NORAD bunker and the top of Cheyenne Mountain.

We were in Colorado Springs for Barbara to attend training for a new position with Community Bible Study. Before training, we visited Garden of the Gods. The forecast looked great, so we were surprised to find this when we arrived.

We caught a snow squall just as we arrived at the visitor center. With diminished visibility outside, we dawdled inside.

Lucky for us, it stopped snowing just as we started to walk around the rock formations.

And then it cleared up.

Then Barbara spent several days at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort where she attended Community Bible Study Training. Here are the women who trained with Barbara from the Northeast Region.

The hotel had a nice view of Cheyenne Mountain. Bill and the trailer were on the left side of the mountain. Bill hiked in the state park while Barbara attended the training.

California – Joshua Tree

Our last stop in California was Joshua Tree National Park – a park that preserves and highlights desert ecosystems. Bill reserved a campsite in the heart of the park at Jumbo Rocks.

We explored the park on several short hiking trails and saw LOTS of Joshua Trees. (It isn’t really a tree, but that’s what they are called).

Our first trail took us to a great viewpoint.

As it was Halloween it only seemed appropriate to stop at these places.

Here’s Skull Rock.

We saw petroglyphs.

We got an expansive 360-degree view at Keys View (5185 ft) where it was so windy we couldn’t stand straight and had to hold glasses on.

We drove a ways through barren land – no greenery, no Joshua trees, no trees at all - then all the sudden came upon lots of Cholla Cactus. We walked the short trail through the Cholla Cactus Garden.

It was interesting and fun to explore this environment that is very different from our area.

This ends the sightseeing part of our trip, but we still have visits with friends and family, Community Bible Study Training, and a long drive home.

Hard to believe, but this is our 200th post. Thanks for following us along on some or all of our adventures. :-)

California – Big Sur to Morro Bay

The beginning of our drive from Big Sur to Morro Bay still had windy coastal roads and lots of scenic vistas.

He might be hard to see, but Bill is perched on the center of the closer rocks in the picture. He hiked down and then scrambled up some rocks to get there.

At San Simeon the road leveled out. We saw a parking area with lots of cars and saw another Escape 19 pull in. We decided to check it out – hoping for room for 2 trailers. We met the other Escape owners – a couple from Vancouver with a 2012 Escape 19 who gave us some tips on Joshua Tree National Park. The parking lot was for Elephant Seal Vista Point with a beach full of seals. Here’s a cute one.

Barbara had a letterboxing series that she wanted to find that was along our route. She liked this particular clever hide in a carved out wood block identical to a block supporting a board edging the trail.

We camped at Morro Bay State Park where the most striking feature of the area is Morro Rock a 576-foot high volcanic plug.

It originally was surrounded by water, but when they dredged the harbor they built a causeway - now one can drive out to it and walk partway around the rock. We walked around Morro Rock, watched waves crashing over the breakwater, spotted otters playing, and walked the beach.

It was really hard to get good pictures of the otters, but they were fun to watch.

Then we said good-bye to the Pacific.