From The Cowboy State




Companion Paula, Stepson Kyle, wife Vicky (on bench)
Grandsons Alex (4), John (2), and James (7) (on curb)
Watching the Lander 4th of July Parade

 

July 11th

Friends,
Hello from the Cowboy State.  July brought us to the Sleeping Bear RV Campground in Lander, Wyoming.  The 4th of July celebration here was huge, with a pancake breakfast, a morning parade, a buffalo barbeque at the city park, and a totally uncontrolled evening fireworks that issued from nearly every other lawn and street in the city, in addition to Main Street and the Rodeo grounds.  If there was any small city that could be magically transmitted to Vermont, it would this one.  The people here are very outdoor-oriented, and sidewalks line nearly all of the streets in town making it very walkable.  The core of Main Street is about 8 blocks long and very vital.



Lander, Wyoming Senior Center

 There is also a very nice Senior Center here, which Paula (my companion) and I have visited on two occasions thus far.  Besides eating a pancake breakfast here on the 4th of July, we also helped prepare and deliver the local Meals-on-Wheels lunches earlier today.  They served about 120 meals today...half delivered and half at the Center (picture of their dining area at the right).

We plan on taking a 2-day motorcycle ride through the Grand Tetons and the southern edge of Yellowstone Nat'l Park next week, before packing up on July 20 and slowly heading to Reno, Nevada, our next destination.  While the normal weather pattern here in central Wyoming has been sunny and hot during the day (low 90's), and cool at night (high 50's), it has been cloudy with light showers for most of today (July 11th).  Hope you are all well!  I'll leave another message from Reno in August! 
Tim
 

First Stop - Minnesota

Hello friends,

It has been nearly a week since I arrived at a KOA campground on the outskirts of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Paula, my companion and navigator, has been great to date.  Despite her greater reliance upon GPS, cell phones, and i-pads, I have persevered and actually found most of our destination points!  :-)

Visiting my friends, Michael and Mary, here in Minneapolis has been a whirlwind to date, both actually and figuratively.  We have bicycled a good deal of a residential lake-filled district, as well as attended an evening mystery play performance entitled "The Red Box", at a theatre in St. Paul.  On Sunday morning we attended services at the Lyndale United Church of Christ, whose congregation meets in a large building which holds 2 other area congregations (Lutherans, and another Christian church).

Both occasions over this past weekend, when I have been a passenger on Paula's Harley, the prairie winds were very oppressive.  Feeling sorry for us (me), my friend Michael loaned us an old fan (with a "For Sale" sign in the back) to use for our short trips between our campground and his house, which is actually about 20 miles.  During this next week, we are planning on staying with Michael and Mary, and parking the motorhome at a neighbor's house a few blocks away. 

I don't have time or space to tell you about 1) the mermaid we've seen and to whom we've spoken; 2) the Smores' Song we've written; or 3) what Minnehaha really means.  You just have to have an adventure of your own.



Nearing Departure Day

It is May 30, and the tentative departure date of June 4 is fast approaching.  After nearly a month of waiting for a service opportunity at the local RV dealer, Pete's RV, "Lando" (as the motorhome is now fondly called) entered their service bays yesterday morning for a state inspection and all-around maintenance checks.  As I have been attempting to move my possessions out of my current apartment at the Pines, fewer and fewer furniture items remain to plop into at the end of a long day.  I was supposed to go through a final checkout today with the new Pines Manager, Karen, but she felt pity and allowed me to move out of the apartment tomorrow (Saturday) and turn my keys in to her on Monday.

Paula, my officially-announced companian/navigator for this journey, and I have both been extremely busy trying to move out of our respective abodes, clean up, hold a garage sale, tend to last minute doctors' appointments, implement space sharing and storage allocation in Lando, and get dozens of pre-departure issues taken care of (WARNING: You will note a lot of hanging prepositions in my posts!).  My friends here at the Pines had a party for me on Wednesday afternoon, and Paula's friends invited us to a get-together at UNO's that same evening.  Andy and Maggie Holt, good friends from Faith UMC, had me over last evening for a scrumptuous meal of grouse and woodcock (I made them eat late because I umpired a 3-hour long girls softball game at Rice Memorial High School just prior!)  On Saturday evening, another BFF Carla and Maggie, and more Faith UMC friends have a cookout planned at Oakledge Park on the edge of Lake Champlain.

I've stuffed much inspirational and sci-fi reading material into Lando during the past couple of weeks, so I hope he is up to the task of hauling everything across the country.  Our first primary stop after nearly a week of travel and short camping stops will be in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where good friends Michael and Mary live.  Michael is a former housemate and coworker of mine while the two of us worked in Arlington, VA for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2001.  When Paula and I first arrive in the Twin Cities area, we plan to stay at a KOA southwest of Minneapolis for one week, then stay with Michael and Mary at their lovely old home nearer downtown during the second week.  They will be celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary while we are there, so I hope to treat them to something special like a bratwurst with a candle in it! Somewhere around the end of our stay in Minnesota, I will post again.  Take care.

Much love!
Tim

April 16th Planning Update

It is April 16, and tomorrow my brother Terry and I will be picking up my new/used 34 ft motorhome at an RV dealership here in Martin County, Florida. A few days later, we plan to drive north to Vermont, where I will have it serviced one last time before beginning my sojourn on June 4.  While we will not be "camping" on our 5-day journey north, we do plan to spend a couple of those nights in Walmart parking lots or FlyingJ/Pilot Travel Centers to experience how that feels.  We hope to log about 300 miles per day, which is what rv experts say is a safe mileage to plan for, and drive primarily between the hours of 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.  

During the past few weeks I have been involved in a personal frenzy of online planning of routes, "free" overnight parking options, locating private and public campgrounds and their amenities and costs, etc.  One thing that I have noted, much to my chagrin, is that rv parks in popular destinations are often filled up 3 to 11 months in advance.  For example, all of the state park campgrounds in the Florida Keys are already totally reserved for January and February 2015!  

During the month of May, much trip planning remains, including: vacating my apartment and placing household items (not on my small rv packing list) in storage or for sale; registering and obtaining VT license plates for the motorhome; securing all of the hoses, cords, adapters, attachments, and supplies to outfit the motorhome; notifying parties of my new mailing address, and making sure that all of my bills are paid online; and establishing a secure place to keep the motorhome until the June departure date.

Can't wait to hit the road, but much remains to be done before June 4!  

It is the day after a big 12-inch snowstorm here in Vermont, and I am in the midst of making preparations for my 12-month motorhome adventure which is to begin in early June.  I met with my home and car insurance agent yesterday to discuss the details of my adventure in regard to my car, my used motorhome (yet to be bought), and my belongings...some of which I will take with me in my motorhome, but most of which I will leave behind in storage (furniture, winter clothes, snow ski and garden equipment, etc.)