Less than a week to go

It is hard to believe that we have less than a week to go before we leave. We have filed our taxes, we have gotten both Hank and Fanny serviced, Bob and I have gone to the doctor and gotten our prescriptions renewed and our bodies checked. (The really good news is that Bob has a clean bill of health. In fact the doc said that he had not seen Bob in such good shape since he started seeing him 20 years ago. I am sure that is all due to the exercising that he is doing at my insistence.) We have stocked all of the nonperishable food and found a place for it. I have taken all of the clothes and determined that we have room for everything. I have purchased a data thingy (highly technical term for being able to access the Internet on the road) and have installed it and determined that it works. We have verified that our prescription insurance will allow us to fill enough for 90 days so that we don't have to stop so often. We have gathered books, audio books, and (thanks to Libbi) some DVDs of TV shows. We still have a running to do list and the things on it now are things like "cancel Oregonian", "buy printer paper", "select wines to take." Periodically we think of something like we will not have a pencil sharpener, so we go and buy a pencil sharpener and stow it. We are almost ready.

I spent some time remembering how to download pictures on to the computer. I was even able to download a movie (of grandson of course) and post it on Facebook. I spent some time working with my MP3 player so that I could download pod casts. (I love NPR and have downloaded a list of every NPR station in the US, but I know that there will be some places where I cannot get NPR, so I will have some downloads ready to go.) I could download just fine, but it took my daughter to tell me where to find them. Thanks Stef.

We have had at least one interesting surprise. I have lost 17 pounds so far - only 5 pounds to go to my goal. That is not a surprise because I have been working pretty hard at doing that. The surprise is that although Bob has been eating pretty good including seconds on dinner and dessert every night he is also losing weight. (Must be the exercise - am I sounding a little repetitive here?) Yesterday he was amazed that he had lost 10 pounds - but even more amazed that his jeans and his underwear are now too big. So we went to Penney's today and bought some more underwear. (He can wear a belt on his jeans and we can find a place to buy smaller jeans if we need to do so.)

Also, because we will be spending a lot of time in the south, I figure we will see a lot of Civil War sites. I did learn about the Civil War in school (it seems like over and over again) but I remembered very little. So I bought a very large book (1000 pages) that is the history of the Civil War, including the politics at the time. (That could be the subject of an entire separate blog - politics during the Civil War period I mean). But I have now finished all 1000 pages and at least will have some sense of what I am looking at when I get to South Carolina or Virginia- like what is the significance of Antietam?

Scott will be staying in our house. He has moved some of his stuff in already - lots of plants in a house that does not get really good sunlight, but we found places for them. He came on Wednesday with his mom - who seems really nice. He will move in on Monday so that we have a few days with him to show him where everything is. It is amazing how many things I am thinking I have to tell him - like the disposal is pretty touchy, please don't scour my good frying pan, the shower works best if you have a low water pressure, don't use harsh detergents in my washing machine. I know he will do fine.

The weather looks like it is going to be cooperative - as much as it can be in February in Oregon. We are planning on leaving about 8:30 or 9 am in order to be across the Siskyou mountain summit by early afternoon. Actually, that is how we decided when we would leave. We calculated how far (300 miles) and average speed of 50 mph and figured that we wanted to be over the pass at about 2 or 3 pm. So, we settled on leaving at 8:30 or 9. (Bob may get really antsy and try to leave earlier - he gets that way when we are ready to go.)

We have memberships in a number of different camping clubs including Good Sam and KOA so that we can get discounts on the road. We have a wonderful resource called Woodall's which lists every campground in North America and describes the place - plus gives phone numbers. I am trying to be loose about this, but Bob keeps asking questions such as where do you want to stay the first night. So we went to Woodall's and found a number of good campgrounds in Redding California. It looks like we will spend the first night there and then head for the Bay Area and a visit with my nephew and his wife. We had hoped to visit their son and his wife and new baby, but the son has moved over the past week and now lives at Big Bear Lake. The elevation is about 7000 ft. It is really cold up there and they had a pretty good snow storm this week. In addition, we already know that Bob's lungs don't do well at high elevations. So, I am not sure that we will be able to see them. We will try. But I am really looking forward to seeing my nephew Ira - who just moved to the Bay Area.

We now have reservations at Agua Caliente, a campground in southern California, just above the Mexican border. We will get there on Sunday, 2/14, and stay for at least four days. Maybe longer if we are having a great time. Bob and I went there several years ago on a trip with my sister. The pool is a giant hot tub and very invigorating. There are lots of paths into the desert and places to explore. It will be a nice place to melt away the cobwebs and duck feet and get ready for the trek. The last time we were there the area had no cell phone access, so while we are there we will have to drive several miles into Julian, California to get calls and log into the Internet. But I think we can cope with that.

We are having dinner with good friends tonight. Then daughter, son-in-law and grandson, (and son-in-law's dad) are coming tomorrow for dinner. Grandson is almost a year and Bob and I will miss his first birthday. So we are adjusting the date and having a birthday party for him almost a month early. (I don't think it will scar him, but he might be surprised as he gets older and sees the various pictures of his "birthday party.")

Then we wait until Wednesday because that is the first day that we can refill our prescriptions. We should have the trailer all hooked up on Wednesday night and ready to go early Thursday morning.

Wow. This is getting really long so I will stop now. I will try not to wait so long before writing again. Happy trails.