Jul 31, 2012 - Patapsco Valley State Park

We are now at Patapsco Valley State Park, MD and enjoyed the warm welcome of Claudia and Mike. We always love seeing and working with them back here at the park. As always, it was difficult leaving our Santa Fe family, but we are starting to get used to the rhythm and we are happy to connect with our east coast friends and family. Tim and his family left for Hawaii a few days after we headed east, which made it a little easier to leave. Even so, we are very far apart right now. Thank goodness for cell connections. They can be amazing, and...

Nov 12, 2011 - Patapsco in November

It is mid-November, and Patapsco is very different than it was earlier in the Fall. The park has been closed for the season. It is very quiet; the afternoon shadows are long. The only sounds are the rustling of leaves and the squirrels who are gathering twigs for their winter nests...oh..and somtimes we hear the lawnmowers and leaf blowers from a nearby neighborhood. Then we sigh in relief that we don't have to maintain a lawn and can just enjoy the Fall. The deer that were so plentiful earlier, have gone into hiding. It is bow-and-arrow...

Nov 4, 2011 - Home again

Friday, November 4+ - Melbourne, Sydney, Dallas, Ellicott City This is it! Just this travel day and we will wake up in our own bed. We have been marveling at how well we could live with only a couple of bags of possessions and a small room. Maybe we don’t really need all those treasures we hold on to and a house with so much living (and storage) space? This might at least be an incentive for us to seriously downsize. We made it back to the car hire agency with only one U-turn necessary to get back to the right set of roads. The agency bus...

Oct 10, 2011 - Family

Tim and Janine flew in with Maddy and Jackson 10 days ago and camped next to us at Patapsco. Having the children nearby (scooting in and out of the RV, taking hikes, roasting marshmallows, collecting leaves and bugs) completely filled our hearts. And having access to all five grandchildren in one state is the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, the weather was just miserable the first 3 days, but then came 7 days of crisp, dry air and blue skies. Tim and Mike had lots of time to catch up with each other. We visited Mike, Angela, and family...

Aug 20, 2011 - Charles Alan

We’ve been back at Patapsco Valley State Park for two weeks already, and I regret that I haven’t made a journal entry since August 2. The days are blending, and I’m losing track of time (what else is new?) The biggest and best news is that our youngest grandson was born this past Monday (August 15) at 11:19 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs. 6 oz. and is 20 inches long. Mike and Angela named him Charles Alan, and he is now happily at home with his big sister Sofia and big brother Tyler. Alan and I stayed overnight with Sofia during Charlie’s delivery...

May 29, 2011 - Getting ready for our trip west

I can hardly believe that it's already May 29. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and we are preparing to head west to Santa Fe on Wednesday. The last eight weeks have been much busier than we anticipated. Our primary goal was to connect with family and friends, keep our scheduled doctor appointments, and also try to find a way to downsize our storage locker. Connecting with family and friends was the fun part. I had lunch with some of my former work colleagues; enjoyed time with my mother, my sister and her family, my sister-in-law and...

Apr 4, 2011 - Trip's end

The road leading away from the campground in Hatteras was covered by windswept sand. Plows were parked along the shoulders, and it was obvious that they had been used to clear the way earlier in the morning. Already the sand was drifting back. We had been one of six campers in a park that welcomes 400 during high season. As I mentioned before, it's probably a very different experience in the summer! After stopping one night in Fredericksburg, VA,we are now back in the Ellicott City area staying at Patapsco Valley State Park. We were...