Travel With Intent–Look Up And Down Challenge–Week One

When my wife and I got our first motor home, we would spent just about three weekend a month down by the ocean. My wife would work four days a week and ten hours a day 4/10’s. I would take the motor home down to the beach  on Thursday morning and park it, then come back home. When she would get off of work we would loads up the dogs and us ,plus what ever else we needed – head for the beach. We would stay until Sunday afternoon then head for home ,which was only 45 miles away. We would do that almost three out of four week ends a month.  We would love to watch the dolphins putting on a show for us or everyone else that was watching. The pelicans always fascinated me because they would always fly in formation. I would wonder how they came to the decision to who would lead the flock. The sea gulls would fly back and forth depending if someone was feeding them. They weren’t as much fun to watch as the pelicans or the dolphins. A couple of times we would saw a whale come by but he would be so far out that mainly all we could see was him spouting water. I don’t blame him, I spit that salty water out too.

I just loaded the parrot in for the look down part of this challenge and because he’s sharp in all of his grandeur.

Cee’s Photo Challenge: Colors of the Pacific Ocean

New Port, Oregon

New Port, Oregon

New Port, Oregon

Living the Dream:”How Do You Relax”

Twenty years now I’ve been retired and living the dream, almost, it took a couple of years to learn how to slow my a— down.  I’m a type A personality, all the years I’d worked I go 90 to nothing in 2.3 seconds. I go like a bat out of hell, then I’d crash. Nothing ever came easy for  me so it seemed like I was always stressed. Then one day it hit me and I said to myself, “you need to learn how to relax.” Well when you are like me that doesn’t come easy for a type A personality. I started changing my habits,trying to learn – How to relax.

We bought our first motor home in 1994, now  we’re in our fourth. We’ve been riding around the USA in our motor homes, visiting a lot of different states, cities, towns,,rivers, lakes,national parks and stayed at parks in the mountains and on the beaches of two oceans,also a gulf.  We have made many many friends all around the country. That was our dream and we have been living it for at least 16 years of the 20 years that I’ve been retired. This is our present motor home.

The motor home is only part of our dream, when driving down the road it is like sitting in your living room and the scenery is changing.   Those two bright spots in this picture, maybe a UFO. I don’t know?  I knew one day those Martians’ would catch up with me. Ha-ha

When we get to were we are going we kick back and relax. We sit outside in the mornings and drink our coffee around the fire pit, and take in the beauty of this gorgeous  lake.

Even our dog likes to travel, of course he has to check all the scents of other canines. .

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

postaday/postaweek

Friends on the beach                  

On The Road Again

January of 1994 we lost our townhouse in the Northridge earthquake. Epicenter was just a mile or so from  were we lived. We were asleep but not after being shaken out of our beds and  half scared out of our wits. Glass was breaking down stairs in the kitchen and the walls seem to be fluctuating.

About a mile and a half from were we lived a three story apartment building collapsed.

Unfortunately we had not bought our first motor home until after the earth quake.  We sure could have used it back then. Instead we stayed in a hotel for a few weeks until the power and the gas and the water was turned back on.  I remember standing in line just to get some bottled water. We lost everything in the refrigerator and the freezer..

My wife worked four ten hour days and was off Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Back to work on Monday. Thursday mornings I would take our motor home and towed our Chevy S10 down to the beach in Ventura, find a camping site and pay for the weekend. Then drove back home in the S10 with our little dog. Thursday after Nancy would get off work we would put anything else we wanted to take down to the beach and load the dog and head for the beach. Friday we would wake up to the sound of the crashing of waves on the rocks. Our motor home was only a few feet from the rocks that lead down to the ocean. We did this almost three weekends out of the month,every month. In the winter we liked to go there even if we had to stay inside because it was cold and watch movies or read. I was already retired, just hadn’t started collecting my pension yet. It still was a wonderful time in our lives.

The one picture that best describes how gorgeous it was, is when Nancy’s Mom came to  visit around Thanksgiving and we cooked dinner at the beach. Could this be any better!

       

This is Betty (Nancy’s Mom) and me.                   Betty enjoying the day

.   We have been living in our motor home for the most part since1997.  We would be on the road 8 to 10 months out of the year. By the way Nancy quit work in January 1997. We get to hit the road when ever we want. We spend summers mostly in San Diego,CA or up along the Oregon coast and the winters in Savannah,GA.

When traveling across the states we often stay over night in Wal-Mart parking lots. Our grand daughter wanted to stay in the motor home over night while at a Wal-Mart. Seems she wanted to tell her friends she slept in Wal-Mart parking lot. She thought that was hotter than popcorn especially the part were she could use the bathroom while in the parking lot. Some of the silliest things make kids happy. I wish all of us adults could remember how to see life through a child’s eyes.

We also stay over night or longer in casino parking lots. Nancy would say we can stay over night at the casino and save money.  We stayed but have never been able to save any money staying in their parking lots.

We have a forty foot diesel pusher motor home and we love it. We usually drive back and forth across the United States every year,since ‘96. We have made many friends over the years and some have become our adopted family. In fact almost closer than our immediate family.  We have some friends that every time we hit the road we call them and start singing the Willie Nelson’s song “On The Road Again”

Isn’t life beautiful!!

It doesn’t get much better than this!

What do you think?

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