30th Anniversary Cruise

30th Anniversary Cruise

Thirty one years ago I met the love of my life, my soulmate, my best friend, my one and only. A year later during a very trying time in my life, we got married. Now here we are, retired enjoying life and each other and thought it was time to celebrate our thirty years of our lives together. We decided to go on another cruise and explore more of our world together. It was a twelve day cruise and this time we went on Celebrity Cruises. This was the first time we have cruised on a line other than Holland America. It was an older ship, the Constellation and it showed a bit. We hear that it will undergo a total upgrade next year. It was still a very nice ship and we enjoyed it. Now I could write a novella about our trip, but I plan on keeping this post as concise as possible. It will just highlight our stops and adventures. The pictures in our photo album will show the true visual log of the trip and can be viewed here!

THE ADVENTURE LIST

Key West – Our first port of call before leaving the US. We had never been here before and it reminded me of my days in Southern California. There were lots of shops, restaurants, bars, and other cool things to do. We walked the main drag of Duvall Street and had drinks near the water at Sunset Pier! It was good that we had a pleasant first stop to make up for the trip from Washington to Florida. We took a red eye flight that arrived on the same day as the cruise departure. We will NEVER make that mistake again. For the both of us it is almost impossible to sleep on a plane. Luckily, the plane was only half full which is a surprise these days. I wandered off to an empty row and tried to catch a few winks. After rolling around and having my face catch the faint aroma of 10,000 assholes, I eventually gave up. As for Debbie, she got not a wink and was an absolute grump when we deboarded. We had a very long wait in the airport in Tampa which did not help matters. I kept my distance. Needless to say, our first night on the ship was a quiet one.

Cartagena, Columbia – We had two days here and we took full advantage of it. Cartagena is a very busy city with lots of traffic. It seemed very chaotic and very large. We signed up for two separate excursions here. One was a sightseeing/food tasting tour. It was quite fun. We saw many interesting locations and tasted different foods and also some very nice Columbian coffee. One of our stops was at the Palace of the Inquisition. It was interesting and spooky at the same time. Very dark time in human history. Leave it to us to always get into some type of trouble. We were told we had roughly half an hour there so we weren’t in any hurry. We had wandered around the palace(museum now) and were on the second floor and happened to be looking out into the square below and saw our tour group all together and leaving!! Oh shit, we hurried down the stairs and headed for the exit just as the museum people were closing and locking the doors!! What a scary thought to be locked in this house of horrors and also to be left behind in Columbia! There was no way we had been there for half an hour! At any rate, we never seem to learn! Another fascinating location was the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas. We briefly saw it on our first excursion, but on day two we did a bus “hop on, hop off” excursion so we could just do things on our own and we went back. This time we went on it and climbed to the top, took in views of the city, then went into the many tunnels located within. I’m glad we returned to explore. We went around the old walled city and explored as much as we could before we had to return to the ship! It was fun and amazing!

Panama – On to the country of Panama. Debbie was very excited about visiting here. We had an excursion planned to go on a boat into the canal and through the locks, but luck would have it that it was cancelled. Nothing the cruise people could do about it. We saw others booked on it doing nothing but incessant complaining. It was all about weather, fog, and cargo ship scheduling. We did the next best thing by booking at least a tour of the canal, locks, and then Panama City. The canal was impressive but it would have been much more fun had we gotten to go through it. There were no ships traversing while we were there, so it was kind of boring. I was much more impressed with Panama City and had no idea it was so big! The skyline is huge and modern. It was much cleaner than Cartagena and traffic flowed much better. It was very busy for a Sunday that we were there. We walked around and saw squares, churches, places of interest, and shops. It was truly amazing!

Costa Rica – Another new country and adventure! I think we had the most fun so far! First we took a river boat tour on the Tortuguero Canal. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, funny, and really enjoyed what he did. We went cruising up the canal and saw a variety of wildlife including howler monkeys, sloths, iguanas, caymans, herons, among others. It was a very pretty area and so green, also very hot and humid! We then drove through the countryside and stopped by a small banana plantation and learned a bit of growing, caring, and harvesting bananas and pineapples. Costa Rica is rich in biodiversity and also produces many different fruits, vegetables, and coffee. The country also has a very aggressive green policy in place. They are also extremely environmentally friendly…..mostly….as we soon learned. We finally ended up at the Sloth Sanctuary. I had heard about this place many years from a podcast I used to listen to called The Dawn and Drew Show. They were one of the first podcasters and lived in Costa Rica for awhile. Dawn actually volunteered here and they would talk about it on their podcast. Now, here we are actually visiting the place. Most of the sloths here are rescues. They have either been abandoned by their mothers, lost a limb, or blind. Frequently, sloths will mistake a power line for a branch and grab it. They get electrocuted, and if they are lucky enough to live through it, they usually have to have one or more limbs amputated. Many sloths are showing up blind and there are theories, unproven, that pesticides that are sprayed on banana and pineapple plantations are the cause of it. But the plantations and owners of them are protected by the Costa Rican government, so will not listen to concerns. These poor things will live out their lives at the sanctuary and will be taken very good care of. You can see a video we took of one of them just going about their day by clicking here!

Cozumel, Mexico – Cozumel was our final stop on the cruise. We have been to other parts of Mexico, but this was our first time here. We didn’t really see much, but it seemed way more commercial than what we had seen in all previous stops. We had one destination planned and were very excited about it. We went to the Dolphinaris to play with the dolphins! Debbie was like a little girl she was so excited!! It was an absolute blast. We were fed, had drinks, and then got to play, get kissed, hold fins, and get a belly ride with them. They are so cute and playful and seem to be treated very good. They each have their own personalities and some times get in trouble or act up when they don’t get their way! That ended our ports of call for the cruise and it was very exciting.

Sea Days – I will end the post with just some final thoughts of our voyage. We had numerous sea days where we just had fun on the ship. We hit the gym a few times, had drinks by the pools, enjoyed some of the entertainment, and ate most dinners in our favorite restaurant onboard called Blu! But the best thing to happen on this cruise was meeting an enchanting couple from England, Bob and Jane! We had so much fun with them! Most of the time you’ll meet some very cool people on a cruise and bump into them from time to time. We actually hung out together almost every evening and usually ended up in the Martini Bar. They are so much fun and we are going to try and maintain a friendship with them from now on! As of me writing this, Debbie is off to England with her sisters to visit family. She will be planning on getting together with them for dinner while she is there. hopefully, we will be cruising together again in the future. That’s it for now…. Bon Voyage!

VISIT THE PICTURE ALBUM HERE!

CHECK OUT OUR NEW RUMBLE VIDEO PAGE HERE!

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The Family Tour 2022

Still recovering from my fall from my truck bed, read the last post, another vacation loomed up. This one could not be cancelled as the last one was. We had airline tickets purchased, family waiting for us, and their vacation time had been taken. There would be none of the sort. Just before we were to leave……..I caught a cold!! I just had to tough it out and hoped I wouldn’t be contagious when we got there. By the time we got there, I just had a nagging cough and all was fine!

Phase One – The first part of the trip was to visit my remaining family in my home town of Alamogordo, NM! I was born and raised there until the early seventies when we left and never returned to live there again. I still miss it as it is my roots, but not sure I’d ever live there again or if I wanted to, convince my lovely wife to take up stakes there! My Aunt Sharon and Uncle Butch still live there in the same location since I was a child. My cousin Lorie lives just across the way from them. Some apples never fall far from the tree! It was nice visiting with them, telling stories of the past, and driving around looking at the old homes and schools we all attended. Much of the town hasn’t changed too much after all these years, but it has grown a bit! As I relived my childhood reminiscing, I admit to being a bit homesick, but the reality of living there again does not fall into the realm of reality. We just have to revisit more often for as long as the reasons remain there!

Phase Two – The next leg of the trip took us to the Dallas suburb of Lantana, Texas to visit Debbie’s sister and husband, Donna and Chris. While Debbie had visited them before, I had never been there. They showed us a great time, taking us around visiting very cool places. We headed down to Grapevine for a day and walked around. The weather was warm and beautiful. We went to Grapevine Main and had some drinks and then dinner at the 1845 Bar! Every place we went to had the aroma of burning wood for their BBQ meats! It was a carnivore’s heaven. We also spent a day in Fort Worth cruising around the Stockyard District shopping, drinking, eating, and riding bulls(real and fake) on the street and in Billy Bob’s 81 Club!! See the pictures in our album here! Another day we went down to Dallas to Deep Elum. That was quite an experience walking around down there. It is a very historic area of Dallas and has a very colorful vibe to it. It seems to get a little sketchy after dark, but it was a fun time visiting all the cool places they took us to and we had a fun time. It ended with a collision of families. Our next visit was to be in Oklahoma visiting my brother and his wife. He texted me that their oldest son and his newish wife (Matthew and Katie) lived down there and if we had a chance, we should hook up. I did and low and behold, they lived down the road and on the other side of the freeway from Donna and Chris just minutes away. We all met up at Marty B’s for dinner and drinks and closed that place and headed to another bar and closed that place too!! It was a great time!!

Phase Three – Our next stop was in Oklahoma City to raid my brother Scott and wife Dana’s place. Oklahoma area was another place neither of us had spent any time in. They have a beautiful home and both worked while trying to also entertain us. We really appreciated the time they spent showing us around and having a good time. Dana took us to a couple of museums while Scott attended work functions. One was the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. It was a very interesting place and I wish we had more time there. We were kind of rushed and missed quite a bit. I could spend hours in museums. She also took us to the First Americans Museum, which was an Indian museum and was a very interesting and somewhat sad place to learn of how there land was taken(stolen) from them! We all went to the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. If any of you On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck filled with explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The resulting explosion killed 168 people and destroyed the entire north face of the building. We spent hours there and it was a very sobering experience. If you are ever in the OKC area, don’t miss it! They also took us down to the Bricktown River Walk and we had dinner down there at Charleston’s. We made a trip to Tulsa to have dinner with their other son and wife Josh and Bailey. It was our first time meeting her as it was meeting Katie! Both of these girls are fun, gorgeous, and a wonderful addition to the family! It was finally time to leave for the final leg of the journey!

Final Phase – The end of our journey had us spending some solo time at the Inn Of The Mountain Gods in Ruidoso, NM. This was my favorite place to visit when I was young. It is nestled up in the mountains, off the desert floor and heat of the summer. As a matter of fact, we hit some snow on the way there. It had all melted by the next day. We only had a full day there and walked the town window shopping, bought some southwest art to hang at home, spent some time in the Hatch Chili Store, and enjoyed the mountain air. We had dinner and drinks in the resort restaurant, Wendell’s and it was very good. Our flight back was in El Paso and we made one more stop at the family to spend a couple of hours before we flew back. It was nice to get back in touch with family away from here and was also nice to get back home. A few days later we had a visit with this little “bean” sporting our New Mexico shirts we brought back. Again, to see all the pictures CLICK HERE! It was a wonderful trip!!!

Friends And Founders 2022

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One day while sitting in the office at the estate, I was going through my emails and noticed one from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. I get a lot of emails from them, but this one was different and it stood out from the others! I opened it and it was an invitation to the Friends and Founders Event for 2022! We had been talking about going back to the sanctuary for awhile and decided this would be a great thing to attend and also volunteer if possible. We chose the April 28-29th session and started prepping for the trip! We had tried to remember when was the last time we had gone down there, but knew it had been awhile. While packing, I decided to pack a couple of shirts I had bought on the last trip and there it was……the date…..2015!!! Wow, seven years ago, too long!!! The excitement began for our spiritual reset which is one of the things that happen to you when you make the visit. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you drive into Kanab!! Kanab has grown quite a bit since we last visited. It once was a pretty quiet and sleepy town, but things have changed. There are a bunch of new restaurants and hotels that have sprung up since. One of the new hotels, and the one we stayed at, was the Roadhouse and Mercantile. It is owned and operated by the sanctuary so your room fees are helping support it! Not only is it pet friendly, but bringing dogs and cats from the sanctuary for sleepovers are highly encouraged. There is also a store there where you can purchase shirts, pants, pet accessories, and other items with the Best Friends logo. It was a pleasant hotel, and btw, you can do your laundry for free! When not at the sanctuary we drove around town looking at houses, RV parks, and enjoying the sites of the surrounding area. We ate at some new restaurants and also visited some of our old haunts that still remain! These are all great eateries:

• • • • Escobars

      • Rocking V

      • Houstons Trail’s End

      • Wild Thyme

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Our first day there was a free day, the only one we would have. We decided to drive up to Zion National Park. It was a return trip for us, but it had been many years. We got on the park shuttle and headed into the park and picked one of the trails to hike. We hiked all the emerald pools, there are three. It was a gorgeous day and the temp was just right. We got back down and Debbie wanted to hike the angel’s landing trail until we got tired and then we would turn back. Of course that didn’t happen until we got to the top where the chain begins. I was gassed and had a painful blister on my toe. Luckily she had a band aid in the pack and I made a quick repair so I could make it back down. I wasn’t thrilled and you can see all the pictures in the photo album! Not a young buck anymore!!! The rest of the week was all involved with dog outings, an afternoon in Cat World, and attending the Friends and Founders events. We took two dogs on outings, Riff Raff and Satchel. Debbie loved Satchel and had I been ready for another dog, we would have taken him back with us like we did with Cordell. I’m just not ready for a pet just yet. One day we spent at cat World just hanging with some shy kitties and taking a couple on a stroll.

Riff Raff

Satchel

Playing With Cats

Kitty Stroll

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Our last two days were involved in the events. We hiked up to the Labyrinth and Gratitude Gardens, enjoyed a brunch with many of the founders of Best Friends, listened to their Roadmap to No Kill 2025, visited our pig and goat friends, went to the Blessing of the Animals in Angel’s Rest(Kleenex needed), toured Dogtown, watched a training session of a wild horse at Horse Haven, did a tour of the new Horse Haven and their clinic, toured the Best Friends Clinic, and went to the farewell reception. It was so fascinating and fun. We still learned a whole lot more about the sanctuary even though we have been there many times over the years. There was a lot of upgraded areas and to see the clinics and the new horse haven made it all the more special. We feel so confident when making our donations that our money is being used so wisely in the care of the animals. You can do a tour of the sanctuary right from your device by clicking here. Better yet, plan a vacation and visit for yourself and especially your kids. It is a magical place!!! We will be back real soon!

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Go here to visit the full photo album of our trip!!!

Winter Trip 2021 – McCall – This Time With Friends

Beautiful Payette Lake

We have returned to McCall after skipping last year’s winter festivities due to the COVID crap! If you, dear reader, follow our travels and my political rantings, you’ll know that we make an annual trip between Christmas and New Years. Usually we make the trip by ourselves, but this year we had another couple join us, my long time friend Jeff and his lovely wife Jaime. We, of course, all stayed at the Shore Lodge in the usual lake side suites. Just as the whole year of 2021 went, the trip started off very bumpy! Just two days before we left, the Seattle area was hit with a major snow event and then sub freezing temperatures. Combine that with a severe shortage of flight and ground crew, we left six hours later than we were supposed to. Finally hooking up with our friends, getting luggage, and the rental car, it was dark when we finally hit the road from Boise!! It made for a slightly harrowing drive except for the fact that road crews in Idaho do an excellent job keeping the roads manageable in winter! The hotel itself is under going major renovations and our wing of rooms had been recently been finished. As a matter of fact, in our room, we were the very first guests to stay in the renovated room. You might think that would be fantastic, but we soon learned that there were still kinks to be worked out! We discovered, not soon enough, that one whole wall of electrical devices would turn off when we turned off the entry light switch. These included both tv’s, a wall heater, and our fridge. So after loading the fridge with some items and then finally turning the light out to hit the hay, we effectively turned off the fridge for the night! It was no big deal and they fixed t the next day. Later, the other heater(the main one for the room) stopped working and we had to have a space heater in the room for our last two days. Never a dull moment for the Givens’!

Waiting for de icing!

Harrowing drive from Boise!

Let me tell you, we have been to McCall quite a few times during the winter. Before the trip, we were keeping an eye out on the snow report. In the beginning we were getting a bit worried there would not be a very good snow pack. That would quickly change the week before we arrived and the snow began to come down heavily. By the time we arrived, there was gobs of white stuff on the ground. There would be no worries involving having enough to play in however, it was extremely cold. It was colder than anytime we had previously experienced while there. Notice the picture to the right. Jaime had set out a bottle of champagne on their deck overnight and that was the result!

Jeff and Jaime, being from California, and all of us not wanting to freeze our asses off, we really wanted to ski but held off each day hoping for better weather. It snowed practically every day and we kept checking the conditions at Brundage and Tamarack and they were only for the die hards that were young and crazy. That would not be us! Our other option to enjoy the snow and get a good workout to stave off all the food and booze we were partaking was to go snowshoeing! We did this twice and it was easy as the hotel had snowshoes to rent right there. First we headed out to our usual location at Bear Basin Trail Head. It is a great place to snowshoe and also cross county ski. There are many trails with fantastic views of the valley to the west and it is hilly, which really pumps up the cardio. We also did some snowshoeing at Ponderosa Park which Debbie and I have been to before, but not in winter. It was a great place to snowshoe also and was a bit flatter than Bear Basin. That was okay by us and there were plenty of trails to choose from and not far from town either! We never did make to the slopes. It was just too damn cold for us wimps!

Fun times!

Jeff and Jaime!

Ohhhh Debbie!

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One thing that we always do, was rent a couple of snowmobiles and hit the tracks. We always use Cheap Thrills Rentals and discovered they are under new ownership. The new owners were great and it was like nothing had changed but the faces. They supplied everything, suit, gloves, boots, helmets, and everything was clean and kept us very warm. We had to drive ourselves to the meet up in a big parking lot where all the sleds were. Then after a brief safety and operation spiel, we were off on our own! Well Jeff and Jaime had NEVER been on snowmobiles before and by looking at the picture to the right, you would be saying ooopsie, one of them had a boo boo! Nope, just 15 or so minutes on the trail, I decided to ride on a small snow drift, lost control, and ended up in a tree well. Luckily for me, that stopped me from going over a steep drop into the snowy abyss. After some wrangling with help from fellow snowmobilers and nothing damaged but my ego, we were on the road to the first stop at Burgdorf Hot Springs. Like Cheap Thrills, the place was now under new management and it was quite a disappointment. Before we were barely off our sleds, we were approached by a guy who asked us if we had reservations. Huh!!! We had never needed a reservation to stop by for coffee and explained that to him. Now, due to COVID of fucking course, we now had to have a reservation just to walk in the building. Well, we left, without coffee.

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Once we left Burgdorf, we headed further up the road to
Warren which is an old mining town that is almost a ghost town. It does have a population of 7 in the winter and there is a landing strip at the old town to get supplies flown in. We love it up there and made our way into the Baum Shelter for a quick bite and beverage. For a place this far out in the woods and away from civilization, it had an extensive menu and was very good. After hanging out and warming up we finally headed back down the road and went a little bit beyond where we were supposed to. It was a great day and we put in 78 miles of riding! We all had a great time even with my little “accident”!

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On days we didn’t have real plans, we drove around showing Jeff and Jaime the area, taking them to all the spots we usually make the rounds to. It’s also good for us to see what has changed, how many new houses have sprung up, and what is for sale. We didn’t see many for sale signs around, but it could just be the time of year too. Some of those drives had to be cut short due to blinding snow storms that would spring up out of nowhere! We also dined out and drank at some places that Debbie and I had never tried before. We had a great dinner at Ragazza Di Largo one night. The food was fabulous and so were the drinks. One day after snowshoeing we hit the Toll Station Pizza which was also good. Another evening we were craving Mexican food and went down the street to Pueblo Lindo and the albondigas soup was excellent. Right across the street from the hotel sat Lardos Grill & Saloon, and all these visits to McCall and we had never set foot in the place. We loved the place and it was just our kind of bar!!! It will be a constant stop each time we go back!!! Our New Year’s Eve dinner was in the hotel at The Narrows. It was really good and afterwards, all we had to do was walk down the hall and celebrate the coming New Year and not worry about driving. Oh and before I forget, we also had a spa day where we all got massages and spent some time relaxing in the pools. It was a great time with some great friends that ended too quickly! For more photos of our trip, go over to our online photo album and have a look at the rest of the adventure!!

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Road Trip 2021 – Part 2

THE ROAD TRIP CONTINUES!

Arizona Prices!!!

CA Prices!!!

Well as all trips do, we had a hitch in the get along before leaving Newport Dunes. We sprung a leak in the plumbing around the hot water heater. It has proven to be very difficult to fix. I gave it a solid try before we left, but no bueno. We had a great drive up to Fort Mohave, Az. Took about 5ish hours on the bumpiest interstate yet! We definitely noticed the price of fuel dramatically drop when we crossed over into AZ from California! We arrived and were greeted with hugs and kisses from our friends Jeff and Jaime Simon and Mike and Cathy Richards. We haven’t seen any of these guys since last year (breakout of Covid-19) in Mexico. The guys put the trailer away (worked on the plumbing issue to no avail) and the drinks were flowing. We ordered pizza and spent the evening around the little gas fire in the driveway. The next day was mostly spent on buying parts and tools and calling around to find a mobile RV mechanic. Well despite calling multiple people…. that was a big fail, Mike and Cathy went house hunting and Jeff and I tried everything to fix the leak. After hours of working on it, we thought we had someone lined up to come out. Nope…. We decided to throw in the towel and go to Cocktails to have cocktails. Then on to a steakhouse for a yummy dinner. The next day was boating day! We headed out about noon (after another trip to Lowe’s). We put in the Colorado River and headed to Lake Havasu. Jeff and Jaime have an awesome boat and the sun was out! It was a beautiful day, just a little bit windy. The lake was rough as we crossed but so glad we went. We saw the London Bridge and stopped on a little beach for a light lunch. Debbie friended some ducks that hung around for treats. We stopped on our way back for a bit and had snacks and drinks on the lake. We decided it was time to head back and it seemed the lake was a bit rougher in the way back. But our skilled captain got us across safe and sound! It was such a great day! Thank you Jeff Simon and Jaime for your hospitality, we are so grateful to get to spend time with you. And thanks to Mike and Cathy Richards for driving up and making time to see us, we enjoyed spending time with you two also. We are now limping along with no hot water for now, showering in the RV Park showers and boiling water for dishes. We have a mechanic scheduled to meet up with us in Alamogordo. We headed out Thursday morning (after half expecting the repair guy to come by early that morning… nope) for Prescott Arizona.

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After a great visit in Fort Mohave we headed out for Prescott Arizona. We had visited Prescott several years ago while doing research on places we wanted to consider for retirement. We loved it then, but we chose to stay in Washington. Still love it, such a beautiful place with such a cool vibe. We stayed at a nice RV Park (Point of Rocks)with lots of trees and big beautiful rocks all around. We did some shopping in the many shops on Whiskey Row and found some cool earrings for me. They ended up being my birthday present. We had dinner and drinks at The Palace Saloon which claims to be the oldest bar in Arizona. All of the staff wear period clothing also! We stayed only two nights in Prescott then off we went to Goodyear AZ to see our friends Tori and Kevin Hillstrom and Keith and Laurie Helker. We have known these people for many years and we all met each other in local Packer bars in the Seattle area. Just a few hours of driving and we arrived at Destiny RV in Goodyear which was just 15 min from where our friends live. The RV park was nice (each site has a citrus tree complete with oranges or lemons) with a surprisingly well outfitted gym! We spent the first afternoon getting set up and checking out the amenities. Our friends threw an amazing pool party at their beautiful home in our honor that night. We met some new people and really loved seeing some old friends we hadn’t seen in a while. We are so grateful to be able to spend time with everyone! We started the next day with doing laundry (yuck, but you gotta do the dull stuff every now and then too) and getting a great workout in! We met Tori and Kevin for dinner at a great restaurant (The Red Dog) right on the golf course. Then back to their house for a cocktail or two. Our stay was short, but we enjoyed every minute of catching up with friends and are so grateful for the time they spent with us. We packed up and left Arizona the next morning heading for New Mexico.

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After such a short , but wonderful visit with friends, we left Goodyear Arizona a little later than planned (the RV office didn’t open until 9:00! Grrr… we had to wait to get a “key” refund, so dumb) to get on the road to New Mexico. We had a longer drive, nearly 7 hours, to get to Alamogordo. Boy, the drive felt so long and the landscape was ever changing! We had to wrangle with strong winds at times, I even caught some pictures of sizable dust devils along the way. We were so anxious to get to Alamogordo as this leg of the trip was all about family. I grew up in Alamogordo and some very special family still lives there. We haven’t been back for over 5 years and I was definitely feeling the pull of my heart strings as we crossed the border into NM. We drove through Las Cruces which is a beautiful city and then just over an hour to the RV Park. We stayed at the KOA, which was awesome. Super friendly staff, locally owned and very nice spaces. We got set up fairly late and had to take care of chores but made plans for breakfast at my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Butch’s house. We spent the day hanging out with them, reminiscing, driving around and catching up. We were joined by my cousin Lori when she got off work at her pool supply store. We could have talked all night, and almost did. The next day, my other cousin Laura, who recently moved back to Alamogordo, was so gracious to host a Cinco de Mayo dinner at her beautiful home. It was so special spending time with her and it was so important to reconnect as she recently and unexpectedly lost her husband. While our time was short in Alamogordo, it was full of love and tons of belly laughs! Debbie now knows where I get my sense of humor. Aunt Sharon and Uncle Butch stopped by the next morning to say goodbye with lots of hugs! We were sad to say goodbye so soon, but plan to come back sooner than later. We headed off for a much shorter drive up to Santa Fe. The drive to Santa Fe was beautiful as the high desert emerged with vibrant colors and commanding views. We checked into the RV Park which was the perfect location for buzzing around town. We loved Santa Fe! We had been there just for the day several years ago so we enjoyed having a few days to really explore. Due to COVID restrictions, some of the sights were closed or limited but we still had a great time. We shopped, went wine tasting and at the recommendation of some people we met had the BEST dinner at Tomasitas. Three days seemed to fly by! Next stop Colorado!!

See pictures of Santa Fe
and family pictures here!

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Colorado! We departed from Santa Fe for the relatively short drive to Durango Colorado (4ish hours). The drive to Colorado was full of beautiful landscapes as the desert gave way to the more typical mountains of Colorado. We arrived at the Oasis RV Park and were thinking about our plans for the next few days. We had planned to stay 4 days to get in the sights we were absolutely wanting to see. As we were setting up in our site, we decided we really needed to stay 5 days to fit it all in. So we extended our stay, ordered dinner ( the RV Park offered handmade pizza delivered to our site!) and settled in with a couple of cocktails. We highly recommend Oasis RV Park of you’re ever in the Durango area. We had an early call to catch the train to Silverton the next morning and we’re delighted to find out the RV Park also offered made to order breakfast and coffee! We took advantage of breakfast and off we went to catch the train in old town Durango. The train was awesome, with sights you just can’t see any other way. The trip is somewhat shorter (4 hours round trip) in the spring with the terminus at Cascade versus Silverton due to snow still present in the mountains. We had lunch at the terminus before heading back to Durango. It was a gorgeous day and we decided to drive up to Silverton on our own to check it out. Silverton is an old silver mining town where it feels like time has stood still. It is quite a climb to get there where it’s nestled in the mountains at over 9,000 feet. The drive there and back was breathtaking! We headed back to old town Durango for a dinner out to celebrate Mother’s Day. It was fabulous. The next day was totally dedicated to touring Mesa Verde National Park. What an incredible site! It is huge and holds magnificent views. The Pueblo Indians settled there and lived in the area for over 700 years. The ancient ruins of their cliff houses and other dwellings still exist. We took sooo many pictures that I had to create yet another album here! We decided to include a challenging hike into the cliff to see the petroglyphs. It was rocky and steep, climbing over and down rocks with open cliffs on one side. But.. it was so worth it to see the amazing drawings in the cliff wall. It was a full day even though we couldn’t do any up close tours (covid closed all the up close tours of the cliff dwellings) but we had great views of them from a distance. Day four was reserved for driving up to Williams Creek Campground and Lake. It was really the primary reason we chose Durango as a stop. Williams Creek was a childhood camping destination for me and my family! The drive up was quite a distance with most of it on dirt roads. I couldn’t wait to get up there and see it again. It had been some 50 years since my grandparents took me and the family there. We packed a picnic and explored the beautiful spots with bubbling creeks, crystal blue skies and a beautiful reservoir. Even though it has been so many years since I had been there, not much has changed! I did find it sad to see our absolutely favorite spot to camp by the river was no longer there. It looked as thought at some point the river had altered course and the spot had to be closed. Still it brought back many cherished memories of days gone by with family members who are no longer with us. We drove from Williams Creek to Pagosa Springs to check it out. It’s a cute town, but has grown way too much and like all the towns we have visited on this trip, has been ruined by outsiders fleeing their states to come and drive up prices everywhere out here. It is very sad to see! We made our umpteenth trip to Wally World for supplies (we never seem to be able to get everything we need in one trip). The next day began our 3 day trek toward home. We drove through Colorado to Utah and stopped for the night in Brigham City. We were suffering a bit from trailer fatigue so decided to hotel it for the night. On to Idaho and Oregon the next day with an overnight stop in Pendleton, also at a hotel. We looked forward to our big bed, long showers, and just being home finally but are sad it’s coming to an end. We have seen so much and enjoyed seeing so many friends and family. We are so very grateful to everyone who took time to spend with us. We love you all! This trip has been epic- 28 days, 8 states, 5,127 miles and full of love, hugs and countless laughs! We are truly blessed. Can’t wait for the next adventure!

No camp site here anymore!!!

Road Trip 2021 – Part 1

AWAY WE GO!!!

So here we are, both retired and living quietly in a world constrained by the COVID “plandemic” for close to a year and a half. We have our routine from day to day, get up, spend some time on the computer, go to the gym, back home, do stuff around the house, make dinner or maybe go out, watch some tube and bed, get up and do it all over again. Every once in awhile we head back to Snoqualmie for appointments and see old friends. Now and then we have family or friends up for a visit or we visit them. Then one day, we looked at each other and said, “Let’s go on a road trip!” Thus began the planning months in advance. We had to decide where we were going to go, the route, booking RV spots, telling people we might want to see that we were coming, etc. We decided that this would be a friends and family visit/sightseeing trip. Debbie did a great job scouting out RV places, carefully checking reviews to make sure we were staying in decent places and it was awesome the job she did. The drive began with the first stop in Newport, Oregon and then on to Eureka, California. These two days are just stop overs on our way to Monterey, California where we will stay for a couple of days. Newport Oregon is a lovely place on the Oregon Coast and we have been there several times, so no need to sight see this time. We stayed at a nice RV park that is just a short walk to the Rogue Ales brewery and restaurant. We had to wait forever to get a table, but it was worth the wait ( we were so hangry! ). We packed up fairly early and headed out for our next stop Eureka, California. The drive was beautiful, with so many beautiful beach views and driving through the Redwoods is spectacular. The RV Park in Eureka was a little sketchy, nice people and super nice RV’s here but there is some sketchy stuff going on here so everything is locked up tight for the night and we will head out as early as possible for Monterey!

We left Eureka as early as possible and headed out for Monterey. Actually we are staying in Moss Landing which was “supposed” to be in the heart of Monterey, well not quite but it’s just fine. We took Hwy 101 which took us on a beautiful route. Through many Redwood forests and small towns. We ended up driving through wine country. Debbie wanted to stop and wine taste at the many wineries, but we had to stay on schedule to try to beat traffic. Next trip we are stopping and drinking. We thought we were going to go through Oakland, but Waze ended up rerouting us through San Francisco instead which afforded some beautiful views of the city but some dicey traffic for me. The drive, while a little hairy, was so gorgeous and we ended up arriving on time at the RV Park. We set up and headed out for a beach walk, it was beautiful. The next we lazed a bit and then headed for the gym for a workout and then on to Carmel for lunch and some window shopping . We fell head over heals in love with it and if we ever win the lottery we’ll be moving there! One ridiculous thing we had to endure while walking about in Carmel was the stupid mandatory mask wearing while OUTSIDE!!! Signs were posted everywhere that if you failed to do so, you would be fined $100. There are more sheep living in the town than there are on Clint’s ranch! We made our way to the Mission Ranch to have a glass of wine with Clint Eastwood (he owns it), haha we were told we just missed him. The rest of the day we spent on the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach back to Monterey and Cannery Row. Had a light bite then back to the RV Park for the night. Such a fun couple of days here and then we headed for Santa Barbara!

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My Old Buddy Rob Miotti and son

Salt

We really enjoyed our stay in Monterey and headed out around noon thinking we could avoid the commute traffic in the Santa Barbara area, we did hit some traffic but not as awful as we anticipated. Our drive was really nice with lots of beautiful scenery. Our route was down 101 which took us through lots of agricultural lands and by San Louis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Buellton which claims to be the home of split pea soup! Who knew!! We arrived at Ocean Mesa RV Resort (highly recommend this RV Park) in the early afternoon with sun and clear skies we quickly set up and headed out on a long walk in search of the laundry room and to explore the area. This park has a lot to offer including a pool and hot tub, very well stocked store, large sites and a restaurant within walking distance. We loved it. The next day we headed to Santa Barbara to visit the Santa Barbara Mission and later meet up with a good friend of Joe’s from many years ago. The Mission was beautiful and full of history. We took a lot of pictures at the mission and I created an album that you can go see here! Santa Barbara is a very nice city with a vibrant downtown full of shops and restaurants. Out of necessity with Covid everywhere has outside seating! Since it was Friday junior, it was pretty hoppin once it got dark. We were blessed to meet up with Rob Miotti and his son Robbie for the rest of the day. We stopped in to take a look at Salt Cave(a salt spa) and then in to Joe’s Cafe for a drink and light bite. We walked all over the downtown area and ended up at the best Mexican restaurant right across from the beach for dinner. Thank you Rob and Robbie for driving up to spend the day and evening with us! We really appreciate it and loved seeing you. After that adventure we departed for Newport Beach, California where we stayed at Newport Dunes Resort spend a few days visiting friends! So excited to see everyone

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We left Santa Barbara around noon and headed down 101. The drive was mostly good with so many beautiful beach views. There are so many RV’s just parallel parked along the beach frontage roads, camping and surfing! It was incredible how many we saw! As we neared the LA area the traffic got thicker and much more crazy the closer we got. Thankfully I know the area from living in So Cal for many years in the 80’s. It’s unbelievable how many lanes the freeway’s have! Maybe almost as many as the Texas freeways, but far more congested. We arrived at the RV resort and were really pleased with the amenities and location, right in the heart of Newport Beach. This made it much easier to connect up with friends. We had dinner at SOL Mexican Cocina with our good friends Jeff and Jamie Simon the first night, super yummy Mexican food! We will be spending time with them again in Arizona. The next day we met up with a group of friends at my favorite Long Beach breakfast place, Schooner or Later. Back in my salesman days, this was one of my first accounts and made many early morning calls there selling them supplies. Sadly, the owners Denise and Denny weren’t there for me to surprise them. It was so great to spend time catching up! We spent the rest of the day with our friends Debbie and Tom Neforos hanging out in Long Beach grabbing beers at Murphy’s and later dinner at Simmzy’s . Many many beers were drank over the years at Murphy’s and the place hasn’t changed one bit since I left. Second street in Long Beach is definitely the place to be if you are young and single! Lots of bars, shops and restaurants. Another day we met up for brunch at The Tavern House with Debbie and Tom; and Maria and Jan; where spent time visiting and sadly said our goodbyes to our friends. We so much appreciated spending time with them and love them all dearly. We toured around Huntington Beach, Seal Beach and Long Beach for the rest of the day. We drove to many of my old haunts and a few old places where I used to live and did a lot of reminiscing and showing Debbie lots of memorable places. We were then on to our next destination to Fort Mohave, AZ to spend a few days with Jeff and Jamie! Stay tuned for the update coming in part two!

Lather…….rinse……repeat

Back To McCall

Every year we pick a place and go camping for a week with our great friends the Kelly’s! This year we went back to McCall, Idaho once again. We just can’t tear ourselves away from this place. Like ping pong, racquet, tennis, pickle balls we bounce back and forth to our favorite destination! This year since we started from the Olympic Peninsula, we decided to just drive to Cle Elum for the first night to keep from making the 10 plus hour trip in one day! This was in the middle of some of the worse fires in WA, OR, and CA history. The whole drive all the way to McCall was enveloped in smoke. As we crossed the Columbia River on I90, you couldn’t even see the river from the bridge. It was even smokey in our rigs while driving! It was a horrible drive, and the smoke stayed with us while in McCall almost the whole time we were there!

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We arrived at our camping destination for the second at the McCall RV Resort. We love staying here, this is the nicest RV park we have ever stayed at! It is gorgeous, clean, good wifi, and the staff were very helpful with anything we needed. Another wonderfully awesome amenity was the indoor pool and hot tub which we used almost nightly after a really hard day of fun! We met some very cool people while soaking, the majority from California. Most of them were conservative Republicans escaping the crush of years of Democratic control. Some were moving to Idaho permanently. Only one couple who didn’t fit that bill were hearing our patriotic, American conversations and the wife leaned over to her husband and whispered, “Conservatives”. They were basically ignored. The lodge itself was grand and beautiful with a reading room area, fireplace, hot coffee available all day and free popcorn. There was a laundry facility with more than enough washers and dryers to handle any amount we generated.

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  A Smokey Sky

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  Daily Visitors

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Now before continuing, I will not be writing gobs of words here in this post that are just duplications of our last trip here with the Kelly’s. You can read about our first trip here and get the gist of the area and stuff. You can also access the trip’s photo gallery here, where all of the photos reside. Go have a look see! Yeah, I may be retired now and have plenty of time to write these blog posts, but I am getting lazy and many things have been said before so………..

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Even though we had all been here before, we managed to fill our days with fun in the smokey sun. We biked all over town and out to Ponderosa State Park. This wonderful park sits right at the north edge of town and is gorgeous. It also has tent and RV camping which we had never investigated. Although we love staying where we always do, this is a fantastic alternative if we want to change things up on a future visit.

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Another day we rented kayaks and paddled Payette Lake. We have toured the whole lake via car, but cruising around on a kayak gives you a whole different view of the shoreline. Some of the houses are amazing and as we checked later, prohibitively expensive! It seems as though the McCall area has been discovered as has the rest of Idaho! Residents of Washington, Oregon, and California are flooding the state in droves. Who can blame them as people are finally waking up in blue states and heading for the red ones! Oooops, I am getting political again!

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There were a few disappointments during the trip, but it didn’t hamper our fun. One being the smoke, and the other being COVID. Most of the hot springs in the area were closed. Even the iconic Burgdorf Hot Springs was closed. It may have been COVID related, but the official reason was the loss of their long time managers. They are looking for replacements if you are interested in working in a very rustic setting. We, instead took a drive up to Warren! Debbie and I had been there twice on snowmobiles, but had never been up when the road was clear and it was warm. The Kelly’s had never been there either. They thought it was pretty cool too. We stopped in at the Baum Shelter for a quick bite and all of the town regulars were there. Some things just remain the same in this world of constant change. We did a lot of driving around checking out the areas and housing prices, <wink wink>. Here is a list of places we visited during this trip! I tried to put up a full list, but am sure I missed a couple.

• Tamarack Resort
• Shore Lodge
• Jug Mountain Ranch
• New Meadows
• Charlie’s Garden
• Bistro 45
• Salmon River Brewery
• Broken Horn Brewery
• River Ranch
• Black Hawk

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Unknown Mountain Man

On another daily adventure we did a 8 mile hike through the Bear Valley Nordic Trail System. It is beautiful and there are many trails you can hike, some can be biked also. We had been there during a winter trip and snow shoed through the area. The views are incredible of Brundage Mountain and the valley west of McCall. One needs to take care of bikes that come screaming at you from blind curves and strange looking mountain men that come yelling out of the forest. The one pictured scared the crap out of us! Another day put us back on the lake, this time in a pontoon boat we rented from Mile High Marina! We spent almost 8 hours cruising, floating, and chillin in every bay, nook and cranny of the lake. We now know every portion of Lake Payette. Each visit we gain add to our knowledge base of McCall and it’s surroundings!

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Ready For Some Boating!

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Our original plans were to spend one week in McCall and then head up to the Sandpoint area of Idaho and spend our second week there. Due to the fires, smoke, and hazardous air quality up there, we decided to extend our stay in McCall and cancelled our reservations at our second destination. I’ll go ahead and link the second destination, the Blue Lake RV Resort, but we’ll never stay there. They would not refund our deposit even during these unprecedented times using the excuse that the resort is perfectly useable even under the hazardous conditions! It would have been interesting if one of us had a respiratory illness or other problem that would have been unhealthy for that person. Oh well, I suppose money is more important than the health of fellow humans. They’ll not get another dime from us ever!!! The trip was not without some equipment malfunctions. The Kelly’s trailer sprang a leak below the shower basin that Rich had to fix and one of our trailer tires developed a troubling bulge on the way there and we got a replacement while there. When we got back home, we had the other three replaced on the way! We also had a chance to make a stop and visit Alex, Mo, and Wimberley for an overnight. They were thrilled to see us and it was a nice visit. After two weeks, it was good to be home, but it was definitely another fun trip! And yet again, Debbie and I will be returning to McCall at the end of the year. One of these days we will end up moving there…….maybe!

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GOOD TIMES WITH GOOD FRIENDS

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  Never A Dull Moment

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  Doggie Cuddles

MORE PICTURES HERE

Settling Into Retirement

It has been over a year since Debbie retired and just over three months for me! We moved to our home and have settled into the luxury of not having to wonder what day it is or time. With COVID still hanging in the shadows our travel options are limited right now. We are perfectly situated to hop over into Victoria, BC but can’t because the borders are closed and the ferry is mothballed right now. We have made a few trips back to the old stomping grounds of Snoqualmie and Bellevue, but with the current lawlessness going on in Seattle, that destination will not be on our radar anytime soon. Luckily, restaurants have opened up in a limited way, we have hit some golf balls with friends, taken drives to surrounding areas to explore, taken many walks and bike rides, worked in the massive yard that needs attending, and as you can see below, done a bit of upgrading to the house. What was once an upstairs deck was enclosed and turned into a sunroom. We decided to repaint the ceiling and walls, add some furniture and blinds and turned it into a TV room. We think it turned out pretty good!

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  It Begins

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  Testing Colors

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  Wall is Done

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Debbie’s CrossFit attendance had also become a COVID casualty when the state went on lock down and gyms had to close. She was able to borrow and began purchasing some equipment and started working out in the garage and in the parking lot of the gym with others, maintaining a safe distance of course. Once we moved, she began buying even more equipment until finally one hell of a gym was built in our garage. Now she can do a WOD right at home. My gym has finally opened up and I go back and forth depending on what I want to do that day. Debbie, being the social little person that she is, still wants to join a gym to workout with others at least three days a week. Soon she will be flexing her muscles at Storm King Athletic Club on a tryout basis. We do have a two week vacation coming, so she will fully join once we return from that!

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McCall…….Again

Payette Lake

Yes, here we are again, the third trip to McCall in the last two years. Once again we stayed at the Shore Lodge in a gorgeous lake side suite just like last time. Also like last year, it was during the week of New Years and we did much of the same stuff we did last time. We were able to ski this time which we did two days in a row at Brundage Mountain! We also spent more time at the Old Idaho Penitentiary Rather than bore you with the details of another similar trip, you can refer here to last year’s trip and links, and I will list some highlights and provide more of a pictorial version on this one!

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• We were delayed getting to Boise by around three hours, thanks Delta Airlines.
• Our rental car broke down and we had to fight with Alamo Rent A Car to get a replacement. We waited until 2am for the new one to arrive.
• Debbie’s boots were “taken” from the ski resort changing room and never “returned”. Had to spend $200 for a pair of new ones.
• This time we didn’t go snowshoeing, but instead ski’d two days in a row.
• One of those days was New Year’s Eve and I was so beat neither of us saw the new decade ring in!
• Unlike last year, this time we were able to book a massage and spa day at The Cove in the hotel!
• And yes, we booked a room for next year!!

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  I’m Cute!

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  Yeah I fell…once!

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  We can’t take a normal picture ever!

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  Forever a child!

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SKI DAYS

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  Ready to sled!

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  Off the main trail!

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  Double turn around!

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Snowmobiling!

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  Cold outside but warm in the pool!

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  The Cove

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  Kissy face!

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  Never want to leave!

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SPA DAYS!

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Old Idaho Penitentiary

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  Sad to have to leave!

CHEERS!!!!

Latest Addition to the Garage

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For quite awhile we were in a quandary about replacing Debbie’s Avalon, but didn’t know when or with what. We were hoping to wait until after she retired and maybe for awhile longer. But after this winter’s snowpocalypse came and none of our current cars could handle it, it was time to get something that could. Debbie has always liked the Toyota FJ Cruiser, but finding a decent one for sale was a tad bit difficult. We found good ones for sale, but were in other parts of the country. When we finally found one we could look at and test drive, someone bought it right out from our noses. Hell, we were just sitting down to go over numbers too! They had bought it without even a test drive! It had a shimmy when braking, let them now worry about it! Then she found one, a 2014 with only 41K miles on it that hadn’t even hit the sales market. After patiently waiting until the dealer had gone over it in the shop, cleaned it, and made it showroom ready, she went and saw and drove it! Then she went back with Alex and he drove it and the deal was done! She did it all by herself with a little encouragement from him. Drove it home yesterday and as of this writing, I haven’t even been in it yet! It does look nice in the garage! So we say goodbye to our Avalon we’ve had since new and traveled over 269K miles in it and still running great! Someone will get a little more miles out of it! Now off we go on vacation!

Bye Bye old friend! You served us well!