Sitting in the den in Rochester, excitement about getting on the road is starting to build. I have had my tooth ache (sinus congestion actually), my back ache has been treated with cortisone shots, Carol seems to be in good health as does my mother, a nursing home resident here in Rochester. Sunday, Carol (Ann Carol to those of you in the Art World) will fly to Los Angeles to accompany Miriam and the boys across the country by plane to Charlottesville, VA. Yechiel in the mean time will be flying to DC to attend a conference and give a paper and hopefully have a job interview or two. After the conference he will fly to Rochester on the 23rd to drive with me in the coach to Charlottesville after visiting his grandmother. Some time on the 26th we will all convene at Dan and Malena’s house south of Charlottesville, VA for ten days of togetherness and family reunion, Josh (eldest grandson) will be flying into the middle of this gang and we expect visits from Miriam’s sister and family and maybe even her father Les.
The weather outside is predicted to be frightful in Rochester. We hope to pull the coach into the yard on Thursday so Carol can get her stuff on board before leaving for LA. I plan to get the exterior mechanical work done in the breaks in the bad weather. Sometime late on the 24th or early on the 25th we will roll from here. I am excited to have a chance to share the coach and driving with one of my son’s. They have both been on the coach and are familiar with it, but neither has ever traveled on it, much less driven and Yechiel will get his 5 or 6 hour driving lesson next week as we have 10 or 11 hour drive with a stop someplace in southern PA or MD along I 81.
When we leave Charlottesville sometime after the 6th we will be heading south west with the eventual goal of camping at Dockweilers Beach under the LAX departure runways. The route is open to debate. There is always the possibility of going immediately south to the Florida Panhandle if Carol’s brother and sister-in-law will come north from St Pete to meet us. There is the possibility of traversing TN on I 40 before heading south. Of course there is also the middle route on I 20 from Birmingham AL as well. All routes take us through Texas. And in Texas we will stop in Austin for a visit with the Rainwaters. Then we need to get to Falcon SP and this year we want to return to Big Bend NP. Onward with a stop in Las Cruces, NM and then to Senator Wash on the CA/AZ border.
Egad, this sounds like a lot of planning with little unplanned time. Somehow I firmly expect that much of it will happen, whether on the way out or the way home. We have not made plans to meet our peripatetic friends the Hoggs or the Topfs among others and somehow I suspect that there are many people out there, including the Armstrongs who on reading this and later postings will pull us off our planned course for a visit, overnight or for a week as we get within a few hundred miles of each other.
Another project of mine to watch for. I have photographed our coach in almost every campground we have stayed in, Wal Marts included, and I am starting to gather those pictures into an album, for my own curiosity. I will put them up on my site on Picasa when I feel I am ready. I think by late January.
Stay safe, drive safe, and stay warm!
Oh, by the way, these postings are now available on my Facebook page.