Commodore Hotel Christchurch NZ

24 hours after landing we have not made it out of the hotel.  Sleep and eat and a bit of exercise is about all we have managed.  Oh and struggling with Vodafone trying to get the hotspot on the phone to work with the local sim card.  Dinner in the hotel last night was a pleasant surprise

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We barely made it to bed.  The time zone change, 16 hours, and loss of a day had really messed us up. The Air New Zealand business class beds are quite nice,  but they don’t really help with the dislocation.  
For my next activity, I will be talkingto the next level up at Vodafone Tech to see if they can resolve the problem.  If not I’ll have to get a local hot spot so Carol can get on line. 
We board our motorhome in a couple of days.  

Enjoying

As I sit by the open window of the coach I am overwhelmed by the scent of orange blossoms from our neighbor’s site. Several nights ago I stepped out to grill and immediately thought someone had sprayed orange blossom scent over the entire park. It is sweet and wonderful and just a bit overwhelming. It seems our life here can be like that.

Saturday night was Lasagna  night with the Valley Winds performing. Dinner at 5 PM does take some getting used to. The meal was delicious and the Valley Winds are a 20+ group of Trombones, Saxophones and Trumpets playing Swing. That big band sound in our Friendship Hall was amazing. Here is the group with one couple out on the dance floor:

Not too much later the dance floor looked like this:
and realistically this is how it stayed most of the night. Of course we started with dinner at 5 PM and the dancing started at 6 and Carol and I had had enough by 8. Translate that to east coast time and it almost seems reasonable, somehow we settled in with our books and read after that. 
We have been busy socially as well, visiting friends on their sites and having others drop by to visit with us. We are well settled in and now are preparing to leave on the 25th for two months of adventure. We will be out of the country until May 14, but our return to the US will be in Hawaii where we will stay until May 28. I think I have spent more time putting together the stops in Hawaii then planning the entire rest of our travel. For the curious, we will stay 4 nights in Oahu at the Hilton 
Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort then on to Hawaii (Big Island) for 4 nights at Volcano Lodge in Volcano National Park and 3 nights at Hale Maluhia Country Inn in Kailua-Kona. On from there to Maui and an Airbnb room on the north coast for four nights returning to LAX late night on the 28th. The next morning we will pick up a rental car to return to Jojoba Hills and rest while we make plans for the next 30 days.

For our Rochester friends it looks like we will be get there about August 1 and leave again on the 25th. We will be back again on the 20th of September until ?? certainly gone before the first frost.

Not a lot to Report – Yay!

Since the last post I have followed doctor’s orders, mostly, taken my antibiotics and much to my relief I feel much better!. In fact, I went off on a weekend with Yechiel and 58 other men for some MAN time which included much strenuous activity. I’m sworn to secrecy about what that means so I will leave it to your imagination. NO NOT THAT 🙂 I returned wet, dirty, tired and happy to go to a fund raising event for an organization that Yechiel is on the board of, then we drove home and got to sleep.

With minor exceptions we have stayed put here at Jojoba Hills since December. This may be the longest we have been in one place in many years. It feels good. The community is warm and caring and anxious to be of help to each other. The life style is simple yet full of opportunities for culture, hiking, nature, socializing and even playing Bridge. Yes I just got back from an afternoon of bridge with four tables going and I am signed up for a duplicate tournament on Friday. Bet I play a time or two before that. Carol is keeping very busy with things that interest her.

Some things we have learned along our path. You had better like as well as love your partner. We spend way more time together, just the two of us, then we ever did in Rochester. We need much less stuff than we ever thought. As we are moving some stuff from the coach to our shed, much is going into the “donate” pile. Why do we need two winter coats when we seldom have call for one. We have much more luxury than most would think possible in our motorhome. The destination is the journey. We may be staying put for a time, but it is our choice. We could pull in the slides tomorrow and head on down the road. The only limitation is our flight to New Zealand, a trip we have chosen. I look forward to resuming the road in June and leaving our wonderland until November (or whenever). I guess I had best add, be ready to change plans and to move on. Time seems shorter now, planning for big trips 10 years out does not seem reasonable. We need to do them sooner, we can always rest if necessary.

I am not being morbid, just realistic. Over the weekend a 63 year old said he only had 20 years ahead of him. I said “don’t limit me!” or yourself. The president of Jojoba Hills is 81 and looks my age, I’ve been accused of being in my 60’s when people see us on the move or dancing.

I guess I have scattered enough ideas around for one post. I look forward to hearing comments from many of you on how you are going about this aging thing.