Thinking about preparing to depart and a grammar rant

In two weeks we will be heading out on the road to resume our peripatetic lifestyle. For some details see previous posts. For sure we are looking forward to adventure travel with OAT to The Stans and road tripping to Newfoundland not to mention Xerox Rochester international Jazz Fest. I am also having feelings about leaving Jojoba Hills. I have attended several last committee meetings of the season in the past week. and at each the attendance is dwindling as others make their way north and east. We will attend our last Last Friday Dinner Dance for the season next week and start to say goodbye to friends, fellow community members who were strangers just months ago. Some we will see in other parts of the country as they and we travel. Others we hope to spend time with back here next Fall.

Unlike so many places we have stayed in our RV lifestyle, Jojoba Hills seems to have gotten under our skin and made us feel as though we have been members of this community for a very long time. Over many years we have made many good friends on the road and have visited with them in all parts of the country even diverting hundreds of miles to make a meetup. They are wonderful friends,  but they do not comprise a community. 
A grammar rant, a total aside: Just saw this phrase on FaceBook “carb needs cleaned” I try not to be prescriptive but the missing “to be” is making me nuts. All over RV forums I am seeing this omission of “to be”.  (yeah, I could reference fora, but no one goes there anymore). I guess we are headed for assuming that “to be” is understood present.

Back to my regularly scheduled blog 🙂 well the next time I feel inspired to post in any event.

Theme Travel

I’m not sure if I have written this before, but there is no way for you to stop me if you’ve heard this one  – just stop reading.

Some times Carol and I will be sitting around trying to think of where we want to travel next and how to get there. For example this summer we knew we wanted to go to NJ to visit Carol’s sister-in-law and our nephew and whatever family is around. I knew I wanted to go to Newfoundland. Starting from Rochester NY after Jazz Festival this does not seem like a logical route. It seemed reasonable to see if we could camp on Cape Cod, one of our favorite places and near my sister in Wellfleet. From there we would travel north to catch a ferry to Newfoundland (here after NL). About this time our grandson Corey sent an email wondering if he could join us on the motorhome for part of our travels. Of course we said no! Who wants pesky grandchildren along.  Right! Sure! After some back and forth we set up a schedule – damn, flights require planning. We will pick him up in Newark and after Cape Cod and some time in Boston we will take him to the airport to fly home and travel in his parents’ trailer, or maybe go to camp first. Then on to NL. The theme is Nor’East and family.

Wait! the family isn’t done with us. Avi, the youngest in California and a budding Jazz musician heard we had this Jazz Fest thing we are nuts for in Rochester and is “horning” in on that for a few days, got to get him his very own pass. When they read this we may be in for more trouble as there are still three grandsons who haven’t checked in and asked for time – yet. Well Alex asked, but hasn’t found a time yet. At least they haven’t asked to come along to The Stans with us 🙂 yet

But there are other kinds of themes we have built trips around. One year we were traveling in the car and I was playing Paul Simon’s Graceland on the radio. I probably can stop there. That trip got built around a visit to Graceland and Memphis. Once we got that far we continued the music theme with a trip to Branson MO. That trip was bracketed with stops at our son’s family near Charlottesville VA.

Early trips were not full time and were as short as three weeks and as long as three months. Winter trips were cross country and the “theme” was to find a different route and new places to sight see. Eventually we started looking for trips that covered new territory. On our way to Alaska – a classic theme trip on it’s own we crossed US 20 as we drove up US 101 through Newport Or and I said “we really needed to drive as much of it as we could since it passes about 15 miles south of our townhouse in Rochester NY on  its way to Boston Commons”. Five months later after returning from Alaska we picked up US 20 as it passes through Yellowstone and followed it to the border with Illinois. After a side trip to Madison WI we used Interstates to get around Chicago and rejoined US 20 where it intersected I 94 in Indiana. We stayed with it through Elkhart and Cleveland all the way to its intersection with I 390 south of Rochester. On other trips over the years we have driven most of US 20 east to Boston.

US 1 (often confused by Left Coasters with CA 1/Pacific Coast Highway) runs from north of  Calais ME to “The Conch Republic” Key West. It often runs through densely populated areas like Boston, New York and DC area. A couple of years ago we started across “The Lincoln Highway” also US 50 and got distracted somewhere in Colorado. We will get back to that one day. We have driven the length of US 90 from Jacksonville FL to its western terminus at Van Horn TX where it merges on to I 8.

Our winter theme for the coming year is not developed yet. We expect to spend the cold weather part in Jojoba Hills SKP Resort. Mostly October through April. But that plan is not even set in Jello yet.