Tag: snow

What Clothing Should We Bring?

What clothing should we pack for our month-long trip? We’ll be leaving Wisconsin with snow on the ground it seems since we just had 17 inches on Thursday! We’ll be arrive on Wednesday in Phoenix, Arizona where the high that day should be 85 and by Saturday it will be 100. And the temperatures will be much warmer in California than we’ve seen in Wisconsin for a while.

So we’ll probably start off driving away with our long-sleeved shirts on, a jacket, and maybe even boots. We’ll be coming back wearing shorts, tank tops, and sandals. Swimsuits! We’ll have those along for all the swimming we’ll be doing.

Training for the Pools in Phoenix and California

We plan to do lots of swimming in pools during our month-long trip coming up. Pools in Phoenix when we stay with friends. A pool at a hotel in San Diego. Pam & Phil’s pool in Roseville in Northern California. We’re leaving snow to go to these places that are at or nearly at 100 degrees! We’ll need lots of pool time.

A couple of Sundays ago friends here in Rice Lake, Wisconsin had a pool party. Though there was snow on the ground and it was raining that day, Fiona enjoyed three hours at an indoor, heated pool. She had a blast! Guess she was ‘training’ for the pools in Phoenix and California. :) We’re all looking forward to more swimming.

fiona swims at the indoor pool in rice lake

It’s About Time for Something New Here!

Since moving to Rice Lake, Wisconsin in April 2012, we haven’t done a whole lot of traveling that we’ve written about. I’m going to try to make sure and write about our travels this month though in May 2013.

This month’s trip will take us out of the snow we just had on May 2 to a nice hot 100 in Arizona.

Goodbye snow!

Snow Rice Lake May 2, 2013
Snow Rice Lake May 2, 2013

We’re taking the month to eventually get the rest of our stuff out of storage in California. That will be near the end of the month. Here’s our basic itinerary:

  • May 6 – Leave Rice Lake, WI and drive to Kansas City, MO; stay overnight at a hotel we’ve already booked.
  • May 7 – Drive from Kansas City to probably Delhart, TX where we’ll stay at a hotel we stayed in last time we were through that part of Texas.
  • May 8 – From Delhart drive to Phoenix, Arizona and be warmly welcomed by our very good friend Terry Wilson and his lovely wife Virgie. Go swimming in their pool in 100 degree weather! :)
  • May 9 – Visit with Terry & Virgie and that night Joel will get to play music with Terry and his band.
  • May 10-12 – Stay with our friend Dan and his family in another section of Phoenix.
  • May 13-18 – Back to Terry & Virgie’s to visit more, play music, swim, swim, swim.
  • May 19 – Visit with Sue’s Uncle Phil & family in Glendale, Arizona. Sue hasn’t seen her Uncle in about 30 years.
  • May 20 – Drive from Phoenix to San Diego, California. Stay at a hotel in Chula Vista that has a pool.
  • May 21 – Visit with Joel’s brother and family
  • May 22 – Visit with Sue’s mom; possibly go to Balboa Park.
  • May 23 – Visit with Joel’s sister and family (read about their recent road trip); stay overnight with friends Ken & Kelly in San Diego
  • May 24 – Drive up to Northern California and visit with Tom Bentley.
  • May 25 – Drive to San Francisco and visit with David Reffkin.
  • May 26-28 Stay with good friends Pam & Phil in Roseville, California. Pick up stuff still in storage. Fiona spends two days with her sister Rachelle.
  • May 29 – Leave California for Idaho
  • May 30 – Drive through Montana
  • May 31 – Drive through Wyoming, North Dakota
  • June 1 – Arrive back in Rice Lake, Wisconsin

Of course it’s all subject to change. I plan to take pictures and keep a written journal and hopefully post often here. Fiona may post at her website as well.

We plan on having a blast!

South New Jersey in the Fall is Beautiful

We’ve been in South New Jersey for nearly three weeks now. You probably thought we fell off the face of the earth since we haven’t posted much here lately. No, we didn’t. We’re alive, and even well!

Let me first say that we’re enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Seeing all the different colors in trees everywhere is spectacular! I love that even when it’s cold, there’s usually sunshine. And it’s a nice 55 degrees right now at 5 pm.

So what is going on with us?

In August while we were house sitting for Rita and Carl again in Colorado, we were contacted about coming to New Jersey to house sit for several months. It seemed like this would be a good opportunity for us and arranged to make our way out here. In the meantime we also arranged for the Big Book Release Party on November 11, 2011 in Philadelphia.

As soon as we arrived we realized we wouldn’t be able to stay at this assignment. Joel immediately had very bad allergic reactions to what we believe is some sort of hidden molds in the home. We’ve been told by several locals that this particular area has had mold problems due to flooding. Within a few days Fiona also started having symptoms. We knew we had to make other housing arrangements immediately. And it had to be in this area since the book release party was coming up soon.

Someone in our local Bible Study group was able to loan us an air purification unit for a week or so to help alleviate the symptoms until we could find other accommodations. Within 10 days one of our new friends in the Study group had contacted one of their friends who had some extra rooms available. We talked with them and explained that we needed a place to stay immediately and that if possible, we’d like to work something out to rent their rooms for a while.

So now we’re staying with Cheryl and Joel. Yep, there are two Joel’s in the household! They are wonderful people and it looks like we’ll be with them for a bit.

To add to the fun, we had already invited our son James out to stay with us and join us in the business. We’re working out all the details but he’ll be joining us shortly. We do have a mailing address in New Jersey now. So if you’d like to send us a letter, just contact us and we’ll send that address along!

That’s the latest! We hope to travel to various spots here on the East coast while we’re in this area. So watch for more…

Embrace the Unexpected

Tehachipi dusted with snow. A field full of jumbo jets in Mojave. The almost comically hard snow line above the desert. Our first night sleeping in a Walmart parking lot.

If our trip had gone as planned we would have missed all this. We would never have planned a trip which included being stuck in Bakersfield because the freeways were blocked due to snow.

You cannot plan for everything. Indeed, you should plan. But as every nomad knows no plan survives contact with the highway.

Discontent and unhappiness are caused by our refusal to acknowledge and accept what is. Call it serendipity, the universe, God. Embrace the adventures that happen all on their own.

Like most true stories, there’s just no way we could make this stuff up.

No Travel Plan Survives Contact with the Pavement

A few days ago Sue told you about being stuck over night in Bakersfield because the roads going south were closed because of the snow. Yes, in California, you can close the carotid artery of the state with snow, unlike, say, Wisconsin.

Anyway, we had a ball. We never would have planned most of the stuff we did on that drive; sleeping in the car in a WalMart parking lot, f’rinstance. We left early to get here early. Sue finally has contact lenses again instead of her outdated glasses, so she can drive at night and we would have. We’ve driven 25 hours with nothing but naps. I wouldn’t do it often, but we were so antsy to get going that we were ready to leave at 4:30pm Sunday, and drive ’til 7 the next morning. That’s not what happened.

What happened was that we discovered, again, that we can do pretty much anything, and if we can’t do it, we can survive it. We can’t control the weather or road closures, so instead, we controlled our reaction. We enjoyed the silliness of, after making it out of Canada, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and more last November, being snowbound in southern California fer cryin’ out loud.

We saw Tehachapi covered in snow. (Jerry and I are going to organise a business retreat there. Interested in some of the most humanistic, practical, fun business training in existence? Gimme a shout.)

We reminded ourselves that no one was waiting up for us. We had no deadline, only a goal, and a loose one. I drove under the speed limit. We stopped to look at stuff. Fiona trudged through snow in a Walgreen’s parking lot, just because she wanted to. We sat in a StarBUCKs in Bakersfield and just puttered while Fiona ate the free oatmeal one of the baristas gave her (“I’m a mom and I just thought she might like some; is that okay?” Um, yeah, you can give our little girl breakfast; sure!)

You can’t plan trips as great as the ones that happen on their own.

I noticed something as I drove. When I glanced at Sue, there were different lines on her face. For quite a while, they’ve been worry lines; stress lines. We’ve spent some time doing things we needed to do the past couple months; time getting ready for should instead of want. Now, the lines are smiles, peace, thoughts, prayers.

Lines on the map don’t mean much to me anymore; I can go anywhere and be happy. It’s what I read in my wife’s face that tells me whether we’re on the right path.

Wind on the Kansas Plains, Ice in the Colorado Mountains

How does anyone know when there’s a cyclone in Kansas? The wind blew 70 MPH the whole time we were there. Also, there was snow in Kansas, and snow and ice in Colorado. For some reason I can’t get it through my head that if Denver is over 5,000 feet up, the mountains around it must be over 7,000 feet. There might, in fact, be snow and ice in late November, especially at night.

We almost turned back an hour from Denver, 10 hours into an 11-hour day. When I decided that one more climb to a higher elevation just wasn’t worth the risk, we started down the other side.

Through Iowa and Missouri to Kansas

We left Wisconsin Saturday morning. Instead of heading to South Dakota as originally planned, we headed south to Kansas. The weather promised to be unfriendly in South Dakota when we had planned to leave there; so a quick change of plans was in order.

We traveled through Iowa and Missouri and into Kansas. Iowa had a very cool Welcome Center with free internet access! In Kansas we stayed with a fellow member of Triiibes. Fiona made a new friend at our Sunday Bible meeting with Olivia, another six-year old. The funny thing is that Olivia’s mom is the sister of a friend of my older daughter’s. Olivia’s family will be moving back to Sacramento California in March. So we traded contact information and Fiona will probably see Olivia again in California.

Monday was a very long drive from Kansas to Denver. However, we did miss the worst of the weather. Enjoy our pics!

Fiona Makes a Snow Angel in Rice Lake

Fiona went outside in the snow today and made her first snow angel. It was cold! After seeing the ice on the lake she decided it was time to come on back in. We’ll have to get some real winter gear to come back here in the winter.

We did find my two pair of gloves. One of Joel’s is still buried somewhere or maybe left behind at Shawn’s in Ottawa? Shawn, have you seen any extra gloves laying around?

Fiona borrowed one of my scarves. She used to have one. I’m making her another one now. Grandma had some extra yarn that matches the blanket Grandma gave Fiona last time we were here. So I’m using some of it to crochet Fiona a large scarf to wear in this cold weather.

Looks like we’ll head to South Dakota after all; but only for one night. Now we need a place to stay Sunday night in an area where we aren’t afraid of being snowed in. Anyone in Lincoln Nebraska?

P.S. Fiona is excited that she’s going to be the flower girl in her sister’s wedding. Rachelle just got engaged last night! Congrats!

Fiona’s First Snowfall

Today for the first time ever, Fiona and I went out into a snowfall. We had gentle snow falling most all day today. We didn’t stay out in it long. We’ll have to get some fur-lined boots and warmer gloves for that. But it was beautiful to see the snow gently falling from the sky and covering everything in white.