If you are reading this, it means Editor David T. Young has forgiven me for being AWOL for almost two months. I needed time to regroup.
It turns out after years and years of working under constant deadline pressure, I don’t like doing things just because I must. I think it’s a personality flaw that comes with retirement.
So King and I are on the road again. I’m writing this from the comfort of my book nook (kitchen table turned into a bed) in our travel trailer. The windows are open and a pleasant breeze is blowing in. King and Petra are napping in the “bedroom.” We are in a county park on the shores of the Colorado River outside of Parker, Ariz. The temperature is in the mid-80s.
We will finish our last 350 miles Friday and head to Sweetwater Summit Regional Park in Bonita, Calif. – another county park. We don’t go for RV resorts, though this one in Parker comes pretty close. The $30 a night they charge is the upper limit of what we normally pay, but I’m beginning to rethink that. There is something to be said for electric and water – although the water here is non-potable. King thought we could hookup to it and boil, but when it came out green, we quickly decided to deplete what is in the trailer’s fresh water tank.
We left our summer Michigan campground on Nov. 1, and spent a week at Muskegon State Park to be near our grandchildren in Grand Haven. Our youngest granddaughter was celebrating her sixth birthday and our son and daughter-in-law needed a babysitter the weekend of the 6th of November so they could attend a Dave Matthews concert in Grand Rapids. So we actually left Michigan on Nov. 8.
Muskegon State Park, by the way, is one of the few state parks open year-round. We had the campground to ourselves most of the week and surprisingly it filled up over the weekend.
A week before we left, King was working on the trailer roof, fell off a ladder and broke a rib. We’ve been taking it slow, traveling about 300 miles a day and sometimes spending a couple of days in one spot. It’s been a relaxing way to travel.
In fact, on the days we stay in one place I’m content to do just that – stay in one place with no exploring. We considered, briefly, about stopping outside of Winslow, Arizona to see the Meteor Crater National Landmark. It was chilly and windy and we decided we didn’t want to spend the $40 for the two of us to stop and look. Fact of the matter is, we are doing what we want in our retirement.
There was, at one time, this huge need to see as much as possible before we died. We now realize we are living our bucket list and we can do what we want, the way we want and blow raspberries at those who tell us we should be doing more. We’ve become loners and rather like it that way.
And now a brief soapbox stance:
If the news reports are to be believed (and I have no reason not to believe them), Michigan has become the COVID-19 hotspot of the nation. We have several family members who tend to be anti-vaxers and one of them has tested positive. It is NOT a smug victory. This individual’s reluctance to get the vaccine has put the entire family (spouse and children) at risk. My opinion is that it is unconscionable.
