March 3     Golden, CO

We made contact with our friend, Jan.  He lives in the Denver area. We went to school with him 50 plus years ago at Enterprise Academy.  It was especially important to us to get together with him because his sweet wife of 42 years, died in December.  We had a wonderful visit over lunch.  He is doing as well as can be expected, but certainly would rather have Anna with him.  Heaven can't be soon enough.

After lunch, we started driving again.  Beautiful blue skies and good weather.  Problem is that it got dark too soon.  We did make it as far as Russell, KS for the night.  We had a hard time finding an RV park that was open for the season.  Too early, the water pipes freeze.  

From Russell, we didn't have any problem driving the rest of the way to Kansas City before dark.  We did stop in Salina to get the RV and car washed.  They were so dirty from all the ice and snow, that it was embarrassing to drive it.  

We found a different RV park than the one we usually stay in.  It's on the corner of I 70 and 7 highway. It's down a dirt road, so there went the clean car and RV.  This place is convenient to our KC destinations.  A lot of times we park behind a grocery store in Lenexa.  (with permission, of course).  That works too, but no hook ups.

March 1, 2017

And the journey continues.  We drove the next day to Grand Junction, CO.  That was only another hour east of where we spent the night.  We contacted Ron and Viki so we could have lunch with them.  By the time we finished eating, it was snowing again.  We got another 2 inches.  We thought we were finished with the snow for awhile.  I 70 to Denver was snow packed and not to our liking, so we stayed overnight in Grand Junction, expecting to continue our trip today.  When we got up this morning, we found out that the road was closed in a couple places, wet and nasty with high winds expected.  Wanting to make the best use of our time, we went out to lunch with Ron and Viki again.  Jim and Ron have been friends since they were five years old.  (now that's a very long time ago!) And you can't help but love Viki no matter how long you know her.  

Before lunch we decided to go back to Utah, then south and then go east through New Mexico.  Makes a long trip, but I would just as soon stay alive as not.  Luckily, by the time we were finished eating lunch, the computer said the roads were clear to Denver on I 70. And they were.  The road was dry, no closures or high winds.  We got to Golden, CO just about sundown.

So far the weather has a huge factor in our travels.  I promise it won't always be that way.  There are so many places to see and people to visit.  If you can't enjoy the trip, the destination won't be any fun either.  And we are making memories and having fun at the same time!

Where I do start?  Oh, the beginning.  But which beginning?  The one after we quit the bookmobile?  Or maybe the one after we retired from the Boise ABC?  That beginning started with a two week trip to Hawaii with friends, Pat and Ted.  No, a new beginning…..  our RV travels.  Even that beginning was almost 2 years ago.

So, a brief summary..  after retirement, we bought a RV hoping to travel and see America.  Our first trip was to Kansas for our alumni weekend.  Immediately after leaving there, we went to Branson, Missouri because we wanted to see the ‘Sight and Sound’ show, Jonah.  It was wonderful.  While we were there, we spent Sabbath with friends Janet and Leonard.  They told us how they were working at the RV Resort in exchange for camping and utilities.  We thought that sounded like a grand idea, so we quickly applied to be work campers also.  

The big problem was that we didn’t bring a car, because we weren’t planning on staying for four months.  So I flew home to Idaho, packed the car with summer things and drove back all 1650 miles by myself so we would have transportation.  Since we were only expected to work 24 hours per week, between the two of us, Jim also got a job a Silver Dollar City, driving the tram from the parking lot to the main gate.  Now, we are rolling in money!  (NOT)  It was a fun job and he got to meet a lot of people.  We loved our work and especially our friends in Branson so much, that we went back again the next summer.  We worked from April to October this time.  

After the first summer, we came home and sold our house.  We decided that we really like the travel and that lifestyle.  After the second summer in Branson, we came home and downsized our storage unit from a 25’ x 10’ unit to a 15’ x 5’ unit.  I guess that we are serious about traveling, since we got rid of most of my treasures.

One of the best parts about being in Branson is that we have so many friends from the KC area and around Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and even Idaho that come to spend the weekend or at least several days.  So many of these people came to see Janet and Leonard, but since we know so many of the same people, we shared friends!  What fun!  Also, this year five of our children and their families came to spend time with us.  And my sister Martha also spent about a week with us.  And that’s not counting all the alumni friends that came.  Sharon and Gary spent about a week with us.  I haven’t spent time with her for 40 plus years.  And this year my friend Shirley and Melvin came too.  I’ve seen her a couple times over the years, but never for days at a time.  I was 14 when we lived together at academy.

I wish now that I would have started keeping my blog when we started working there in 2015.  But this is the year!  I will start now and keep on as long as we are having fun.

A small preview of this year;  we plan on being in Branson March, April and May.  We will use the month on June to travel eastward, ending up in Maine.  We will work there July, August, September and October.  That puts us there during their famous fall colors!  Next we plan on returning to Branson for awhile so that we can enjoy the Christmas lights and shows.  After spending the coldest winter that Idaho has had for 30 years, we are thinking of either Texas or Arizona to winter.  We are considering a Panama Canal cruise sometime during the last part of the year too.  That’s not written in blood yet.  

So the adventures have begun.  We left Idaho yesterday.  It has taken us two days to go as far as we should have gone in one day.  We’re making memories already.  Utah is having snow and more snow.  It took us hours to go through the Salt Lake area and many more hours to go 60 miles from Provo to Price, Utah.  Once we started on 6 highway, we were committed.  It was snowing fast and furious.  Almost white out conditions at times.  But God was with us and we made it safely through.  Right now the rest of the trip looks better, but it can change overnight.

So, I will not write everyday on this blog.  But if something interesting happens, you will be the first (or second) to know.  I will try to remember not to use last names, to protect your privacy if I happen to mention you.  And if you get really bored and have nothing better to do, you can go back and read some of our travel adventures from when we were on the bookmobile.  The first address is traveladventures08.blogspot.com and they continue for several years.  I would recommend reading them in order.  Makes more sense that way.