Wrapping It Up

When I sat down to write my final post it amazes me all the beautiful experiences we have had over the past year and how fast time has passed.  We have decided to rent a townhouse in Scottsdale, AZ for a year to see if we are sure this is where we want to stay put.  Many things went in to our decision...job opportunities, taxes, airport access...It has been a very difficult decision.  If we had unlimited money, didn't have to work and didn't care what kind of airport access we needed we may have chosen a different location but I feel good about this choice.  This past weekend Matthew and Elli got married and we had a fabulous time!  So excited Elli Klancic is officially on the team.  After the wedding we went to a resort with the Borchardt family,  Mickey and Larry Woolums and the cheesehead Hind family from Wisconsin.  We had a week of fun and games.  It made me realize that our friends from home will always be our friends.  I can not see Peggy and Nina for months and we don't skip a beat. I'm hoping that we will have lots of visitors and I know that we will be making frequent trips back to see our family.

There are many things that I feel I have learned while taking our time off to roam.  The biggest thing is that Chris is my lobster.  We spent days upon days with only us and I loved all of it.  He is the most patient person in the world.  I would occasionally freak out and he just drove on...I guess this has happened our entire life.  We started off having a very organized plan and realized quickly that we wanted to wing it, which we did.  We slept in Walmart parking lots, desolate desert and next to waterfalls.  It really took time to realize things will always work out. This was a life lesson I needed to learn.  We are very fortunate to have been able to do this.  Lauren, Matthew and Hannah have all been supportive of our adventure.  My Mom is unable to express her sentiments regarding this, but I learned from her the importance of embracing adventure.  She traveled to Africa on a safari all by herself after my dad died.  Her and my dad traveled in an Airstream every winter to a different location.  I got those genes.  We have met the most interesting, amazing people on our travels.  People that our lives in Aurora, IL would have never intersected.  We have made great friends a long the way.  We have met up with Lisa and Jeff Berg all over the country.  Jeff actually drove us to Matthew's wedding.  The couple that still touches my heart was a father, son and wife in Florida.  Dad was an injured veteran, son was this 6 foot plus teenager that was at his dads side assisting with anything he needed.   They loved to fish and did so all day long.  When we were leaving they came over and gave us some handmade lures and invited us to stop by their home in Tennessee for a big steak.  If you watch the news you begin to think people are just not nice.  I beg to differ, we met more crazy, nice, thoughtful, helpful, fun people on our travels.
Thanks to all of you who said "go for it"!  I now say to you "go for it".

Almost All Work And No Play

Our good friends Mickey, Larry and Jordan Woolums were all in Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  Jordan lives here now and hosted the holiday.  Hannah and Jordan played soccer together for many years, so our course Hannah flew in.  The majority of our time here has been spent getting to know the different areas.  We have decided we are going to land here!  Yay!  This decision has  been weighing on me.  We will rent a place for one year to make sure we really like it.  We have not experienced summer here so we don't want to make a hasty decision.  It is November and we are in shorts, which is lovely.  I really haven't taken any pictures here since we really have just spent lots of time in the car looking at model homes and rentals.  We think we may have found a place in the Scottsdale area.  We will know for sure tomorrow.  We are planning to head back to this area after the first of the year to begin getting settled and to sadly begin looking for jobs. 

Sedona Red Rocked!

We stayed in Sedona for 5 days and loved it.  We had been here many years ago and I forgot how beautiful the red rock is.  This is not a place we could live, but visiting was great.  We did multiple beautiful hikes and had a wonderful time.  Headed to Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  Again, the pictures don't really do it justice.

Standin' On A Corner

We decided to "take it easy" in Winslow, Arizona.  Got to watch the Bears whoop Detroit despite the Bears kicker hitting the goal post 4 times.  Very fun!

Santa Fe

We had a few different people recommend Santa Fe as a possible place to live.  It is not for us.  We had a good time sightseeing but this is not our future home.  Our camp site was up in the mountains which was beautiful but below freezing at night.  We stayed there 5 days but left early because of the threat of snow.  The art district is very interesting and the hiking was great.  Onward to Sedona with a 2 day stop at the Homolovi State Park and Winslow, AZ. No cell or internet in the mountains which we have decided we don't care for.  Marching towards San Diego we go.

Hyde Memorial State Park

 7 miles up from our campsite!

On The Road Again

We had a wonderful 3 week visit back in the Chicago area.  We were able to see lots of family and friends.  It felt really good to see all those familiar faces.  We stayed in a studio at the Candlewood Suites which was a bit tight but made the RV seem roomy once we left.  Initially we headed to Madison, WI to spend time with Jackie, Kelli and Elena.  We briefly got to see Alex who is in college as well.  Very fun!  From there we decided to head to St. Louis to see Mickey and Larry Woolums.  We were able to stay at a very nice State Park 5 minutes from there home.  Always have fun with our buddies.  Our plan was to leave St. Louis and head to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Half an hour in to our drive form St. Louis we decided to take a detour and go back to look at Asheville / Hendersonville, NC.  Last time we visited the area we did lots of hiking.  This time was all business.  We looked at housing and cost of living more in depth.  We did get to hike one day.  This was the closest we will be to Asheville in the next months and figured it was worth a second look.  We did a day trip to Greenville, SC and decided we like that area better than Asheville.  It is only 45 minutes away from Asheville and is more affordable.  From Asheville we did a power drive to Hot Springs, AK, where we currently are.  We got a beautiful site on a creek in the National Park but the weather so far has been very rainy.  Today we went to the Quapaw Bath House and experienced the healing water.  You don't go to Hot Springs and not get in a hot spring.  From here we will be headed west with our next stop being Santa Fe, NM.

This was a meadow we hiked to in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  One lucky dog, so is Lilly ; )

These pictures are from right behind the RV in Hot Springs National Park.

Bend Makes The Short List

We spent 4 great days in Bend, Oregon.  Our old neighbors just moved there and have always talked about how beautiful it is.  We camped at Tumalo State Park which was within minutes of downtown but didn't feel like it.  We did a couple of hikes that were beautiful.  We happened upon a food truck/bar/outdoor entertainment area that was great.  We met some really nice people, especially Julie who we ended up meeting there regularly along with her father.  She also took us to her barn to meet her horse.  People were super friendly and it was beautiful.  This area definetely is on our short list for potential new landing spots.  Our only concern is the cost of housing, which seems to be at the top of the bubble right now.  Seriously considering moving there to rent for a year and then see how things look.  Many decisions to be discussed.  I'm not even going to post anything about Wyoming...not living there.  We did stay for two nights in Nebraska at Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area.  It was a great surprise.  Who would think a big lake with beautiful sandy shores was in Nebraska...certainly not me.  We are excited to be heading back to the Chicago area and are thinking just one more day to Des Moines and then on to the "love shack" aka The Candlewood Suites in Warrenville.  Can't wait to see my family and friends.

Tumalo Falls

 Nebraska, really!

Rain Rain Go Away

We stayed 4 days outside of Astoria, OR at Fort Stevens State Park.  It has rained every night and one of the days.  The biggest problem with that is the dog.  She is constantly dirty and wet.  She also likes to nap on our bed...ugh.  Fort Stevens was build during the Civil War to protect the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was also used during WWII to prevent the Japanese from entering the area.  They were actually shelled by a Japanese Submarine.  Interesting history.  We also went to the Maritime Museum in Astoria.  I have the attention span of a gnat so museums are not usually my cup of tea, but it was very interesting.  Where the Pacific Ocean meets the mouth of the Columbia River is considered the most dangerous waters in the country.  The Coast Guard use this area for training.  The park is located along the Oregon coast and has all public beaches.  Every day we go for a long walk on the nice flat beach where Lilly can run off leash.  She runs crazy on the dunes which always makes me smile.  We stayed two nights outside of Portland where we got to meet up with Tyler and Rachel Borchardt.  We toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory on our way to Portland which was fun.  We left Portland a day early because of rain.  Headed to Bend, Oregon where the weather is expected to be much better.

Oops, I Can't Back Up

Chris is the driver and I am the navigator.  Sounds simple, right?  Well sometimes the navigator hasn't had internet services and gets a little engrossed in her phone and misses a turn.  No big deal, usually.  I quickly found a road that we should have been able to circle back to the main road on.  Navigator was a little slow informing the driver so we missed the first turn as driver was going to fast to stop.  No big deal, we would just turn on the other end of the road.  Well, that road did not run perpendicular, as most roads do.  Driver felt confident he could make the turn... he couldn't.  I jumped out as we were blocking traffic with our tow car.  We are 55 feet long and cannot back-up with the tow car on.  I went into the ditch to see if we could make the turn without ending up in the ditch, which we could not.  Chris then jumped out and began unhooking the tow car while I directed traffic around us.  Crisis averted.  We were cracking up when we finally got going again.  If this had happened 5 months ago we probably would have been screaming at each other.  We stayed at an RV Park outside of Seattle.  We have never been there so it was fun getting to see the city.

Snoqualmie Falls

 Chihuly glass exhibit

 Space Needle...leaning back on the angled glass was a very odd feeling.

Chris laid on the ground to get this view.