Celebrating the Holidays....and Our First Year Anniversary On the Road!

If you will take a close look at the picture we use on the blog of ourselves, you will notice that I have one of those orthopedic boots on.  Because at Christmas last year, I had foot surgery #4. It wasn't major, just more of a nusiance, especially given all the work involved in emptying our house and moving into our new "home".  Well it seems that the most appropriate way to celebrate our first anniversary was to have a mishap while camping at Fairfield Lake State Park and dislocating my left ankle.  Bummer.......but blessed, too.  My doctor says it isn't broke and although in the picture you might disagree with that diagnosis, I do believe I am blessed and do not anticipate any other problems. Other than going a little stir crazy in this 410 sf home over the next 5 or 6 weeks.  We did have to give up our volunteer job at Brazos Bend State Park that we were to have started January 1.

A year ago as we were moving into our new home. Lovely shoe.....

Ouch.....

At least I had just gotten my Christmas pedicure!

This was our campsite at Fairfield. Do you see the ledge behind there? Well, it was dark and there were a lot of leaves when I went to dump out the bean juice. Yes....I got juice all over me.

Taking it easy in the play room.

Looking back over our first year on the road, it has been "wow"! We did 3 volunteer stints:  Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Stonewall, Texas for 3 months. Then we went to Garner State Park for 6 weeks. Then a road trip to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah for 3 months. Great scenery, learned a lot of history and experienced different cultures, geography, but above all we are most thankful for the many people we have met and traded stories with, the new friendships we have made. We are so thankful that we have this wonderful opportunity to live our lives like this (even though a bum ankle throws a little wrinkle in the plan).  And I can't forget to mention how lucky our family was to celebrate a wedding and the gaining of our new son-in-law James, and adding his children into our family mix.

It's been a great first year on the road!  I think 2017 holds a lot of promise of adventure. It will be an epic Alaskan adventure for sure!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We have come to Matagorda Beach on the Texas gulf coast to celebrate the new year.

Some scenes from our holidays.

Pretty minimal decorations in the RV considering I used to decorate around 7 trees in the house! My mom made this ceramic tree around 1959.

Aiden and Santa

Wonderful husband that takes care of me.  Only in Texas though, if you will notice the 2 guns in the picture. Ha!

Seriously you gave me scratch offs???

Fun at breakfast with Santa!

Aiden with Courtney, Riley and James

Our oldest daughter Liz

I think Liz liked her present of Lite......

Awesome gingerbread house

Fun times shopping with Aiden

My mother-in-law and Rene' my sis-in-law getting those pedicures!

Lucy and her gifts

Christmas day - the temp is 82 degrees. Really????

Some of our great nieces and nephews

My daughter and niece and nephew, with their children

Ron and Klein

Lucy running to greet us Christmas morning!

Lucy's favorite gift. Well, one of her favorite.

Great grandmother with her great grandkids

Alaska Trip Plans and One More Historic Dance Hall!

For me, part of a trip adventure is the planning and researching of where you're going and the details that can drive you insane. I have spent a lot of time this year reading other travel blogs so I could grasp a better idea of what to expect. We have gone to Alaska before but we flew and rented a motor home. And we had a tight schedule. Now that we are retired and living as full-timers, all that has changed. It's fun to know you have the time to do sightseeing along the way.

We decided early on that we didn't want to travel on rough roads and do some boondocking in our big 5th wheel. After all, that's home now and we don't want to mess it up. So we have been researching and looking for a small 5th wheel, trying to keep it under 25' or 26'. Finally found one!  It has a cute floor plan that includes a rear kitchen, and extra places for guests to sleep and has a whole lot of storage.  Meet our baby trailer!

 

 

It's got a ton of storage and a rear kitchen, all for 25'.

Now to the fun part of this post.  Although we would like to start the trip and have no reservations and just aimlessly make our way to Alaska, we know that there are certain places we will have to plan ahead and make reservations.  Our long time friends and camping buddies, Donna and Greg, are also traveling with us. So excited! Together we took the rough draft and finally narrowed it down, made some decisions, and started making the reservations that were needed.  They also purchased a smaller, second 5ver. I guess most folks think we are nuts.  But here it is.......drum roll!

On the way west, there are some national parks our friends have not visited. So with this in mind, we will make these stops:
White Sands National Monument
AZ Sonora Desert Museum
Saguaro NP
Grand Canyon NP
Las Vegas
Kings Canyon and Sequoia NP
Yosemite NP
So. Lake Tahoe
Lassen Volcanic NP
Redwood NP
Oregon and Washington Coast
Olympic NP
Provincial Parks in British Columbia and Yukon
Ferry from Skagway to Haines
Kluane NP
Fairbanks where we will have fun at the Midnight Sun Festival and an excursion to the Arctic Circle
China
Denali NP - will stay at the Teklanika and Savage River CG and do some white water rafting
Denali State Park
Talkeetna - jet boat ride
Anchorage
Chugach State Park
Portage
Whittier
Seward
Fly to Kodiak Island and stay at a B&B of some folks we met while in Capitol Reef NP
Soldotna
Kenai
Homer

Wrangell St. Elias NP
Valdez
Tok and Chicken
Then we will hop on the ferry and make stops at Juneau, Sitka, St. Petersburg and end at Prince Rupert BC
Jasper NP
Lake Louise
Banff NP
Waterton Lakes NP
Glacier NP
Yellowstone NP
Grand Teton NP
Mount Rushmore NP
Badlands NP

That is a summary of what should be an unforgettable trip!

Had a lot of fun over the weekend! Visited with some of our cousins in Beeville, then traveled to Honda where we went to a Christmas dance at one of the oldest dance halls in Texas - the Quihi Gun Club, which was established 1890. It has an awesome wooden dance floor. We can cross another one of our list!  It was a lot of fun dancing to a good band and meeting new folks.

Inside the hall, all festive for Christmas!

The hall is by 2 creeks, so to prevent it from being flooded it is on stilts.  Built in 1890.

Goliad State Park, La Bahia Mission

Goliad is decorated too!