When we sold our home in San Jose and moved to AZ in December 2016, it was to downsize our costs so we could afford a nicer RV to do extended traveling. However, the first summer in AZ, we just hadn’t had the time to get settled and get a mortgage on the new house (we paid cash, which was most of the profit on the old house, so we could buy quickly), and we were not comfortable going out in the old single-A/C coach with the cats - after a few hours of no A/C in the desert in the summer if it went out, we’d be dead. So we sweltered through our first AZ summer. And finally upgraded the RV in November.
Last year, I had a fabulous trip planned out, but then Charles got diagnosed with very early stage prostate cancer, and insisted on spending the summer having radiation therapy. Plus I had just had an abdominoplasty at the end of April. So we sweltered through a second AZ summer.
This year, we’re both not really back up to speed physically, but goddamn it, we were going to get the hell out of Hell this summer. And we left today!
I am utterly exhausted. We’ve been actively preparing the house to be away from it for 2.5 months, plus clean and pack the RV. It was more work than it should have been - everything hurts!
Our community RV club was doing an 11 day trip to Palm Springs, Buellton and Paso Robles, so we figured we’d start our summer trip with them, then head up to our usual place just south of Gilroy and near our kids. We’re going to hang out there until July 12th, at which point the RV park is already booked for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. So then we’ll head off for Sacramento (cousins party with cousins I’ve never met in real life), Reno (my oldest friend - since we were 10, and her husband - they met at my first wedding in 1981), and then to Las Vegas (Munchkin! and Jeff). If the weather isn’t TOO horrible, I’d like to visit the Grand Canyon again while we’re in the neighborhood, but late July is usually miserable there.
And - stop me if you’ve heard this before - we may either be bringing Dad back with us, or he will be flying to move in with us shortly after we get home. His ladyfriend apparently has gotten another several months of use out of him after she had surgery in October, but she’s finding his memory issues to be too difficult to handle.
Good. I think he’s going to do better with us. And we have plenty of room in the RV for him. But I expect there to be much more drama before this happens.
(If we bring him back with us, we may have to change our return itinerary and go home via Los Angeles, so Dad can see my brothers. But I dunno how this is going to work out - controlling ladyfriend insists he should fly to us, and that he can’t handle traveling in the RV. He is still doing their grocery shopping, on foot, by himself, and cooking for them. He needs to get away from her.)
Last year, I had a fabulous trip planned out, but then Charles got diagnosed with very early stage prostate cancer, and insisted on spending the summer having radiation therapy. Plus I had just had an abdominoplasty at the end of April. So we sweltered through a second AZ summer.
This year, we’re both not really back up to speed physically, but goddamn it, we were going to get the hell out of Hell this summer. And we left today!
I am utterly exhausted. We’ve been actively preparing the house to be away from it for 2.5 months, plus clean and pack the RV. It was more work than it should have been - everything hurts!
Our community RV club was doing an 11 day trip to Palm Springs, Buellton and Paso Robles, so we figured we’d start our summer trip with them, then head up to our usual place just south of Gilroy and near our kids. We’re going to hang out there until July 12th, at which point the RV park is already booked for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. So then we’ll head off for Sacramento (cousins party with cousins I’ve never met in real life), Reno (my oldest friend - since we were 10, and her husband - they met at my first wedding in 1981), and then to Las Vegas (Munchkin! and Jeff). If the weather isn’t TOO horrible, I’d like to visit the Grand Canyon again while we’re in the neighborhood, but late July is usually miserable there.
And - stop me if you’ve heard this before - we may either be bringing Dad back with us, or he will be flying to move in with us shortly after we get home. His ladyfriend apparently has gotten another several months of use out of him after she had surgery in October, but she’s finding his memory issues to be too difficult to handle.
Good. I think he’s going to do better with us. And we have plenty of room in the RV for him. But I expect there to be much more drama before this happens.
(If we bring him back with us, we may have to change our return itinerary and go home via Los Angeles, so Dad can see my brothers. But I dunno how this is going to work out - controlling ladyfriend insists he should fly to us, and that he can’t handle traveling in the RV. He is still doing their grocery shopping, on foot, by himself, and cooking for them. He needs to get away from her.)
