Daley Travels

Which is an odd thing to say after just completing the challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

What brings this to mind, is that Pam and I are again reviewing travel books, and more specifically, RV travel books.  Two books that we are reading are collections of journals and essays that a traveler has written and published in a larger book format. So I've been reviewing this blog and realized that we have been adding various bits and pieces to it for nearly three years. The welcome page written primarily by Pam has around 300 entries. This page that I've written has around 250 entries. They include stories we've taken in a travel trailer, a journey through cancer treatment, epic motorcycle trips, entries of life and memories.

Some, (Hi, Mom) have followed the blog since the beginning, but for anyone else just meeting us, it is a bit daunting, and hard to track reading from the beginning.  A single manuscript would make it easier to enjoy.  See, we really need to write a book.

Take a look at some entries that started our retirement life,

April 8, 2007

We will be leaving southern California the last week in April and going up to Oregon for the most of the summer; staying near Mike’s family for an extended visit. (Hopefully we'll get in a side-trip to Crescent City during that time too!) After that we will be heading across the country again to settle near Jennifer – most likely on the Alabama side since the home-schooling laws there are easy to live with. (Gads – I can’t believe I’m choosing to say I’m going to live in Alabama!!)

Why? Lots of reasons - it looks as though our son-in-law will be returning to Iraq by late summer / early fall and we would like to be nearer to Jenn and Aiden during that time. The cost of living is so much less there that we can live the same lifestyle on just Mike’s retirement check that we could live here with me working full-time. Back there I can work, albeit for less than I’d make out here, but we could bank my salary in Alabama versus just treading water in California. And I really DO want to buy a bigger RV to use for travelling full-time.

So we are cleaning out closets, deciding what we * really* need and what we don’t; copying music to our laptops so we don’t have to move the CD’s – that kind of stuff. After looking at moving costs, we’re probably going to sell most of our furniture here and just buy new when we get settled back east. (There’s an IKEA in Atlanta that I plan to get real cozy with…) :-) I’m going to the beach every day that I can, we'll make it to one last Angels' game and I'm trying to fit in a day trip to Catalina since we haven’t been there yet and it’s on my list!!

October 12, 2007

Today was a day of taking things to the local thrift shop, hazardous materials to the 'haz-mat' dump, and beginning the process of transferring clothes, food, etc. to our 24 ft. home for the next few weeks.  And you know what??  Even though we have basically ONE piece of furniture - an antique dresser - plus a couple of bookshelves - that we are taking with us, this whole packing thing is really a pain!  Which is a big reason for us wanting to eventually get a bigger RV to full-time travel in - you never have to unpack!  You get to live and see different places, but you take your stuff with you.  Sounds good to me.  :-)

Tomorrow we will load up the truck with everything, finish packing the trailer, do some cleaning in the house we've been living in this summer and then first thing Sunday morning we will hit the road.  Our first stop will be the Seal Beach Naval Station campground; very close to where we lived in Huntington Beach.  We'll stay there for about a week visiting with Christa and some friends; then Sunday the 21st we will start our trek east.  With my handy-dandy blackberry we should have internet access and be able to update this website with where we are each day.  Mike and I are both anxious to get going again, we loved our trip earlier this year and are hoping this will be just as much fun.  Not to mention that we are looking forward to finally being nearer to Jenn and Aiden.  (I think our grandson is anxious too - I received another 4:30 AM phone call from the little stinker this morning.  He just wants to know when we're finally going to get there!)

We'd love to have you follow along with us on this new adventure - and if you know of any places to see or things to do in the states we'll be going through, please let us know!

October  19, 2007

So we packed up our beach towels and chairs and headed to Sunset Beach this afternoon to get in one more beach fix. Mike brought his boogie board, Sarah brought her Frisbee, and I brought my book and camera. It was a great couple of hours watching Mike rediscover that boogie-boarding takes different muscles than motorcycle riding. I also spent a few minutes watching this little bird play chicken with the waves. It had a long skinny beak and was (I’m guessing) eating some kind of little bugs in the sand. But he would run down to the water line as the waves recessed, quickly poke his beak in the sand and grab what bugs he could find and then at the last minute run back up the beach as the waves came in. I tried to get some pictures, but couldn’t catch him in action.

After a while, the wind turned a bit breezy and cold, so we reluctantly packed up and headed back to the truck. In a couple of days we will start heading east and at the first opportunity I’m planning to dip my toes into the Atlantic Ocean. I wonder how strange it will be to watch the sun come UP over the ocean instead of watching an ocean sunset. Can’t wait to find out…

October 28, 2007

The other sign we kept seeing was one pointing out that the river we were crossing over was the Colorado River. Keep in mind that we first saw that river several days ago in Laughlin, Nevada. Then again at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Then it disappeared for a while until we started seeing it again, and again, and again. And it wasn’t that we were driving alongside of it and the road just went back and forth over the river – no. We would cross it in one place and then not see it for 200 miles when suddenly there would be another sign pointing out that we were crossing it again! Sarah sincerely thought we were lost and driving in circles. That river certainly makes quite a journey!