In a sense, we are all venturing into the unknown as we approach a new year. What will 2019 have in store for us? If your plan is to settle into your favorite chair to watch your favorite television programs, then 2019 might hold a little more certainty. But as Betty & I continue our great adventure, it is difficult to anticipate exactly what we will encounter. While we have some ideas about where we wish to go and what we hope to do, there are many uncertainties about getting there – especially with a disinterested navigator like Betty! She has many other interests, but GPS and maps just aren’t her things… LOL.
So I’ll be relying on The Band’s Up On Cripple Creek to get to our first destination:
“… you know where I wanna go?
Straight down the Mississippi river, to the Gulf of Mexico
To Lake Charles, Louisiana, little Betty girl that I once knew
She told me just to come on by, if there’s anything she could do
Up on Cripple Creek she sends me
If I spring a leak she mends me
I don’t have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard’s dream if I ever did see one.”
After leaving Manitoba, the Interstates take us straight down through North & South Dakotas, Iowa, Kansas, and Arkansas, before depositing us at Palmetto Island State Park, just east of Lake Charles, Louisiana. While I anticipate our wine rack will be full of “Wally wine” (Walmart Special Reserve: $2.98) by the time we get there, I’m still not sure it will be a drunkard’s dream! LOL.
In any event, Betty & I may usher in the new year at Palmetto Island, or head east to New Orleans, or further east again to Buccaneer State Park in Mississippi. It all depends on which way the wind blows. Our first stop in 2019 might be Meaher State Park on Mobile Bay in Alabama, with our first reservation at Big Lagoon State Park, on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida, from Jan. 7 – 15/19. From there we hope to make our way around the State of Florida, stopping in Orlando for a Disney visit with our kids and grandkids in mid-February, and with our old Winnipeg next door neighbours who are wintering in the area.
Of course, our furthest south destination is Key West, in the Florida Keys, where we hope to take in the attractions before heading up the coast to Cape Canaveral, Daytona Beach, Savannah Georgia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to name a few bucket list stops before beginning our journey home.
Whether your current vision for 2019 is clear or cloudy, Betty & I hope and pray that you can enjoy the full richness of life on planet earth as you venture into the great unknown. Happy New Year!
Cheers!
“Now there’s one thing in the whole wide world I sure do love to see
That’s how that little love of mine puts her doughnut in my tea…” LOL