On The Road

Good thing this Graham guy can drive!

No, not the Kurt Cobain band, but the state of perfect quietude, freedom, and highest happiness. That is where Betty & I found ourselves yesterday.

We began our less than grueling day, breaking camp in Austin, Texas, and driving for an hour to Bastrop State Park. Being a weekend and without a reservation, we had no idea whether they would have a campsite for us. As it turns out, we had our choice of sites, and selected one at the end of a loop, with a scenic lookout over valleys in 2 directions. The park had suffered from a major forest fire in 2011, but new growth and fresh plantings were evident, and the campground is well cared for. To our surprise, we have a large, full service
site at half the price we had paid in Austin. With a paved parking area, the automatic levelers did quick work of stabilizing us, and a push of another button had our slideouts expanding our living space in no time at all.

For lunch Betty presented sushi with an assortment of cheeses and crackers, all paired with a nice Beaujolais. For dinner I prepared my famous prosciutto wrapped asparagus and lamb chops on the grill, and served with mint sauce and a bottle of Cambridge & Sunset Pinot Noir. We sat outside and enjoyed the warmth of a Texas evening, the perfect quietude of our camp spot, the freedom that retirement brings, and the highest happiness of each other’s company. Nirvana!

A funny thing happened on the way to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas yesterday. We plugged the co-ordinates into our gps and set off, without first questioning the route she(?) was taking us. As it turned out, it was the most convoluted, twisty, turny, narrow country road through rural Texas, past Austin’s dump and a wide range of house styles. (We’re convinced that Texas has no building codes or required building permits. You do what you want with your land, however lavish or humble!) Within a mile of the park we crossed over a major street that we had taken many times in the past, as it is a prominent Interstate exit. If we had taken that exit, we would have arrived at the park in half the time!

We laughed at this small (mis)adventure, realizing at the same time that speed, and the most direct routes, are not necessarily our goals on this journey. There is a lot of country to see, and you don’t catch it all from the Interstate.

Not that we are totally devoid of planning — leaving our adventure in the hands of a gps who routinely tells us to turn left when we can see our destination on the right… We planned and succeeded in visiting Central Market in Austin
yesterday, picking up some fabulous fresh fruit, vegetables, breads, cheeses, wines (buy 6, get 10% off – how can you go wrong with their huge international selection!), steak, lamb, and other unique food items. It’s always a treat, but we have to limit ourselves by the size of the Smart car “trunk”.

We also picked up a new Weber bbq (grill in America) that I had ordered on-line last week and had delivered to an Austin Walmart. After some assembly required, I seared those aforementioned Missouri-raised steak, and we enjoyed a candlelight dinner with a fresh salad, baguette, and a nice bottle of Valpolicella.

In the end, our dinner and night’s stay were at Austin’s Lone Star RV Park, as McKinney Falls State Park was fully booked in advance – no room for those who didn’t plan ahead… Before we pulled out of the park, the friendly ranger wanted to direct us to alternate state parks. “Are you headed east or west?” To which I answered: “Yes”!

it is 730 and I am sitting in the same spot I have on many previous occasions. On the couch with Charlie curled up on my lap reading a book and having my first cup coffee. We are in Austin at a campground we have visited many times on various trips to South Padre Island. I am thinking about those other times and how I always knew I had to go back to work but now there is no going back and I wonder how long it really takes before that becomes a reality in my mind and heart. I miss my friends and the daily chatter but I am happy with the choice I made and am excited to get to the point where I am not thinking about this as a vacation.

ok so things are a bit out of sequence. I promise to get better

.

and away we go!

Last official duty!

I would like to introduce you to Gavin. He and his twin sister McKenzie were adopted out to Betty, Christine Finnbogason, and Heather Elands. ( but obviously Larry also has taken McKenzie under his wing) 

Gavin chose the high adventure of travelling with the Reddoch’s while McKenzie stayed behind to keep an eye on the Womens Health program. It won’t be all boring back in Winnipeg and Chris and Heather have promised to take her to conferences so she will see some of world and not just stay cloistered in the office. Also she will get to go to the new hospital when it opens. HaHa

Gavin will begin to post pictures of his marvellous adventure with the help of adopted mom Betty. No knomes for a 40 year women’s health veteran!

Talk about deep freeze! When we left Winnipeg it was too cold to curl up our power cords to store underneath – they wouldn’t bend! Everything that would normally have been stored in our basement had to go into our main living area until we could get to somewhere warm. As an example of how cold it was: the safety cables that attach our Smart car to the motorhome are wrapped in a vinyl covering, but when I stretched them to attach the car, the brittle covers just shattered in a hundred pieces!

Our stops for gas in North Dakota (State #1), South Dakota (State #2), and Iowa (State #3) were brutal. The cold remained and the wind chill was wicked. We picked up hand and foot warmers at the Flying J in Fargo, and bundled ourselves in blankets, hats and gloves as we drove south, each breath visible as we peered through the frosted windshield. In addition to the dash heater, we kept the furnace on for the first 5 states. Our original plan was to take our time on the journey south, but because of the frigid temps, we just pushed on. The snow was mostly gone by State #3, but when would this bitter cold end?

While Betty slept in our cozy bed, which was originally frozen to a rock hard state, but defrosted by her body temperature, I drove through the nights, taking power naps at Flying Js and rest stops – both of us fully clothed. By evening on the 27^th we had passed through an edge of Nebraska (State #4), scouted out the BMO Harris Bank in St. Joseph, Missouri (State #5), and parked at Walmart until we could get to the bank in the morning of the 28^th.

Despite numerous attempts by phone & on-line to expedite the opening of a U.S. bank account, the whole morning was spent in a modern, attractive, but otherwise deserted bank building  trying to open a simple chequing (checking) account. It took 3 hours to complete the application, and we were surprised to find it was finally set up in our son’s name! The staff member had asked who the beneficiary would be if something happened to us, and we gave his name, which she proceeded to use for the remainder of the process. More time to reverse the error… Our stated goal at the outset was to get debit cards on the account, so we could complete transactions in U.S.D. Now it seems the cards will be mailed to our son, who will need to find us and forward them. Betty had to remind me to be patient. We are no longer in a rush…  (Jan. 29/18 update:  After running very low on U.S. cash, we were finally able to use an ATM with our debit cards today – more than a month after applying. The bank manager had to intervene to get us PIN numbers, as the latest correspondence to our home address hasn’t arrived.)

Anyway, we were able to make our way along some scenic Kansas country roads (State #6) until we reached Oklahoma City (State #7), starting to warm up, but still not warm enough to flush the antifreeze out of our plumbing so that we could use our on-board facilities. After a pleasant sleep at the Texas (State #8) border information centre (center..) we arrived at our first campground destination: Destiny Dallas RV Park, and of course took advantage of the on-site RV wash bay to clean off the road grime before checking into our site.

Rather than driving over New Year’s, we have decided to stay for a week, and put some things away. The local news, and folks we meet are talking about how cold it is here just now. But we can’t help but smile and think – It’s all relative: the coats are off, the fountains and swimming pools are open, and our power cords are flexible!

For most Americans, North Dakota is way up north – the location for that film named “Fargo”. But for us, it is our first state to the south of Manitoba. Not out of the snow yet!

For us, North Dakota is where we stock our motorhome with groceries, because you never know what fruit, vegetables, or other food the border guards are going to reject. (eg.: Is there lamb in your dog food? If yes, it’s inadmissible to the U.S.). North Dakota is also our first place to top up with cheaper gas, and to catch a power nap, when packing and getting on the road has been a strenuous activity.

We’ll soon be heading south to 47 other states, and I’m not sure yet if blog posts will be numbered accordingly. But stay tuned for state # 2 – logically SOUTH Dakota, – going in the right direction, but still in the deep freeze!