September 2013 - October 3

September 2013

Just to catch you up: our house in Londonderry was for sale this summer. People looked at it and loved it, but no buyers, because “it is on a busy road”. Not really, but it’s not a cul-de-sac, and there’s nothing we can do about that. So in August we decided to find renters instead and that only took one or two days. A family, like ours, they had three kids and wanted one more baby, except that their fourth baby is triplets… so they care much less about the “busy” road, they’re thrilled with all the bedrooms upstairs, the spaciousness downstairs,  the big level yard, and the pond. Since we didn’t have to wait for mortgages to be applied for, we got our stuff out by Labor Day so the new family could get their oldest two in on the first day of school.

With everything in storage and us homeless, we had sleepovers at our various children for a few nights and then, on Sep. 6^th, went to the Philippines – business for Opa Henk, pleasure for me. We flew from Boston to Tokyo to Manilla to Cebu and stayed for two weeks. Got Destination Imagination off to a good start thanks to some people who are really interested, and went for some awesome diving around Cebu and on the nearby island Bohol: boat rides, sea breezes, warm air, warm water, sea turtles, little octopi, cushion sea stars, corals, colorful little fish, schools of jackfish, barracudas, tiny shrimp, lobsters, sea snakes, nudibranches, clams, hermit crabs, etc etc etc. If you ever get a chance, do go diving. It’s unbelievable.

I got home a week before Opa and lodged in a timeshare grand hotel studio in Attitash, driving back and forth between the White Mountains and the kids (and grandkids). On the 26th Opa got home too. A few more nights sleeping over at the kids (and distributing the cars that were staying behind) and it was time to leave for the West Coast. The RV, parked in Arizona, is going to be our home until we build a small house in Newbury, NH, next year, so off to Arizona we go.

September 28, 29, 30

Saturday morning we showed the renters how to winterize the pond; and we packed the Mazda, seats down, full with our personal belongings plus the shoebox of Dutch cheese – yes, there are things we are not willing to give to the children ;)  Then to Boston to spend a few hours with Lisa and family. We left their house by dinnertime to put the first four hours of driving behind us. NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, interstate routes 93, 95, and 287 to Mahwah, just over the NJ border. Got there at bedtime.

Sunday and Monday: very long driving days. Every few hours we stopped for gas, potty breaks, leg stretching, lunch or dinner, and to switch drivers. The landscape is familiar, lovely in some places and boring in others. My favorite parts are Pennsylvania, where the road crosses diagonally over a few Appalachian ridges, and the Blue Ridge and Smoky mountains in Virginia and Tennessee, on Sunday; routes 287, 78, 81, and 40 through NJ, PA, MD, VA, TN. Sunday night we stayed over in Nashville, TN, Central Time Zone.

During Monday the landscape got drier and drier. Henk works from the MiFi, I drive. Nothing interesting to note other than a town called Sweetwater, but we understood the name much better at our destination of the day, Odessa, TX, where there are so many minerals in the water it tastes terrible. Even the locals agree. Today we crossed through TN and AR into TX via rte 40, 30, and 20.

Oct. 1, 2, 3

Opa Henk works, I drive again on Tuesday.  From Odessa, TX to Tucson, AZ is a much shorter drive, which is a good thing, because our behinds are having saddle pain issues ;)  The route goes through the driest part of Texas, rte 20 and 10, but after El Paso – views of Mexico on the left – it gets better. New Mexico and its multi-colored mesas keep the drive interesting. We stay on route 10 until we get to Tucson at 2:30 PM.

We can see the RV from the campground entrance, and notice the cover is missing. We were warned that the desert wind can do this, and Opa had gotten insurance to cover for it, so we don’t worry. It certainly saves me climbing on the roof and trying to somehow fold it, ready for next year! The owners kindly cleaned the shreds away – it was probably not looking good either ;)  - so we don’t even have to do that. And the RV starts up right away, yeay. We put it on a camp site, go grocery shopping, and stop by Camping World because of the shredded cover: oh, oops, we’re supposed to bring the shreds in, in order to get the replacement cover… I see how this insurance makes a profit: nobody covers their RV if they’re actually there, so, there’s nobody there to collect the cover if it comes apart, and then, well, the insurance doesn’t have to pay because of the fine print. But ha! Opa and the camp lady are going to try it with photographs. We’ll see if that works. It certainly makes them feel better.

Wednesday we take a well-deserved rest day and go visit the desert museum for a few hours. We check out the old mine with Arizona mineral deposit displays, and watch the otters, the beavers and the hummingbirds. Strange to think there were year-around rivers in AZ with beavers and otters, but the explanation plaque says this was before settlers and herds of cattle, overgrazing and water use. Pity.

Thursday the RV gets a little bit of service and meanwhile we make a lovely mountain drive southeast of Tucson. It’s much cooler on top, there’s even a ski area in the winter. We don’t get that far because it’s a national park and every parking lot and picnic table is roped off with yellow tape. But we do have a fine lunch high up on Windy point with a million dollar view. Then we head back to the RV garage. Some things are finished, and some parts will go on order under warranty, for example, a new kitchen faucet, which only gives a drizzle. These parts will get sent to another facility of the same company next week.

It’s mid-afternoon when we leave and we decide to start the ride to Flagstaff: route 10 to Phoenix, then 17 north. Dinner in Phoenix – real dinner, not fast food – and Henk drives us north in the dark. We’ve done this section before so we’re not missing anything new. We get to the Flagstaff WalMart, park between at least 10 other RV’s, get a few errands, and go to sleep.