Friday, January 28, 2011

We are Alive and On the Road Permanently

Hello Everyone;  We are finally alive and well and on the road again… this time as Full Timers.

We’d like to get you caught up on our activities since last fall.  We have been so busy it is hard to believe we could pack so much activity into just a few months.

September:  The highlight of September was my (Barbara’s) High School Reunion http://rhs60reunion.myevent.com/.  I had been working on discovering our classmates with several wonderful classmates for 5 years.  The result was the largest reunion as well as the very best reunion ever.  Additionally, we had other events that we participated in such as the unearthing (or attempting to unearth) of the buried historical box from 1960. Unfortunately it is still missing. We also attended the Big-Little Game between Roosevelt and Fresno High in 2009 and 2010 and Roosevelt won both games. Woo Hoo!!!

September also saw us setting up the Floriculture Department in a new building, The Green House, with our daughter Jennifer, the Superintendent. It was a challenge, but an outstanding show. 

October: Big Fresno Fair.  Everyone loved the new display. The flowers were wonderful and Channel 30 even did a special story on our 3 generations, my Mom, Jennifer, and I, working at the Big Fresno Fair for over 20 years. http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/entertainment&id=7725962

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For Halloween we went to the Long Beach to LA Golden Spike Rally and road the Angels Flight Train, the shortest slowest train west of the Mississippi.  We enjoyed Happy Hours, lots of good food and company, a visit to Travel Town at Griffith Park, and a wonderful time at the Griffith Park Planetarium with all our friends .

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November:  The decision was made to go ‘full-time’ and start packing up everything in the house that we did not need or want.  We sent boxes and boxes of ‘stuff’ to the SPCA Thrift Store and filled the dumpster many times. We shredded CDE papers until we thought the shredder would burn up then packed up more boxes and took them to a commercial shredding company. I mean… how many computer bags do we really need?   FREEDOM from ‘stuff’; it felt good.

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Thanksgiving time was great with the whole family; Mom, my sister, Jan & her husband, Patrick, Jenny & her family including future son-in-law, Claudio, Jason & his family and Tom’s sister, NanCy.

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December:  Things are really moving out of the house now, yet keeping the essentials for Christmas at the Westerfield’s.  Tom is making special modification to the RV so living full time is going to quite comfortable; a new storage drawer for the back bay, wire shelving for the back closet, wire storage for the front of the generator drawer and lots of hooks and racks.

January, 2011:  Only 9 days before we leave. Tom measures the HD flat screen TV in the den (that Barbara has suggested we move into the RV for months and Tom says won’t fit) and it will fit with 1/2” to spare. Much better picture and it is the digital format not the analog as was the old TV on the left.

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On the Sunday that we left DirectTV came and installed the new recording satellite unit and we were off on our new adventure. I hope to keep you up to date starting now. Look for the next installment on the Western FMCA Rally in Indio, our first stop, then Salton Sea. We are currently in Quartzsite, otherwise known as “Q” at Boomerville, a spot where the Escapee Boomers have claimed as their own for a long time.  I’ll fill you in on the details over the next few days. Until then thanks for checking in and for your patience waiting for this Blog.

Barbara, Tom and Pansy