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Showing posts from 2014

Happy Holidays

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I started writing this little bit of nonsense on Christmas Eve. We were so busy during the week following Christmas Eve that I didn't get back to this bit of nonsense until just today. A lot happened in this past week and we have covered a ton of ground since I started this, so I never had the time or energy to get back to this nonsense, but since I started it, I thought I should finish it. And I actually thought it was interesting where the past week has taken us since as per usual, nothing was as “planned”. So here you go...a little bit of nonsense that has changed mid nonsense. And this is how it started........... We are celebrating Christmas this year in an unfitting place...Death Valley. I am a self proclaimed Bah Humbug, so I honestly don't really care where we are at during Christmas. Brenda on the other hand loves Christmas so I think this is a little bit hard for her to not be around family and friends during this festive time of year. For the first ti

A little bit of rambling

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I am going to start this bit of rambling off by apologizing. I have been feeling pretty reflective lately and I have a feeling that this is going to be a long bit of rambling with no point in the end. I don't know if I am feeling this way because of the holidays or because it's the end of the year and I always tend to reflect back on the passing year. Whatever it is, all I can say is sorry because this may end up being looooong. Anyway, we have just spent about a week in the Palm Springs area. While we were there, I remembered that some good friends of ours have a vacation home in Palm Springs. These good friends used to be our neighbors when we were living on our sailboat at Shilshole in Seattle. We really liked having these people as neighbors because first of all, they are great people and secondly, because they were hardly ever around. The best kind of neighbor is one that you never see. We could be as wild and crazy as we liked and they weren't there to

Laundry

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I have gotten a handful of emails over the last few days asking where we are and what we are up to. I guess that means that it's time to put another little blurb out there that explains the nitty-gritty details. The quick report is that we are now in Palm Springs doing laundry. Brenda says that she can smell my dirty socks that are hiding in a secret laundry compartment that resides underneath our bed, so here we are, doing laundry(I think my socks smell good). Since we have been in the desert for the past couple of months, there is a thick layer of dust and grit on everything so we are going to be here for a few days while we get our home on wheels cleaned up, and since we are here, we are going to check out Joshua Tree National Park which is pretty much right next door. The longer version of the report is that we spent a week in Tucson playing around and seeing the sights. We really liked Tucson and had a lot of fun there. We were pretty good tourists and saw as man

Camera Time

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I know, I know, I say it all the time...and this time it's true again. We have just had the most incredible few days, seen some of the most incredible things, and talked with one of the most incredible people you could possibly imagine. We've made a home base in Tucson for a handful of days while we explore the region, and just like everywhere else in the world, there is a ton to see and do here if you have the time to get down and dirty and put some effort in to explore. We had planned on coming here for a relaxing few days in the hot tub and massages by the pool but we haven't really been able to accomplish those things. Actually, we have spent the evenings in the hot tub while we recoup from the days activities but we haven't been able to sit still long enough to get the massages by the pool. And really, we have been out exploring during daylight hours when the massage by the pool business hours are taking place. So no massages yet. Since our big enco

Gravy...Mmmmmmmmmm

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It's official...we are 18 pounds heavier after last weeks festivities. We ate turkey for 3 days straight (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), we had more pie than should be allowed, we consumed enough gravy to fill an Olympic sized swimming pool, and with the help of electroshock therapy, we have finally been revived from our food comas. We got some family fun time in, we watched some football, we played some football (no broken fingers this time), had some swimming pool action, ruled the mini-golf course, and we even played a round of Frisbee golf (if you are wondering...Brenda tied my nephew Noah for the most trees-in-one...yes, trees-in-one...that is where you throw the Frisbee directly into a tree...you're not supposed to throw the Frisbee into a tree). It was a great Thanksgiving. As we were leaving my brother's house, the kids asked when they were going to be on the blog. Here you go knuckleheads...you are now on the blog. This is my brother's family.

Giddy-Up

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We have started feeling like we are in a bit of a rut (not really but I have to start this story somehow). This rut is because we have been seeing amazing things day in and day out and after a while this starts to get old (again, not really...it's all part of the story). Since most of these amazing things that we have been seeing require foot power to access, we have been hiking a ton...nearly 1,200 miles of foot powered exploration since we left Seattle, so my dogs have been barking (feet = ouch). Since I still love to see amazing stuff everyday, we had to figure out a way to see more stuff while giving my barking dogs a break. And since the best way to break out of a rut is to try something different...something different was in order. It just so happens that we were passing through a little town called Cottonwood in Arizona on our way to the big Thanksgiving Day festivities at my brother's house when we saw something that would break us out of our rut (again, we

6 Month Recap

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We were just looking at a calendar and noticed that we are coming up on another anniversary. This one is a big one. In a couple of days it will have been 6 months since we left Seattle to head out on our big adventure. 6 months is a pretty good amount of time for a vacation. In the 6 months that we have been gone, a lot has happened and a lot has stayed the same. One of the things that has stayed the same is the fact that I still love lists. In my working life, I made lists everyday because that seemed to be the only way I could get everything done that needed to happen on any given day. I looked at numbers and spreadsheets daily. I read statistics and useless facts that wouldn't matter to any other individual but me...and I kind of enjoyed those things. Numbers and useless facts and statistics have always fascinated me and since I don't really have anything super exciting to write about, I am going to share some of the stats and facts from the last 6 months. I gue

The Lottery

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Every morning for the last 2 weeks we have gotten up in the morning, jumped out of bed, guzzled our coffee, and raced to the BLM office in Kanab, Utah for the lottery. There is a world famous rock formation in Southern Utah called “the Wave”. I'm sure you've seen pictures of it. If not, look it up. It is spectacular. Anyway, the only way to get to see this wonder of nature is to win the lottery. They only let 20 people in to see the wave everyday and there are thousands of people applying to see the thing on any given day. There is an online lottery which gives out 10 tickets where you are competing with people from all over the world via the web...literally thousands of applicants every day. There is also an in person lottery at the BLM office which gives out tickets to 10 people a day. Your odds of winning the lottery by applying in person at the BLM office are much better than the online lottery because you have to actually be at the office to apply. People come fro

A Burger

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This is a story of a burger...a big juicy burger. This might not seem like something that is worth writing about but I am living proof that it is worthy. Especially when this burger is the most delicious thing that I have eaten in a long, long time. Most of you may know my wife. Some of you know her pretty well. If you fall into the category of people who know her pretty well, you know that she eats healthy. She doesn't eat red meat (bummer), no bacon or anything that comes from a bacon producing animal (double bummer), not too many sweet treats (triple bummer), and it's a big yes please to fruits and veggies. She will have poultry and fish on occasion but really she is a veggie kind of girl. She does have a couple of weaknesses that were a huge shock to me when I first learned about them many years ago. The first thing is french fries. These usually come into play when she has either had a rough day and she needs comfort or when she has hiked/walked enough t