Busy, Busy, Busy!

My goodness, it HAS been a while since I’ve checked in here.  All is well, and I’ve just been busy.  Here’s some of what’s been occupying my time over the past few months.

I’m a volunteer working gal!  I’ve been helping a younger extended family member get a new business up and running, and it’s mostly been lots of fun for me while helping them with some *much needed* advice from my own experiences in this area.  I’ve also had the opportunity to learn more in some things that peaked my curiosity, too.  I’m still involved in this effort, so it will continue to take some of my time each week for awhile until they are ready to take things over 100% on their own.

We celebrated Hubby’s 60th birthday the first week of October in Washington D. C.!  I have been there several times, but he had never been to see any of the great sights there.  It was a truly fabulous and memorable trip, and we were joined by some friends and our daughter from California.  While I still managed to get lots of great photos, I didn’t really focus on photography.  It was a time to just celebrate, enjoy our company and see the many great sights!  Early October was a great time to visit the area as the weather was perfect and crowds were light.

 

The Jefferson Memorial on our Monuments by Moonlight Tour

 

Hubby and I continue to travel by RV regularly for short trips, mostly returning to our favorite state parks.  We nearly froze to death in central Texas the week after Christmas this year, though, as a fairly epic icy cold blast hit and kept the temperatures below freezing for an extended period of time.  I think the lowest overnight temp was about 19 degrees, our coldest temp to date while camping in the RV.  BRRRRR!!!  That trip mostly broke my desire to go out on another winter RV trip this year.  Fortunately, another couple met us there for the duration of the trip, so we were able to pass some of the time sightseeing together, playing cards inside and sharing lots of good food.

 

Camping at Inks Lake State Park the week after Christmas was a *cold* experience!

 

However, we finally enjoyed a long weekend in the RV in early March in warmer weather that was just delightful.  It’s always good to go check on our favorite bison pals a couple of times each year!  On our most recent trip, two of these big ol’ guys surprised us while hiking on a trail at the bottom of the canyon, and we had to turn around when they didn’t budge.  Two more also darted out in front of us from behind some brush while we were walking on one of the main park roads and scared us to death, narrowly missing a pickup that was driving across the road, too.  That’ll wake you up!  We also enjoyed a great weekend at this park with several other couples back in October, too.

 

It’s always fun to see our bison pals at Caprock Canyons State Park!

 

Without a doubt, there are *lots* of winter Texans around our area right now.  Just in the short time we were here, we saw eight RVs camped from out of state, with none of the states being close to Texas except Colorado.  Most were from the northeastern part of the country.  No doubt, this is just one of the reasons it’s getting harder and harder to get weekend RV sites in our area, pretty much year-round, along with increasing numbers of people in the state taking up RVing themselves.  Truly, it’s getting to be a huge issue for us, and we’re resigned now to booking sites months in advance, but that wasn’t even good enough on one occasion last year.  Bummer!  I cannot even begin to imagine how full-timers attempt to live in Texas now, unless they are satisfied to spending weekends in Wal-Mart parking lots.

There’s some big excitement coming up for us this summer, as we’re finally going to take my “big bucket list” trip in July!  I turn 60 in May, and June starts our 40th year of marriage together, with that anniversary coming in June 2019.  So, we are combining the celebration of these big milestones and taking one big trip this summer while things have seemingly worked out quite well for us to do that.  More to come later, but for now, I can definitely say it’s not at RV trip.  I think there is a very real possibility that neither of us may want to leave there, too.  And as we’ve worked on adjusting our allotted vacation days to do this, we’ve also discovered that taking two weeks off is actually something that is now feasible for us going forward, which is exciting in itself, if we want to do that in coming years prior to retirement.  We’ve never taken a two-week vacation since we’ve been married.

My neck issue is greatly improved since the procedure last summer, but in late January, I hurt my left hand, wrist, lower arm, most likely from lifting heavy boxes.  It’s most likely just a bad sprain, and I’ve been wearing an ugly black brace ever since.  It seems a bit better, but I think it’s going to just take time to heal, especially since I can’t really keep from using it regularly.

My apologies for not checking in with my favorite bloggers here over the past few months.  I guess there are times that I just need to put some things away to adequately focus on other areas, and this has been such a time.  I hope to catch up with you all soon, though.  And for my fellow RVers, we saw the RV Wanderlust couple’s RV on our most recent outing at Caprock Canyons earlier this month, as their website was shared on the front-end of their RV in our campground.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to meet them personally, as they pretty much pulled in right before we departed.  I don’t know if any of you have met them or not during your own travels.

I’ll try very hard to not take such long blogging breaks in the future!