Leaving for 35 weeks is not the same as leaving for 1 week X 35

Today is D minus 4.  Four days from when I am writing this we will leave on Roadtrip 3.0.

I can hardly believe that the time is already here.  Can it really be five months since we arrived home from Roadtrip 2.3?  We were really looking forward to being home on Whidbey Island.  We had been gone 7 months on Roadtrip 2, with a couple of side excursions home to visit grandchildren, children, parents, brothers and sisters, and other relatives, and were really ready to be here.  We knew that the birds would be arriving, plants would be growing, flowers could be planted, days would be sunny.  Whidbey Island would be a paradise.

And we were so looking forward to using a real bathroom in the middle of the night instead of crawling out of the camper and finding a bush.

We used our summer well.  We trained for and rode our second STP together and with Jules, and did several bike rides after that.  We saw a lot of our grandchildren and family, and got to take many of our grandchildren on camping trips so they could experience what we do in the natural areas of our country.  We visited with our friends as often as we could.  We got several house projects completed (new gutters, new roof for the pump house, new security systems, new mower).  We did a lot of hiking on Whidbey Island, went on a dance cruise, went to the ballet, and danced in our home.  We planted more flowers, Day Lilies, and Hosta.  We traded in our "old" (ha ha) F-250 for a new 4 X 4 Dually so our future Roadtrips will be more comfortable and so we can get to more places with the 4-wheel drive.  We had to deal with several medical issues that thankfully were not serious but still required time. 

And we sat on our front and back porches and simply enjoyed being here--watching the deer that arrived daily, the Pileated Woodpecker that fed at our feeders, and our trees and ferns.  Mostly we enjoyed the quiet and solitude of our home. 

But all good things come to an end, including this summer.  It feels like fall is in the air.  Soon it will be the rainy season.

This year our plan is to drive through Montana to Colorado, visit family there, fly to Atlanta to visit family there, and then drive from Colorado to Atlanta, through Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee.  Then we will head down to the bottom tip of Florida, drive back along the coast to Arizona where we will leave the camper to fly back for a couple of weeks in January.  After we return to Arizona at the end of January, we will head to Southern California--to Joshua Tree, the Mojave Desert, and Death Valley, which are our favorite places.  So many new places to see and to explore.  What a gift life has given us, for both of us to find someone who is so like-minded and who we mutually find so easy to get along with.  And who has the same energy level and who won't let the difficulty of finding a bush in the middle of the night deter them from having adventures that are indescribable. 

But oh my golly the planning.  Leaving for 35 weeks is not like leaving for a week multiplied by 35.  It is not a quantitative difference but instead is a qualitative one.   I'll give you an example:  Medications.  At our age everyone is taking some type of medication.  Try getting a four month supply of them!  You deal with insurance, with insurance, and with insurance.  The local drug store (Island Drug in Clinton) is fantastic and patient.  But to get these medications requires at least 30 trips/calls.

There are a million things to remember, and to pack.  Vicky has been making list after list.  So finally I found a list program for the IPad that she really likes (I guess, officially it is an "app," but I can't bring myself to call something that used to be called a program an app.).  

I actually think that one of the reasons why our 7-month Roadtrip 2 was so relaxing was because we got all of the "stuff" of modern life done in the months before we left.

Every day we review our lists, plan what we need to do that day, do various things, and then gleefully cross them off.  "Do you want to cross off washing the bird feeders from the list or do you want me to?"  is a typical conversation.

But, you know, it is sweet.  Somebody once wrote that life happens when you are making plans.  And that's about all we do in getting ready for Roadtrip 3:  Make plans.

I love it.