A Brief History....sort of

I need to give you a little background on how Doug and I got to this point in our lives. I will try to be brief, but I can't guarantee anything! We both camped out while we were growing up. Of course, people camped in tents and even slept out under the stars in those days. We have also camped in a pop-up camper with four teenagers; believe it or not, it was a blast! Of course, as the kids got older and busier we couldn't seem to find time to go anywhere so we got rid of the camper.

As we got older, we talked about getting something more "suitable for our age" and looked at travel trailers and 5th wheels. Then we became interested in possibly getting a Class A motorhome. We didn't think we would ever be able to afford it but we dreamed about it and looked around at some. When Vicki's mom died in 2006 we felt we could get a used motorhome if we could find a very good deal and praise God, we did. We bought a 2000 Fleetwood Southwind that we felt would be a great starter motorhome for us. The only down side was that we still had 3 years left to work, so we used it on long weekends and week long vacations. We began to look into RV and camping clubs and read RV magazines, etc. About a year before we retired in May 2009 we began to pick out where we wanted to go first - a very hard thing to decide when we wanted to go so many places. Alaska was at the top of our list, but due to various things, we felt that trip would need more planning than we could get ready for this year, so we decided on Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon. On our way back to Arkansas for the winter, we will return through Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. We would like to share our adventures and our pictures of the trip with our family and friends and felt this would be the easiest way.

Here is the short version of what we have done so far: we attended an Escapade (an annual rally held by the Escapees RV club we belong to), drove to Maryland and back in Vicki's car (to save on gas) to see Doug's niece and family who serve as Wycliffe missionaries and our precious 5 grandchildren who live in Maryland (and their parents, of course). We had 3 days after the Maryland trip to finish packing the RV for our 5 month trek and left for Wyoming, visiting another son and his wife in Columbia, MO on the way. They will be giving us grandchild # 11 in December, so we are anxiously waiting to find out the sex and name of this new life God is blessing our family with. Sorry, but I forgot to mention that after the Escapade and before the Maryland trip, Doug had a heart cath and had to have a stent put into the main artery supplying blood to his heart, which was 80-90% blocked. We still left 3 days later with the doctor's permission and Doug is feeling fine.
Boy, are we tired. We had no idea retirement could be so exhausting! Now, we are going to slow down and enjoy the rest of the summer.
Very soon we will be posting pictures of Wyoming. We are currently in Gillette and this week will be heading to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.