Where Have I Been?

I have been thinking about starting the blog up again lately, for several reasons. Here is my list:

1. I turn 60 (today).
2. We have our house on the market in order to do a couple thing.... the first would be to buy a used RV and travel the country, taking time to see things this time, and also there is the other plan of perhaps moving to Costa Rica.
3. We have discovered the joys of getting the toxic chemicals out of our home and our lives, and hope that this transition will lead to a longer more healthy life on the road!

Here I am on my 60th birthday, having a FREE Starbuck's after voting. 

Now that the list is out there, I have also realized that part of my hesitation to begin again was simply how time consuming a daily blog really was! Of course, while we were running cross country for firefighters in 2014 with our RV and our non-profit, Support For Firefighters, it was really a daily thing to keep in touch with our friends and the people, like you, who were interested in our wanderings! I enjoyed the process of logging our travels, and am considering a picture book with some blog posts for accent.

So I have bargained with myself, knowing full well it was time to get it going again. My bargain is that I have decided to only require myself to write once or twice a week, and especially when there is something interesting to relate.

In this, my first blog in awhile, I will be talking about bullet point #1. Turning 60. I wasn't even bothered by 40, but 50 was a bigger blip. This decade is scary! I notice so many things that have been easy for me for years, being more difficult. Clothing shrinks much faster! Is this common? Do the threads just get old? Hmmm.... I'll have to work more on that one. Start a diet?

About a year ago, I decided to re-join Jazzercise. This was one of my all time favorite ways to work out and keep in shape. Good aerobic work, balance and coordination, and also some weight work. And, it was always FUN! It took me months to get past all the little aches and pains that popped up! I went to the doctor at one point, sure that I was developing some kind of cyst on my wrist, only to find out I was suffering from tendonitis. Really? But, I love Jazzercise, and still go. I don't get as worked up during class now, and keep it pretty low impact. I notice that when I miss a week, things begin to ache again. This is really disturbing!

Ok, honestly, our lives just change as we get older. Things that I remember my grandmother telling me, or the older guys at the fire station when I was a young rookie, that just didn't make sense at the time, make sense now! Like a lightbulb! Living here at Robson Ranch (for active adults who want a nice resort lifestyle), I have learned a lot more. About being older, and about what actually gets better!

We still have Jeff's father with us, although he is 94. When he turned 90, he jumped out of an airplane for the first time! He was a pilot in WWII, Korea, and even the beginnings of Viet Nam. He had always landed his plane while still in it.

Cal Venable at his 90th Birthday Bash.

The last 4 years have been hard on him. He has lost his wife of MANY years, and has buried a daughter. His other daughters have had other medical issues. Lisa, the youngest daughter, is a most amazing woman! She first was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer a number of years ago. Her faith, and the faith of those surrounding her, have brought her through her cancer several times. It is truly amazing! She has had 2 brain surgeries, and is still going strong!

This is Jeff and I, and his sister Lisa and her husband Steve in Italy a few years ago.

Jeff is still healthy, although he is not running to the degree he was a couple years ago. I know that he misses traveling to races and hanging out with his running groups of friends. I am still healthy, as well. Which is why we have come to the decision to sell our home and travel the country in an RV for a while! Those sorts of things have to be done while still young enough and healthy enough to really enjoy them.

I'll be talking a bit more about that in my next blog. In the meantime, I am having a wonderful 60th birthday weekend, with some awesome friends! Yesterday evening, we had a rendition of our new neighborhood thing called Driveway Drinking at our driveway, in celebration. Honestly, it was MUCH easier than throwing a big party! ;) In this neighborhood, the living areas are in the rear of the home. It is very hard to tell if your neighbor is around, or even sitting on the back patio having a glass of wine! So, one of our very creative ladies came up with the idea of gathering lawn chairs, bringing a beverage, and sitting in the driveway to gather anyone that was available! It has been working famously!

September 25+, Lake Placid

You are all probably wondering why you have not seen a post in a few days! I know everyone is waiting expectantly for the next installment! Well, we have been a little busy. Busier than running across the country, you ask? Maybe so, maybe no.... Driving a lot in a straight line doesn't give me all that much time to do anything else. I have driven this RV, the Big Beast, for over 10,000 miles, and I am tired of sitting in that seat! Today, I will post the pics and stories from our visit to Lake Placid. That really encompasses several days, which was nice. I mean, it was nice to be in the same location for several days! The original intent of the blog was to keep our followers apprised of where we were and how our progress across the country was going. Now, it is just stories about what we are doing while taking our time getting down to Emmitsburg for the Fallen Firefighter Memorial weekend Oct. 11-12. Then, after that, you will see a big white streak heading for Dallas! I am so ready to be home....

But, I digress.  I am supposed to be telling you about the visit we had in Lake Placid. Our friend Diane, who we met at a marathon somewhere, told Jeff about a marathon in Upstate New York over the weekend. She actually told us about it, and invited us to come and participate when we saw her just after completing the cross country and meeting her for the marathon at John Thacher Park in New York. We mulled it over and decided there was nothing keeping us from visiting the area again and running the Adirondack Marathon at Schroon Lake. We made the decision to get back to the area a few days early and visit Lake Placid with Diane, and a group of runners. We arrived on the 25th, the day after our visit with Uncle Earle.

We had tried chasing fall up into Maine and back down the coast, and never found it. In fact, the first day in Lake Placid, things were mostly green. But it is such a beautiful area! We drove up on Thursday from Albany. We took a little different route than we had before, so we saw some things from a different perspective. As we were leaving the area, we spied a laundromat (every few days, just like clockwork... gets really old!), but I had to turn around to get back to it. I turned into the first big parking lot I saw, and low and behold, there was a big pink pig painted on the parking lot! Turns out, I had pulled into Saratoga Sweets to turn around. We had to go in. Right? It was a candy store! We bought what might possibly be the best butter brickle stuff around! And, you can order on line at Saratogasweets.com. We didn't get a peppermint pig, though. I understand they are good luck.... perhaps I should have, as you will learn in a bit.

                  

These were good, too, but the Almond Buttercrunch was outstanding!

It was a great drive up to Lake Placid. The weather was wonderful, as it has mostly been for our entire adventure.

Slight changes in the foliage. Still much green.

              

There is a waterfall there.

Tons of hiking trails in the Adirondack Park.

               
When we arrived at Lake Placid, I was surprised to see a couple of large town parking lots. We pulled in next to another RV, parked, and walked to find the others there that we knew. Lake Placid town is really a cute, vibrant little lake town.

This church had great stained glass.

This is actually Mirror Lake.

                   

                        

                          

                   

                       

We stopped into a couple of shops along the way. The main street is where all the action really is!

Hockey is king here!

Little pumpkin holders!

                 

                      

We still had Saratoga Sweets chocolate. Bet this was good!

                         

This place will never be without a cork screw!

Many of which I have read!

Moose hugs!

                 

             
Although we were not able to stay with Diane, we still went along to visit the place she was staying. It was fabulous! A beautiful cabin on a golf course, with the Lake Placid Lodge half a mile down the road. We all went down to the lodge to check out the lake. This was  pretty amazing place. They lit a bonfire each night for the guests there, and there were red Adirondack chairs sitting all over the lawn. We had a great time.

Numerous homes like this, some for sale!

An awesome place! 

                 

The lodge from the lakeside.

                   

Taking pics.

Sitting around....

                     

They had this cool 007 boat!

                 

                               

             
The next morning, after sleeping in the grocery store parking lot, we popped back over to the lodge with our morning coffee. It was a great little place to relax and plan our day.

                 

There was even a shelter.

S.U.P.!

               

                

Later in the day, we decided to go hiking at one of the local hiking spots. It was a nice, easy hike, and pretty short. But very pretty, with great views from a couple spots. It was called Henry's Woods.

                      

That's me in the woods!

                       

Such a beautiful view of the Adirondack's!

Who needs a haircut?

                     

Pretty leaves have fallen on the trail.

I mentioned that we spent the first night in the parking lot of the grocery store. There were a couple of RV parks listed on our application, but it turns out the one close by was already closed, and the others were quite a bit farther than we though! After driving about 10 miles in the dark, we made the decision to turn around and find something in town. Since it was already full dark, that was a challenge. There was no parking in town allowed on the meters after 2 am. So, I pulled into the grocery store lot, and spotted another RV way back in the corner! Almost into the woods, on a gravel patch adjacent to the parking lot. Sweet! We pulled in and went to bed. The next day, we really needed to dump the tanks. After hiking, we went ahead and drove the 15 miles or so to the KOA at Whiteface. A really nice group of folks there! The manager was a retired firefighter from a somewhat local department. The only issue I had was that they charged us $20 to dump, which is twice the highest we have paid! But, it gave us some breathing room and fresh water.

That evening, we had pizza then went out to meet some friends of Diane's and have wine at the Brown Dog Cafe and Wine Bar. What a cool little place! We had a good time there, and some good wine! Stop in and tell them the guy who ran across the country said hi!

               

We had thought to go back to the grocery store lot to sleep, but we stumbled across a gravel overflow lot for the golf course just up the road from the Lodge, and decided that since we had out of state plates, and they had an out of state wedding that day, we would probably have no issues parking there over night. And we didn't. It was a handy little place to park, as we were in the right place to go down and have our coffee looking out over the lake. It was so cool! Jeff actually got out and went for an early morning run before that, too. Me, I slept.

Saturday, we got up and decided to head down to Schroon Lake, while the others did a couple other touristy things. Since all of them were running the Adirondack Marathon on Sunday, we would see them again. So, here are a couple of pics from our drive down from Lake Placid.

You can see that the color is really popping now!

                    

                 

One thing I forgot. Early on I told you that I might wish I had gotten the Peppermint Pig for luck. This apparently was not my lucky day. On Saturday morning, there was absolutely NO PLACE in that town to park! It was a madhouse! So, we were discussing what to do, and I pulled into a couple of spots on the curb. No big deal, right? Once we decided what to do, as I didn't want to stay there with the dogs in the coach barking at everyone that walked by, I checked everything and began to pull out. There was a street light pole right up on the edge of the curb, but I watched and thought I had cleared it with the butt end of the coach. We have a pretty long overhand, and it does swing. And it swung just a tad, as I was only pulling away from the curb! But, I cleared the pole. However, there was a metal sign about 7' high on that pole that stuck out a bit. It grabbed my awning support, and basically ripped it out of its rivets! This was a stupid metal sign, like a speed limit sign. And it was not even damaged, but my awning is hanging free and loose! I am not a happy camper, as there is nothing and no one I can blame but myself! Having driven that thing over 10,000 miles, and I get brought down by a stupid metal sign? Which is still where it belongs... So there it is. That will cost us a bit I'm sure, as it will need to be repaired or replaced before we sell the RV. No, I didn't take pics. I was not in the mood... We got a couple screws and some bungee cords, and secured it. We won't be using the awning again...


And here it is! To end on a better note.... the Mailbox of the Day!

Real shingles!