On the Road for a Year

On this date last year, we awoke to zero degrees in Minnesota, and finished packing up our stuff from the house.  When we left town (a little later than planned) the temperature had gone up to 9 degrees.  It peaked with a high of 32 later in the afternoon in Iowa.  As I write this, the sun is just now coming up in the Phoenix area and the temperature is 48 outside, on its way to 80 as predicted for later.

It has been a great year on the road. 
     It took us 3 days to get to “shirt-sleeve” weather.
     We got into Louisiana before an ice storm came behind us.
     We volunteered for 8 weeks at 3 locations.
     We made lots of new friends from around the country.
     We caught up with scattered family in TN, AK, and MN.
     We felt our first earthquake in Kansas.
     We avoided all major rain storms and tornados.
     High winds caused us to park an extra day, twice.

Last Friday we took a road trip with Phil, Elsie, and Paige’s Mom, Joyce.  We went to Fountain City, Payson, and Camp Verde before returning to Glendale.  Lunch was at a nice Mexican restaurant in Payson.

       

We saw snow in the higher elevations from 5,000 to 7,000 ft but then returned to the mid 70 temperature in the valley.  A nice diversion!

Our New Years Eve was quiet and enjoyable: we watched the crystal ball come down in Times Square (Eastern Time), watched the local news, and called it a day by 10:30 Mountain Time; no traffic issues, no late partying, followed by a pleasant morning. 

For the coming year, we expect to work at more projects, travel fewer miles, get into different states, and keep on enjoying a variety of activities.

We hope all our family and friends have a great 2012.