Departure date has been delayed.

They say that when making plans - be flexible.  Well, we have had to push our travel dates back by at least a week and maybe even longer.  Louis has developed some medical issues that required quite a few tests and changes to existing medications.  We now have to wait on weekly blood tests until the numbers are back up to the acceptable range.  Now we play the waiting game!

Our original plan was to leave Ferndale, WA on Saturday, January 5th but it now looks like if we are lucky, we could leave on January 13th.  *fingers crossed*.    I will keep some of our reservations until I find that I need to change them.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year for 2013.

Love this Gingerbread 'house'

Do I take a sewing/embroidery machine or not?

With only 4 weeks until we head south, I'm really torn in my decision to take a sewing machine with me.  Because we will be gone for 2 months like when we went to Alaska, I'm sure I will miss my sewing.  So, do I take a small sewing (only) machine or do I take a sewing/embroidery machine?

With mostly 1 week stays at various locations, will I want to spend time sewing or will I want to be out exploring?  I was thinking that maybe I would just take the small sewing machine and some smaller projects.  That way I can still sew if I have the urge but it wouldn't take up nearly as much room as if I took the sewing/emb. machine with all it's extras.  Will I kick myself?  I hope not!

As this is our first 'Snowbird' trip of what I hope will be many - I am expecting that we will learn a lot more about what we should and shouldn't take south.  We always tend to take way more than we need when we travel.

6 week countdown - can't wait

We have decided to head south just after New Years so the Countdown is On!  The weather here has been wet and cold.  Yesterday we had the loudest thunder storm and then the rain came down in buckets.  Hubby and I were asking ourselves "why are we still here and not down south"? 

Big savings by shopping in the US.

Yesterday we did our regular run across the border for groceries and gas and were pleased that the price of gas was down again.  We filled up for $3.29 a gallon which is = to 69¢ a litre in Canada.  That is a savings of over $18 to fill up which was down to about 1/4 tank.  I just wish diesel wasn't so much more than gas as the price of diesel was $3.89 a gallon.  We don't go through much diesel until we start traveling so hopefully by January, the prices will come down even more.  It is always much cheaper to do our traveling in the US than Canada.

Other big savings are found in the price of groceries.  We bought a 15 lb. turkey for less than $9 and up here it would probably be about $22.  Although we must buy our produce in Canada and some items are NOT less expensive - we do find the trip worthwhile.  When we started calculating our savings for the groceries and gas - we guess that we saved well over $100.

We also find big savings in shopping for our hobby supplies.  I do most of my fabric/craft shopping in the US and probably save at least 50% off retail prices in Canada.   

Note:  Not everything is less expensive in the US.  You need to know your prices before you head south.

Planning our next RV Adventure.

We have been home from the Alaska Trip for about 7 weeks now and although it is true "There's No Place Like Home", we are already looking forward to our next RV Trip.  We have stayed down in the RV twice since being home but since it's less than an hour away - it's more of a 'get away' rather than an RV Adventure.  The weather here is much cooler now so we have winterized the RV and will do our regular monthly checks while it is in storage.  

Our plans as of right now are to leave home in early January and go south!  We decided that we wanted to have a taste of being a Canadian Snowbird and head down to California, Nevada and Arizona.  We plan to spend a couple of weeks in Pahrump, Nevada, as well as some time in the Mesa/Phoenix area and Yuma, Arizona.  We then hope to stay for a bit in the Palm Springs/Indio area before heading back to the coast for our journey home.

We should return home in early March and estimate around 4000 miles.  We know many snowbirds and hope to visit with some of them while down in the 'sun belt'. 

Back Home - the end of this Journey

Today we will leave Sunshine Valley and return home.

We left home 55 days ago and it has been a long and interesting time away in the RV.  We have never been away for this long so it was quite the test for us.  We both found the trip worth the time and money but definitely found things we liked and things we didn't like. 

Travelling almost every day during the convoy was tiring and we prefer to set up for more than just one night at a time. This allows for a little sight seeing, shopping, laundry and not feel that we are constantly on the go.   

We also don't like having a set time that we have to 'hit the road' each day.  As we usually wake up early anyway, we like to have a relaxing breakfast and then get ready to go without being rushed.  We generally hit the road between 8 and 9 am.

Being with a group, we usually tried to stop for a short break after about 90 minutes of driving.  This allowed for a stretch, snack and a potty break.  We found that was a great thing to energise us and we continued to do this on our way home after leaving Dawson Creek.

Booking campgrounds in advance is quite restrictive.  While travelling with the convoy it was fine because everyone stayed at the same place.  While travelling on our own we decided that sometimes we would want to travel farther than originally planned so not having a reservation while on the road is better for us.  We definitely will continue to make reservations for our final destination to guarantee our space.

One thing we both strongly agree on - We Don't Like Dirt Roads !!!