Prepare to Launch

Wednesday June 10, 2015

After a year of planning and more than 40 years on my mind, my year long solo exploration of the US is finally beginning. My husband's death in Feb 2014 brought home the fact that we are all running out of time and if there is anything we still want to do in this life we'd better get to it. 

Jimmy Buffett said it best in Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes:

Oh, yesterday is over my shoulder

So I cannot look back for too long

There's just too much waiting in front of me

And I know that I just can't go wrong

After a half century (51 years) of being a wife, mother and dutiful daughter, I'm hoping to have some part of a quarter century of just being me to find out what it's like out there in the real world. I'll be on a mission, wandering with purpose to see all the historic, cultural, and literary places I've been saving articles on since the 1970s.

Mom always told us kids we were smart and could figure out a way to do something if we wanted it badly enough. So when Bob retired in 1992 I proposed the idea of buying a small RV, renting our home for gas money and taking off across the US.  I wasn't too surprised when he said he wasn't into it.  Cruises were his fav travel venue.  But he said I should go ahead. He never stopped me from doing what I wanted.  But I needed income from the rental of the house so as not to blow thru our savings with a year of travel.  So I kiddingly said how about if I advertise the house for rent with a butler. He could be the butler and move into the guest room and I would still have some rental income.  He wasn't having it so I decided you don't always get to do what you want.  Much as I miss him now, his passing has opened that door. And the planning for this trip has helped me not to be sad. He always said life is for the living.

Last spring I got busy having locking cabinets built in the garage to store my personal stuff.   The next 6 months were spent sorting and moving everything to the garage cabinets. Great getting rid of stuff I had forgotten I even owned! Everyone should have a fire or move every seven years or so. I had an accumulation of 50 years worth.

My daughters, adventurous travelers themselves, dragged me into the 21st century by insisting I have a Smart phone and a laptop and, yes, I'm even on Face Book! The learning curve was pretty steep and it felt like my brain was going to explode with all this new information to absorb.  I began learning how to pay my bills and do my banking on line. Bought a small RV and began learning about it. Now my brain was really on overload.

 In the middle of May I found a renter for my condo in Montgomery at the Villages in San Jose. Rented it furnished so I wouldn't need to spend several hundred dollars a month to store furniture. Oddly, it's very liberating to drive away and be homeless!  Staying at my daughter's in Willow Glen in our old neighborhood for a few weeks until I can be on my way.

  

Timing is everything.  Now that two high school graduations have taken place and my term of office is over for Delphians, I can finally go. Or so I thought. The recent discovery of the need for two new gel batteries for the Doodle have kept me here a few more days. I keep hanging around for one thing or another.  Friends Rob and Susan Howe sent this song:  How Can I Miss You if You Won't Go Away
Click on the song title link to hear it.

About my vehicle: it is a 1999 Roadtrek Popular 190 camper on a Dodge Ram van chassis which I bought last year and took on a 2 week shakedown trip to Seattle last fall. You can read the blog of that trip at www.seattledoodlebug.blogspot.com. I believe it's still online. The Doodle only has 65K miles on it which isn't a lot for an RV. It's only 19 feet long, a few feet longer than my car and easy to drive and park in regular parking spaces. It is fully self contained with bathroom, kitchen and sleeping space. All I need. Small but big enough for one person. My condo will seem like a mansion when I get home. I named it Doodlebug after a real bug that never goes in a straight line just the way my travel will be connecting the dots on my map.

Doodlebug

                                                                        

   Richard Holmboe, Joan Fury, Jean and Ken Brady, me

About my blog: do you remember when Leonard Nemoy (Dr. Spock on Star Trek) checked out a few months ago? His death reminded me of the opening lines of Star Trek "This is the log of the Starship Enterprise". My journey will be like the Enterprise exploring outer space but I'll be exploring the US in the Doodlebug. So my blog became the Blog of the Starship Doodlebug.

• I've completed a thorough diagnostic check of Doodlebug
• packing is done
• boarding about to begin
• flight plan has been approved
• unexplored US sites await

The next time I write I hope I'm finally on the road.............