Well, I was right ... it was a busy week!
Miss Sophie's Pre-K graduation ...
Miss Sophie's Birthday ...
Trip to New Jersey ...
Miss Emily's 8th grade graduation ...
Trip to the Aquarium with the Johansens ...
Miss Alyssa's High School Graduation ...
Visit to Alyssa's chosen spot for higher education - Stockton University near Atlantic City, New Jersey ...
and then travel back home ...
See - I told ya! It was a busy time! But it was a great time! Watching those kids and their kids grow up is what it's all about afterall.
We even had one join the Navy! Go get 'em Kyla!
So with all that behind us ... it's time to rest up a bit before our big trip out west in a couple of weeks. Fortunately, our recent trip to NJ acted as a good "shakedown cruise" for Winne so she is pretty well ready to travel. It won't take too much effort to prepare her to head out again.
Winne ran great for the thousand mile round trip to Jersey. And that's saying something since I figure that trip is about the bumpiest, most trafficiest, stretch of 500 miles in the nation. There really is no "calm" stretch of driving. If you aren't dealing with the Boston traffic, you're are dealing with the NYC traffic or the NJ/Philadelphia traffic! We have run into bad traffic situations in other parts of the country but not for 500 miles! I wonder how I'll feel after several hundred miles of corn in the midwest?
Winne even got to do a couple of days of "dry camping" while staying overnight at the Mohegan Sun Casino on both legs of the trip. It was fairly warm on both days so the generator got a bit of exercise to keep the Air Conditioners running. I suspect they will need to run a lot to keep us (me) cool while driving across the midwest and west on those 90+ degree days in July/August!
Let the new countdown begin ... 13 and A Wake Up!
It's that time of year again. Time for youngsters to graduate. We have grandkids graduating from pre-K, Middle School, and High School next week. Miss Sophie will "graduate" from pre-K this week and get to celebrate her 5th birthday - Miss Emily will "graduate" from Middle School and move on to all the fun of being a High Schooler - and then there is Miss Alyssa.
Miss Alyssa who just turned five a couple of years ago in Grandpa's mind recently obtained her driving license from the State of New Jersey and now is graduating high school as one of the top students in her class and will be attending Stockton University in New Jersey in the Fall. Both grandma and I are pretty darn proud of her and all that she has accomplished - all while being a pretty great young lady as well.
So with all that going on in the next week or so we have Work to do.
We have pre-K ceremonies to attend this week, we have a birthday party to attend on Friday and then ... we have a trip to New Jersey to accomplish!
The good news is that WTT is pretty much ready to go. The maintenance items I wanted to accomplish are done, the loading has begun, and we should be ready to head south on Saturday with ease.
After celebrating for several days down in Jersey we'll head back home for a couple of weeks and then we'll head out again - this time all the way out to the left coast. We plan on heading across the middle part of the US heading west - traversing the nation's breadbasket along I-70ish, across the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, and then making our way to the Central Valley in the Golden State via the "Loneliest Road in America" in the Silver State and then Donner Pass. We'll spend a few days visiting relatives near Sutter's Fort and then we plan on spending several weeks wandering about the Sierra Mountain Range in Northern California visiting such touristy spots as Quincy, Chester, Hat Creek, Shingletown, Lassen National Park, McCloud, and Hornbrook. Except for maybe Lassen National Park - most tourists won't find the beauty of California in those other places - but we hope to enjoy the less visited but beautiful spots that this area has to offer.
As usual - our way home is less scripted but will probably include a trip through the "northern tier" states - arriving back here in Vacationland in mid September.
Then it will be time to enjoy Autumn in New England - followed by fireside chats watching the snows of winter out our windows.
What!? No winter get-a-way trip to the southern sunny climes of the southern US? Nope - not next year. Instead we plan on a February trip to sunny Israel!
These Maineiacs will still be In Motion - but we'll be letting the tour bus drivers do the work.
Hold on tight - It looks to be an interesting several months.
