A lot has happened since October 2010 but life being as hectic as it is I haven't documented the trips we have had in the motorhome.
We have only made three trips in the motorhome, two for weekends to Terribles Lakeside in Pahrump and two weeks at Xmas 2012 to San Diego to visit and spend Christmas with Ryan.
The rest of the time we have had to make trips without Lily and spent the majority of 2012 selling the house and downsizing from 2200 sq. ft to approx. 350 sq.ft.
Remainder of 2010..... We went to Hawaii in November 2010 with our friends Chrissie & Ian to celebrate Bryan's 50th. It was a great trip and I fell in love with Hawaii. One day I will fill in the details on the Trips without Lily page!!! Bryan's dad died just before our trip so it was very emotional visiting Pearl Harbour as Pops was a Navy veteran.
2011 was classed as Ryan’s year!!
He
decided in January that he wanted to join the Navy and saw a recruiter. It took until June to enlist, as there
were several steps. With the economy as it was there were a lot of people trying
to enlist and not many jobs. I
admire him for persevering with the process as he was adamant it was what he
wanted. He graduated High School
on June 14th and enlisted the week after as a Gunners Mate. Sue’s
mum, brother Ray and his wife Julie and Brenda (Bryan’s daughter) came here for
Ryan’s HS graduation and we had a good visit.
Ryan
left for bootcamp in Chicago on July 26th and so he didn’t have long
to get fit and ready. It was the
hardest 60 days as the only contact we had with each other was letters and then
only after the first three weeks. We had three very quick short phone
calls. The final one told us he
was a sailor, yippee!!
We
went to Chicago for his graduation on Sept. 23rd with
Bree(girlfriend) and Brenda (sister) and had a fun 3 days with our sailor about
town. Making sure he got back to
base each evening by 10pm. He said
it was hard and the first three days he was ready to quit but he remembered the
letter I had written him to read on the plane and it helped him through. He
also missed us and didn’t think he would. We knew it would be hard but were so
proud of him for handling it. He has grown up and is now a man, my poor baby,
Ha!! Ha!! He stayed in Chicago, training for his Gunners Mate position and came home for Xmas. Unfortunately, his girlfriend broke up with him a week before Xmas but we made the most of his visit home. We celebrated our 20th
Wedding Anniversary in September and went to Alaska on a cruise with our
friends Chrissie & Ian (Chrissie was celebrating her 60th). We had a wonderful suite with huge
picture windows and a butler!!
Chrissie & Sue went on a Wilderness Safari where we canoed up to a
glacier. It was cold and wet but
fun and amazing. We returned from
this and then 3 days later went to Ryan’s graduation in Chicago. We were relieved that his graduation
wasn’t while we were on the cruise as the cruise was booked before he decided
to join the military.
We went out in the motorhome a couple of times this year both about an
hour away, so not far. We started to clean out the house to get ready to move into the motorhome. It is not easy trying to sort through a lifetime of things
and being selective as to what we can keep. There is only so much room in Lily!!!
2012 was a busy year......Bryan
retired in August for the second time and became a house husband, waiting for
me to retire June 2013. It is a
good thing Bryan retired as he was busier since leaving work than
when he was there. He got the house ready for us to move, selling and donating our stuff.
We
had another addition to our family in July this year when our second grandson,
Kai, was born to Ian and Kris.
Bailey is enjoying his brother and started school in September. Ian
& Kris are buying a new house, still in Wales, which they hope to move into
in June next year.
Our
two granddaughters, LeeAnn and Aimee are both doing well at school and both made the honor roll. It
is Aimee’s first year; she looks just like her momma did at her age. LeeAnn
came second in the Special Olympics.
Speaking
of Olympics, Sue was happy that Andy Murray won gold and silver at the London
Olympics and then went on to win the U.S. Open.
Ryan
finished his training and is now a Gunners Mate. He got sent to Panama from training to meet his ship after
coming home for two weeks in May. We went to welcome him and the ship back to San Diego on July 3rd. It was great, a band welcomed them and
had a lei made of paper flowers dropped over the bow as they were coming in. He
gave us a tour of the ship, it is a small frigate only 200 sailors aboard but
he likes it and chose that over a carrier as everyone knows each other. He was glad that he wasn’t sea sick!!!
Bryan went to visit his mum in August and help her with some things
around her house. The hurricane arrived while he was there and the power went
out for a couple of days so they drove west to his brothers in Texas for a couple
of days.
2013 I started the year by getting tickets for Wimbledon in the lottery. Then started a period of should I/shouldn't I go!!!! It was decided that I would go, Bryan would stay at home to look after CoCo. As Bryan said, the opportunity might never happen again. Bryan got a perfect 300 score at bowling in March. He had bowled a 299 last November and so this was a fantastic achievement.
I retired from work on June 5th which was the last day of school and left for UK on the 19th. I celebrated my 60th birthday with Mum, Ray & Julie and two days later Julie & I went to Wimbledon. To top everything off, on July 7th Andy Murray won Wimbledon, the first British man to win in 77 years. Mum & I spent three weeks with Ian, Kris, Bailey and Kai in their new house in Wales. Bryan had knee surgery two days before I went to London and Ryan took a weeks leave to come home and be with him. It got so hot in Vegas, temps reached 125 degrees, that Bryan moved the motorhome to Lakeside RV resort in Pahrump, which is where we have been a few times. It's about 10 degrees cooler in Pahrump and the park has grass and a lake so it was better for CoCo as well. He picked me up from the airport on July 28th and we made the hour trip to Pahrump. Thunder, lightening and torrential rain welcomed me.
Now, we could start to plan our retirement together. We decided to go to San Diego first to see Ryan as I hadn't seen him when he came to visit Bryan and we will leave Pahrump on August 13th. After visiting Ryan we will start our journey east.
You can follow our route by clicking on the map on the left. I will try and keep this as accurate as possible. There will be notes on the places to say when we will be there. As with everything in our new lifestyle everything is subject to change so hang on tight.
You can follow our route by clicking on the map on the left. I will try and keep this as accurate as possible. There will be notes on the places to say when we will be there. As with everything in our new lifestyle everything is subject to change so hang on tight.
Our travels are really beginning at last........
No comments:
Post a Comment
Anonymous comments will not be published.
If you wish to leave a comment but not sign in, please use the Name/Url option. You can use your name OR an URL for this option, you do not need both.