Home again...Home again..Jiggidy Jigg...........

     Here it is, home for six days and still haven't got everything put back or the house cleaned and dusted from 4 plus months of collecting!  We sure appreciated all the kids and grand-kids did in helping get everything unloaded and put back in the house, the worst part of coming home is the unloading/unpacking!  I still have many things all over my bed waiting to be put back in drawers and closets!  One thing I will say is we waited just long enough to miss the 100° temps, they seem to have ended the day before we arrived home.  Usually after a couple of weeks of being home we're ready to hit the road again, we miss the kids and grand-kids immensely while on the road, but the itch to travel might overcome us this winter.  Having Jack along for the first two months was a joy, showing and sharing parts of the United States with him was good for both of us.  Jack was able to visit 13 different states in the two months he was traveling with us, and he gained a much need 10 pounds of weight at the same time!  And he was a big help to Papa many times along the way! 

     The main reason for mentioning or thinking that the itch may overcome us this winter has to do with the community we live in.  We live in a 55 and older community here in Phoenix as most of you know, The Friendly Village of Orangewood. So many things have changed here over the past few years since we down sized and moved in here over 9 years ago.  We made many friends and participated in many of the activities available to us as residents.  I was like 63 years old at the time and we were a couple of the youngest residents at the time.  Nine years later, I'm 72 years old and those that were say an average age of 72 - 75 are now well into there 80's or have passed on unfortunately.  We had a very large contingent of snowbirds in the park when we moved in and now that number is down to just a few.  All the Canadians of which there were more than a handful have since sold and not longer visit due to the rent increases and the exchange rate!  It was just not financially prudent any longer to pay these rent prices.  So....we come home to no golf league, maybe Bocce ball but probably one day a week league rather that the 3 day a weeks leagues of the past, the monthly potlucks started to dwindle last year and are yet to be seen going forward.  Our community PNP (Phoenix Neighborhood Patrol) is down to a handful of members, and managers come and go like there was a revolving door at the office!  Rules have been over-looked by the past few managers and now we have some small children, more under 55 age working folks and bigger dogs than ever before allowed and breeds banded for being aggressive breeds roaming our streets!  To make a long blog shorter it's not the same place and nowhere near as fun living here as in our early years as residents, easier to pick up and leave with no weekly commitments!

     The annual struggle to loose the weight I gained while traveling this great country of ours and continue trying to loose the weight just to get back to a healthy number seems to get harder each year.  The slow down of exercise really hinders this struggle, not to mention the fact that the 72 year old joints just don't want to or like to cooperate as well as before!  I must say though this year I can really feel the difference the weather plays with my joint issues.  The dryer Phoenix weather and the warmth of the Phoenix sun already has made a difference, I can see it in the fact that I can do without the cane I at times use to give me that safety and balance security.  The hip is feeling a bit better and I'm hoping it continues to improve as I hope to add more exercise to our routine.

     There has been talk between Bev and I about this Journey of 2019 being our last, or maybe our last putting on the kind of miles and destinations we try and cover.  Some of the aspects of motor home traveling can be taxing in some ways, the constant hooking and unhooking up at so many stops across the country.  We might just contemplate less miles total and longer stays in a few locations, now that we've traveled the entire USA and have taken this motor home into every state of the lower 48 states it may be time to slow down and smell the roses a little here and there.  We do want to thank all those we visited along the way for the hospitality shown us, I'm going to name them in closing and hope I can provide a more interesting blog in the near future.

    Thanks to all our family in Iowa (Des Moines & Davenport) where all our journeys start even though this years was a shorted visit.  And now Thanks to Alan & Kathy Nelson (Superior Wisconsin) Kitty Madlinger (Mollala, OR) Al Rojas (Florence, OR) and Don and Sharon Paper (Sacramento, CA) Suzzane Floyd and Rich Paper (Sacramento and Vacaville, CA)