Starting our trip down to the Cousins Reunion

We have had a great time in Texas so far, once we left Britney and Cody's home in Dumas, we went to the Thousand Trails Bridgeport campground. This is a really nice campground and it's right on the lake. While we were here, we contacted Shannon and George and were able to go have lunch with them and picked up the kids after choir practice. We had a great day and it was quite enjoyable visiting with them and learning all the interesting things the kids are up to. Plus we got to ride on the Zip Line they have in their back yard. Thanks for a fun day.

After a week at Bridgeport we headed to Lake Texhoma for a week. We really did enjoy this campground and it is one of our favorite in the Thousand trails list of campgrounds. After talking to Tonya, we decided to leave a day early so we could stop at Natalie and Jon's "Hole in the Wall" restaurant in Rochester, which is about half way to Snyder. We met Tonya at a little one horse town and she left her car and rode the rest of the way with us in the motorhome to Rochester. We are so proud of the job they have done in building their business. The food was great and I am so glad we were able to make this stop as it has been a while since I have got to visit with Natalie and Jon. Thanks for lunch and a really nice afternoon.

Once we made it to Snyder, we had several days of visiting and Britt took us to make a couple of clay pots at the college and even cut up Geode Rocks for Pearl and made her a pendant from a pretty rock he had in his collection. You will enjoy watching Pearl make her pot, but I won't spoil the ending, you will have to watch the video.

The final couple of days were spend at our Cousins Reunion. Tonya, Connie and Paul all brought some of their families that were available and we had dinner at the campground then  breakfast, lunch and dinner at Connie's the next day. It has been 50 years since I have seen Connie and several years since I have seen Paul plus there were kids, spouses and nephews that all joined in the event.

We have had a great October and hope you can get a feel of how much fun it is from the video, but just in case it doesn't come through clearly. WE ARE HAVING THE TIME OF OUR LIVES, retirement and family go well together.

Enjoy the video.

We made it to Texas

We left southern California just a few days ago and met up with a couple of friends in Kingman Arizona. We met Pete and Debbie several years ago in Zion national park and have met with them several times since. They are great people and we enjoy their company a lot, I think you will agree once you meet them on the video.

We then headed to Plainview Texas to spend a couple of days with my step mom and youngest brother. Beverly and Wynn seem to be doing great and we enjoyed visiting and catching up with them. It is always good to spend a couple of days in my home town, lots of memories here.

We stopped in at Palo Duro Canyon overnight on the way to Dumas to visit with our niece Britney and her husband Cody along with their two children Ashlyn and Braxton. Both Cody and Britney are such a pleasure to visit with as they seem to enjoy life and live it to its fullest. I didn't have a memory card in the camera when we were over looking at their new 40 foot, 5th wheel toy hauler/camper, trust me it is Big and Awesome! They have owned it for a year now but it has "FUN" radiating out of every inch of it. I can't even imagine all the good times and memories their family will have traveling around the country in this rig. I think I can say that family is very much living the American Dream at least from my perspective. Thanks Britney and Cody for a very nice afternoon/evening.

It was raining about as hard as it can when we left the Dumas Campground around 6:30 am and I had to suit up in my yellow raincoat and pants so I could hook up the car and then drive through 3 or 4 inches water to get to the dump station to dump our sewer/gray water before heading out to Bridgeport Lake. I don't know why we don't think of filming during these times as that would have been a funny video now that it's over and I am all dry. I will try to remember next time though.

We were hosted at several locations on our drive from southern California to northern Texas and it sure made the travel much more enjoyable and less expensive. Thank you all and I hope you enjoy viewing the video as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

September 2017 Expenses

We are camped out at Bay Landing campground located on the shores of Bridgeport lake in Texas. It has been a nice quiet day so I decided to get the September numbers together and post them on the blog. Then Pearl gave me a list of chores that needed doing, so it has taken all day, but I finally got it done (as well as the chores)

We covered a lot of miles is September and a couple of extra maintenance items which when combined, blew our estimates out of the water. Our average monthly expense went over $5,000 this month but hopefully it will come back down over the next few months to balance it all out , so hopefully we can keep the projected average a little under $50,000 per year.

We are planning to review the medicare supplemental insurance plans that are available to folks that travel around the country using doctors in different states. If we can find something that we can afford that provides some acceptable coverages we will most likely purchase it. If so, that will most likely put us well over the target of $50,000 so we will most likely have to realistically raise our target to around $60,000 from that point on.

Hopefully the video will help anyone thinking about doing something similar, so here are our September Expenses broken out by line item.