Sunday, September 14, 2008

More beginnings

After nearly 44 years in the workforce, I was pleased to accept an early retirement offer from my employer July 31, 2007. The Fall of 07 was mostly taken up with researching and purchasing our 07 Arctic Fox 27 foot travel trailer and 07 Silverado 2500HD crewcab 4x4 pickup.
We made a quick trip to Arizona in early January which was cut short by Aileen’s Mom being ill and requiring assistance. Aileen flew to Victoria February 17th with my sister Wendy and Randy who drove her to Parksville. Mitzy and I wandered our way to Parksville some time later. I/we lived in the trailer in Edna’s driveway til March 17th when we moved Edna home with us to Salmon Arm. We were able to keep her in our home til she passed away April 14th.
We spent six weeks traveling with the trailer to Vancouver Island in May and June. The trailer traveled from Victoria to Port McNeill.
We had installed solar panels and an extra battery before our trip south and the system worked very well. We are currently installing two more batteries and an inverter. I took the trailer back to my selling dealer a few weeks ago concerned they’d sold us too light a hitch and torsion bars. They went good on things and I came away with 1200 pound hitch and bars at no charge. Hope that improves the dipping and diving we were experiencing on rough roads at speed.
Our rough plan is to head south in late October wintering in Arizona til early March. Spring is unplanned but perhaps north. South again the following winter then Newfoundland in 2010. I do not like long range or firm plans. We do plan to travel at a much slower pace as much as possible and stay longer before moving on. Depending on conditions or if we just have to, of course.

2 comments:

  1. Bev tipped me off that you were doing this - good for you! It'll cut down on the number of emails and phone calls you'd otherwise be responsible for, and if it all works out, you'll have a resource of notes and images to draw on later.

    I'm glad to hear things are working out for you so far - but yep, packing is hard work!

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  2. Guilty as charged...

    Hope you get some rest in the next few days! At least it isn't cooking hot. And you don't have to worry about missing any photo ops when the weather is yucky. No excuse not to snuggle in for naps!

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