A Featured Post Reveals Errors in Travel Plans

At Sunset Shores RV Park, Willis, Texas...

I really like the new Blogger add-on here on the home page that allows us blog owners to include a featured post header. It's there on the right side of the page, in case I would like to reprise a piece that might interest the readers (or might interest me, since that's what really matters). In this case, I'm resurrecting a short post from last summer that included some nice photos of the Tetons and mentioned a meetup with fellow bloggers Merikay and Craig near West Yellowstone. A double treat, for sure. 

This leads me to mention some things we would like to have done differently as new retirees on a long RV trip through the western U. S. First of all, we should have allowed way more traveling time. We had a firm sailing date for an Alaskan cruise out of Seattle, and I figured three weeks would be enough time to see all we wanted to see between Fort Worth and Seattle. It wasn't, and not by a long shot. As a result, we gave only passing attention to places like Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone. What a pity.

We learned something else, though. We will never, never, ever go to Yellowstone again in the middle of summer. The kids are out of school then, and the tourists swarm the place like locusts. It was so crowded that I'm almost glad we didn't spend much time there. We will go back when we can really enjoy it.

In our defense, we weren't fulltiming then, so not only did we have the sailing date pressuring us on one end of the trip, but we also had to get back to Texas in a reasonable time to see to the needs of the stick-and-brick house. In fact, it was exactly the killjoy crush of those responsibilities that proved to be the death blow to our keeping that house. We never forgot what a downer it was to have to miss so many things we wanted to see.

Now that we're fulltiming, we have vowed to revisit those places we missed, and we will now have nothing tethering us to anywhere, except to see the kids when we can.

Speaking of the kids (as we collectively call our daughter and son-in-law and their children), we came over here near their home in Conroe and promptly got sick. Sandy and I spent most of the week with a vicious stomach bug that had all of the nasty effects you might imagine. We'll get to see our kin for a couple of days, though; that's better than nothing.

This weekend, we'll be heading back to the DFW area and medical/dental/optical appointments and let's not forget--income taxes. Ugh! We'll also be catching up with friends, too, so that will make up for the unpleasantness.

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.