Sunday, June 21, 2009

Day 4 - Sunday - June 21


Happy Father's Day to all those father's out there. Today has been a much better day than yesterday was - first we actually were in our camp spot by 4:00 MT today - took a nap and we have just fixed the broken door - we (I mean Dan actually - but I did hold the flashlight!) had to take the surround around the door apart and Dan had to cut a hole in the pantry area to be able to get to the screws in the tract - but all is well and the door is back up and Dan promises he will fix the hole in the pantry wall.

We are camped in the middle of the desert - I am NOT kidding! We are right outside Winslow Arizona at a state park named Homolovi Ruins State Park - the air temperature outside is currently 87% with 5% humidity. The wind is constantly blowing. You can see for miles and miles with nothing around but tumbleweeds, dirt and rocks to look at. I guess you could say is it interesting scenery, but not what Dan and I would call beautiful (but then that is just our opinion).

We stopped at Wal Mart in Gallup New Mexico today and bought some hamburger meat and buns - we plan on cooking out on the grill tonight. We expect the temperature to drop dramatically after the sun goes down, but that probably won't be until around 10:00 our time. I took some pictures of the buttes and mesas as we were riding down the highway today and hope to post some of these pictures soon (thanks Melissa for calling me about the computer, but I can't find the owner's manual - probably in the storage room in Dowling Park - okay, sometimes I'm not that bright - BUT, I have emailed HP and asked them how to download pictures on the computer and hopefully I will get an email back soon). If not - we'll go to a Best Buy and ask - that's where I bought the computer - or if anyone out there has an HP Pavilion Entertainment PC and know how to upload photo's PLEASE let me know.

Tomorrow we are headed to the Grand Canyon and we are going to start "playing" as Dan puts it. We hope to also go the Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park before heading on up to Idaho. I'll take lots of pictures and WHEN (not if) I'm able to download I'll look into posting a link to a site like Picassa or Snapfish so you will be able to see more than just a couple that I would be able to download onto the blog.

Everyone have a great week and keep coming back - I'll try my best to stay current with our activities. I'm even going to get serious and start talking money real soon. (For example, I wouldn't recommend doing this and have expenses at home - we are starting this adventure debt free - everything we own is paid for from the truck to the camper - we have extended warranties on both and we have a credit card for fuel which will be paid in full each month. Now neither the truck or the camper are brand new - they are both 2008 models, but they both look brand new and with the extended warranties we should be covered for anything major - but that was a $60,000 +/_ expenditure we made in the last couple of months (the month of May to be exact). We were fortunate in that we were able to do this thanks to some savings and the sell of the house in Dowling Park. We even have a little bit of a cushion in a CD and I hope to be able to save money while we are in Idaho. Actually our goal is to live on our retirement checks from the state of Florida - Dan and I are both retired educators and put Dan's Social Security check and the annunity check into savings. That means we will be living on $2,500.00 a month and saving about the same amount. Our biggest outlay will be fuel - so we will see how that goes. I am keeping track of every little penny we spend and I'll create a budget that I'll share when I have more figures. In the meantime, you have an idea of what we are trying to do. We'll share the ups and downs as we go along.

For those that are reading - thanks for coming along on our adventure - we would love to hear from you - so send those comments to us.

2 comments:

  1. We check in every night...Have a great time at the Grand Canyon! As always...Be Safe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dana - we look forward to comments from back home!

    ReplyDelete

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