Month: December 2016

A baby step…or two.

Working on two things today.  Bought a laptop and started the daunting task of backing up and organizing all the pictures.

The computer is an HP 2in1 I got from Best-Buy after about 8 trips to look.  The poor salesman seemed relieved he wouldn’t have to go through it all again tomorrow.  I think this one has all we will need.  I’ll start getting to know my way around (with this post) and try and figure out what we want as far as programs and stuff.

I checked out the back-up drive for Beth’s pictures and it seems to be working well.  I also have just a portable drive that I put the pictures on.  To copy from the computer to the drive takes about 6 hours.  We have lots of pictures (I just checked 82,852 pics) and Beth worries about each and every one of them.

Also replaced some burnt out bulbs on the 4Runner and have just a few more things to do before I turn it over to a friend to sell.  I’ll keep plugging away.

 

Gonna take a while

I’m glad I started this plenty early because I’m seeing  it is going to take a while to get smoothly operational (which I figured it would). Aside from learning about WordPress and WordPress hosting, I need to get used to making and moving files and pictures. We have 2 computers at home, 2 iphones with pictures, ipad minis and who knows what. We have pictures stored all over the place. I need to work all this out as well as continue to prepare for life on the road, which means probably adding a laptop to the picture. Please be patient while I labor. In addition, I hope to put up a post or two from time to time about what is going on. Thanks again for looking.

The Plan 1.0

Like the title says, the plan for the future is to Explore with Beth. A little more specific is that Beth and I plan to wind up things here and go on the road full-time RVing as soon as we can. As you might guess that is a lot easier said than done, but we are on our way. There are two main efforts we have begun.

1) Divesting
After 40 years of married life and over 20 in this one spot we have collected a lot of stuff. I freely admit I love stuff and have quite a collection. In order to go on the road all this stuff has to be either sold or packed up and stored. So far it seems most of my stuff has been identified as junk and will be sold off, while most of Beth’s stuff has been designated honored treasures that must be carefully packed and stored away. We have made some progress, but it will take a while longer.

2) Full-time RV prep
While we have a wonderful little travel trailer, it is just not big enough to live out of for any length of time, so we need a bigger one. In order to pull a bigger trailer we need a bigger tow vehicle (TV in RV speak). Fortunately, with the help of a good friend we located and purchased a new (to us) TV, a 2007 Ford F-150 pickup truck. Now we need to sell my Toyota 4Runner and our current Coachman Clipper travel trailer and pick out a new, bigger one.

While there are a thousand other things that need to be done, these are the two we are focusing on right now, along with trying to enjoy the holiday season.

While adventure is surely out there, it takes a little time and energy to get to it.  But we are getting closer!

What have I done?

Well, here we go.  After much pondering, a blog for Exploring with Beth is a reality.  This is Mark and I will be starting from here on this adventure within an adventure.  I am new to blogging and so it will probably take a little while to get this running smoothly for the boss.  Bear with me and I hope it proves to be enjoyable.