Category: Uncategorized

I tried to do a fair amount of reading and research into blogging before I started this.  There were numerous suggestions that it was not as easy as it might look.  I am finding this true.  The mechanics are not that bad.  Actually physically setting up the blog was not that hard after some decisions as to what software and where and doing simple things like posting text and working (in the most simple way) with photos are not too bad.  What is hard is actually sitting down and getting something written that you want to post.  I worked several hours on the “Family” post yesterday.  I wrote, rewrote, edited, posted, edited and still came up with what seems to me not too good a post.  But it is there.  I hope it will get better with practice.  I am happy though that blog is up and ready for Beth to start writing as she has time.  Her work is pretty demanding right now and seems to dominate her time and energy.  Only 5 weeks to go!

Above is another picture of Beth taking a picture.  I have lots of these.  It was taken back in 2010 on the Corrizo Plain in California at wildflower time.  I read recently that with the rain they are expecting a great year for flowers coming up.  Below is a picture of Beth kayaking in Monterey Bay, California.  Beth loves kayaking there.  She got me to go once and I was really happy  the waves were so loud she couldn’t hear the things I was yelling at her as we started paddling out.  I think the waves were so bad that day they wouldn’t even allow the Coast Guard Cutter out.

So if you are looking at these, thanks and hang in there while we develop.

Beth is big on family, and the family is big on Beth.  Whether it is acting as Mema, Mom, Beth or Aunt Beth her place is huge!  With that in mind, one thing we both agree is a downside to our planned explorations is they will take us physically farther away from the family for a time.  We don’t look forward to that at all, so a second motivation I have in starting the blog is to create a place where everyone to stay just a little closer together.

For me, this picture is a great look at the heart of our family tree.  These ladies create a strong central support for everyone involved and it is great when they all get together!

I hope the blog might be a way for people to keep up with where Beth and I are at in our exploration and that they might enjoy some of our escapades.  With Beth there will always be escapades.  I also hope the family might use it as a way to share what they are up to and it can develop into a many sided conversation and communication when we can’t all be together.

As part of our downsizing and getting ready to go we are going through old pictures.  I spent several hours the other day picking out some I want to keep separate just before Beth spent several hours organizing them back into the piles?  Here’s one I hunted up again and scanned to use.

On the back is written “Me and my cousin when I was two.  I am the one with blonde hair.”

 

 

Right behind loving to travel and explore, Beth loves to take pictures and write about her explorations.  The picture above is Beth sitting at the only Woolworth’s Diner still open in Bakersfield, CA.  She had to go see it and she had to document it with a picture.  Below is a picture of a dinner I ordered at what is I believe the only Harvey House and Restaurant still in operation in the US in New Mexico. Don’t know what a Harvey House is?  I’m sure Beth will get around to it.

Traveling and exploring is a way of life with Beth.  She spends weeks planning trips, goes on trips, then spends weeks reviewing and writing about them.  Beth is a huge reviewer on the travel site Trip Advisor.  According to the last email stats I could find Beth has written 575 articles and has had 326,138 readers!  She has been reviewing with TripAdvisor since 2005.  Her most read review is for Mac’s Diner in Rochester, MN with 4,330 views.  She has also posted 1,572 pictures. That’s a lot of exploring and writing! We have tons of pictures of places and meals she has taken for her reviews, and the pile keeps growing and growing.  She talks now about how far behind she is in reviewing.

So…when I think about making the transition in life to retirement I cannot think of anything better for Beth than to continue to pursue her love of travel and then writing about it to share with others.  I think blogging and Beth are a perfect match!

I was very happy this morning when Beth told me she had woken up in the night and ideas were coming to her about things she would Blog about!  We’ll see how it goes.

But back to our topic, Why a blog?  I am making this (#1)   so Beth will have a place to practice her art.  Come along with us, it should be fun.  I often say I don’t really like to travel, but I love going places with Beth. She always makes it worth the trip.

Why a blog?  Not something you might expect from me.  As the starter and, at least for the moment, still administrator of the blog I thought I would talk a little about why I decided to try this.  It might be interesting for others who happen to find their way here, and more importantly will be a reminder for me as time goes on.  All to often lately I find myself in the moment where I have gotten up and gone on the move only to realize I have forgotten what for? As time goes on and our lives change I can come back here and see where this started. Right now there are about five areas or reasons in my mind for starting and trying to build a blog about EXPloring WITH Beth.  I’ll list them here, then  talk more about each in a further post.  I hope to develop the blog 1) for Beth 2) for the family 3) for others 4) for kindness and 5) for me.  Also, as I am really new at this and have so very much to learn and get used to I will use these as exercises to develop what skill I may find.  I will probably at some point soon talk about why it is me and not Beth doing this.

The picture (or two).  A blog is really so much better with pictures.  I went in to Beth’s Photoshop catalog to look for a good one to add.  I went back and started with the oldest by dates and this one soon came up.  It is photo 121 of 72,089 items in her catalog.  The date was April 24, 2004.  What I love about the picture is that it kind of captures what makes travel ok for me.  It is not travel, but travel with Beth that is fun!  Traveling with her and seeing her enjoy it to the fullest is worth the trip.

I’ll leave with another picture I took very recently on a trip to Moss Landing.  I have this one printed out and next to my computer.

Some things never change.  Thankfully.

 

First try for Beth on the blog. Just got signed up and will be posting info and pics of our travel plans and travels.

After a lot of looking at different models and floorplans we finally found what we think will be the best match for our list of wants.  We are not really the typical RV hunters so our pick was somewhat rare, but as luck would have it we found one in Fresno and on sale!  We traveled down to Freedom RV and made the purchase.  They are a smaller family owned dealership and we felt very well treated throughout the whole process.  This is a picture when we went down to pick it up.  We spent a couple of nights at a park nearby in Chowchilla, CA to try it out and are very happy!

As we said earlier in our plans we needed to get a bigger trailer for exploring and so a bigger truck to pull the bigger trailer.  My good friend Justin found this truck for us and it is just what we wanted!  This picture is on the day we got it, stopped for dinner at one of Beth’s favorite restaurants, Wholey Ravioli in Galt, California.  Since that time I have added a camper shell to protect the bed and give us more storage room while traveling.

 

 

It has been a little while since I posted anything and we have been busy.  I’ll post a few things now as I get a chance.  We took a 10 day trip in November to Death Valley, California.  It was the longest trip so far in the trailer, and looks like the last in the Clipper! 

Here is a tiny Beth in Fall Canyon.  It is called Fall Canyon because up at the end is a dry waterfall.  It is a really pretty hike, but a challenge as the floor is all gravel.

In this picture at Mesquite Dunes and if you look just about in the middle on the top of a dune you see another tiny Beth.  We have been here years before, but never had enough time to really look around.  It is a beautiful place.  I have now added Beth to the Blog so she can start posting (I put it off as long as I could, lol) so maybe she can get in a little practice and talk more about the trip.  It was a lot of fun.

 

Figured out how to get a pic from an iPhone to the laptop and then in a post (hopefully).  This past weekend we went to Monterey, CA for their Christmas at the Adobes festival.  It was a little rainy but great fun.  More on the festival later…

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.