Bill and Suzanne's life on the road
South Padre Island was recommended to us by some RV friends and was our first stop on “winter tour”. It’s at southern-most point of Texas on the Gulf of Mexico and bordered on the south by Mexico. By my account, it looks and feels just like Florida. SPI is a barrier island that is only a half mile or so wide, but about 40 miles long. Most of it is…
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Suzanne and I spent just over two weeks in Portugal in the second half of September. The time was split evenly with the Bakers (Marv and Laurie) and the Herefords (Dean and Sue). While we visited eight cities, took five guided tours, and traveled a fair amount of the country side, it feels like we just scratched the surface. The country is rich in history and culture, and is filled…
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We had another great summer on Wellesley Island in 2019. We were blessed to have several good friends join us for a few days including the Barones, the Bakers, the Marschiloks, and Alan Callaghan. It was a great time with all of them and a chance to catch up. Simultaneously, we had the 3rd edition of G2 (Grandma/Grandpa) Camp. In addition to the 5 “grands” and Pete from previous years,…
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This was our final stop before heading back to the 1000 Islands for the summer. We had been told by many people the that Antelope Canyon was a must-see if we were in the region. Not only was this totally true, but there was a bonus: Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. The day before our Canyon tour, we visited The Glen Canyon Dam and drove around Lake Powell….
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In March, I passed the two year anniversary of my retirement. This milestone seemed to be the right time to write down my thoughts – long enough to gain perspective and short enough to still have vivid memories. My professional life can be broken into 3 chapters: a year and a half at Kaman Sciences in Colorado Springs, two years at General Railway Signal (GRS) in Rochester, and the remaining…
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Death Valley National Park is just inside California about 150 west of Las Vegas and is the largest National Park in the lower 48 states. It also boasts the lowest elevation in North America and makes claim to be the hottest place on Earth. Our plan was to get there in late March to see it when it was comfortable. Having said that, we still needed to hydrate frequently and…
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We loved this place so much last year that we came back again in 2019. The major upgrade was the addition of our long-time friends the Bakers and the Marschiloks. This was the first time that the six of us had been together in 25 years and it was a blast. One minor surprise was the weather – the night after we arrived it started snowing and didn’t stop until…
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Our “winter” began with our arrival in Red Bay, Alabama at the end of November. It’s a small town not too for from Birmingham that is dominated by Tiffin, it’s largest employer and the manufacturer of our RV. The reason to got there was to get some work done that they could only do at the factory. We stayed in their campground/parking lot for several days while we waited our…
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For the purpose of this discussion, Fall consists of mid-September through early December and covers a potpourri of activities. We didn’t spend much time in the 1000 Islands this fall for a couple of reasons: (1) September is the best time of year to travel in the northern part of the country and (2) we had a number of commitments. It’s difficult to avoid writing a “how I spent my…
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Just before Labor Day weekend, we traveled to Bozeman, MT by plane with our travel buddies Sue and Dean Hereford and stayed in a townhouse in West Yellowstone. This is a small town that is halfway between an Alaskan outpost and a tourist mecca. It is located at the west park entrance and gets you to the key attractions relatively quickly. The park itself is enormous and it takes an…
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