Catching up!

Hmmm....I wonder how many times I've used this blog title! To catch you up to speed - we had a wonderful visit with my daughter, Lauryn. She did my hair and we went to an AA meeting with her to celebrate her 1 year sober birthday. She spoke at the meeting - actually led the entire meeting and spoke for 25 minutes. She was eloquent, thoughtful, funny, emotional and I was (and AM) so very, very proud of her. The support in that room was overwhelming. Afterwards people shared - some about what she spoke about and some about themselves and their journey. One younger girl said "I want what you've got." And it struck me that I remember Lauryn saying the same thing early on in her recovery. She's in a good place, has a great job, is working on a second career as a personal trainer and has surrounded herself with really good people. PHEW!

My sister, Joanne, my mom and my nephew's girlfriend.

After L.A. we drove down to Dulzura, very, very southeast San Diego, just a hop, skip and jump from the Mexican border at Tecate, where our friends Jeanette and Dennis were hanging out. We had a much needed few days of R&R and Dennis helped me figure out a few things with my computer. We cooked together, sat around the campfire, got some work in, did some laundry and had the master suite to indulge in after all of our tent camping adventures. It just wasn't long enough, but my sister and her family, from Nome, Alaska, were visiting my parents and my brother had planned a family dinner - so off we went to join in. There was no room to stay at my mom and dad's house with my sister's family there so we went to stay close by at my Uncle's house, which was empty. 

With my brother, Richard, a great chef, who made
us a yummy vegan meal!

We went to Living Waters Spa to celebrate our 5th anniversary and spent the night there, for the first time. We indulged in one of their signature couples massages and just lounged around - taking a break from the October 15th tax deadline I was working against. We went back to Palm Desert for about a week and then set out to camp for a few days in Joshua Tree. My parents have had a home in Palm Desert for 25-30 years and even before that, they rented down there every winter and not once had I ever been to Joshua Tree - it was time!

Our wedding, 5 years ago on top of Round Hill, Stateline, Nevada

We scored a great campsite (good to go mid-week) at the Jumbo Rocks campground and did a couple of long hikes. The weather was perfect and we ended up meeting a great couple on our way out. 

About a week prior to this I woke up one morning with a start, realizing that we couldn't just go down to Mexico whenever we wanted, if we wanted to stay until the end of April - on a tourist visa you are limited to 180 days. Add into that the 4-5 days travel time to get up and down the peninsula and we only have 170 days! Time to reschedule and extend our leave date! By this time we had moved into my parents home and quickly realized we could not stay there another week. Bill was doing some searching on the internet for rentals and other options in the area while he was also playing around on Facebook. All of a sudden he noticed an ad for the Armed Forces Vacation Club - don't you just love how they know EVERYTHING you're doing?! Usually those things totally creep me out, but this time, we scored! Got a great condo, in a super area for $299 for the week. So off we went, moving, once again. We got a lot done in those three weeks in Palm Desert - I finished off tax season and got a couple of other work related things out of the way so that by the time we left I was done with work for a couple of months.

One of the two tent sites at Fiddler's Cove in Coronado.

We left Palm Desert and headed south to San Diego where we camped for 4 nights on Coronado in the newest  military campground. On the way there Bill asked me to check in with Glenn at the RV Connection to see if we'd had any interest in our RV. It had been almost a month since it had gone up on his website and we hadn't heard a thing. Well, guess what?! That was a timely email as they were just getting ready to take it for a test drive with a very serious buyer. Glenn only lets you test drive his vehicles if he knows that's the last step in the buying process - no lookee-loos for him! So we've got a deal in the works, we extended our stay in San Diego a couple of days to get the paperwork all signed. Timing is everything! Had we already left for Mexico this would have been a very difficult process. Today he is wiring the money to our bank to pay off the loan and Friday I believe we will be officially homeless, for one day, as our rent on our little casita starts Saturday, November 1st!