Summer 2011 - getting ready!

We are hoping to begin our trip May 31. The weather will be the determining factor. We look for a good window of weather to cross mid-America. The weather this spring has been so dangerous, and I surely do not want to be in a camper in severe weather!!!! We will head to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area that straddles Wyoming and Idaho. This is a new area for us, and our good friends Bill and Barbara Inkelbarger love this place and recommended it to us. Maybe we will even see them while we are there. The other places we plan to visit are the Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier National Parks in the U.S. and Banff and Waterton Lakes National Parks in Canada. We visited them all last year, and

To get ready, we have already loaded the camper with winter clothing and as much of our summer clothing as we can spare. I will be washing every fifth day because I will run out of underwear if I do not! All the rest are in the camper.

Today the camper went back to Chilhowee RV where we purchased it to let them tweak a few things. When we picked it up from storage, we had five bins of stuff to put in. We can't keep our camper at our residence. Usually the truckis loaded/stuffed with things to put in the camper when we get to our destination. That will be a little difficult on this trip (understatement)! We purchased a few more things today, so when we go pick up the camper, we will put them in.

We also are making a list of things we will not need, like four dining chairs. We will take two out. Phil is going to see if he can take the table top and put it lenthwise against the wall. That will be easier for dining, and we will have a beautiful window to view nature - or shade pulled if we are packed next to another camper in a private campground.

We are eating food from the freezer and trying to get rid of anything in the frig that might go bad. We take a picnic basket with bread, peanut butter, jelly, plastic spoons and knives, and a small cooler with drinks and some times pimento cheese. I have gotten quite competent at making sandwiches in the truck and at eating while we travel. This year we are not packing snacks. We do pack our Bible and I read as we go down the road, and we discuss the day's passage. We pray together before we take off each day of travel (Of course, we pray individually off and on all day!!! We have got to stay connected to the One who blesses us with our travels!) We also have The Next Exit and the U.S./Canada Atlas in the truck. We bought editions that are spiral bound. The one we had last year from Walmart is in pieces after four months of travel.

Bet you had no idea anyone could talk this much about nothing! I am getting excited and felt the need to get started! OK - pray with me for good weather next week and from then on. The Lord sure made our path calm last summer! We are so thankful!