There is a lot of preparation involved in getting Gladys, the motorhome, ready for four months on the road. This year it was time to have the brakes redone and buy six new tires in addition to the regular tune up and inspection. But that is the boring Tim stuff.
The fun part was hanging wall paper in the bathroom, as well as installing new vinyl flooring and carpet. A little facelift on the old girl never hurts. She is 12 years old and doesn’t look a day over five.
Another important part of our preparations is my cooking several “road meals”. This year they consisted of different soups and chili in individual containers for the freezer and breakfast sandwiches on English muffins. This makes it so much easier to eat on the road and saves us money on fast food. As a bonus, it also allows me to clean out the fridge so you never know what might be in any given dish. Only one meal was so bad that it ended up in the garbage, so I’m making progress in the cooking department.
We stayed in the Catskills long enough to photograph Santa with kids at the Emerson Resort as we do every year on Black Friday. For the past three years we have sworn that we would not do it again but this year I do believe it is indeed the last time.
As you can see, winter did not wait and we had to amend out schedule as well as our route. It was another “storm of the century” and it shut down our usual escape route, US 90 along the Great Lakes. So Tim, being the excellent planner that he is, decided that US 80 might be the better part of valor. Amazing what a difference a few miles farther south made in the weather! No snow at all and we made it to Ohio in record time.
Our first campground is always Alum Creeks State Park near Columbus. This way we can visit with the kids, grandkids and great grand kids! It also allows us to drop off the many, many, many and did I say many, presents for all of them. I start Christmas shopping in January and by the time December rolls around my closet is so full I can’t shut the door and Tim is scolding me about wasted money, added weight and of course, where the hell to put all of this “crap”. I explain to him that I never buy anything if it is not on clearance so I have actually saved money and prevented overcrowding the landfill. I am nothing if not WOKE to the environment.
