RETIRED ON WHEELS

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Well we are finally, after two years in Texas, on the move again. We are heading out May 3 for a summer of fun and adventure and I will be blogging again. Join us on our travels at our new blog site.
http://retiredonwheels2013.blogspot.com

Wheels at Rest

We are heading to Texas to spend a little time. I will be doing a continuation of our blog but it will be under a new name. Please join us there for the next few chapters of our life on the road.

http://retiredonwheels2012.blogspot.com

Preparing for New Zealand September 28, 2010

Last day. Tomorrow we head to LAX and hop the plane to New Zealand. So today will be the last blog at this address. We invite everyone to come along with us and enjoy our travels. The new blog will be

The Kiwi Kronicles and will be at the following URL

http://thekiwikronicles.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there.

Preparing for New Zealand September 25 - 27, 2010

The time is getting near to our leaving and our time has been spent packing, repacking, getting a few last minute things done, repacking and waiting.

We had a nice break on Sunday. We were invited to travel over to Mission Viejo and have brunch with

Sanjay and his family. Mission Viejo is about 70 miles west of Hemet and is in the southern part of Orange County. It is a very nice and clean little city and was declared to be the safest city is California and the third savest city in the US. Sanjay had planned a BBQ outside but since it was 107 degrees we decided to stay indoors. It was a very pleasant afternoon of good company and good food. As usual I ate too much.

Nancy, Sanjay, Kathy, Me

Neil ( Sanjay's Son ) and Sanjay.

Nancy, Sanjay and Neil.

Sanjay and Nancy

We left Mission Viejo and headed back to Hemet but decided to take the slower route through San Jaun Canyou. The landscape is pretty barren and rocky but what to you expect when it is over 100 degrees for most of the summer.

San Juan Valley, California

San Juan Canyon, California

We left the canyon by climbing the eastern ridge which brought us out overlooking Lake Elsinore. This left us with a short jog across Hwy 74 into Hemet.

Lake Elsinore, California

Only one more day.

Preparing for New Zealand September 10 - 24, 2010

The last two weeks have been pretty slow, just slowly dragging along. We have managed to get most of the things needed to be done and are now just putting in time. The list of things we had to do when we got to California have pretty much been completed. We got the prescriptions sorted out, we did the shopping for the extra clothes and hiking gear. We delivered the camper to Lancaster, CA home of Lance Campers to have some work done on it when we were away. We made the arrangements to have the 5th wheel stored and the limo to and from the airport is all set up. So NOW we WAIT.

Oh Yea, there was one other thing that had to be done.

Before

The Beginning

The End is Near

All Done

The New Me

Five Days to Take Off

Preparing for New Zealand Sept 1 - 9, 2010

We left Grapevine on the morning, early morning, very early morning on the 1st and hot footed it to Hemet. We made it to Van Horn, Texas on the first day and then to Blythe, CA on the second day. This left us with only 150 miles of the 1367 total miles so Friday was an easy day. We had made arrangements to have the 5th wheel delivered to the RV park for us so it was an easy set up.

The reason for coming back to Hemet early is that we need the time to make sure everything is ready for our trip to New Zealand. We are leaving September 29, 2010 from LAX and will arrive in Auckland on the 1st of October. We have rented a Campervan and will be touring the three islands for six months, returning on April 1, 2011.

The most important item that had to be taken care of is visas for New Zealand. We had sent off the applications shortly after crossing the border into the US but it was returned because we sent them too much money. Go figure. We made the corrections, reapplied and waited. Fortuntely all was good as the visas arrived yesterday. We are good to go.

Stay turned for further updates.

FROM Y'ALL TO EH!!! Day 91 – 90 August 19 – August 31, 2010 Grapevine, Texas

The stop in Grapevine was mainly for doctors and prescriptions to prepare for the next part of our journey. So we headed out to be poked, probed and stuck with needles. The good news is that we were both given clean bills of health and told to get out of town.

However, before leaving for California we were able to catch up with some good friends. When we first got to the Vineyards we hooked up with The Harpers for breakfast. Floyd and Lynnie are two special people we have come to know during our time here. We enjoy their company very much and will certainly see them down the road.

Floyd and Lynnie Harper

We were able to have dinner with Marsha but I don’t have a picture as she is camera shy. Okay, the truth is I forgot the camera. We enjoyed a very nice dinner and were able to catch up with all of Marsha’s going on’s since the last time we saw her. She is a special friend and we wish her well.

We couldn’t come into town without meeting up with Eddie and Anna. I play poker with Eddie and I plan to join him and a few others at the World Series of Poker in Vegas this coming June. On this trip we did get to join them for dinner and a very fun night.

Anna and Eddie Melissari

The weekend before we left we were invited to Bernie and Susan’s for dinner. When we arrived we discovered it was Bernie’s birthday and he is now the same age as me. Ryan ( Bernie’s son ) and Michelle ( Ryan’s wife ) was also there and we had a nice night. We hadn’t seen much of Bernie and Susan since we retired and it was good to catch up.