Travels

It’s the People:

One of the things that we find fascinating about traveling around this great country is the fascinating people we meet. I am going to bring you a few vignettes of some people we have met this last week.

We stopped in a small town, Thibodaux, LA specifically to visit the Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center. We have run into this cultural group twice before in our travels. Once in Nova Scotia, where the Acadian people were expelled by the British at the end of the seven years’ war with France in 1763; (We call it the French and Indian War on this side of the pond.) and again in Maine when we toured Acadia National Park near Bar harbor.

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Travels

Natchez Trace, Then and Now:

For four days now we have been traveling the Natchez Trace, a trail that served the “Old Southwest” from about 1775 to 1820 or so. It was declared a National Post Road in 1800 and many improvements were made to it by the US Army and civilian contractors. With the coming of the steam paddlewheel river boats on the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers the Natchez Trace fell into disuse and slowly melted back into the undergrowth.

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Travels

2008 in Review

We relocated 116 times in 2008. This is about average for us. For 2007 it was 125 times and 2006, 118 times. Total distance driven was 10,465, bicycled 2,097 and hiked 236 miles for a grand total of 12,798 miles in 2008. That works out to 108 miles per move. Our big event for the year was the big Dinsmore-Cook family reunion in Colville Washington. It was really fun having all the children, grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews together. We were glad that we made our big trip to Alaska in 2007, but my records show that we did not substantially curtail our travels in 2008. We never have enjoyed driving long days. We have developed a style of travel where we pick a monument or battlefield along the way for a mid day break. We either hike or break out the bicycle for an hour of exploring; then we then get back on the road and complete the day’s route. We were more careful planning our stops this year and we are getting better at staying put for at least two or three days.

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Maintenance, Travels

Winter Cleaning:

I know you have heard of spring cleaning. Today we seized an opportunity to clean the “basement” of our motor home. We call the cargo bay under our coach the “basement.” The trailer is the “Shop Annex.”

We scheduled this winter cleaning just two days ahead of the winter solstice. That way there would be minimum of daylight. The schedule fortunately coincided with a record breaking warm day here in Nashville Tennessee at 73 degrees. You heard me, 73 degrees.

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Life is a Journey