Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): crazy, crazier, craziest

Friday, May 20, 2011

crazy, crazier, craziest

Yeah yeah yeah ... these pictures have been loaded waiting for accompanying text for nearly a month I'd guess!

I'd planned on adding a couple of Easter festivities of grandchildren Connor (in NC) and Paige (aka Princess Muffin in NH) but didn't have the photos in jpeg and they were very poor quality so only Princess Muffin in the Easter bonnet she created and that won her the blue bunny she is hugging in the photo below. She won for her age group in the local make your Easter bonnet contest!

We'd been in MA for five weeks (we left there a week ago today and have been in NH). Most of the MA time was insanely crazy - with doctors appointments and meeting up with old friends and and family. If nothing else, we did get a great deal accomplished and King Richard is waiting for his vision to complete the healing process from his two cataract surgeries that were done while we were in MA! Amazing how "easy" and quick those surgeries were! I am fairly certain that Sir Arlo constantly at his side helped as well in the recovery!

The weather for the most part of the last month and a half has been cold and rainy, and continues to be such. Fortunately it was a gorgeous, perfect for running a half marathon day on May 1 when Chad ran in the Providence Marathon with Dreamfar (please note at the bottom of that website who designed and created it!) ~ the group he's been "mentoring" with. One of the "kids" from Dreamfar is in the orange tank top just behind and to the right of him in the photo below.

Providence has always been one of my favorite small cities, and it was especially so on such a beautiful early spring day. We used to enjoy going down for their Water Fires a couple times a summer and spending the weekend at a Marriott property overlooking the river.

The photo below shows the hurricane barriers along the Providence River in the "Fox Point" section of the city.

We will be leaving NH on Monday heading to VT to start our five month (oh dear five months) volunteer stint with the Vermont State Parks!

Stay tuned ...

2 comments:

Paul and Marsha Weaver OCT. 17, 2009 said...: FINALLY! We were wondering if you two moved to Africa and didn't have electricity. Princess Muffins looks beautiful! Love the bonnet. Hope King Richard is doing better. He looks like he might like just lying in bed. Lastly...5 months...WOW. You two will get the opportunity to see all the beautiful colors of fall. Enjoy the ride. Keep in touch.; May 24, 2011 at 5:37 AM
Anonymous said...: That is so clever!!! I love the homemade mold!
Nice blog.
Gorgeous blog. I liked it.
its excellent

Wheels Florida; May 27, 2011 at 11:36 PM

Post a Comment

This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

Click here to see our pictures on picasa