We’re Back… But Also Gone Again

Written Friday, 1/28/22

“Back” to blogging, ”Back” in Detroit… whichever you prefer it to mean works.

THE PLAN WITH THE BLOG

Hey, we’re baaa-aaack!

Catching up on our blog has proven to be more difficult than it should be. Or maybe it’s just that I have failed at getting motivated enough to sit my behind down and work through it all. Either way, it hasn’t happened… yet.

We have a lot of photos and fun from our trip and intend to still write the blog posts to share it all. Clearly that’s not been a quick or easy feat for us. BUT we don’t want to stop blogging altogether just because we got behind. SO, we’re going to still work on catching up the blog for September through January WHILE also getting back to blogging about our current life. After all, we know you’ve been wondering about us and checking daily for new posts. 😉

Catch-up posts will be back-dated so that all blogs still appear in chronological order. Current posts will be dated as published. This means, if you don’t want to miss a word we say (why would you?), keep an eye not just on the latest blog we posted, but also on those coming after the “Reno & Sparks” post from 11/18 (regarding our time there in early September).

WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON SINCE SEPTEMBER?

After Reno, we drove west into California to visit some family in El Dorado Hills, Santa Rosa, and San Rafael. It was such a treat to visit lots of people we don’t get to see all that often! We then drove south through the rest of California, all the way to San Diego — and spent a day in Mexico too! Next, we headed back up to meet friends in Palm Springs for an amazing week of celebrating a friend’s birthday and all kinds of shenanigans.

The final leg of our 4 ½ month trip was us driving Route 66 (backwards) in its entirety… at least as much as we could find and as exists, which was quite a lot of it. What a privilege to have such an opportunity!

HOME

On November 11, we arrived back home to Detroit. The trip was AMAZING, but it was also so wonderful to be home. The cats agreed!

The past 2 ½ months have been spent resting, catching up on stuff around the house, catching up with friends, going back to some of our favorite places that we missed, and trying out some new spots that opened while we were gone.

We were able to have a small holiday party in the basement and a few other small get togethers. Man, it was nice to be back with our friends in the basement bar.

These two ladies taught me a new game: Left, Right, Center. And then these two winners took ALL my money (an entire $6!!).

Sadly, Mike and I also managed to catch COVID right before Christmas. Thankfully, we are both fully vaccinated and got our boosters as soon as we got back home in November. I got sick for about a week, with two days where it was like a really bad cold, the rest where I just felt generally icky… and I was still congested for a good week past that even though I otherwise felt better. Mike had almost no symptoms… showoff.

We spent two weeks, including Christmas and New Year Eve/Day, isolated in our house, other than when we went to get tested. Grocery delivery, DoorDash and good friends got us through!

Here we are celebrating Christmas virtually with the kids… sure miss these guys.

And celebrating on NYE at home alone…

Mike started a new job, still in mortgage, at the beginning of the new year. The best part: it’s 100% VIRTUAL. SO perfect for our lifestyle.

A Few More Metro Detroit Pix

A bar with beautiful rooftop seating (it was a little chilly).

The gorgeous winter lights in Rochester, MI.

Pix from several spots in the city.

Valade Park, Downtown Detroit

Beacon Park, Downtown Detroit

Campus Martius Park, Downtown Detroit

Overall, we had a great time back home. During our trip, we drove a lot of miles, through a lot of states, but we still LOVE DETROIT as our one true home. Two and a half months almost felt too short, but this cold weather is making it easy to leave again.

AND…. Today we left on another motorhome trip!

Our first grandbaby is due in March and we just have to meet the little precious ASAP. So, we’re on our way back to Oregon.

Except… it’s awfully cold from here to there. So, we’re on our way south before we head west. We’re skipping all the closed passes and slick roads that I-80 and I-90 are full of this time of year.

With Mike being all growed up and working, we are driving only on the weekends and stopping in a different city for each week. It’ll take us about five weeks to get to Oregon this way. Today (Friday) we left after he was done working, but usually we will just drive on Saturdays and Sundays.

Here we are right before we left today… Kitties are not sure what to think yet.

This Sunday we’ll arrive at our first major stop: Jackson, Mississippi.  We’ll spend six nights there before moving on next Saturday.

Can’t wait!