Merry Christmas and a Year-End Recap

I’ve been away from the keyboard for the last couple of months. I could use the excuse that I had carpal tunnel surgery in October, but that would be a copout because I have a speech to text tool. The real reason is probably lack of inspiration. After returning on October 2nd from our month long cross-country trip, I realized that there would be no more adventures in GR84RED this year. We’ve tucked it away in its new winter shelter until next spring.

But what a year we had in 2022. We traveled nearly 14,000 miles on three separate long trips, and several other local ones. Early April found us in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama (see blog here). In June we headed to Fayetteville, Arkansas for the Renegade Vienna/Villagio rally. We met some new friends there and learned a ton from them about their adventures and how they manage and maintain their Viennas (see blog here). Finally in September, we headed west all the way across the country to Napa, California for my 50th year high school reunion.

That trip certainly was the highlight of our year. 6,764 miles in total across 15 states. On the way out we made several planned stops at points of interest, and many others at the spur of the moment. The Field of Dreams movie site was on our itinerary from the early planning stage, as was Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore and Devil’s Tower. The “Corn Palace” in Mitchell, South Dakota was definitely not planned. But hey, we had nothing but time and it turned out to be a really cool stop.

The weekend before the reunion found us in Dutch John, Utah where I had booked a two-day fly fishing float on the Green River with Spinner Fall Guide Service. I’ve now floated the Green with Spinner Fall a dozen times. It’s always the best fly fishing experience, with the best guide service, in my happiest place on earth. Tommy, our guide, thoroughly entertained us both days, putting me on dozens of trout, expertly rowing the drift boat, all while swapping stories with Terri non-stop. The pull of Dutch John is strong and it will be hard not to stop there as we chris cross the nation on future trips.

After a half day float on Sunday the 11th, we headed for Salt Lake City for an overnight stop at David and Julie Smart’s ranch in Riverton. The Smart’s were our neighbors when we initially moved to Utah in June of ‘96. Their oldest son, Cole, became Dylan’s best friend. Darcie often baby sat the younger Smart kids, and Terri and Julie consoled together often over muffins, once the school term started. We’ve been in close contact with them ever since. They opened their home to us that night and prepared an awesome summer meal with all four grown kids, spouses and grandchildren. We stayed up past midnight swapping stories from the past two and half decades.

My 50th high school reunion was really nice. The planning committee, who are all part of my core group of HS friends, always do a terrific job with the event. For the Friday golf tournament, my brother Matt and his wife Cheryl joined Terri and I for the scramble, and we played okay. Not first, but not last. And Terri won the “closet to the pin” award. Saturday afternoon the four of us walked over to Tulocay Cemetery to pay our respects to our father, mother and brother Mike. After that we walked through downtown Napa and ended up at the JaM Cellars tasting room on First Street. Napa is unrecognizable to me at this point. Gone is the sleepy little bedroom community that I left for good in 1978. In its place is a bustling, luxury, wine experience, with over-the-top beautiful people up and down the center of town. Our 2-hour wine tasting at JaM resulted in a $480 wine club membership and a bit of a stumbling 2-mile walk back to the Fairgrounds RV Park. There was no time for a nap before leaving for the evening reunion event.

The reunion event couldn’t have been better, starting with absolutely perfect blue sky weather. The sun set and the sweaters came out. It was great seeing some old friends that I literally hadn’t seen since leaving for San Francisco City College in September of ‘73. Having had 6 glasses of wine for lunch, I abstained alcohol through dinner, knowing I had to get up in front of my classmates and perform with the band later in the evening. A little after 7:30 I was summoned up front to play “City of New Orleans” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling”. Both hit songs from our graduation year. I can honestly say that I played them much better in the Thursday night rehearsal than at the reunion. Regardless, everyone seemed to love it, and the band was more than gracious. As with most senior parties, it was all over by 10:00. We said our goodbyes, swapped some phone #’s and email addresses and went back to the RV.

Sunday, September 18, had us back on the road east retracing some of the same interstate we had just been on a week earlier. Our stops on the way home included a couple of nights in Steamboat Springs with our dear friend Shelby Dulin. It was a short visit but we managed to pack in a lot of Steamboat in those two days. Again, the town we lived in from ‘78 to ‘82 looks nothing like it did when we lived there. There are a few familiar spots that still look the same. F.M. Light & Sons will probably still be there in 2122. We spent some significant shopping time there and Terri walked out with some killer cowboy boots.

From Steamboat we drove down the hill to Denver for a weekend visit with our niece Caitlin, her husband Marc Daniels, and their cute toddler Brooklyn. We had a great dinner out in old town Arvada. On Saturday we drove up to Golden, just to stroll through the town and along the river walk. Sheila Rumsey, our great friend and former neighbor from here in Danbury, drove up to Golden to meet us and walk with us. It was another opportunity to reconnect, if only for a couple of hours. Marc and Caitlin were gracious hosts and it was really great catching up with them and meeting Brooklyn. The weather throughout this part of the trip was absolutely perfect. In fact we were blessed with great weather for most of the trip.

After Denver it was basically a burn run home starting Sunday the 25th. I did want to make one more stop on the way home, even if only for a few hours. Ord, Nebraska is my father’s birth place, and I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit as it was just 70 miles north of our Sunday night RV park in Kearny (NE). Earlier here I remarked how Napa and Steamboat are nothing like the towns we knew when we were younger. Well, Ord probably looks the same as it did when my dad lived there 90 years ago. With a 2020 population of 2,113, it’s slightly smaller than the 2,226 of the 1930 census. We were able to walk into the Town Hall and visit with the Town Clerk. In the records library the assistant Town Clerk help us find my grandparent’s marriage license and several deed transfers for my grandfather and my grandmother’s (Clements) siblings. The Clements family seemed liked pretty big wheels in Ord.

After that short visit it was pretty much a straight shot east on interstate 80/90 with stops in Des Moines (IO), Marseilles (IL), Archbold (OH), Erie (PA), and Windsor (NY). We drove into our driveway on Saturday, October 1st, to be greeted by our grandson Cayden. We were glad to be home after 29 days on the road.

As I finish writing this on Christmas morning, I’m getting anxious to get back out again. We’ve already begun planning multiple trips. We have some great destinations already on the calendar for 2023. We know GR84RED will be taking us to those planned spots, but we don’t know what other places await us on the way. Maybe we’ll find another Corn Palace, or a Grandpa’s Cheese Barn, or a Uranus Fudge Factory. America has it all, and much more.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!