Choosing Between Chain and Boutique Hotels

While planning our trip we batted around lodging choices and even considered camping along the way.  Somehow that got nixed so we’ve been staying in hotels. This is how we’ve been choosing between chain and boutique hotels. It’s a balance between budget, comfort, safety and hopefully a little charm if we can find that too. […]

One Way to Pack Clothes for a Long Road Trip

There are a number of ways to get creative when packing clothes for a long road trip.  Here’s what I decided to do. DF Shira has a lot of experience with long trips and gave me the suggestion of packing daily outfits in two-gallon storage bags, placing them in bins and then transferring daily needs […]

I’m Retiring! (Again)

Well, here’s the big news around here.  I’m retiring.  By which I mean I’m retiring again.  I tried this three years ago and my retirement lasted seven months.  But.  This time, I think I’m ready. And.  We’re hitting the road.  For a month.  Yep.  We’re loading up John’s Big Red and heading out. I’ll have […]

Fall Garden Kick Off

In a moment of optimism spurred by the coolest, wettest summer we have experienced since moving to Arizona, we decided to stick our toes in the water for a fall garden kick off. Now, we don’t have impressive garden beds and acres of land like other climes, but our love of produce keeps us trying. […]

Promotion to Brigadier General

We were blessed last week to attend the ceremonies and festivities around our DF Leon’s promotion to Brigadier General. You might remember I shared a recent trip to Fort Smith, Arkansas and a tour of their Air Force facilities.  Our friend the Colonel who hosted us is now the General and we could not be […]

Oklahoma City Visit

We were so blessed to take a small step out last week (FINALLY) to get out of town to visit friends. Two really important events took place that brought us out of town. And this post is about our leg in Oklahoma City.  The event was that DFs Terry and Jerry hosted us in their […]

Memorial Day Weekend

I’ve spent a lot of time on the road for work lately, but I’m hunkering down and enjoying time around Anthem over the Memorial Day Weekend.  The last Music in May concert held Friday night was a perfect kick off.  Hub picked up my favorite salad from Salad and Go and we enjoyed a couple […]

Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park

Visiting Mount Rushmore has been on my short bucket list for a long time.  In fact, we were going to head up that way last summer.  And then.  Well, you know what happened. But.  This week, I did some work in Rock Springs, Wyoming, so hub brought Big Red up, met me and we added […]

Houston Arboretum & Nature Center

Receiving almost perfect online reviews, we took a little of our hard-earned downtime to visit Houston Arboretum & Nature Center on a recent business trip to Houston. Spending a couple hours in nature with perfect weather is just what the doctor ordered.  Not that I needed doctor’s orders of course. Hub joined me, and spying […]

Early Spring In Georgia

There really may be no more lovely place than spring in Georgia.  If it’s not raining, that is.  I hate Georgia in the rain.  Or the snow.  Or the ice. But.  I recently visited LaGrange, Georgia and the weather was lovely and spring was sprouting out everywhere.  Which is my favorite season.  When it’s not […]