New Year’s Day is a moving day for the Buchanan’s, Thunder has not ran since we settled in here on December the first. Today will have us heading north on AZ-85 to Gila Bend and Interstate 8 where we will head west, todays end destination is BLM land near the VFW Post 8242 on US-95 near Yuma. I expect we will make a stop at Dateland for one of their world famous date shakes on the way across I-8 to Yuma, total distance will be only around 162 miles, but I expected driving time will be about three plus hours, partially because the first 60 miles is two lane highway, and then there will be a fuel stop in the Yuma area before heading to the BLM land. And because we would like to be settled in full daylight our time of departure will need to be about 11 o’clock this morning, we are almost packed, last showers on full hookups, dumping the tanks, are the quick part, the goodbyes are the most difficult and time consuming part of any departure.

There are a number of little items that I need to check on, for one I need to start and run the generator, I have not started it since the oil change was completed, and it may be needed to recharge the new battery bank if the solar can not get the job done, I also need to check the battery charging from the alternator on Thunder, and make a determination if any kind of a voltage limiter is required, I do not expect any issues but we still need to check it.

Our stop in Yuma will have a number of tasks to complete, first I will need to get our Verizon hot spot fired up again, then I have an item to send back to Amazon that our UPS driver was unable to make happen so a trip to a UPS store will be required, we will most likely make a trip to a Costco in California for the restocking of supplies before a month of boon-docking, and last but not least a chance to visit with Gilles and Francine who we have not seen since last year in Florida. We will also be taking in a couple of movies while in Yuma, Miss Laurie wants to see new Star Wars movie for sure and if time allows we will try to see if we can take in a second show.

And of course this will be the first real test of the new battery bank and our ability to recharge with our solar system. My expectations are high for the recharging, but this will be our first, indication whether we have enough solar panels to handle the task, or if some additional panels will be required. But that will be a slow process over some time starting with different parking locations and tipping the panels or not, that’s why we have a month or so because it could take that long to figure it all out…just saying.

So bring on 2020…is everyone ready?

So this is the time of year when many folks are making resolutions for the new year, me not so much…I have come to realize that I will not keep any resolution that I have made under the influence of a cocktail or two. No in reality I just want to keep on doing what we have been doing, oh let’s face it, what we are doing is what a lot of people are dreaming of doing, so it’s hard to imagine wanting much else. Oh I think we want to maybe take a few more minutes to enjoy what we already enjoy…to try to clarify, enjoy our time together even a little more, to take in more of the beauty that surrounds us, to spend more time with friends and family, to be more understanding and forgiving of stupidity, to just laugh when the preverbal shit happens in our lives…because it’s going to happen anyway.

I think maybe this year we are going to be the leader of the parade as opposed to be the ones trying to push the parade along. We always joked that when someone was driving the speed limit or a little below and there is a long line of impatience people behind, that the guy in the front was leading the parade, well that’s what we are going to be doing, slowing down a little, to smell the roses, or just enjoy the ride a little bit more. Yes as twenty twenty rolls in tonight it will find us rolling down the road again tomorrow, actually for someone who says they don’t plan ahead, we seem to have a lot of dates on our calendar for the next year, but I guess that’s just part of our whole evolution.

Our time here in Why Arizona, has brought to light a lot of things…not fore getting to take in to account that we needed an address to receive some items and a safe spot to do some major upgrades and a few repairs, we came back here to Why hoping to find what we had left two years ago…and that just did not happen. There are lots of reasons why it didn’t, but the most obvious is that things are just different, there is not just one reason they are different, no there are at least two years worth of reasons. It was our mistake and foolishness to think that everything would have been the same. Why would it have been the same? We aren’t the same, life moves on, life’s change, everyone’s health changes, it seems the only thing that didn’t change was our expectations…just saying.