starting out

So, I am starting this blog too late, technically, to include my recent trip to Amsterdam, but I just wanted to say what a great time I had attending the REASON conference -http://reason.org/events/ - and meeting a bunch of great new friends, while attending really provocative seminars - oh, and of course, being in Am-dam.

A year ago this time, we were in Tibet and China (like to travel for the birthday!), and so that is where the posted photo comes from. This year, I combined the conference with my birthday in Amsterdam.

Next week, we are taking another adventure, and this one is on the road in an RV! I suprised Susannah with the idea about 3 months ago - it's always been her dream to drive a big rig, so she'll have to do with 31 feet.

We also, admittedly, have not seen a lot of the National Parks and sites in the Rockies and Southwest, much as we have already traveled; wanted to see some of that. Add to that the excitement we felt when we realized that the dogs could come on this vacation if we rented the RV, and it was a done deal.

In order to truly enjoy ourselves and let go, we have adopted the personae of the Milton's, inspired by an experience I had as a child (when my family owned a Coachman and used 'motorhoming' as a verb) in a KOA. In the 70's, there was a lot of strangeness going on; not that there isn't now, but that was a whacked decade. So, we are Harve and Marge, and Smokescreen and Suzhou are Missy and Dawn, respectively. If you haven't caught it, you must watch Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse", which we borrow heavily from: check it out here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114906/.

Back to now, the timing for renting a low-mileage gas-guzzler couldn't be worse, so if you are really morbidly curious, I will post our fuel mileage and costs, as well as fuel prices by locale.

Thanks for joining in and reading, we'll try to make it interesting and update with lots of photos. Keep checking back!

c