Preparations in full swing

We're moving rapidly on several fronts, getting ready for departure.  Signed a property agreement to rent out our house this week, and have moved closer to finalizing our schedule.  We'll have some modifications and repairs done to our RV and our tow car in the second week of February, and then take off for a few days for a shakedown cruise, down to Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River on the Washington side. 

The RV is close to completion.  Ivy has finished some modifications to the curtains and blinds, which were in bad shape.  I finished putting in a new TV - I can't live without movies, wherever I go.  Most of the systems have been tested out, and the remaining work will be done by professionals that work on RVs for a living.  Then we're ready to go. 

We've been having fun working out a tentative itinerary.  We expect to go south first to the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, a bird sanctuary that's one of the best on the West Coast.  Another important stop will be southwestern Utah, with its many parks and spectacular scenery - neither of us has seen that before.  In late May we will likely be up in San Francisco, where we will meet with our London granddaughter, Hannah, for a family trip to Yosemite.  The rest of it is still quite vague.  But it's fun poring over guidebooks and picking favorite destinations.  And some of the out-of-the-way ones are even better. 

We're starting to contact friends and relatives for visits.  There are lots of people we'd like to visit with, so we hope to fit everybody in. 

It's starting to feel a whole lot more like we're actually going.  It's exciting and a little bit scary.